The Schism, parts 3731 - 3734

 3731. When his sixteenth birthday arrived he graduated to waiting on Harriet, and yet for all that, it was all accomplished in the usual manor of promotions for the staff, and Harriet’s behavior was so discreet you would never have known he was treated at any time with more familiarity.

3732. It happened that Harriet gave a dinner party for her friends and neighbors when Alexis was seventeen years old. The dinner party had nothing to do with her servant, but his name came up in the conversation in a most unexpected way.

 3733. The entrance to Harriet’s home was a long hallway, adorned with mirrors and paintings that alternated with small sculptures in bronze set on little pedestals. Harriet’s collection of paintings and sculpture was not extravagant by any means and she was well aware that among her treasures there were no works by the famous artists of the past. She did not own any Rembrandts, however small, not even a drawing or a print.

3734. Of the Italian works in her collection, she had no works of the Renaissance at all, but could only boast of a few Baroque works by unknown masters of the 18^th century. Her Italian pieces were probably done by Russian masters who created modern works done in an antique style bordering on forgeries.