After he had offered her a seat he sat down to breakfast, apologising

profusely for his rudeness.

"I have come," she said, "to beg you, sir--"

"What, madame? I am listening."

And she began explaining her position to him. Monsieur Guillaumin knew

it, being secretly associated with the linendraper, from whom he always

got capital for the loans on mortgages that he was asked to make.

So he knew (and better than she herself) the long story of the bills,

small at first, bearing different names as endorsers, made out at long

dates, and constantly renewed up to the day, when, gathering together

all the protested bills, the shopkeeper had bidden his friend Vincart

take in his own name all the necessary proceedings, not wishing to pass

for a tiger with his fellow-citizens.

She mingled her story with recriminations against Lheureux, to which the

notary replied from time to time with some insignificant word. Eating

his cutlet and drinking his tea, he buried his chin in his sky-blue

cravat, into which were thrust two diamond pins, held together by a

small gold chain; and he smiled a singular smile, in a sugary, ambiguous

fashion. But noticing that her feet were damp, he said-"Do get closer to the stove; put your feet up against the porcelain."

She was afraid of dirtying it. The notary replied in a gallant tone-"Beautiful things spoil nothing."

Then she tried to move him, and, growing moved herself, she began

telling him about the poorness of her home, her worries, her wants.

He could understand that; an elegant woman! and, without leaving off

eating, he had turned completely round towards her, so that his knee

brushed against her boot, whose sole curled round as it smoked against

the stove.

But when she asked for a thousand sous, he closed his lips, and declared

he was very sorry he had not had the management of her fortune before,

for there were hundreds of ways very convenient, even for a lady, of

turning her money to account. They might, either in the turf-peats

of Grumesnil or building-ground at Havre, almost without risk, have

ventured on some excellent speculations; and he let her consume herself

with rage at the thought of the fabulous sums that she would certainly

have made.

"How was it," he went on, "that you didn't come to me?"

"I hardly know," she said.

"Why, hey? Did I frighten you so much? It is I, on the contrary, who

ought to complain. We hardly know one another; yet I am very devoted to

you. You do not doubt that, I hope?"




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