enriette Bonnel, who had just received her certificate as
governess in Paris, and spent her holidays with her uncle and aunt, who
were very respectable tradespeople in Mauze, and what made Morin's case
all the more serious was, that the uncle had lodged a complaint; for the
public official had consented to let the matter drop if this complaint
were withdrawn, so we must try and get him to do this.

I went back to Morin's and found him in bed, ill with excitement and
distress. His wife, a tall raw-boned woman with a beard, was abusing him
continually, and she showed me into the room, shouting at me: "So you
have come to see that pig of a Morin. Well, there he is, the darling!"
And she planted herself in front of the bed, with her hands on her hips.
I told him how matters stood, and he begged me to go and see her uncle
and aunt. It was a delicate mission, but I undertook it, and the poor
devil never ceased repeating: "I assure you I did not even kiss her, no,
not even that. I will take my oath to it!"

I replied: "It is all the same; you are nothing but a pig." And I took a
thousand francs which he gave me, to employ them as I thought best, but
as I did not care venturing to her uncle's house alone, I begged Rivet
to go with me, which he agreed to do, on the condition that we went
immediately, for he had some urgent business at La Rochelle that
afternoon. So two hours later we rang at the door of a nice country
house. A pretty girl came and opened the door to us, who was assuredly
the young lady in question, and I said to Rivet in a low voice:
"Confound it! I begin to understand Morin!"

The uncle, Monsieur Tonnelet subscribed to _The Fanal_, and a fervent
political co-religionist of ours, who received us with open arms and
congratulated us and wished us joy; he was delighted at having the two
editors in his house and Rivet whispered to me: "I think we shall be
able to arrange the matter of that _Pig of a Morin_ for him."

The niece had left the room, and I introduced the delicate object. I
waved the scepter of scandal before his eyes: I accentuated the
inevitable depreciation which the young lady would suffer if such an
affair got known, for nobody would believe in a simple kiss, and the
good man seemed undecided, but he could not make up his mind about
anything without his wife, who would not be in until late that evening,
but suddenly he uttered an exclamation of triumph: "Look here, I have an
excellent idea. I will