osition to take a wife; but as each of these
ladies had young daughters, the wiseheads of the community finally
concluded that old Perret or old Grossetete had made an arrangement with
Graslin to wait for one of his granddaughters, and thenceforth they left
him alone.

Sauviat had watched the ascending career of his compatriot more
attentively and seriously than any one else. He had known him from
the time he first came to Limoges; but their respective positions had
changed so much, at least apparently, that their friendship, now become
merely superficial, was seldom freshened. Still, in his relation as
compatriot, Graslin never disdained to talk with Sauviat when they
chanced to meet. Both continued to keep up their early _tutoiement_, but
only in their native dialect. When the receiver-general of Bourges, the
youngest of the brothers Grossetete, married his daughter in 1823 to the
youngest son of Comte Fontaine, Sauviat felt sure that the Grossetetes
would never allow Graslin to enter their family.

After his conference with the banker, Pere Sauviat returned home
joyously. He dined that night in his daughter's room, and after dinner
he said to his womenkind:--

"Veronique will be Madame Graslin."

"Madame Graslin!" exclaimed Mere Sauviat, astounded.

"Is it possible?" said Veronique, to whom Graslin was personally
unknown, and whose imagination regarded him very much as a Parisian
grisette would regard a Rothschild.

"Yes, it is settled," said old Sauviat solemnly. "Graslin will furnish
his house magnificently; he is to give our daughter a fine Parisian
carriage and the best horses to be found in the Limousin; he will buy
an estate worth five hundred thousand francs, and settle that and his
town-house upon her. Veronique will be the first lady in Limoges,
the richest in the department, and she can do what she pleases with
Graslin."

Veronique's education, her religious ideas, and her boundless affection
for her parents, prevented her from making a single objection; it did
not even cross her mind to think that she had been disposed of without
reference to her own will. On the morrow Sauviat went to Paris, and was
absent for nearly a week.

Pierre Graslin was, as can readily be imagined, not much of a talker; he
went straight and rapidly to deeds. A thing decided on was a thing done.
In February, 1822, a strange piece of news burst like a thunderbolt on
the town of Limoges. The hotel Graslin was being handsome