the result
of his overworked life. He related how he had constantly disobeyed his
physician's advice; and remarked that he hoped to change his appearance
altogether when he had a wife to rule his household, and take better
care of him than he took of himself.

"Is a man married for his face, compatriot?" said Sauviat, giving the
other a hearty slap on the thigh.

Graslin's speech went straight to those natural feelings which, more or
less, fill the heart of every woman. The thought came into Veronique's
mind that her face, too, had been destroyed by a horrible disease, and
her Christian modesty rebuked her first impression.

Hearing a whistle in the street, Graslin went downstairs, followed by
Sauviat. They speedily returned. The office-boy had brought the first
bouquet, which was a little late in coming. When the banker exhibited
this mound of exotic flowers, the fragrance of which completely filled
the room, and offered it to his future wife, Veronique felt a rush
of conflicting emotions; she was suddenly plunged into the ideal and
fantastic world of tropical nature. Never before had she seen white
camelias, never had she smelt the fragrance of the Alpine cistus, the
Cape jessamine, the cedronella, the volcameria, the moss-rose, or any of
the divine perfumes which woo to love, and sing to the heart their hymns
of fragrance. Graslin left Veronique that night in the grasp of such
emotions.

From this time forth, as soon as all Limoges was sleeping, the banker
would slip along the walls to the Sauviats' house. There he would tap
gently on the window-shutter; the dog did not bark; old Sauviat came
down and let him in, and Graslin would then spend an hour or two with
Veronique in the brown room, where Madame Sauviat always served him a
true Auvergnat supper. Never did this singular lover arrive without
a bouquet made of the rarest flowers from the greenhouse of his old
partner, Monsieur Grossetete, the only person who as yet knew of the
approaching marriage. The man-of-all-work went every evening to fetch
the bunch, which Monsieur Grossetete made himself.

Graslin made about fifty such visits in two months; each time, besides
the flowers, he brought with him some rich present,--rings, a watch, a
gold chain, a work-box, etc. These inconceivable extravagances must
be explained, and a word suffices. Veronique's dowry, promised by her
father, consisted of nearly the whole of old Sauviat's property, namely,
seven hundred