ever near her; and
the unvarying labours which pulled at her fingers, and strained at her
eyes, so that her efforts seemed still devoted to one ever unfinished
corset,--there arose another trouble where it was least expected; and
alas! I was the unconscious cause of a new embarrassment. I was accused
of being her lover. Numberless accusations rose up against us. Had I
not played at pat-ball with Madame in the Bois de Boulogne? Yes, pardi!
while Panpan lay stretched upon the grass a laughing spectator of the
game; and which was brought to an untimely conclusion by my breaking my
head against the branch of a tree. But had I not accompanied Madame
alone to the Champs Elysees to witness the jeu-de-feu on the last fete of
July? My good woman, did I not carry Louis pick-a-back the whole way?
and was not the crowd so dense and fearful, that our progress to the
Champs Elysees was barred at its very mouth by the fierce tornado of the
multitude, and the trampling to death of three unhappy mortals, whose
shrieks and groans still echo in my ear? and was it not at the risk of
life or limb that I fought my way along the Rue de la Madeleine, with
little Louis clinging round my neck, and Madame hanging on to my
coat-tail? Amid the swaying and eddying of the crowd, the mounted Garde
Municipale came dashing into the thickest of the press, to snatch little
children, and even women, from impending death, and bear them to a place
of safety. And if we did take a bottle of Strassburger beer on the
Boulevards, when at length we found a freer place to breathe in, faint
and reeling as we were, pray where was the harm, and who would not have
done as much? Ah, Madame! if you had seen, as I did, that when we
reached home the first thing poor Madame Panpan came to do, was to fall
upon her husband's neck, and in a voice broken with sobs, and as though
her heart would break, to thank that merciful God who had spared her in
her trouble, that she might still work for him and his children! you
would not be so ready with your blame.

But there was a heavier accusation still. Did you not, sir, entertain
Madame to supper in the Rue de Roule? with the utmost extravagance too,
not to mention the omelette soufflee with which you must needs tickle
your appetites, and expressly order for the occasion? And more than
that: did you not then take coffee in the Rue St. Honore, and play at
dominoes with Madame in the salon? Alas, yes! all this is true, and