ctor.
I promise to consider myself your mandatory, or, to express it better,
you will own the property and I will have the usufruct. Never fear that
I shall forget what I owe to you, or the modesty proper to my estate."

At these words, he made a grand gesture, as if to banish the phantom
that he had conjured up, and that fled away trembling with sorrow,
shame, and indignation. The peacock cried anew a mournful shriek.
"Stupid bird!" thought Samuel Brohl, quaking with sudden dread.

He looked at his watch, and reflected that the hour was advancing--that
he was losing time with the spirits. He rose hastily, and wended his way
toward Cormeilles; thence he wished to come upon a sunny path that led
to the banks of the Seine, and Sartrouville, the belfry of which was
plainly visible. When he reached the foot of the declivity, he turned
his head and saw, on the summit of the hill, through the space left
by the crooked branches of two plantains, a white wall, that seemed
to laugh amid the verdure, and a little higher the pointed roof of the
dove-cote, where Mlle. Moriaz's doves had their nests. He did not need
to look long at this roof to recognise it. He threw a burning kiss
in the air--a kiss that was sent to the doves as well as to the
dove-cote--to the house as well as to the woman--to the woman as well as
the house. For the first time in his life, Samuel Brohl was in love;
but Samuel Brohl's love differed from Abel Larinski's. When they adore a
woman, be she as beautiful as a picture, the frame, if it is a rich one,
pleases them as much as the painting; and they propose to possess their
mistress with all her appendages and appurtenances.

CHAPTER V

Mme. de Lorcy was a woman of about fifty years of age, who still
possessed remains of beauty. She had been a widow for long years, and
never had thought of marrying again. Although her wedded life had been
a happy one, she considered that liberty is to be prized above all
else; she employed hers in a most irreproachable manner. She was
self-possessed, even better acquainted with numbers than with dress, and
managed her property herself, which was by no means a trifling thing to
do. Liking to make good use of her time, she thought to do it by busying
herself in the affairs of others. She had a real vocation for the
profession of a consulting lawyer. Usually her advice was sensible and
judicious--nothing better could be done than to follow it; only her
clients complained