o anticipate your legacy, was no other than the guardian of the
daughter to whom everything is left."

"Ha! guardian, indeed! a fine thing, guardian!" cried the Cardinal.
"To talk of a woman of my age, just because I wanted to see if my uncle
owned anything at all, to talk to _me_ of the police! It's hateful! it's
_disgusting_!"

"Come, come!" said Cerizet, "you needn't complain; you got off cheaply."

"Well, and you, who broke the locks and said you were going to take the
diamonds, under color of marrying my daughter! Just as if she would have
you,--a legitimate daughter like her! 'Never, mother,' said she; 'never
will I give my heart to a man with such a nose.'"

"So you've found her, have you?" said Cerizet.

"Not until last night. She has left her blackguard of a player, and
she is now, I flatter myself, in a fine position, eating money; has her
citadine by the month, and is much respected by a barrister who would
marry her at once, but he has got to wait till his parents die, for the
father happens to be mayor, and the government wouldn't like it."

"What mayor?"

"11th arrondissement,--Minard, powerfully rich, used to do a business in
cocoa."

"Ah! very good! very good! I know all about him. You say Olympe is
living with his son?"

"Well, not to say living together, for that would make talk, though he
only sees her with good motives. He lives at home with his father, but
he has bought their furniture, and has put it, and my daughter, too,
into a lodging in the Chausee d'Antin; stylish quarter, isn't it?"

"It seems to me pretty well arranged," said Cerizet; "and as Heaven, it
appears, didn't destine us for each other--"

"No, yes, well, that's how it was; and I think that girl is going to
give me great satisfaction; and there's something I want to consult you
about."

"What?" demanded Cerizet.

"Well, my daughter being in luck, I don't think I ought to continue to
cry fish in the streets; and now that my uncle has disinherited me, I
have, it seems to me, a right to an 'elementary allowance.'"

"You are dreaming, my poor woman; your daughter is a minor; it is you
who ought to be feeding her; the law doesn't require her to give you
aliment."

"Then do you mean," said Madame Cardinal, "that those who have nothing
are to give to those who have much? A fine thing such a law as that!
It's as bad as guardians who, for nothing at all, talk about calling
the police. Yes! I'd like to see 'em calling the p