his armchair, saying to Nanon,--

"Get me some black-currant ratafia."

Too excited, however, to remain long in one place, he got up, looked
at the portrait of Monsieur de la Bertelliere, and began to sing, doing
what Nanon called his dancing steps,--

"Dans les gardes francaises
J'avais un bon papa."

Nanon, Madame Grandet, and Eugenie looked at each other in silence.
The hilarity of the master always frightened them when it reached its
climax. The evening was soon over. Pere Grandet chose to go to bed
early, and when he went to bed, everybody else was expected to go too;
like as when Augustus drank, Poland was drunk. On this occasion Nanon,
Charles, and Eugenie were not less tired than the master. As for Madame
Grandet, she slept, ate, drank, and walked according to the will of her
husband. However, during the two hours consecrated to digestion, the
cooper, more facetious than he had ever been in his life, uttered a
number of his own particular apothegms,--a single one of which will give
the measure of his mind. When he had drunk his ratafia, he looked at his
glass and said,--

"You have no sooner put your lips to a glass than it is empty! Such is
life. You can't have and hold. Gold won't circulate and stay in your
purse. If it were not for that, life would be too fine."

He was jovial and benevolent. When Nanon came with her spinning-wheel,
"You must be tired," he said; "put away your hemp."

"Ah, bah! then I shall get sleepy," she answered.

"Poor Nanon! Will you have some ratafia?"

"I won't refuse a good offer; madame makes it a deal better than the
apothecaries. What they sell is all drugs."

"They put too much sugar," said the master; "you can't taste anything
else."

IX

The following day the family, meeting at eight o'clock for the early
breakfast, made a picture of genuine domestic intimacy. Grief had
drawn Madame Grandet, Eugenie, and Charles _en rapport_; even Nanon
sympathized, without knowing why. The four now made one family. As to
the old man, his satisfied avarice and the certainty of soon getting rid
of the dandy without having to pay more than his journey to Nantes, made
him nearly indifferent to his presence in the house. He left the two
children, as he called Charles and Eugenie, free to conduct themselves
as they pleased, under the eye of Madame Grandet, in whom he had
implicit confidence as to all that concerned public and religious
morality. He busied himself in strai