hot bouquets, looking at the enemy's
gifts with the pretended interest of a satirical woman. At this delicate
juncture the Abbe Cruchot left the company seated in a circle round the
fire and joined Grandet at the lower end of the hall. As the two men
reached the embrasure of the farthest window the priest said in the
miser's ear: "Those people throw money out of the windows."

"What does that matter if it gets into my cellar?" retorted the old
wine-grower.

"If you want to give gilt scissors to your daughter, you have the
means," said the abbe.

"I give her something better than scissors," answered Grandet.

"My nephew is a blockhead," thought the abbe as he looked at the
president, whose rumpled hair added to the ill grace of his brown
countenance. "Couldn't he have found some little trifle which cost
money?"

"We will join you at cards, Madame Grandet," said Madame des Grassins.

"We might have two tables, as we are all here."

"As it is Eugenie's birthday you had better play loto all together,"
said Pere Grandet: "the two young ones can join"; and the old cooper,
who never played any game, motioned to his daughter and Adolphe. "Come,
Nanon, set the tables."

"We will help you, Mademoiselle Nanon," said Madame des Grassins gaily,
quite joyous at the joy she had given Eugenie.

"I have never in my life been so pleased," the heiress said to her; "I
have never seen anything so pretty."

"Adolphe brought it from Paris, and he chose it," Madame des Grassins
whispered in her ear.

"Go on! go on! damned intriguing thing!" thought the president. "If you
ever have a suit in court, you or your husband, it shall go hard with
you."

The notary, sitting in his corner, looked calmly at the abbe, saying
to himself: "The des Grassins may do what they like; my property and my
brother's and that of my nephew amount in all to eleven hundred thousand
francs. The des Grassins, at the most, have not half that; besides,
they have a daughter. They may give what presents they like; heiress and
presents too will be ours one of these days."

At half-past eight in the evening the two card-tables were set out.
Madame des Grassins succeeded in putting her son beside Eugenie. The
actors in this scene, so full of interest, commonplace as it seems, were
provided with bits of pasteboard striped in many colors and numbered,
and with counters of blue glass, and they appeared to be listening
to the jokes of the notary, who never drew a n