s madame?"

"Ah! what do you mean by that, monsieur l'abbe?" demanded Monsieur des
Grassins.

"I mean it in the best possible sense for you, for madame, for the town
of Saumur, and for monsieur," said the wily old man, turning to Charles.

The Abbe Cruchot had guessed the conversation between Charles and Madame
des Grassins without seeming to pay attention to it.

"Monsieur," said Adolphe to Charles with an air which he tried to make
free and easy, "I don't know whether you remember me, but I had the
honor of dancing as your _vis-a-vis_ at a ball given by the Baron de
Nucingen, and--"

"Perfectly; I remember perfectly, monsieur," answered Charles, pleased
to find himself the object of general attention.

"Monsieur is your son?" he said to Madame des Grassins.

The abbe looked at her maliciously.

"Yes, monsieur," she answered.

"Then you were very young when you were in Paris?" said Charles,
addressing Adolphe.

"You must know, monsieur," said the abbe, "that we send them to Babylon
as soon as they are weaned."

Madame des Grassins examined the abbe with a glance of extreme
penetration.

"It is only in the provinces," he continued, "that you will find women
of thirty and more years as fresh as madame, here, with a son about to
take his degree. I almost fancy myself back in the days when the young
men stood on chairs in the ball-room to see you dance, madame," said the
abbe, turning to his female adversary. "To me, your triumphs are but of
yesterday--"

"The old rogue!" thought Madame Grassins; "can he have guessed my
intentions?"

"It seems that I shall have a good deal of success in Saumur," thought
Charles as he unbuttoned his great-coat, put a hand into his waistcoat,
and cast a glance into the far distance, to imitate the attitude which
Chantrey has given to Lord Byron.

The inattention of Pere Grandet, or, to speak more truly, the
preoccupation of mind into which the reading of the letter had plunged
him, did not escape the vigilance of the notary and the president, who
tried to guess the contents of the letter by the almost imperceptible
motions of the miser's face, which was then under the full light of the
candle. He maintained the habitual calm of his features with evident
difficulty; we may, in fact, picture to ourselves the countenance such
a man endeavored to preserve as he read the fatal letter which here
follows:--

My Brother,--It is almost twenty-three years since we have seen