rmand, who keeps saying, "Godmother,
godmother! I want to see her," till I am almost jealous. He might be
your child!

SECOND PART

XLVIII. THE BARONNE DE MACUMER TO THE COMTESSE DE L'ESTORADE October 15,
1833.

Yes, Renee, it is quite true; you have been correctly informed. I
have sold my house, I have sold Chantepleurs, and the farms in
Seine-et-Marne, but no more, please! I am neither mad nor ruined, I
assure you.

Let us go into the matter. When everything was wound up, there remained
to me of my poor Macumer's fortune about twelve hundred thousand francs.
I will account, as to a practical sister, for every penny of this.

I put a million in the Three per Cents when they were at fifty, and so
I have got an income for myself of sixty thousand francs, instead of
the thirty thousand which the property yielded. Then, only think what
my life was. Six months of the year in the country, renewing leases,
listening to the grumbles of the farmers, who pay when it pleases them,
and getting as bored as a sportsman in wet weather. There was produce
to sell, and I always sold it at a loss. Then, in Paris, my house
represented a rental of ten thousand francs; I had to invest my money
at the notaries; I was kept waiting for the interest, and could only
get the money back by prosecuting; in addition I had to study the law of
mortgage. In short, there was business in Nivernais, in Seine-et-Marne,
in Paris--and what a burden, what a nuisance, what a vexing and losing
game for a widow of twenty-seven!

Whereas now my fortune is secured on the Budget. In place of paying
taxes to the State, I receive from it, every half-year, in my own
person, and free from cost, thirty thousand francs in thirty notes,
handed over the counter to me by a dapper little clerk at the Treasury,
who smiles when he sees me coming!

Supposing the nation went bankrupt? Well, to begin with:

'Tis not mine to see trouble so far from my door.

At the worst, too, the nation would not dock me of more than half my
income, so I should still be as well off as before my investment, and
in the meantime I shall be drawing a double income until the catastrophe
arrives. A nation doesn't become bankrupt more than once in a century,
so I shall have plenty of time to amass a little capital out of my
savings.

And finally, is not the Comte de l'Estorade a peer of this July
semi-republic? Is he not one of those pillars of royalty offered by the
"peopl