adame Guenee from whom they had purchased the "Family Sister,"
and whose three daughters were married and settled in Provins. These
three races, Julliard, Guepin, and Guenee, had spread through the town
like dog-grass through a lawn. The mayor, Monsieur Garceland, was the
son-in-law of Monsieur Guepin; the curate, Abbe Peroux, was own brother
to Madame Julliard; the judge, Monsieur Tiphaine junior, was brother to
Madame Guenee, who signed herself "_nee_ Tiphaine."

The queen of the town was the beautiful Madame Tiphaine junior, only
daughter of Madame Roguin, the rich wife of a former notary in Paris,
whose name was never mentioned. Clever, delicate, and pretty, married in
the provinces to please her mother, who for special reasons did not want
her with her, and took her from a convent only a few days before the
wedding, Melanie Tiphaine considered herself an exile in Provins, where
she behaved to admiration. Handsomely dowered, she still had hopes. As
for Monsieur Tiphaine, his old father had made to his eldest daughter
Madame Guenee such advances on her inheritance that an estate worth
eight thousand francs a year, situated within fifteen miles of Provins,
was to come wholly to him. Consequently the Tiphaines would possess,
sooner or later, some forty thousand francs a year, and were not "badly
off," as they say. The one overwhelming desire of the beautiful Madame
Tiphaine was to get Monsieur Tiphaine elected deputy. As deputy he would
become a judge in Paris; and she was firmly resolved to push him up into
the Royal courts. For these reasons she tickled all vanities and strove
to please all parties; and--what is far more difficult--she succeeded.
Twice a week she received the bourgeoisie of Provins at her house in the
Upper town. This intelligent young woman of twenty had not as yet made
a single blunder or misstep on the slippery path she had taken. She
gratified everybody's self-love, and petted their hobbies; serious with
the serious, a girl with girls, instinctively a mother with mothers, gay
with young wives and disposed to help them, gracious to all,--in short,
a pearl, a treasure, the pride of Provins. She had never yet said a
word of her intentions and wishes, but all the electors of Provins were
awaiting the time when their dear Monsieur Tiphaine had reached the
required age for nomination. Every man in the place, certain of his
own talents, regarded the future deputy as his particular friend, his
protector.