n with you!" said the man.

The mother, being eyed after a certain fashion, held her tongue.

Silence reigned for a moment in the hovel. The elder girl was removing
the mud from the bottom of her mantle, with a careless air; her younger
sister continued to sob; the mother had taken the latter's head between
her hands, and was covering it with kisses, whispering to her the
while:--

"My treasure, I entreat you, it is nothing of consequence, don't cry,
you will anger your father."

"No!" exclaimed the father, "quite the contrary! sob! sob! that's
right."

Then turning to the elder:--

"There now! He is not coming! What if he were not to come! I shall have
extinguished my fire, wrecked my chair, torn my shirt, and broken my
pane all for nothing."

"And wounded the child!" murmured the mother.

"Do you know," went on the father, "that it's beastly cold in this
devil's garret! What if that man should not come! Oh! See there, you! He
makes us wait! He says to himself: 'Well! they will wait for me!
That's what they're there for.' Oh! how I hate them, and with what joy,
jubilation, enthusiasm, and satisfaction I could strangle all those rich
folks! all those rich folks! These men who pretend to be charitable,
who put on airs, who go to mass, who make presents to the priesthood,
preachy, preachy, in their skullcaps, and who think themselves above
us, and who come for the purpose of humiliating us, and to bring us
'clothes,' as they say! old duds that are not worth four sous! And
bread! That's not what I want, pack of rascals that they are, it's
money! Ah! money! Never! Because they say that we would go off and drink
it up, and that we are drunkards and idlers! And they! What are they,
then, and what have they been in their time! Thieves! They never could
have become rich otherwise! Oh! Society ought to be grasped by the four
corners of the cloth and tossed into the air, all of it! It would all
be smashed, very likely, but at least, no one would have anything,
and there would be that much gained! But what is that blockhead of
a benevolent gentleman doing? Will he come? Perhaps the animal has
forgotten the address! I'll bet that that old beast--"

At that moment there came a light tap at the door, the man rushed to it
and opened it, exclaiming, amid profound bows and smiles of adoration:--

"Enter, sir! Deign to enter, most respected benefactor, and your
charming young lady, also."

A man of ripe age and a young girl