sturbed and
he himself covered with ridicule, though the poor dear man had already
enough of that! The daughter still wants to be a countess, but the
mother takes it hard that her political salon should be floating away
from her, and God knows how far I shall be led in order to comfort her.
Besides all this, I myself am goaded by the necessity of having to find
the solution of my own problem pretty soon. I _had_ found it there: I
intended to marry, and take a year to settle my affairs; at the next
session I should have made my father-in-law resign and stepped into his
seat in the Chamber; then, you understand, what an horizon before me!"

"But, my dear fellow, political horizon apart, don't let that million
slip through your fingers."

"Oh, heavens! as for that, except for the delay, I feel safe enough. My
future family is about to remove to Paris. After this mortifying defeat,
life in Arcis will not be endurable. Beauvisage (forgive the name, it is
that of my adopted family)--Beauvisage is like Coriolanus, ready if he
can to bring fire and slaughter on his ungrateful birthplace. Besides,
in transplanting themselves hither, these unfortunate exiles know where
to lay their heads, being the owners of the hotel Beauseant."

"Owners of the hotel Beauseant!" cried the colonel, in amazement.

"Yes; Beauseant--Beauvisage; only a termination to change. Ah! my dear
fellow, you don't know what these provincial fortunes are, accumulated
penny by penny, especially when to the passion for saving is added the
incessant aspiration of that leech called commerce. We must make up our
minds to some course; the bourgeoisie are rising round us like a flood;
it is almost affable in them to buy our chateaus and estates when they
might guillotine us as in 1793, and get them for nothing."

"Happily for you, my dear Maxime, you have reduced the number of your
chateaus and estates."

"You see yourself that is not so," replied Maxime, "inasmuch as I am
now engaged in providing myself with one. The Beauseant house is to be
repaired and refurnished immediately, and I am charged with the ordering
of the work. But I have made my future mother-in-law another promise,
and I want your help, my dear fellow, in fulfilling it."

"It isn't a tobacco license, or a stamped-paper office, is it?"

"No, something less difficult. These damned women, when hatred or a
desire for vengeance takes possession of them, are marvels of instinct;
and Madame Beauvisa