iver--the shiver of a mother who has a young daughter to marry, and
who says to herself, "Oh, what a splendid match!" Her husband had often
spoken to her of young Chamblard.

"Ah," he used to say to her, "what a marriage for Martha! We speak of it
sometimes before and after our piquet, Chamblard and I; but the young
man is restive--doesn't yet wish to settle down. It would be such a good
thing--he is richer than we. Chamblard is once, twice, three times
richer! And Martha isn't easy to marry; she has already refused five or
six desirable matches on all sorts of pretexts. They didn't please her:
they were too old, they had no style, they didn't live in fashionable
neighborhoods, she didn't wish to go into sugar, or cotton, or wine--or
anything, in short. She would accept none other than a young husband,
and not too serious. She must have a very rich man who did nothing and
loved pleasure."

How well young Chamblard answered to that description! When there was
question of doing nothing, Raoul showed real talent. As soon as one
talked horses, dogs, carriages, hats, dresses, jewelry, races, fencing,
skating, cooking, etc., he showed signs of the rarest and highest
competence.

So, as there was general conversation, Raoul was very brilliant. In the
neighborhood of Chalons-sur-Saone (3.10), while relating how he,
Chamblard, had invented a marvellous little coupe, he did not say that:
that coupe had been offered by him to Mlle. Juliette Lorphelin, of the
ballet corps at the Folies-Bergere. This coupe was a marvel; besides, it
was very well known; it was called the Chamblard coupe.

"Small," he said, "very small. A coupe ought always to be small." But
what a lot of things in such a small space: a drawer for toilet
necessaries, a secret box for money and jewelry, a clock, a thermometer,
a barometer, a writing-shelf--and that was not all!

He became animated, and grew excited in speaking of his invention.
Martha listened to him eagerly.

"When you pull up the four wooden shutters you naturally find yourself
in the dark; but the four shutters are mirrors, and as soon as one has
placed a finger on a little button hidden under the right-hand cushion,
six little crystal balls, ingeniously scattered in the tufting of the
blue satin of the coupe, become electric lights. The coupe is turned
into a little lighted boudoir; and not only for five minutes--no, but
for an hour, two hours, if one wishes it; there is a storage-battery
un