for the whole
company that Max broke it by exclaiming:--

"I'll go on for him," (sensation) "--for all of you," (amazement) "--and
tell you what you are thinking" (profound sensation). "You think
that Flore, the Rabouilleuse, La Brazier, the housekeeper of Pere
Rouget,--for they call him so, that old bachelor, who can never have any
children!--you think, I say, that that woman supplies all my wants
ever since I came back to Issoudun. If I am able to throw three
hundred francs a month to the dogs, and treat you to suppers,--as I do
to-night,--and lend money to all of you, you think I get the gold out
of Mademoiselle Flore Brazier's purse? Well, yes" (profound sensation).
"Yes, ten thousand times yes! Yes, Mademoiselle Brazier is aiming
straight for the old man's property."

"She gets it from father to son," observed Goddet, in his corner.

"You think," continued Max, smiling at Goddet's speech, "that I intend
to marry Flore when Pere Rouget dies, and so this sister and her son, of
whom I hear to-night for the first time, will endanger my future?"

"That's just it," cried Francois.

"That is what every one thinks who is sitting round this table," said
Baruch.

"Well, don't be uneasy, friends," answered Max. "Forewarned is
forearmed! Now then, I address the Knights of Idleness. If, to get rid
of these Parisians I need the help of the Order, will you lend me a
hand? Oh! within the limits we have marked out for our fooleries," he
added hastily, perceiving a general hesitation. "Do you suppose I want
to kill them,--poison them? Thank God I'm not an idiot. Besides, if the
Bridaus succeed, and Flore has nothing but what she stands in, I should
be satisfied; do you understand that? I love her enough to prefer her to
Mademoiselle Fichet,--if Mademoiselle Fichet would have me."

Mademoiselle Fichet was the richest heiress in Issoudun, and the hand
of the daughter counted for much in the reported passion of the younger
Goddet for the mother. Frankness of speech is a pearl of such price that
all the Knights rose to their feet as one man.

"You are a fine fellow, Max!"

"Well said, Max; we'll stand by you!"

"A fig for the Bridaus!"

"We'll bridle them!"

"After all, it is only three swains to a shepherdess."

"The deuce! Pere Lousteau loved Madame Rouget; isn't it better to love a
housekeeper who is not yoked?"

"If the defunct Rouget was Max's father, the affair is in the family."

"Liberty of opinion now-a-days