!"

"Hurrah for Max!"

"Down with all hypocrites!"

"Here's a health to the beautiful Flore!"

Such were the eleven responses, acclamations, and toasts shouted forth
by the Knights of Idleness, and characteristic, we may remark, of their
excessively relaxed morality. It is now easy to see what interest Max
had in becoming their grand master. By leading the young men of the best
families in their follies and amusements, and by doing them services,
he meant to create a support for himself when the day for recovering his
position came. He rose gracefully and waved his glass of claret, while
all the others waited eagerly for the coming allocution.

"As a mark of the ill-will I bear you, I wish you all a mistress who is
equal to the beautiful Flore! As to this irruption of relations, I
don't feel any present uneasiness; and as to the future, we'll see what
comes--"

"Don't let us forget Fario's cart!"

"Hang it! that's safe enough!" said Goddet.

"Oh! I'll engage to settle that business," cried Max. "Be in the
market-place early, all of you, and let me know when the old fellow goes
for his cart."

It was striking half-past three in the morning as the Knights slipped
out in silence to go to their homes; gliding close to the walls of the
houses without making the least noise, shod as they were in list shoes.
Max slowly returned to the place Saint-Jean, situated in the upper
part of the town, between the port Saint-Jean and the port Vilatte, the
quarter of the rich bourgeoisie. Maxence Gilet had concealed his fears,
but the news had struck home. His experience on the hulks at Cabrera
had taught him a dissimulation as deep and thorough as his corruption.
First, and above all else, the forty thousand francs a year from landed
property which old Rouget owned was, let it be clearly understood, the
constituent element of Max's passion for Flore Brazier. By his present
bearing it is easy to see how much confidence the woman had given him in
the financial future she expected to obtain through the infatuation
of the old bachelor. Nevertheless, the news of the arrival of the
legitimate heirs was of a nature to shake Max's faith in Flore's
influence. Rouget's savings, accumulating during the last seventeen
years, still stood in his own name; and even if the will, which Flore
declared had long been made in her favor, were revoked, these savings
at least might be secured by putting them in the name of Mademoiselle
Brazier.

"