s of the
ever-increasing hostility which surrounded him. Even at the Mehudins' he
now met with a colder reception: the old woman would laugh slyly; Muche
no longer obeyed him, and the beautiful Norman cast glances of hasty
impatience at him, unable as she was to overcome his coldness. At the
Quenus', too, he had lost Auguste's friendship. The assistant no longer
came to see him in his room on the way to bed, being greatly alarmed
by the reports which he heard concerning this man with whom he had
previously shut himself up till midnight. Augustine had made her lover
swear that he would never again be guilty of such imprudence; however,
it was Lisa who turned the young man into Florent's determined enemy by
begging him and Augustine to defer their marriage till her cousin should
vacate the little bedroom at the top of the house, as she did not want
to give that poky dressing-room on the first floor to the new shop
girl whom she would have to engage. From that time forward Auguste was
anxious that the "convict" should be arrested. He had found such a
pork shop as he had long dreamed of, not at Plaisance certainly, but at
Montrouge, a little farther away. And now trade had much improved, and
Augustine, with her silly, overgrown girl's laugh, said that she was
quite ready. So every night, whenever some slight noise awoke him,
August was thrilled with delight as he imagined that the police were at
last arresting Florent.

Nothing was said at the Quenu-Gradelles' about all the rumours which
circulated. There was a tacit understanding amongst the staff of the
pork shop to keep silent respecting them in the presence of Quenu. The
latter, somewhat saddened by the falling-out between his brother and his
wife, sought consolation in stringing his sausages and salting his pork.
Sometimes he would come and stand on his door-step, with his red face
glowing brightly above his white apron, which his increasing corpulence
stretched quite taut, and never did he suspect all the gossip which his
appearance set on foot in the markets. Some of the women pitied him, and
thought that he was losing flesh, though he was, indeed, stouter than
ever; while others, on the contrary, reproached him for not having grown
thin with shame at having such a brother as Florent. He, however, like
one of those betrayed husbands who are always the last to know what
has befallen them, continued in happy ignorance, displaying a
light-heartedness which was quite aff