all hearts. The village
priest especially derived great satisfaction from the society of so
devout a companion. He entertained his good friends, the merry little
man, by dressing up as a woman, a role his smooth face and effeminate
features well fitted him to play. If business were alluded to, the merry
gentleman railed at the delay and chicanery of lawyers; it was that
alone that postponed the liquidation of the Duplessis inheritance; as
soon as the lawyers could be got rid of, the purchase-money of his new
estate would be promptly paid up. But as time went on and no payment was
forthcoming the de Lamottes began to feel a little uneasy. As soon as
Derues had departed in November M. de Lamotte decided to send his
wife to Paris to make further inquiries and, if possible, bring their
purchaser up to the scratch. Mme. de Lamotte had developed into a stout,
indolent woman, of the Mrs. Bloss type, fond of staying in bed and
taking heavy meals. Her son, a fat, lethargic youth of fourteen,
accompanied his mother.

On hearing of Mme. de Lamotte's contemplated visit to Paris, Derues was
filled with alarm. If she were living free and independent in Paris she
might find out the truth about the real state of his affairs, and then
good-bye to Buisson-Souef and landed gentility! No, if Mme. de Lamotte
were to come to Paris, she must come as the guest of the Derues,
a pleasant return for the hospitality accorded to the grocer at
Buisson-Souef. The invitation was given and readily accepted; M. de
Lamotte still had enough confidence in and liking for the Derues to be
glad of the opportunity of placing his wife under their roof. And so it
was that on December 16, 1776, Mme. de Lamotte arrived at Paris and took
up her abode at the house of the Derues in the Rue Beaubourg Her son she
placed at a private school in a neighbouring street.

To Derues there was now one pressing and immediate problem to be
solved--how to keep Buisson-Souef as his own without paying for it? To
one less sanguine, less daring, less impudent and desperate in his need,
the problem would have appeared insoluble.

But that was by no means the view of the cheery and resourceful grocer.
He had a solution ready, well thought out and bearing to his mind
the stamp of probability. He would make a fictitious payment of the
purchase-money to Mme. de Lamotte. She would then disappear, taking her
son with her. Her indiscretion in having been the mistress of de Lamotte
before