nd a sou.

Then Claire spoke of her child, of her husband's name, which was also
her father's, and which would be dishonored by the failure. The old
man was as cold, as implacable as ever, and took advantage of her
humiliation to humiliate her still more; for he belonged to the race of
worthy rustics who, when their enemy is down, never leave him without
leaving on his face the marks of the nails in their sabots.

"All I can say to you, little one, is that Savigny is open to you. Let
your husband come here. I happen to need a secretary. Very well, Georges
can do my writing for twelve hundred francs a year and board for the
whole family. Offer him that from me, and come."

She rose indignantly. She had come as his child and he had received her
as a beggar. They had not reached that point yet, thank God!

"Do you think so?" queried M. Gardinois, with a savage light in his eye.

Claire shuddered and walked toward the door without replying. The old
man detained her with a gesture.

"Take care! you don't know what you're refusing. It is in your interest,
you understand, that I suggest bringing your husband here. You don't
know the life he is leading up yonder. Of course you don't know it, or
you'd never come and ask me for money to go where yours has gone. Ah! I
know all about your man's affairs. I have my police at Paris, yes, and
at Asnieres, as well as at Savigny. I know what the fellow does with his
days and his nights; and I don't choose that my crowns shall go to
the places where he goes. They're not clean enough for money honestly
earned."

Claire's eyes opened wide in amazement and horror, for she felt that a
terrible drama had entered her life at that moment through the little
low door of denunciation. The old man continued with a sneer:

"That little Sidonie has fine, sharp teeth."

"Sidonie!"

"Faith, yes, to be sure. I have told you the name. At all events, you'd
have found it out some day or other. In fact, it's an astonishing thing
that, since the time--But you women are so vain! The idea that a man
can deceive you is the last idea to come into your head. Well, yes,
Sidonie's the one who has got it all out of him--with her husband's
consent, by the way."

He went on pitilessly to tell the young wife the source of the money
for the house at Asnieres, the horses, the carriages, and how the pretty
little nest in the Avenue Gabriel had been furnished. He explained
everything in detail. It was clear tha