babbler!"

"The heart of woman is an unfathomable abyss. Well, what do you think of
doing?"

Leon developed in detail the project he had conceived in the street,
during his conversation with Fougas.

"The most urgent thing," said he, "is to relieve Clementine from this
influence. If we could get him out of the way to-morrow, reason would
resume its empire, and we would be married the day after to-morrow. That
being done, I'll answer for the rest."

"But how is such a madman to be gotten rid of?"

"I see but one way, but it is almost infallible--to excite his dominant
passion. These fellows sometimes imagine that they are in love, but, at
the bottom, they love nothing but powder. The thing is, to fling Fougas
back into the current of military ideas. His breakfast to-morrow with
the colonel of the 23d will be a good preparation. I made him understand
to-day that he ought, before all, to reclaim his rank and epaulettes,
and he has become inoculated with the idea. He'll go to Paris, then.
Possibly he'll find there some leather-breeches of his acquaintance. At
all events, he'll reenter the service. The occupations incident to his
position will be a powerful diversion; he'll no longer dream of
Clementine, whom I will have fixed securely. We will have to furnish him
the wherewithal to knock about the world; but all sacrifices of money
are nothing in comparison with the happiness I wish to save."

Madame Renault, who was a woman of thrift, blamed her son's generosity a
little.

"The Colonel is an ungrateful soul," said she. "We've already done too
much in giving him back his life. Let him take care of himself now!"

"No," said the father; "we've not the right to send him forth entirely
empty-handed. Decency forbids."

This deliberation, which had lasted a good hour and a quarter, was
interrupted by a tremendous racket. One would have declared that the
house was falling down.

"There he is again!" cried Leon. "Undoubtedly a fresh paroxysm of raving
madness!"

He ran, followed by his parents, and mounted the steps four at a time. A
candle was burning at the sill of the chamber door. Leon took it, and
pushed the door half open.

Must it be confessed? Hope and joy spoke louder to him than fear. He
fancied himself already relieved of the Colonel. But the spectacle
presented to his eyes suddenly diverted the course of his ideas, and the
inconsolable lover began laughing like a fool. A noise of kicks, blows,
and slaps;