" said the good mother. "He will not stay with
us long; he is a soldier and can't live out of the army any better than
a fish out of water."

But Leon's parents, in the bottom of their hearts, held a bitter
remembrance of so many pangs and mortifications. Fougas had been the
scourge of the family; the wounds which he had made could not heal over
in a day. Even Gothon bore him ill will without confessing it. She
heaved great sighs while preparing for the wedding festivities at Mlle.
Sambucco's.

"Ah! my poor Celestin!" said she to her acolyte. "What a little rascal
of a grandfather we're going to have to be sure!"

The only person who was perfectly at ease was Fougas. He had passed the
sponge over his pranks; out of all the evil he had done, he retained no
ill will against any one. Very paternal with Clementine, very gracious
with M. and Mme. Renault, he evinced for Leon the most frank and cordial
friendship.

"My dear boy," said he to him, "I have studied you, I know you, and I
love you thoroughly; you deserve to be happy, and you shall be. You
shall soon see that in buying me for twenty-five napoleons, you didn't
make a bad bargain. If gratitude were banished from the universe, it
would find a last abiding place in the heart of Fougas!"

Three days before the marriage, M. Bonnivet informed the family that the
colonel had come into his office to ask for a conference about the
contract. He had scarcely cast his eyes on the sheet of stamped paper,
when Rrrrip! it was in pieces in the fireplace.

"Mister Note-scratcher," he said, "do me the honor of beginning your
_chef-d'oeuvre_ over again. The granddaughter of Fougas does not marry
with an annuity of eight thousand francs. Nature and Friendship give her
a million. Here it is!"

Thereupon he took from his pocket a bank check for a million, paced the
study proudly, making his boots creak, and threw a thousand-franc note
on a clerk's desk, crying in his clearest tones:

"Children of the Law! Here's something to drink the health of the
Emperor and the Grand Army with!"

The Renault family strongly remonstrated against this liberality.
Clementine, on being told of it by her intended, had a long discussion,
in the presence of Mlle. Sambucco, with the young and terrible
grandpapa; she tried to impress upon him that he was but twenty-four
years old, that he would be getting married some day, and that his
property belonged to his future family.

"I do not wish," said