she, "that your children should accuse me of
having robbed them. Keep your millions for my little uncles and aunts!"

But for once, Fougas would not yield an inch.

"Are you mocking me?" he said to Clementine. "Do you think that I will
be guilty of the folly of marrying now? I do not promise you to live
like a monk of La Trappe, but at my age, a man put together like I am
can find enough to talk to around the garrisons without marrying
anybody. Mars does not borrow the torch of Hymen to light the little
aberrations of Venus! Why does man ever tie himself in matrimonial
bonds?... For the sake of being a father. I am one already, in the
comparative degree, and in a year, if our brave Leon does a man's part,
I shall assume the superlative. Great-grandfather! That's a lovely
position for a trooper twenty-five years old! At forty-five or fifty, I
shall be great-great-grandfather. At seventy ... the French language has
no more words to express what I shall become! But we can order one from
those babblers of the Academy! Are you afraid that I'll want for
anything in my old age? I have my pay, in the first place, and my
officer's cross. When I reach the years of Anchises or Nestor, I will
have my halt-pay. Add to all this the two hundred and fifty thousand
francs from the king of Prussia, and you shall see that I have not only
bread, but all essential fixings in the bargain, up to the close of my
career. Moreover, I have a perpetual grant, for which your husband has
paid in advance, in the Fontainebleau cemetery. With all these
possessions, and simple tastes, one is sure not to eat up one's
resources!"

Willing or unwilling, they had to concede all he required and accept his
million. This act of generosity made a great commotion in the town, and
the name of Fougas, already celebrated in so many ways, acquired a new
prestige. The signature of the bride was attested by the Marshal the
Duke of Solferino and the illustrious Karl Nibor, who but a few days
before had been elected to the Academy of Sciences. Leon modestly
retained the old friends whom he had long since chosen, M. Audret the
architect, and M. Bonnivet the notary.

The Mayor was brilliant in his new scarf. The _cure_ addressed to the
young couple an affecting allocution on the inexhaustible goodness of
Providence, which still occasionally performs a miracle for the benefit
of true Christians. Fougas, who had not discharged his religious duties
since 1801, soaked tw