a good-looking young fellow of the
Ouvrier class.

"I tell you it is too bad, Pere Dufaure. A year ago she pretended she
liked me, and the fact that she wore good dresses and was earning lots
of money did not seem to make any difference in her. But now all that is
changed. That foreigner has turned her head. She thinks now she is
going to be a lady and has thrown me over as if I were dirt, but I won't
have it," and he struck his fist upon the table, "those cursed
aristocrats are not to have everything their own way."

"Patience, Jean. Women will be women, and the right way to win her back
is to have patience and wait. I don't say that just at present her head
is not turned with this American, who by the way is a good Republican,
and though he has money, has good notions, and holds with us that we
have too long been ground down by the bourgeois, still she may tire of
him after a while. He is not amusing, this American, and though Minette
may like being adored, she likes being amused also. Pooh, pooh, this
matter will come all right. Besides, although she likes the American at
present, she thinks more of the Commune than of any lover. Have patience
and do not quarrel with her. You know that I am on your side. But
Minette is a good deal like what her mother was. Ah, these women! A man
can do nothing with them when they make up their minds to have their own
way. What can I say to her? I can not threaten to turn her out of the
house for everything in it is hers. It is she who earns the money. She
is too old to be beaten, and if it comes to scolding, her tongue runs
faster than mine does, and you know besides she has a temper."

Jean nodded.

"She is worse than a wild-cat when her back is up," he said. "Why, when
this thing first began, and I told her to beware how she went on with
this American, for that I would kill him if he came in my way, she
caught up a knife, and if I had not run like a rabbit, she would have
stuck me, and you know how she went on, and drove me out of Montmartre.
After that affair I have not dared see her."

"Why not let her go? and take to someone else, Jean? There are plenty of
pretty girls in the quarter who would not say no to the best rising
worker in his trade."

"It is no use, Pere Dufaure, I have told myself the same a hundred
times, but I cannot do it. She has her tempers, what woman has not; but
at other times who is so bright and gay as she is?"

"Well, well, Jean, we shall see what