this dread vanished. Above all the noises of the
house he heard a fresh, clear voice singing like a lark. Jack stood on
the threshold in mute amazement. Thoroughly freshened and cleaned, with
Belisaire's goods gone, and with the addition of a pretty bed and dainty
dressing-bureau, the room looked like a different place. There were
flowers on the chimney, and the table was spread with a white cloth,
on which stood a tempting-looking pie and a bottle of wine. Ida, in an
embroidered skirt and loose sack, a little cap mounted on the top of her
puffs, hardly looked like herself.

"Well!" she said, running to meet him; "and what do you think of it!"

"It is altogether charming. And how quick you have been!"

"Yes; Belisaire helped me, and his nice widow also. I have invited them
to dine with us."

"But what will you do for dishes?"

"You will see. I have bought a few, and our neighbors on the other side
have lent me some. They are very obliging also."

Jack, who had never thought these people particularly complaisant,
opened his eyes wide.

"But this is not all. I went to buy this pie at a place where they sell
them fifteen cents less than anywhere else. It was so far, however, that
I had to take a carriage to return."

This was thoroughly characteristic. A carriage at two francs to save
fifteen cents! She evidently knew where the best things were to be
found.

The bread came from the Vienna bakery, and the coffee and dessert from
the _Palais Royale_. Jack listened with a sinking heart. She saw that
something was wrong.

"Have I spent too much?" she asked.

"No, I think not,--for one occasion," he answered, with same hesitation.

"But I have not been extravagant. Look here," she said, and she showed
him a long green book; "in this I mean to keep my accounts. I will show
my entries to you after dinner."

Belisaire and Madame Weber with her child now entered the room. It was
truly delicious to see the airs of condescension with which Ida received
them; but her manner was withal so kind that they were soon entirely at
their ease.

Belisaire was somewhat out of spirits, for he saw that his marriage must
be indefinitely postponed, as he had lost his "comrade." Ah, one may
well compare the events of this world to the see-saws arranged by
children, which lifts one of the players, while the other at the same
time feels all the hardness of the earth below. Jack mounted toward the
light, while his companion descended