d will guarantee
that we shall not be molested for several months to come. There will
be a good deal of expense over it; but, as Petit-Claud said when he
came to the door with me, 'A Frenchman has a right to keep his
creditors waiting, provided he repays them capital, interest, and
costs.'--Very well, then, we shall do that----"

"And live meanwhile?" asked poor Eve, who thought of everything.

"Ah! that is true," said David, carrying his hand to his ear after the
unaccountable fashion of most perplexed mortals.

"Mother will look after little Lucien, and I can go back to work
again," said she.

"Eve! oh, my Eve!" cried David, holding his wife closely to him.--"At
Saintes, not very far from here, in the sixteenth century, there lived
one of the very greatest of Frenchmen, for he was not merely the
inventor of glaze, he was the glorious precursor of Buffon and Cuvier
besides; he was the first geologist, good, simple soul that he was.
Bernard Palissy endured the martyrdom appointed for all seekers into
secrets but his wife and children and all his neighbors were against
him. His wife used to sell his tools; nobody understood him, he
wandered about the countryside, he was hunted down, they jeered at
him. But I--am loved----"

"Dearly loved!" said Eve, with the quiet serenity of the love that is
sure of itself.

"And so may well endure all that poor Bernard Palissy suffered
--Bernard Palissy, the discoverer of Ecouen ware, the Huguenot
excepted by Charles IX. on the day of Saint-Bartholomew. He lived to
be rich and honored in his old age, and lectured on the 'Science of
Earths,' as he called it, in the face of Europe."

"So long as my fingers can hold an iron, you shall want for nothing,"
cried the poor wife, in tones that told of the deepest devotion. "When
I was Mme. Prieur's forewoman I had a friend among the girls, Basine
Clerget, a cousin of Postel's, a very good child; well, Basine told me
the other day when she brought back the linen, that she was taking
Mme. Prieur's business; I will work for her."

"Ah! you shall not work there for long," said David; "I have found
out----"

Eve, watching his face, saw the sublime belief in success which
sustains the inventor, the belief that gives him courage to go forth
into the virgin forests of the country of Discovery; and, for the
first time in her life, she answered that confident look with a
half-sad smile. David bent his head mournfully.

"Oh! my dear! I am no