mily nor anybody else discovered where his thoughts
were.

Adeline, quite amazed to hear that her uncle was rescued, and to see a
handsome sum figure in the marriage-contract, was not altogether easy,
in spite of her joy at seeing her daughter married under such
creditable circumstances. But, on the day before the wedding, fixed by
the Baron to coincide with Madame Marneffe's removal to her new
apartment, Hector allayed his wife's astonishment by this ministerial
communication:--

"Now, Adeline, our girl is married; all our anxieties on the subject
are at an end. The time is come for us to retire from the world: I
shall not remain in office more than three years longer--only the time
necessary to secure my pension. Why, henceforth, should we be at any
unnecessary expense? Our apartment costs us six thousand francs a year
in rent, we have four servants, we eat thirty thousand francs' worth
of food in a year. If you want me to pay off my bills--for I have
pledged my salary for the sums I needed to give Hortense her little
money, and pay off your uncle----"

"You did very right!" said she, interrupting her husband, and kissing
his hands.

This explanation relieved Adeline of all her fears.

"I shall have to ask some little sacrifices of you," he went on,
disengaging his hands and kissing his wife's brow. "I have found in
the Rue Plumet a very good flat on the first floor, handsome,
splendidly paneled, at only fifteen hundred francs a year, where you
would only need one woman to wait on you, and I could be quite content
with a boy."

"Yes, my dear."

"If we keep house in a quiet way, keeping up a proper appearance of
course, we should not spend more than six thousand francs a year,
excepting my private account, which I will provide for."

The generous-hearted woman threw her arms round her husband's neck in
her joy.

"How happy I shall be, beginning again to show you how truly I love
you!" she exclaimed. "And what a capital manager you are!"

"We will have the children to dine with us once a week. I, as you
know, rarely dine at home. You can very well dine twice a week with
Victorin and twice a week with Hortense. And, as I believe, I may
succeed in making matters up completely between Crevel and us; we can
dine once a week with him. These five dinners and our own at home will
fill up the week all but one day, supposing that we may occasionally
be invited to dine elsewhere."

"I shall save a great deal for y