hat, I have my work
to carry nearly as far as the Palais Royal. But perhaps it will fatigue
and annoy you to go so far?"

"Not at all. We will have a coach."

"Really! Oh, how pleased I should be to go in a coach if I had not so
much to make me melancholy! And I really must be melancholy, for this is
the first day since I have been here that I have not sung during the
day. My birds are really quite astonished. Poor little dears! They
cannot make it out. Two or three times Papa Cretu has piped a little to
try me; I endeavoured to answer him, but, after a minute or two, I
began to cry. Ramonette then began; but I could not answer one any
better than the other."

"What singular names you have given your birds: Papa Cretu and
Ramonette!"

"Why, M. Rodolph, my birds are the joy of my solitude,--my best friends;
and I have given them the names of the worthy couple who were the joy of
my childhood, and were also my best friends, not forgetting that, to
complete the resemblance, Papa Cretu and Ramonette were gay, and sang
like birds."

"Ah, now, yes, I remember, your adopted parents were called so."

"Yes, neighbour, they are ridiculous names for birds, I know; but that
concerns no one but myself. And besides, it was in this very point that
Germain showed his good heart."

"In what way?"

"Why, M. Girandeau and M. Cabrion--especially M. Cabrion--were always
making their jokes on the names of my birds. To call a canary Papa
Cretu! There never was such nonsense as M. Cabrion made of it, and his
jests were endless. If it was a cock bird, he said, 'Why, that would be
well enough to call him Cretu. As to Ramonette, that's well enough for a
hen canary, for it resembles Ramona.' In fact, he quite wore my patience
out, and for two Sundays I would not go out with him in order to teach
him a lesson; and I told him very seriously, that if he began his
tricks, which annoyed me so much, we should never go out together
again."

"What a bold resolve!"

"Yes, it was really a sacrifice on my part, M. Rodolph, for I was always
looking forward with delight to my Sundays, and I was very much tried by
being kept in all alone in such beautiful weather. But that's nothing. I
preferred sacrificing my Sundays to hearing M. Cabrion continue to make
ridicule of those whom I respected. Certainly, after that, but for the
idea I attached to them, I should have preferred giving my birds other
names; and, you must know, there is one name which I