nd--and--here I am!"

"Good-for-nothing magistrate!" exclaimed Madame Pipelet.

"It is all over, Anastasie,--all is ended,--hope ceases. There's no
justice in France; I am really atrociously sacrificed."

And, by way of peroration, M. Pipelet dashed the sign and portrait to
the farther end of the passage with all his force. Rodolph and Rigolette
had in the shade smiled at M. Pipelet's despair. After having said a few
words of consolation to Alfred, whom Anastasie was trying to calm as
well as she could, the king of lodgers left the house in the Rue du
Temple with Rigolette, and they both got into a coach to go to Francois
Germain's.

CHAPTER II.

THE WILL.

Francois Germain resided No. 11 Boulevard St. Denis. It may not be amiss
to recall to the reader, who has probably forgotten the circumstance,
that Madame Mathieu, the diamond-matcher, whose name has been already
mentioned as the person for whom Morel the lapidary worked, lodged in
the same house as Germain. During the long ride from the Rue du Temple
to the Rue St. Honore, where dwelt the dressmaker for whom Rigolette
worked, Rodolph had ample opportunities of more fully appreciating the
fine natural disposition of his companion. Like all instinctively noble
and devoted characters, she appeared utterly unconscious of the delicacy
and generosity of her conduct, all she said and did seeming to her as
the most simple and matter-of-course thing possible.

Nothing would have been more easy than for Rodolph to provide liberally
both for Rigolette's present and future wants, and thus to have enabled
her to carry her consoling attentions to Louise and Germain, without
grieving over the loss of that time which was necessarily taken from her
work,--her sole dependence; but the prince was unwilling to diminish the
value of the grisette's devotion by removing all the difficulties, and,
although firmly resolved to bestow a rich reward on the rare and
beautiful qualities he hourly discovered in her, he determined to follow
her to the termination of this new and interesting trial. It is scarcely
necessary to say that, had the health of the young girl appeared to
suffer in the smallest degree from the increase of labour she so
courageously imposed on herself, in order to dedicate a portion of each
week to the unhappy daughter of the lapidary and the son of the
Schoolmaster, Rodolph would instantaneously have stepped forward to her
aid; and he continued to study with