Pavilly returned drunk and groaning to the ward
which he had left an hour before. The Superior lifted up her hands in
sorrow, for she liked him, and with a smile, for she was glad to have
him back.

"Well, my good fellow, what is the matter with you now?"

"The other leg is broken, Madame."

"So you have been getting onto another load of straw, you old joker?"

And Pavilly, in great confusion, but still sly, said, with hesitation:

"No... no.... Not this time, no ... not this time. No ... no.... It was
not my fault, not my fault ...A mattress caused this."

She could get no other explanation out of him, and never knew that his
relapse was due to her twenty-five francs.

THE VENUS OF BRANIZA

Some years ago there lived in Braniza, a celebrated Talmadist, who was
renowned no less on account of his beautiful wife, than of his wisdom,
his learning, and his fear of God. The Venus of Braniza deserved that
name thoroughly, for she deserved it for herself, on account of her
singular beauty, and even more as the wife of a man who was deeply versed
in the Talmud; for the wives of the Jewish philosophers are, as a rule,
ugly, or even possess some bodily defect.

The Talmud explains this, in the following manner. It is well known that
marriages are made in heaven, and at the birth of a boy a divine voice
calls out the name of his future wife, and _vice versa_. But just as a
good father tries to get rid of his good wares out of doors, and only
uses the damaged stuff at home for his children, so God bestows those
women whom other men would not care to have, on the Talmudists.

Well, God made an exception in the case of our Talmudist, and had
bestowed a Venus on him, perhaps only in order to confirm the rule by
means of this exception, and to make it appear less hard. His wife was
a woman who would have done honor to any king's throne, or to the
pedestal in any sculpture gallery. Tall, and with a wonderful, voluptuous
figure, she carried a strikingly beautiful head, surmounted by thick,
black plaits, on her proud shoulders, while two large, dark eyes
languished and glowed beneath her long lashes, and her beautiful hands
looked as if they were carved out of ivory.

This beautiful woman, who seemed to have been designed by nature to rule,
to see slaves at her feet, to provide occupation for the painter's brush,
the sculptor's chisel and the poet's pen, lived the life of a rare and
beautiful flower, which is shut up