thousand francs at a time, to their notary, Monsieur Sorbier, Cardot's
predecessor, and let him invest them at five per cent in first
mortgages, with the wife's rights reserved in case the borrower was
married! In 1804 Madame Saillard obtained a government office for the
sale of stamped papers, a circumstance which brought a servant into the
household for the first time. At the time of which we write, the house,
which was worth a hundred thousand francs, brought in a rental of eight
thousand. Falleix paid seven per cent for the sixty thousand invested
in the foundry, besides an equal division of profits. The Saillards were
therefore enjoying an income of not less than seventeen thousand francs
a year. The whole ambition of the good man now centred on obtaining the
cross of the Legion and his retiring pension.

Elisabeth, the only child, had toiled steadily from infancy in a home
where the customs of life were rigid and the ideas simple. A new hat for
Saillard was a matter of deliberation; the time a coat could last was
estimated and discussed; umbrellas were carefully hung up by means of
a brass buckle. Since 1804 no repairs of any kind had been done to the
house. The Saillards kept the ground-floor in precisely the state in
which their predecessor left it. The gilding of the pier-glasses was
rubbed off; the paint on the cornices was hardly visible through the
layers of dust that time had collected. The fine large rooms still
retained certain sculptured marble mantel-pieces and ceilings, worthy
of Versailles, together with the old furniture of the widow Bidault. The
latter consisted of a curious mixture of walnut armchairs, disjointed,
and covered with tapestry; rosewood bureaus; round tables on single
pedestals, with brass railings and cracked marble tops; one superb
Boulle secretary, the value of which style had not yet been recognized;
in short, a chaos of bargains picked up by the worthy widow,--pictures
bought for the sake of the frames, china services of a composite order;
to wit, a magnificent Japanese dessert set, and all the rest porcelains
of various makes, unmatched silver plate, old glass, fine damask, and a
four-post bedstead, hung with curtains and garnished with plumes.

Amid these curious relics, Madame Saillard always sat on a sofa of
modern mahogany, near a fireplace full of ashes and without fire, on the
mantel-shelf of which stood a clock, some antique bronzes, candelabra
with paper flowers but no c