en years between
my two children. Mademoiselle Chevrel was no beauty, still she has had
nothing to complain of in me. Do as I did. Come, come, don't cry. Can
you be so silly? What is to be done? It can be managed perhaps. There
is always some way out of a scrape. And we men are not always devoted
Celadons to our wives--you understand? Madame Guillaume is very pious.
... Come. By Gad, boy, give your arm to Augustine this morning as we go
to Mass."

These were the phrases spoken at random by the old draper, and their
conclusion made the lover happy. He was already thinking of a friend of
his as a match for Mademoiselle Virginie, as he went out of the smoky
office, pressing his future father-in-law's hand, after saying with a
knowing look that all would turn out for the best.

"What will Madame Guillaume say to it?" was the idea that greatly
troubled the worthy merchant when he found himself alone.

At breakfast Madame Guillaume and Virginie, to whom the draper had not
yet confided his disappointment, cast meaning glances at Joseph Lebas,
who was extremely embarrassed. The young assistant's bashfulness
commended him to his mother-in-law's good graces. The matron became
so cheerful that she smiled as she looked at her husband, and allowed
herself some little pleasantries of time-honored acceptance in such
simple families. She wondered whether Joseph or Virginie were the
taller, to ask them to compare their height. This preliminary fooling
brought a cloud to the master's brow, and he even made such a point of
decorum that he desired Augustine to take the assistant's arm on their
way to Saint-Leu. Madame Guillaume, surprised at this manly delicacy,
honored her husband with a nod of approval. So the procession left
the house in such order as to suggest no suspicious meaning to the
neighbors.

"Does it not seem to you, Mademoiselle Augustine," said the assistant,
and he trembled, "that the wife of a merchant whose credit is as good
as Monsieur Guillaume's, for instance, might enjoy herself a little more
than Madame your mother does? Might wear diamonds--or keep a carriage?
For my part, if I were to marry, I should be glad to take all the work,
and see my wife happy. I would not put her into the counting-house.
In the drapery business, you see, a woman is not so necessary now as
formerly. Monsieur Guillaume was quite right to act as he did--and
besides, his wife liked it. But so long as a woman knows how to turn her
hand to