n the bosom of her family.

So one morning she made her way towards the grotesque facade of the
humble, silent home where she had spent her childhood. She sighed as she
looked up at the sash-window, whence one day she had sent her first kiss
to him who now shed as much sorrow as glory on her life. Nothing was
changed in the cavern, where the drapery business had, however, started
on a new life. Augustine's sister filled her mother's old place at the
desk. The unhappy young woman met her brother-in-law with his pen behind
his ear; he hardly listened to her, he was so full of business. The
formidable symptoms of stock-taking were visible all round him; he
begged her to excuse him. She was received coldly enough by her sister,
who owed her a grudge. In fact, Augustine, in her finery, and stepping
out of a handsome carriage, had never been to see her but when passing
by. The wife of the prudent Lebas, imagining that want of money was the
prime cause of this early call, tried to keep up a tone of reserve which
more than once made Augustine smile. The painter's wife perceived that,
apart from the cap and lappets, her mother had found in Virginie a
successor who could uphold the ancient honor of the Cat and Racket. At
breakfast she observed certain changes in the management of the house
which did honor to Lebas' good sense; the assistants did not rise before
dessert; they were allowed to talk, and the abundant meal spoke of ease
without luxury. The fashionable woman found some tickets for a box at
the Francais, where she remembered having seen her sister from time to
time. Madame Lebas had a cashmere shawl over her shoulders, of which
the value bore witness to her husband's generosity to her. In short, the
couple were keeping pace with the times. During the two-thirds of the
day she spent there, Augustine was touched to the heart by the equable
happiness, devoid, to be sure, of all emotion, but equally free from
storms, enjoyed by this well-matched couple. They had accepted life as
a commercial enterprise, in which, above all, they must do credit to the
business. Not finding any great love in her husband, Virginie had set to
work to create it. Having by degrees learned to esteem and care for his
wife, the time that his happiness had taken to germinate was to Joseph
Lebas a guarantee of its durability. Hence, when Augustine plaintively
set forth her painful position, she had to face the deluge of
commonplace morality which the t