stion that hovered
upon his lips. She had placed a large package on the stand in the
center of the room. Opening it she took out a tablet of soap, a bottle
of Lubin's extract, a sponge, a box of hairpins, a button-hook, and
curling-tongs. Then she amused herself by finding places in which to
put them.

She talked incessantly as she opened the drawers: "I must bring some
linen in order to have a change. We shall each have a key, besides the
one at the lodge, in case we should forget ours. I rented the
apartments for three months--in your name, of course, for I could not
give mine."

Then he asked: "Will you tell me when to pay?"

She replied simply: "It is paid, my dear."

He made a pretense of being angry: "I cannot permit that."

She laid her hand upon his shoulder and said in a supplicatory tone:
"Georges, it will give me pleasure to have the nest mine. Say that you
do not care, dear Georges," and he yielded. When she had left him, he
murmured: "She is kind-hearted, anyway."

Several days later he received a telegram which read:

"My husband is coming home this evening. We shall therefore not
meet for a week. What a bore, my dearest!"

"YOUR CLO."

Duroy was startled; he had not realized the fact that Mme. de Marelle
was married. He impatiently awaited her husband's departure. One
morning he received the following telegram:

"Five o'clock.--CLO."

When they met, she rushed into his arms, kissed him passionately, and
asked: "After a while will you take me to dine?"

"Certainly, my darling, wherever you wish to go."

"I should like to go to some restaurant frequented by the
working-classes."

They repaired to a wine merchant's where meals were also served.
Clotilde's entrance caused a sensation on account of the elegance of
her dress. They partook of a ragout of mutton and left that place to
enter a ball-room in which she pressed more closely to his side. In
fifteen minutes her curiosity was satisfied and he conducted her home.
Then followed a series of visits to all sorts of places of amusement.
Duroy soon began to tire of those expeditions, for he had exhausted all
his resources and all means of obtaining money. In addition to that he
owed Forestier a hundred francs, Jacques Rival three hundred, and he
was hampered with innumerable petty debts ranging from twenty francs to
one hundred sous.

On the fourteenth of December, he was left without a sou in his pocket.
As he had often d