o the holes? Make yourself young again,--I will send you
Mulquinier as soon as I have changed my dress."

Balthazar attempted to pass through the door of communication,
forgetting that it was locked on his side. He went out through the
anteroom.

"Marguerite, put the linen on a chair, and come and help me dress; I
don't want Martha," said Madame Claes, calling her daughter.

Balthazar had caught Marguerite and turned her towards him with a joyous
action, exclaiming: "Good-evening, my child; how pretty you are in your
muslin gown and that pink sash!" Then he kissed her forehead and pressed
her hand.

"Mamma, papa has kissed me!" cried Marguerite, running into her mother's
room. "He seems so joyous, so happy!"

"My child, your father is a great man; for three years he has toiled for
the fame and fortune of his family: he thinks he has attained the object
of his search. This day is a festival for us all."

"My dear mamma," replied Marguerite, "we shall not be alone in our joy,
for the servants have been so grieved to see him unlike himself. Oh! put
on another sash, this is faded."

"So be it; but make haste, I want to speak to Pierquin. Where is he?"

"In the parlor, playing with Jean."

"Where are Gabriel and Felicie?"

"I hear them in the garden."

"Run down quickly and see that they do not pick the tulips; your father
has not seen them in flower this year, and he may take a fancy to look
at them after dinner. Tell Mulquinier to go up and assist your father in
dressing."

CHAPTER V

As Marguerite left the room, Madame Claes glanced at the children
through the windows of her chamber, which looked on the garden, and saw
that they were watching one of those insects with shining wings spotted
with gold, commonly called "darning-needles."

"Be good, my darlings," she said, raising the lower sash of the window
and leaving it up to air the room. Then she knocked gently on the door
of communication, to assure herself that Balthazar had not fallen into
abstraction. He opened it, and seeing him half-dressed, she said in
joyous tones:--

"You won't leave me long with Pierquin, will you? Come as soon as you
can."

Her step was so light as she descended that a listener would never have
supposed her lame.

"When monsieur carried madame upstairs," said the old valet, whom she
met on the staircase, "he tore this bit out of her dress, and he broke
the jaw of that griffin; I'm sure I don't know who can put it