person who keeps the warehouse for
which I work; she would give me four hundred francs a year, with board
and lodging."

"And you will not accept it?"

"No, indeed! I should then be the slave and servant of another; whereas,
however humble my home, at least there is no one there to control me. I
am free to come and go as I please. I owe nothing to any one. I have
good health, good courage, good heart, and good spirits; and now that I
can say a good neighbour also, what is there left to desire?"

"Then you have never thought of marriage?"

"Marriage, indeed! Why, what would be the use of my thinking about it,
when, poor as I am, I could not expect to meet with a husband better off
than myself? Look at the poor Morels; just see the consequences of
burthening yourself with a family before you have the means of providing
for one; whilst, so long as there is only oneself to provide for, one
can always manage somehow."

"And do you never build castles in the air?--never dream?"

"Dream? Oh, yes!--of my chimney ornaments; but, besides them, what can I
have to wish for?"

"But, suppose now some relation you never heard of in your life were to
die, and leave you a nice little fortune--twelve hundred francs a year,
for instance--you have made five hundred sufficient to supply all your
wants?"

"Perhaps it might prove a good thing; perhaps a bad one."

"How could it be a bad one?"

"Because I am happy and contented as I am; but I do not know what I
might be if I came to be rich. I can assure you that, when, after a hard
day's work, I go to bed in my own snug little room, when my lamp is
extinguished, and by the glimmer of the few cinders left in my stove I
see my neat, clean little apartment, my curtains, my chest of drawers,
my chairs, my birds, my watch, my table covered with the work confided
to me, left all ready to begin the first thing in the morning, and I say
to myself, all this is mine,--I have no one to thank for it but
myself,--oh, neighbour, the very thoughts lull me into such a happy
state of mind that I fall asleep believing myself the most fortunate
creature on earth to be so surrounded with comforts. But, I declare,
here we are at the Temple! You must own it is a beautiful object?"

Although not partaking of the profound admiration expressed by Rigolette
at the first glimpse of the Temple, Rodolph was, nevertheless, much
struck by the singular appearance of this enormous bazar with its many
diverging