corner to show you how
beautifully white and soft the wool is,--more like the wool of a lamb
than a sheep."

"My pretty lady, step in and see my beautiful, fine white sheets. They
are better than new, for the first stiffness has been taken out of them.
They are soft as a glove, and strong as iron."

"Come, my new-married couple, treat yourselves to one of my handsome
counterpanes. Only see how soft, light, and warm it is,--quite as good
as eider-down,--every bit the same as new,--never been used twenty
times. Now, then, my good lady, persuade your husband to treat you to
one. Let me have the pleasure of serving you, and I will fit you up for
housekeeping as cheaply as you can desire. Oh, you'll be pleased, I
know,--you'll come again to see Mother Bouvard! You will find I keep
everything. I bought a splendid lot of second-hand goods yesterday. Pray
walk in and let me have the pleasure of showing them to you. Come, you
may as well see if you don't buy. I shall charge you nothing for looking
at them."

"I tell you what, neighbour," said Rodolph to Rigolette, "this fat old
lady shall have the preference. She takes us for husband and wife. I am
so pleased with her for the idea that I decide upon laying out my money
at her shop."

"Well, then, let it be the fat old lady," said Rigolette. "I like her
appearance, too."

Rigolette and her companion then went into Mother Bouvard's. By a
magnanimity, perhaps unexampled before in the Temple, the rivals of
Mother Bouvard made no disturbance at the preference awarded to her. One
of her neighbours, indeed, went so far as to say:

[Illustration: _Drew carefully out a sheet of paper._
Original Etching by Adrian Marcel.]

"So long as it is Mother Bouvard, and no one else, that has this
customer; she has a family, and is the dowager and the honour of the
Temple."

It was, indeed, impossible to have a face more prepossessing, more open,
and more frank than that of the dowager of the Temple.

"Here, my pretty little woman," she said to Rigolette, who was looking
at sundry articles with the eye of a connoisseur, "this is the
second-hand bargain I told you of: two bed furnitures and bedding
complete, and as good as new. If you would like a small old _secretaire_
very cheap, here is one (and Mother Bouvard pointed to one). I had it in
the same lot. I do not usually buy furniture, but I could not refuse
this, for the poor people of whom I had it appeared to be so very
unhappy! Poo