Rodolph, "that you have a
capital little manager there. _Peste!_ she knows how to make a bargain!
And then she is so prettily behaved and pretty-looking! red and white,
with those large, beautiful black eyes, and such hair!"

"Is she not charming? and ain't I a happy husband, Madame Bouvard?"

"As happy a husband as she is a wife, I am sure of that."

"You are not mistaken. But tell me how much I owe you."

"Your little lady would only give me three hundred and thirty francs for
the whole; as true as heaven's above us, I only make fifteen francs by
the bargain, for I did not try to get the things as cheaply as I might,
for I hadn't the heart to bate 'em down; the people who sold 'em seemed
so uncommon miserable!"

"Really! Were they the same people that you bought this little
_secretaire_ of?"

"Yes, sir; and it cuts my heart to think of it! Only imagine, the day
before yesterday there came here a young and still pretty girl, but so
pale and thin one could almost see through her; and you know that pains
people that have any feeling at all. Although she was, as they say, neat
as a new-made pin, her old threadbare black worsted shawl, her black
stuff gown, which was also worn bare, her straw bonnet, in the month of
January, for she was in mourning, all showed what we call great
distress, for I am sure she was a real lady. At last, blushing up to the
very eyes, she asked me if I would buy two beds and bedding complete,
and a little old _secretaire_. I said that, as I sold, of course I
bought, and that if they would suit me I would have them, but that I
must see the things. She then asked me to go with her to her apartment,
not far off, on the other side of the Boulevards, in a house on the Quay
of St. Martin's Canal. I left my niece in the shop, and followed the
lady until we reached a smallish house at the bottom of a court; we went
up to the fourth floor, and, the lady having knocked, the door was
opened by a young girl about fourteen years of age, who was also in
mourning, and equally pale and thin, but still very, very pretty, so
much so that I was quite astonished."

"Well, and this young girl?"

"Was the daughter of the lady in mourning. Though it was very cold, yet
a thin gown of black cotton with white spots, and a small, shabby
mourning shawl, that was all she had on her."

"And their rooms were wretched?"

"Imagine, sir, two little rooms, very neat, but nearly empty, and so
cold that I was almost froz