sweetest smiles while welcoming the reappearance
of their guest. 'Well, well,' said the jeweller, 'you seem, my good
friends, to have had some fears respecting the accuracy of your money,
by counting it over so carefully directly I was gone.'--'Oh, no,'
answered Caderousse, 'that was not my reason, I can assure you; but the
circumstances by which we have become possessed of this wealth are so
unexpected, as to make us scarcely credit our good fortune, and it is
only by placing the actual proof of our riches before our eyes that
we can persuade ourselves that the whole affair is not a dream.' The
jeweller smiled.--'Have you any other guests in your house?' inquired
he.--'Nobody but ourselves,' replied Caderousse; 'the fact is, we do not
lodge travellers--indeed, our tavern is so near the town, that nobody
would think of stopping here.'--'Then I am afraid I shall very much
inconvenience you.'--'Inconvenience us? Not at all, my dear sir,'
said La Carconte in her most gracious manner. 'Not at all, I assure
you.'--'But where will you manage to stow me?'--'In the chamber
overhead.'--'Surely that is where you yourselves sleep?'--'Never mind
that; we have a second bed in the adjoining room.' Caderousse stared at
his wife with much astonishment.

"The jeweller, meanwhile, was humming a song as he stood warming his
back at the fire La Carconte had kindled to dry the wet garments of her
guest; and this done, she next occupied herself in arranging his supper,
by spreading a napkin at the end of the table, and placing on it the
slender remains of their dinner, to which she added three or four
fresh-laid eggs. Caderousse had once more parted with his treasure--the
banknotes were replaced in the pocket-book, the gold put back into
the bag, and the whole carefully locked in the cupboard. He then began
pacing the room with a pensive and gloomy air, glancing from time to
time at the jeweller, who stood reeking with the steam from his wet
clothes, and merely changing his place on the warm hearth, to enable the
whole of his garments to be dried.

"'There,' said La Carconte, as she placed a bottle of wine on the table,
'supper is ready whenever you are.'--'And you?' asked Joannes.--'I don't
want any supper,' said Caderousse.--'We dined so very late,' hastily
interposed La Carconte.--'Then it seems I am to eat alone,' remarked
the jeweller.--'Oh, we shall have the pleasure of waiting upon you,'
answered La Carconte, with an eager attention