the name of nuts into
the oil, how could we sell it for three or four francs the four ounces?"

"You are about to be decorated, monsieur?" said Popinot, "what glory
for--"

"Commerce; that is true, my boy."

Cesar's triumphant air, as if certain of fortune, was observed by the
clerks, who made signs at each other; for the trip in the hackney-coach,
and the full dress of the cashier and his master had thrown them all
into the wildest regions of romance. The mutual satisfaction of Cesar
and Anselme, betrayed by looks diplomatically exchanged, the glance full
of hope which Popinot cast now and then at Cesarine, proclaimed some
great event and gave color to the conjectures of the clerks. In their
busy and half cloistral life the smallest events have the interest which
a prisoner feels in those of his prison. The bearing of Madame Cesar,
who replied to the Olympian looks of her lord with an air of distrust,
seemed to point to some new enterprise; for in ordinary times Madame
Cesar, delighted with the smallest routine success, would have shared
his contentment. It happened, accidentally, that the receipts for the
day amounted to more than six thousand francs; for several outstanding
bills chanced to be paid.

The dining-room and the kitchen, lighted from a little court, and
separated from the dining-room by a passage, from which the staircase,
taken out of a corner of the backshop, opened up, was on the _entresol_
where in former days Cesar and Constance had their appartement; in fact,
the dining-room, where the honey-moon had been passed, still wore the
look of a little salon. During dinner Raguet, the trusty boy of all
work, took charge of the shop; but the clerks came down when the dessert
was put on table, leaving Cesar, his wife and daughter to finish their
dinner alone by the chimney corner. This habit was derived from the
Ragons, who kept up the old-fashioned usages and customs of former
commercial days, which placed an enormous distance between the masters
and the apprentices. Cesarine or Constance then prepared for Birotteau
his cup of coffee, which he took sitting on a sofa by the corner of the
fire. At this hour he told his wife all the little events of the day,
and related what he had seen in the streets, what was going on in
the Faubourg du Temple, and the difficulties he had met with in the
manufactory, _et caetera_.

"Wife," he said, when the clerks had gone down, "this is certainly
one of the most import