regular ball,
and from time to time Louise and Flora ran upstairs quickly and had a
few turns, while their customers downstairs grew impatient, and then
they returned regretfully to the tap-room. At midnight they were still
dancing.

Madame Tellier let them amuse themselves while she had long private
talks in corners with Monsieur Vasse, as if to settle the last details
of something that had already been settled.

At last, at one o'clock, the two married men, Monsieur Tournevau and
Monsieur Pinipesse, declared that they were going home, and wanted to
pay. Nothing was charged for except the champagne, and that cost only
six francs a bottle, instead of ten, which was the usual price, and when
they expressed their surprise at such generosity, Madame Tellier, who
was beaming, said to them:

"We don't have a holiday every day."

DENIS

To Leon Chapron.

Marambot opened the letter which his servant Denis gave him and smiled.

For twenty years Denis has been a servant in this house. He was a short,
stout, jovial man, who was known throughout the countryside as a model
servant. He asked:

"Is monsieur pleased? Has monsieur received good news?"

M. Marambot was not rich. He was an old village druggist, a bachelor,
who lived on an income acquired with difficulty by selling drugs to the
farmers. He answered:

"Yes, my boy. Old man Malois is afraid of the law-suit with which I am
threatening him. I shall get my money to-morrow. Five thousand francs
are not liable to harm the account of an old bachelor."

M. Marambot rubbed his hands with satisfaction. He was a man of quiet
temperament, more sad than gay, incapable of any prolonged effort,
careless in business.

He could undoubtedly have amassed a greater income had he taken
advantage of the deaths of colleagues established in more important
centers, by taking their places and carrying on their business. But the
trouble of moving and the thought of all the preparations had always
stopped him. After thinking the matter over for a few days, he would be
satisfied to say:

"Bah! I'll wait until the next time. I'll not lose anything by the
delay. I may even find something better."

Denis, on the contrary, was always urging his master to new enterprises.
Of an energetic temperament, he would continually repeat:

"Oh! If I had only had the capital to start out with, I could have made
a fortune! One thousand francs would do me."

M. Marambot would smile withou