uch thing--not until you've told me about the flat."

"Oh! the flat," said Septimus in a disappointed tone, as if it were a
secondary matter altogether. "I gave him another absinthe and we became so
friendly that I told him that I wanted a flat and didn't in the least know
how to set about finding one. It turned out that there was an _appartement_
vacant in the house of which his mother is concierge. He took me along to
see it, and introduced me to Madame, his mother. He has also got an aunt
who can cook."

"I should like to have seen you talking to the Zouave," said Emmy. "It
would have made a pretty picture--the two of you hobnobbing over a little
marble table."

"It was iron, painted yellow," said Septimus. "It wasn't a resplendent
cafe."

"I wonder what he thought of you."

"Well, he introduced me to his mother," replied Septimus gravely, whereat
Emmy broke into merry laughter, for the first time for many days.

"I've taken the _appartement_ for a month and the aunt who can cook," he
remarked.

"What!" cried Emmy, who had not paid very serious regard to the narrative.
"Without knowing anything at all about it?"

She put on her hat and insisted on driving there incontinently, full of
misgivings. But she found a well-appointed house, a deep-bosomed,
broad-beamed concierge, who looked as if she might be the mother of twenty
helpful Zouaves, and an equally matronly and kindly-faced sister, a Madame
Bolivard, the aunt aforesaid who could cook.

Thus, as the ravens fed Elijah, so did Zouaves and other casual fowl aid
Septimus on his way. Madame Bolivard in particular took them both under her
ample wing, to the girl's unspeakable comfort. A _brav' femme_, Madame
Bolivard, who not only could cook, but could darn stockings and mend
linen, which Emmy's frivolous fingers had never learned to accomplish. She
could also prescribe miraculous _tisanes_ for trivial ailments, could tell
the cards, and could converse volubly on any subject under heaven; the less
she knew about it, the more she had to say, which is a great gift. It
spared the girl many desolate and despairing hours.

It was a lonely, monotonous life. Septimus she saw daily. Now and then, if
Septimus were known to be upstairs, Hegisippe Cruchot, coming to pay his
filial respects to his mother and his mother's _bouillabaisse_ (she was
from Marseilles) and her _matelote_ of eels, luxuries which his halfpenny a
day could not provide, would mount to inquire duti