words, looked at his daughter
for a moment, and then continued:

"I must add, monseigneur, that Jeanne Duport, through the
generosity of the marquise, has been separated from her husband,
that bad man who beat her and took everything from her; she has
now her eldest daughter with her: they keep a small trimming
shop, and are doing very well. Germain writes to you regularly,
monseigneur, every month, on the subject of the Bank for
Mechanics out of Work and Gratuitous Loans; there are scarcely
any sums in arrear, and we find already the good effects of it
in this quarter. Nine, at least, poor families can support
themselves in the dead season of work without sending their
clothes and bedding to the pawnbroker's. And when work comes
in, it does one's heart good to see the haste with which they
return the money lent, and they bless you for the loans so
serviceably advanced.

"Yes, monseigneur, they bless you; for, although you say you did
nothing in this but appoint Germain, and that an unknown did
this great benefit, we must always, suppose it was you who
founded it, as it appears to us the most natural idea. There is,
besides, a most famous trumpet to repeat that it is you who are
the real benefactor. This trumpet is Madame Pipelet, who repeats
to every one that it could be no one but her king of lodgers
(excuse her, M. Rodolph, but she always calls you so) who
established such a charitable institution, and her old darling
Alfred is of the same opinion; he is so proud and contented with
his post as porter to the bank that he says all the tricks of M.
Cabrion would not have the slightest effect on him now.

"Germain has read in the newspapers that Martial, a colonist of
Algeria, has been mentioned with great praise for the courage he
had shown in repulsing, at the head of the settlers, an attack
of plundering Arabs, and that his wife, as intrepid as himself,
had been slightly wounded by his side, where she handled her
musket like a real grenadier; since this time, says the
newspaper, she has been called Madame Carabine.

"Excuse this long letter, monseigneur, but I think you will not
be displeased to hear from us news of all those whose benefactor
you have been. I write to you from the farm at Bouqueval, where
we have been since the spring with our good mother. Germain