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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fat and the Thin, by Emile Zola
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Fat and the Thin
+
+Author: Emile Zola
+
+Translator: Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
+
+Release Date: April 22, 2006 [EBook #5744]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAT AND THE THIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dagny; John Bickers; David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FAT AND THE THIN
+
+(LE VENTRE DE PARIS)
+
+By Emile Zola
+
+
+
+Translated, With An Introduction, By Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
+
+
+     Let me have men about me that are fat:
+     Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights:
+     Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
+     He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
+     SHAKESPEARE: _Julius Caesar_, act i, sc. 2.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+"THE FAT AND THE THIN," or, to use the French title, "Le Ventre de
+Paris," is a story of life in and around those vast Central Markets
+which form a distinctive feature of modern Paris. Even the reader who
+has never crossed the Channel must have heard of the Parisian _Halles_,
+for much has been written about them, not only in English books on
+the French metropolis, but also in English newspapers, magazines, and
+reviews; so that few, I fancy, will commence the perusal of the present
+volume without having, at all events, some knowledge of its subject
+matter.
+
+The Paris markets form such a world of their own, and teem at certain
+hours of the day and night with such exuberance of life, that it was
+only natural they should attract the attention of a novelist like M.
+Zola, who, to use his own words, delights "in any subject in which vast
+masses of people can be shown in motion." Mr. Sherard tells us[*] that
+the idea of "Le Ventre de Paris" first occurred to M. Zola in 1872, when
+he used continually to take his friend Paul Alexis for a ramble through
+the Halles. I have in my possession, however, an article written by
+M. Zola some five or six years before that time, and in this one can
+already detect the germ of the present work; just as the motif of
+another of M. Zola's novels, "La Joie de Vivre," can be traced to a
+short story written for a Russian review.
+
+[*] _Emile Zola: a Biographical and Critical Study_, by Robert
+Harborough Sherard, pp. 103, 104. London, Chatto & Windus, 1893.
+
+Similar instances are frequently to be found in the writings of English
+as well as French novelists, and are, of course, easily explained. A
+young man unknown to fame, and unable to procure the publication of a
+long novel, often contents himself with embodying some particular idea
+in a short sketch or story, which finds its way into one or another
+periodical, where it lies buried and forgotten by everybody--excepting
+its author. Time goes by, however, the writer achieves some measure of
+success, and one day it occurs to him to elaborate and perfect that old
+idea of his, only a faint _apercu_ of which, for lack of opportunity, he
+had been able to give in the past. With a little research, no doubt, an
+interesting essay might be written on these literary resuscitations; but
+if one except certain novelists who are so deficient in ideas that they
+continue writing and rewriting the same story throughout their lives, it
+will, I think, be generally found that the revivals in question are due
+to some such reason as that given above.
+
+It should be mentioned that the article of M. Zola's young days to which
+I have referred is not one on market life in particular, but one on
+violets. It contains, however, a vigorous, if brief, picture of the
+Halles in the small hours of the morning, and is instinct with that
+realistic descriptive power of which M. Zola has since given so many
+proofs. We hear the rumbling and clattering of the market carts, we see
+the piles of red meat, the baskets of silvery fish, the mountains of
+vegetables, green and white; in a few paragraphs the whole market world
+passes in kaleidoscopic fashion before our eyes by the pale, dancing
+light of the gas lamps and the lanterns. Several years after the paper
+I speak of was published, when M. Zola began to issue "Le Ventre
+de Paris," M. Tournachon, better known as Nadar, the aeronaut and
+photographer, rushed into print to proclaim that the realistic novelist
+had simply pilfered his ideas from an account of the Halles which he
+(Tournachon) had but lately written. M. Zola, as is so often his wont,
+scorned to reply to this charge of plagiarism; but, had he chosen, he
+could have promptly settled the matter by producing his own forgotten
+article.
+
+At the risk of passing for a literary ghoul, I propose to exhume some
+portion of the paper in question, as, so far as translation can avail,
+it will show how M. Zola wrote and what he thought in 1867. After the
+description of the markets to which I have alluded, there comes the
+following passage:--
+
+
+I was gazing at the preparations for the great daily orgy of Paris when
+I espied a throng of people bustling suspiciously in a corner. A few
+lanterns threw a yellow light upon this crowd. Children, women, and men
+with outstretched hands were fumbling in dark piles which extended along
+the footway. I thought that those piles must be remnants of meat sold
+for a trifling price, and that all those wretched people were rushing
+upon them to feed. I drew near, and discovered my mistake. The heaps
+were not heaps of meat, but heaps of violets. All the flowery poesy of
+the streets of Paris lay there, on that muddy pavement, amidst mountains
+of food. The gardeners of the suburbs had brought their sweet-scented
+harvests to the markets and were disposing of them to the hawkers. From
+the rough fingers of their peasant growers the violets were passing to
+the dirty hands of those who would cry them in the streets. At winter
+time it is between four and six o'clock in the morning that the flowers
+of Paris are thus sold at the Halles. Whilst the city sleeps and its
+butchers are getting all ready for its daily attack of indigestion, a
+trade in poetry is plied in dark, dank corners. When the sun rises the
+bright red meat will be displayed in trim, carefully dressed joints, and
+the violets, mounted on bits of osier, will gleam softly within their
+elegant collars of green leaves. But when they arrive, in the dark
+night, the bullocks, already ripped open, discharge black blood, and
+the trodden flowers lie prone upon the footways. . . . I noticed just in
+front of me one large bunch which had slipped off a neighbouring mound
+and was almost bathing in the gutter. I picked it up. Underneath, it
+was soiled with mud; the greasy, fetid sewer water had left black stains
+upon the flowers. And then, gazing at these exquisite daughters of our
+gardens and our woods, astray amidst all the filth of the city, I began
+to ponder. On what woman's bosom would those wretched flowerets open
+and bloom? Some hawker would dip them in a pail of water, and of all the
+bitter odours of the Paris mud they would retain but a slight pungency,
+which would remain mingled with their own sweet perfume. The water would
+remove their stains, they would pale somewhat, and become a joy both for
+the smell and for the sight. Nevertheless, in the depths of each corolla
+there would still remain some particle of mud suggestive of impurity.
+And I asked myself how much love and passion was represented by all
+those heaps of flowers shivering in the bleak wind. To how many loving
+ones, and how many indifferent ones, and how many egotistical ones,
+would all those thousands and thousands of violets go! In a few hours'
+time they would be scattered to the four corners of Paris, and for a
+paltry copper the passers-by would purchase a glimpse and a whiff of
+springtide in the muddy streets.
+
+
+Imperfect as the rendering may be, I think that the above passage
+will show that M. Zola was already possessed of a large amount of his
+acknowledged realistic power at the early date I have mentioned. I
+should also have liked to quote a rather amusing story of a priggish
+Philistine who ate violets with oil and vinegar, strongly peppered, but
+considerations of space forbid; so I will pass to another passage, which
+is of more interest and importance. Both French and English critics have
+often contended that although M. Zola is a married man, he knows
+very little of women, as there has virtually never been any _feminine
+romance_ in his life. There are those who are aware of the contrary,
+but whose tongues are stayed by considerations of delicacy and respect.
+Still, as the passage I am now about to reproduce is signed and
+acknowledged as fact by M. Zola himself, I see no harm in slightly
+raising the veil from a long-past episode in the master's life:--
+
+
+The light was rising, and as I stood there before that footway
+transformed into a bed of flowers my strange night-fancies gave place to
+recollections at once sweet and sad. I thought of my last excursion to
+Fontenay-aux-Roses, with the loved one, the good fairy of my twentieth
+year. Springtime was budding into birth, the tender foliage gleamed
+in the pale April sunshine. The little pathway skirting the hill was
+bordered by large fields of violets. As one passed along, a strong
+perfume seemed to penetrate one and make one languid. _She_ was leaning
+on my arm, faint with love from the sweet odour of the flowers. A
+whiteness hovered over the country-side, little insects buzzed in the
+sunshine, deep silence fell from the heavens, and so low was the sound
+of our kisses that not a bird in all the hedges showed sign of fear.
+At a turn of the path we perceived some old bent women, who with dry,
+withered hands were hurriedly gathering violets and throwing them into
+large baskets. She who was with me glanced longingly at the flowers, and
+I called one of the women. "You want some violets?" said she. "How much?
+A pound?"
+
+God of Heaven! She sold her flowers by the pound! We fled in deep
+distress. It seemed as though the country-side had been transformed into
+a huge grocer's shop. . . . Then we ascended to the woods of Verrieres,
+and there, in the grass, under the soft, fresh foliage, we found some
+tiny violets which seemed to be dreadfully afraid, and contrived to
+hide themselves with all sorts of artful ruses. During two long hours
+I scoured the grass and peered into every nook, and as soon as ever I
+found a fresh violet I carried it to her. She bought it of me, and
+the price that I exacted was a kiss. . . . And I thought of all those
+things, of all that happiness, amidst the hubbub of the markets of
+Paris, before those poor dead flowers whose graveyard the footway had
+become. I remembered my good fairy, who is now dead and gone, and the
+little bouquet of dry violets which I still preserve in a drawer. When I
+returned home I counted their withered stems: there were twenty of them,
+and over my lips there passed the gentle warmth of my loved one's twenty
+kisses.
+
+
+And now from violets I must, with a brutality akin to that which M.
+Zola himself displays in some of his transitions, pass to very different
+things, for some time back a well-known English poet and essayist wrote
+of the present work that it was redolent of pork, onions, and cheese.
+To one of his sensitive temperament, with a muse strictly nourished on
+sugar and water, such gross edibles as pork and cheese and onions were
+peculiarly offensive. That humble plant the onion, employed to flavour
+wellnigh every savoury dish, can assuredly need no defence; in most
+European countries, too, cheese has long been known as the poor man's
+friend; whilst as for pork, apart from all other considerations, I can
+claim for it a distinct place in English literature. A greater essayist
+by far than the critic to whom I am referring, a certain Mr. Charles
+Lamb, of the India House, has left us an immortal page on the origin of
+roast pig and crackling. And, when everything is considered, I should
+much like to know why novels should be confined to the aspirations of
+the soul, and why they should not also treat of the requirements of
+our physical nature? From the days of antiquity we have all known what
+befell the members when, guided by the brain, they were foolish enough
+to revolt against the stomach. The latter plays a considerable part not
+only in each individual organism, but also in the life of the world.
+Over and over again--I could adduce a score of historical examples--it
+has thwarted the mightiest designs of the human mind. We mortals are
+much addicted to talking of our minds and our souls and treating our
+bodies as mere dross. But I hold--it is a personal opinion--that in the
+vast majority of cases the former are largely governed by the last. I
+conceive, therefore, that a novel which takes our daily sustenance as
+one of its themes has the best of all _raisons d'etre_. A foreign writer
+of far more consequence and ability than myself--Signor Edmondo de
+Amicis--has proclaimed the present book to be "one of the most original
+and happiest inventions of French genius," and I am strongly inclined to
+share his opinion.
+
+It should be observed that the work does not merely treat of the
+provisioning of a great city. That provisioning is its _scenario_; but
+it also embraces a powerful allegory, the prose song of "the eternal
+battle between the lean of this world and the fat--a battle in which, as
+the author shows, the latter always come off successful. It is, too, in
+its way an allegory of the triumph of the fat bourgeois, who lives well
+and beds softly, over the gaunt and Ishmael artist--an allegory which
+M. Zola has more than once introduced into his pages, another notable
+instance thereof being found in 'Germinal,' with the fat, well-fed
+Gregoires on the one hand, and the starving Maheus on the other."
+
+From this quotation from Mr. Sherard's pages it will be gathered that M.
+Zola had a distinct social aim in writing this book. Wellnigh the
+whole social question may, indeed, be summed up in the words "food and
+comfort"; and in a series of novels like "Les Rougon-Macquart," dealing
+firstly with different conditions and grades of society, and, secondly,
+with the influence which the Second Empire exercised on France, the
+present volume necessarily had its place marked out from the very first.
+
+Mr. Sherard has told us of all the labour which M. Zola expended on
+the preparation of the work, of his multitudinous visits to the Paris
+markets, his patient investigation of their organism, and his keen
+artistic interest in their manifold phases of life. And bred as I was
+in Paris, a partaker as I have been of her exultations and her woes they
+have always had for me a strong attraction. My memory goes back to the
+earlier years of their existence, and I can well remember many of the
+old surroundings which have now disappeared. I can recollect the last
+vestiges of the antique _piliers_, built by Francis I, facing the Rue de
+la Tonnellerie. Paul Niquet's, with its "bowel-twisting brandy" and
+its crew of drunken ragpickers, was certainly before my time; but I can
+readily recall Baratte's and Bordier's and all the folly and prodigality
+which raged there; I knew, too, several of the noted thieves' haunts
+which took the place of Niquet's, and which one was careful never to
+enter without due precaution. And then, when the German armies were
+beleaguering Paris, and two millions of people were shut off from the
+world, I often strolled to the Halles to view their strangely altered
+aspect. The fish pavilion, of which M. Zola has so much to say, was bare
+and deserted. The railway drays, laden with the comestible treasures of
+the ocean, no longer thundered through the covered ways. At the most one
+found an auction going on in one or another corner, and a few Seine eels
+or gudgeons fetching wellnigh their weight in gold. Then, in the butter
+and cheese pavilions, one could only procure some nauseous melted fat,
+while in the meat department horse and mule and donkey took the place
+of beef and veal and mutton. Mule and donkey were very scarce, and
+commanded high prices, but both were of better flavour than horse; mule,
+indeed, being quite a delicacy. I also well remember a stall at which
+dog was sold, and, hunger knowing no law, I once purchased, cooked,
+and ate a couple of canine cutlets which cost me two francs apiece. The
+flesh was pinky and very tender, yet I would not willingly make such a
+repast again. However, peace and plenty at last came round once more,
+the Halles regained their old-time aspect, and in the years which
+followed I more than once saw the dawn rise slowly over the mounds of
+cabbages, carrots, leeks, and pumpkins, even as M. Zola describes in the
+following pages. He has, I think, depicted with remarkable accuracy and
+artistic skill the many varying effects of colour that are produced
+as the climbing sun casts its early beams on the giant larder and its
+masses of food--effects of colour which, to quote a famous saying of the
+first Napoleon, show that "the markets of Paris are the Louvre of the
+people" in more senses than one.
+
+The reader will bear in mind that the period dealt with by the author
+in this work is that of 1857-60, when the new Halles Centrales were
+yet young, and indeed not altogether complete. Still, although many old
+landmarks have long since been swept away, the picture of life in all
+essential particulars remained the same. Prior to 1860 the limits of
+Paris were the so-called _boulevards exterieurs_, from which a girdle of
+suburbs, such as Montmartre, Belleville, Passy, and Montrouge, extended
+to the fortifications; and the population of the city was then only
+1,400,000 souls. Some of the figures which will be found scattered
+through M. Zola's work must therefore be taken as applying entirely to
+the past.
+
+Nowadays the amount of business transacted at the Halles has very
+largely increased, in spite of the multiplication of district markets.
+Paris seems to have an insatiable appetite, though, on the other hand,
+its cuisine is fast becoming all simplicity. To my thinking, few more
+remarkable changes have come over the Parisians of recent years than
+this change of diet. One by one great restaurants, formerly renowned for
+particular dishes and special wines, have been compelled through lack
+of custom to close their doors; and this has not been caused so much by
+inability to defray the cost of high feeding as by inability to indulge
+in it with impunity in a physical sense. In fact, Paris has become a
+city of impaired digestions, which nowadays seek the simplicity without
+the heaviness of the old English cuisine; and, should things continue
+in their present course, I fancy that Parisians anxious for high feeding
+will ultimately have to cross over to our side of the Channel.
+
+These remarks, I trust, will not be considered out of place in an
+introduction to a work which to no small extent treats of the appetite
+of Paris. The reader will find that the characters portrayed by M. Zola
+are all types of humble life, but I fail to see that their circumstances
+should render them any the less interesting. A faithful portrait of a
+shopkeeper, a workman, or a workgirl is artistically of far more value
+than all the imaginary sketches of impossible dukes and good and wicked
+baronets in which so many English novels abound. Several of M.
+Zola's personages seem to me extremely lifelike--Gavard, indeed, is a
+_chef-d'oeuvre_ of portraiture: I have known many men like him; and no
+one who lived in Paris under the Empire can deny the accuracy with
+which the author has delineated his hero Florent, the dreamy and hapless
+revolutionary caught in the toils of others. In those days, too, there
+was many such a plot as M. Zola describes, instigated by agents like
+Logre and Lebigre, and allowed to mature till the eve of an election or
+some other important event which rendered its exposure desirable for the
+purpose of influencing public opinion. In fact, in all that relates to
+the so-called "conspiracy of the markets," M. Zola, whilst changing time
+and place to suit the requirements of his story, has simply followed
+historical lines. As for the Quenus, who play such prominent parts
+in the narrative, the husband is a weakling with no soul above his
+stewpans, whilst his wife, the beautiful Lisa, in reality wears the
+breeches and rules the roast. The manner in which she cures Quenu of his
+political proclivities, though savouring of persuasiveness rather than
+violence, is worthy of the immortal Mrs. Caudle: Douglas Jerrold might
+have signed a certain lecture which she administers to her astounded
+helpmate. Of Pauline, the Quenus' daughter, we see but little in the
+story, but she becomes the heroine of another of M. Zola's novels, "La
+Joie de Vivre," and instead of inheriting the egotism of her parents,
+develops a passionate love and devotion for others. In a like way Claude
+Lantier, Florent's artist friend and son of Gervaise of the "Assommoir,"
+figures more particularly in "L'Oeuvre," which tells how his painful
+struggle for fame resulted in madness and suicide. With reference to the
+beautiful Norman and the other fishwives and gossips scattered through
+the present volume, and those genuine types of Parisian _gaminerie_,
+Muche, Marjolin, and Cadine, I may mention that I have frequently
+chastened their language in deference to English susceptibilities,
+so that the story, whilst retaining every essential feature, contains
+nothing to which exception can reasonably be taken.
+
+E. A. V.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FAT AND THE THIN
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Amidst the deep silence and solitude prevailing in the avenue several
+market gardeners' carts were climbing the slope which led towards Paris,
+and the fronts of the houses, asleep behind the dim lines of elms on
+either side of the road, echoed back the rhythmical jolting of the
+wheels. At the Neuilly bridge a cart full of cabbages and another full
+of peas had joined the eight waggons of carrots and turnips coming
+down from Nanterre; and the horses, left to themselves, had continued
+plodding along with lowered heads, at a regular though lazy pace, which
+the ascent of the slope now slackened. The sleeping waggoners, wrapped
+in woollen cloaks, striped black and grey, and grasping the reins
+slackly in their closed hands, were stretched at full length on their
+stomachs atop of the piles of vegetables. Every now and then, a gas
+lamp, following some patch of gloom, would light up the hobnails of a
+boot, the blue sleeve of a blouse, or the peak of a cap peering out
+of the huge florescence of vegetables--red bouquets of carrots, white
+bouquets of turnips, and the overflowing greenery of peas and cabbages.
+
+And all along the road, and along the neighbouring roads, in front and
+behind, the distant rumbling of vehicles told of the presence of similar
+contingents of the great caravan which was travelling onward through the
+gloom and deep slumber of that matutinal hour, lulling the dark city to
+continued repose with its echoes of passing food.
+
+Madame Francois's horse, Balthazar, an animal that was far too fat,
+led the van. He was plodding on, half asleep and wagging his ears, when
+suddenly, on reaching the Rue de Longchamp, he quivered with fear and
+came to a dead stop. The horses behind, thus unexpectedly checked, ran
+their heads against the backs of the carts in front of them, and the
+procession halted amidst a clattering of bolts and chains and the oaths
+of the awakened waggoners. Madame Francois, who sat in front of her
+vehicle, with her back to a board which kept her vegetables in position,
+looked down; but, in the dim light thrown to the left by a small square
+lantern, which illuminated little beyond one of Balthazar's sheeny
+flanks, she could distinguish nothing.
+
+"Come, old woman, let's get on!" cried one of the men, who had raised
+himself to a kneeling position amongst his turnips; "it's only some
+drunken sot."
+
+Madame Francois, however, had bent forward and on her right hand had
+caught sight of a black mass, lying almost under the horse's hoofs, and
+blocking the road.
+
+"You wouldn't have us drive over a man, would you?" said she, jumping to
+the ground.
+
+It was indeed a man lying at full length upon the road, with his arms
+stretched out and his face in the dust. He seemed to be remarkably tall,
+but as withered as a dry branch, and the wonder was that Balthazar
+had not broken him in half with a blow from his hoof. Madame Francois
+thought that he was dead; but on stooping and taking hold of one of his
+hands, she found that it was quite warm.
+
+"Poor fellow!" she murmured softly.
+
+The waggoners, however, were getting impatient.
+
+"Hurry up, there!" said the man kneeling amongst the turnips, in a
+hoarse voice. "He's drunk till he can hold no more, the hog! Shove him
+into the gutter."
+
+Meantime, the man on the road had opened his eyes. He looked at Madame
+Francois with a startled air, but did not move. She herself now thought
+that he must indeed be drunk.
+
+"You mustn't stop here," she said to him, "or you'll get run over and
+killed. Where were you going?"
+
+"I don't know," replied the man in a faint voice.
+
+Then, with an effort and an anxious expression, he added: "I was going
+to Paris; I fell down, and don't remember any more."
+
+Madame Francois could now see him more distinctly, and he was truly a
+pitiable object, with his ragged black coat and trousers, through the
+rents in which you could espy his scraggy limbs. Underneath a black
+cloth cap, which was drawn low over his brows, as though he were afraid
+of being recognised, could be seen two large brown eyes, gleaming with
+peculiar softness in his otherwise stern and harassed countenance. It
+seemed to Madame Francois that he was in far too famished a condition to
+have got drunk.
+
+"And what part of Paris were you going to?" she continued.
+
+The man did not reply immediately. This questioning seemed to distress
+him. He appeared to be thinking the matter over, but at last said
+hesitatingly, "Over yonder, towards the markets."
+
+He had now, with great difficulty, got to his feet again, and seemed
+anxious to resume his journey. But Madame Francois noticed that he
+tottered, and clung for support to one of the shafts of her waggon.
+
+"Are you tired?" she asked him.
+
+"Yes, very tired," he replied.
+
+Then she suddenly assumed a grumpy tone, as though displeased, and,
+giving him a push, exclaimed: "Look sharp, then, and climb into my cart.
+You've made us lose a lot of time. I'm going to the markets, and I'll
+turn you out there with my vegetables."
+
+Then, as the man seemed inclined to refuse her offer, she pushed him up
+with her stout arms, and bundled him down upon the turnips and carrots.
+
+"Come, now, don't give us any more trouble," she cried angrily. "You are
+quite enough to provoke one, my good fellow. Don't I tell you that
+I'm going to the markets? Sleep away up there. I'll wake you when we
+arrive."
+
+She herself then clambered into the cart again, and settled herself with
+her back against the board, grasping the reins of Balthazar, who started
+off drowsily, swaying his ears once more. The other waggons followed,
+and the procession resumed its lazy march through the darkness, whilst
+the rhythmical jolting of the wheels again awoke the echoes of the
+sleepy house fronts, and the waggoners, wrapped in their cloaks, dozed
+off afresh. The one who had called to Madame Francois growled out as he
+lay down: "As if we'd nothing better to do than pick up every drunken
+sot we come across! You're a scorcher, old woman!"
+
+The waggons rumbled on, and the horses picked their own way, with
+drooping heads. The stranger whom Madame Francois had befriended was
+lying on his stomach, with his long legs lost amongst the turnips which
+filled the back part of the cart, whilst his face was buried amidst the
+spreading piles of carrot bunches. With weary, extended arms he clutched
+hold of his vegetable couch in fear of being thrown to the ground by one
+of the waggon's jolts, and his eyes were fixed on the two long lines of
+gas lamps which stretched away in front of him till they mingled with a
+swarm of other lights in the distance atop of the slope. Far away on the
+horizon floated a spreading, whitish vapour, showing where Paris slept
+amidst the luminous haze of all those flamelets.
+
+"I come from Nanterre, and my name's Madame Francois," said the market
+gardener presently. "Since my poor man died I go to the markets every
+morning myself. It's a hard life, as you may guess. And who are you?"
+
+"My name's Florent, I come from a distance," replied the stranger, with
+embarrassment. "Please excuse me, but I'm really so tired that it is
+painful to me to talk."
+
+He was evidently unwilling to say anything more, and so Madame Francois
+relapsed into silence, and allowed the reins to fall loosely on the
+back of Balthazar, who went his way like an animal acquainted with every
+stone of the road.
+
+Meantime, with his eyes still fixed upon the far-spreading glare of
+Paris, Florent was pondering over the story which he had refused to
+communicate to Madame Francois. After making his escape from Cayenne,
+whither he had been transported for his participation in the resistance
+to Louis Napoleon's Coup d'Etat, he had wandered about Dutch Guiana
+for a couple of years, burning to return to France, yet dreading the
+Imperial police. At last, however, he once more saw before him the
+beloved and mighty city which he had so keenly regretted and so ardently
+longed for. He would hide himself there, he told himself, and again lead
+the quiet, peaceable life that he had lived years ago. The police would
+never be any the wiser; and everyone would imagine, indeed, that he
+had died over yonder, across the sea. Then he thought of his arrival at
+Havre, where he had landed with only some fifteen francs tied up in a
+corner of his handkerchief. He had been able to pay for a seat in
+the coach as far as Rouen, but from that point he had been forced to
+continue his journey on foot, as he had scarcely thirty sous left of his
+little store. At Vernon his last copper had gone in bread. After that he
+had no clear recollection of anything. He fancied that he could remember
+having slept for several hours in a ditch, and having shown the papers
+with which he had provided himself to a gendarme; however, he had only a
+very confused idea of what had happened. He had left Vernon without any
+breakfast, seized every now and then with hopeless despair and raging
+pangs which had driven him to munch the leaves of the hedges as he
+tramped along. A prey to cramp and fright, his body bent, his sight
+dimmed, and his feet sore, he had continued his weary march, ever drawn
+onwards in a semi-unconscious state by a vision of Paris, which, far,
+far away, beyond the horizon, seemed to be summoning him and waiting for
+him.
+
+When he at length reached Courbevoie, the night was very dark. Paris,
+looking like a patch of star-sprent sky that had fallen upon the black
+earth, seemed to him to wear a forbidding aspect, as though angry at his
+return. Then he felt very faint, and his legs almost gave way beneath
+him as he descended the hill. As he crossed the Neuilly bridge he
+sustained himself by clinging to the parapet, and bent over and looked
+at the Seine rolling inky waves between its dense, massy banks. A red
+lamp on the water seemed to be watching him with a sanguineous eye.
+And then he had to climb the hill if he would reach Paris on its summit
+yonder. The hundreds of leagues which he had already travelled were
+as nothing to it. That bit of a road filled him with despair. He would
+never be able, he thought, to reach yonder light crowned summit. The
+spacious avenue lay before him with its silence and its darkness, its
+lines of tall trees and low houses, its broad grey footwalks, speckled
+with the shadows of overhanging branches, and parted occasionally by the
+gloomy gaps of side streets. The squat yellow flames of the gas lamps,
+standing erect at regular intervals, alone imparted a little life to the
+lonely wilderness. And Florent seemed to make no progress; the avenue
+appeared to grow ever longer and longer, to be carrying Paris away into
+the far depths of the night. At last he fancied that the gas lamps, with
+their single eyes, were running off on either hand, whisking the road
+away with them; and then, overcome by vertigo, he stumbled and fell on
+the roadway like a log.
+
+Now he was lying at ease on his couch of greenery, which seemed to him
+soft as a feather bed. He had slightly raised his head so as to keep his
+eyes on the luminous haze which was spreading above the dark roofs which
+he could divine on the horizon. He was nearing his goal, carried along
+towards it, with nothing to do but to yield to the leisurely jolts of
+the waggon; and, free from all further fatigue, he now only suffered
+from hunger. Hunger, indeed, had once more awoke within him with
+frightful and wellnigh intolerable pangs. His limbs seemed to have
+fallen asleep; he was only conscious of the existence of his stomach,
+horribly cramped and twisted as by a red-hot iron. The fresh odour of
+the vegetables, amongst which he was lying, affected him so keenly that
+he almost fainted away. He strained himself against that piled-up
+mass of food with all his remaining strength, in order to compress his
+stomach and silence its groans. And the nine other waggons behind him,
+with their mountains of cabbages and peas, their piles of artichokes,
+lettuces, celery, and leeks, seemed to him to be slowly overtaking him,
+as though to bury him whilst he was thus tortured by hunger beneath
+an avalanche of food. Presently the procession halted, and there was a
+sound of deep voices. They had reached the barriers, and the municipal
+customs officers were examining the waggons. A moment later Florent
+entered Paris, in a swoon, lying atop of the carrots, with clenched
+teeth.
+
+"Hallow! You up there!" Madame Francois called out sharply.
+
+And as the stranger made no attempt to move, she clambered up and shook
+him. Florent rose to a sitting posture. He had slept and no longer felt
+the pangs of hunger, but was dizzy and confused.
+
+"You'll help me to unload, won't you?" Madame Francois said to him, as
+she made him get down.
+
+He helped her. A stout man with a felt hat on his head and a badge in
+the top buttonhole of his coat was striking the ground with a stick and
+grumbling loudly:
+
+"Come, come, now, make haste! You must get on faster than that! Bring
+the waggon a little more forward. How many yards' standing have you?
+Four, isn't it?"
+
+Then he gave a ticket to Madame Francois, who took some coppers out of a
+little canvas bag and handed them to him; whereupon he went off to vent
+his impatience and tap the ground with his stick a little further away.
+Madame Francois took hold of Balthazar's bridle and backed him so as to
+bring the wheels of the waggon close to the footway. Then, having marked
+out her four yards with some wisps of straw, after removing the back of
+the cart, she asked Florent to hand her the vegetables bunch by bunch.
+She arranged them sort by sort on her standing, setting them out
+artistically, the "tops" forming a band of greenery around each pile;
+and it was with remarkable rapidity that she completed her show, which,
+in the gloom of early morning, looked like some piece of symmetrically
+coloured tapestry. When Florent had handed her a huge bunch of parsley,
+which he had found at the bottom of the cart, she asked him for still
+another service.
+
+"It would be very kind of you," said she, "if you would look after my
+goods while I put the horse and cart up. I'm only going a couple of
+yards, to the Golden Compasses, in the Rue Montorgueil."
+
+Florent told her that she might make herself easy. He preferred to
+remain still, for his hunger had revived since he had begun to move
+about. He sat down and leaned against a heap of cabbages beside Madame
+Francois's stock. He was all right there, he told himself, and would
+not go further afield, but wait. His head felt empty, and he had no very
+clear notion as to where he was. At the beginning of September it
+is quite dark in the early morning. Around him lighted lanterns were
+flitting or standing stationary in the depths of the gloom. He was
+sitting on one side of a broad street which he did not recognise; it
+stretched far away into the blackness of the night. He could make
+out nothing plainly, excepting the stock of which he had been left in
+charge. All around him along the market footways rose similar piles of
+goods. The middle of the roadway was blocked by huge grey tumbrels,
+and from one end of the street to the other a sound of heavy breathing
+passed, betokening the presence of horses which the eye could not
+distinguish.
+
+Shouts and calls, the noise of falling wood, or of iron chains slipping
+to the ground, the heavy thud of loads of vegetables discharged from the
+waggons, and the grating of wheels as the carts were backed against the
+footways, filled the yet sonorous awakening, whose near approach could
+be felt and heard in the throbbing gloom. Glancing over the pile of
+cabbages behind him. Florent caught sight of a man wrapped like a parcel
+in his cloak, and snoring away with his head upon some baskets of plums.
+Nearer to him, on his left, he could distinguish a lad, some ten years
+old, slumbering between two heaps of endive, with an angelic smile on
+his face. And as yet there seemed to be nothing on that pavement that
+was really awake except the lanterns waving from invisible arms, and
+flitting and skipping over the sleep of the vegetables and human beings
+spread out there in heaps pending the dawn. However, what surprised
+Florent was the sight of some huge pavilions on either side of the
+street, pavilions with lofty roofs that seemed to expand and soar out of
+sight amidst a swarm of gleams. In his weakened state of mind he fancied
+he beheld a series of enormous, symmetrically built palaces, light and
+airy as crystal, whose fronts sparkled with countless streaks of light
+filtering through endless Venetian shutters. Gleaming between the
+slender pillar shafts these narrow golden bars seemed like ladders of
+light mounting to the gloomy line of the lower roofs, and then soaring
+aloft till they reached the jumble of higher ones, thus describing the
+open framework of immense square halls, where in the yellow flare of the
+gas lights a multitude of vague, grey, slumbering things was gathered
+together.
+
+At last Florent turned his head to look about him, distressed at not
+knowing where he was, and filled with vague uneasiness by the sight of
+that huge and seemingly fragile vision. And now, as he raised his eyes,
+he caught sight of the luminous dial and the grey massive pile of Saint
+Eustache's Church. At this he was much astonished. He was close to Saint
+Eustache, yet all was novel to him.
+
+However, Madame Francois had come back again, and was engaged in a
+heated discussion with a man who carried a sack over his shoulder and
+offered to buy her carrots for a sou a bunch.
+
+"Really, now, you are unreasonable, Lacaille!" said she. "You know quite
+well that you will sell them again to the Parisians at four and five
+sous the bunch. Don't tell me that you won't! You may have them for two
+sous the bunch, if you like."
+
+Then, as the man went off, she continued: "Upon my word, I believe some
+people think that things grow of their own accord! Let him go and find
+carrots at a sou the bunch elsewhere, tipsy scoundrel that he is! He'll
+come back again presently, you'll see."
+
+These last remarks were addressed to Florent. And, seating herself by
+his side, Madame Francois resumed: "If you've been a long time away from
+Paris, you perhaps don't know the new markets. They haven't been built
+for more than five years at the most. That pavilion you see there beside
+us is the flower and fruit market. The fish and poultry markets are
+farther away, and over there behind us come the vegetables and the
+butter and cheese. There are six pavilions on this side, and on the
+other side, across the road, there are four more, with the meat and
+the tripe stalls. It's an enormous place, but it's horribly cold in the
+winter. They talk about pulling down the houses near the corn market to
+make room for two more pavilions. But perhaps you know all this?"
+
+"No, indeed," replied Florent; "I've been abroad. And what's the name of
+that big street in front of us?"
+
+"Oh, that's a new street. It's called the Rue du Pont Neuf. It
+leads from the Seine through here to the Rue Montmartre and the Rue
+Montorgueil. You would soon have recognized where you were if it had
+been daylight."
+
+Madame Francois paused and rose, for she saw a woman heading down to
+examine her turnips. "Ah, is that you, Mother Chantemesse?" she said in
+a friendly way.
+
+Florent meanwhile glanced towards the Rue Montorgueil. It was there
+that a body of police officers had arrested him on the night of December
+4.[*] He had been walking along the Boulevard Montmartre at about two
+o'clock, quietly making his way through the crowd, and smiling at the
+number of soldiers that the Elysee had sent into the streets to awe the
+people, when the military suddenly began making a clean sweep of the
+thoroughfare, shooting folks down at close range during a quarter of an
+hour. Jostled and knocked to the ground, Florent fell at the corner
+of the Rue Vivienne and knew nothing further of what happened, for the
+panic-stricken crowd, in their wild terror of being shot, trampled over
+his body. Presently, hearing everything quiet, he made an attempt to
+rise; but across him there lay a young woman in a pink bonnet, whose
+shawl had slipped aside, allowing her chemisette, pleated in little
+tucks, to be seen. Two bullets had pierced the upper part of her bosom;
+and when Florent gently removed the poor creature to free his legs,
+two streamlets of blood oozed from her wounds on to his hands. Then he
+sprang up with a sudden bound, and rushed madly away, hatless and with
+his hands still wet with blood. Until evening he wandered about the
+streets, with his head swimming, ever seeing the young woman lying
+across his legs with her pale face, her blue staring eyes, her distorted
+lips, and her expression of astonishment at thus meeting death so
+suddenly. He was a shy, timid fellow. Albeit thirty years old he had
+never dared to stare women in the face; and now, for the rest of his
+life, he was to have that one fixed in his heart and memory. He felt as
+though he had lost some loved one of his own.
+
+[*] 1851. Two days after the Coup d'Etat.--Translator.
+
+In the evening, without knowing how he had got there, still dazed and
+horrified as he was by the terrible scenes of the afternoon, he had
+found himself at a wine shop in the Rue Montorgueil, where several men
+were drinking and talking of throwing up barricades. He went away with
+them, helped them to tear up a few paving-stones, and seated himself on
+the barricade, weary with his long wandering through the streets, and
+reflecting that he would fight when the soldiers came up. However, he
+had not even a knife with him, and was still bareheaded. Towards eleven
+o'clock he dozed off, and in his sleep could see the two holes in the
+dead woman's white chemisette glaring at him like eyes reddened by tears
+and blood. When he awoke he found himself in the grasp of four police
+officers, who were pummelling him with their fists. The men who had
+built the barricade had fled. The police officers treated him with still
+greater violence, and indeed almost strangled him when they noticed that
+his hands were stained with blood. It was the blood of the young woman.
+
+Florent raised his eyes to the luminous dial of Saint Eustache with his
+mind so full of these recollections that he did not notice the position
+of the pointers. It was, however, nearly four o'clock. The markets were
+as yet wrapped in sleep. Madame Francois was still talking to old Madame
+Chantemesse, both standing and arguing about the price of turnips, and
+Florent now called to mind how narrowly he had escaped being shot over
+yonder by the wall of Saint Eustache. A detachment of gendarmes had just
+blown out the brains of five unhappy fellows caught at a barricade in
+the Rue Greneta. The five corpses were lying on the footway, at a spot
+where he thought he could now distinguish a heap of rosy radishes. He
+himself had escaped being shot merely because the policemen only carried
+swords. They took him to a neighbouring police station and gave the
+officer in charge a scrap of paper, on which were these words written
+in pencil: "Taken with blood-stained hands. Very dangerous." Then he had
+been dragged from station to station till the morning came. The scrap of
+paper accompanied him wherever he went. He was manacled and guarded as
+though he were a raving madman. At the station in the Rue de la Lingerie
+some tipsy soldiers wanted to shoot him; and they had already lighted a
+lantern with that object when the order arrived for the prisoners to be
+taken to the depot of the Prefecture of Police. Two days afterwards he
+found himself in a casemate of the fort of Bicetre. Ever since then he
+had been suffering from hunger. He had felt hungry in the casemate, and
+the pangs of hunger had never since left him. A hundred men were pent in
+the depths of that cellar-like dungeon, where, scarce able to breathe,
+they devoured the few mouthfuls of bread that were thrown to them, like
+so many captive wild beasts.
+
+When Florent was brought before an investigating magistrate, without
+anyone to defend him, and without any evidence being adduced, he was
+accused of belonging to a secret society; and when he swore that this
+was untrue, the magistrate produced the scrap of paper from amongst the
+documents before him: "Taken with blood-stained hands. Very dangerous."
+That was quite sufficient. He was condemned to transportation. Six weeks
+afterwards, one January night, a gaoler awoke him and locked him up in
+a courtyard with more than four hundred other prisoners. An hour later
+this first detachment started for the pontoons and exile, handcuffed and
+guarded by a double file of gendarmes with loaded muskets. They crossed
+the Austerlitz bridge, followed the line of the boulevards, and so
+reached the terminus of the Western Railway line. It was a joyous
+carnival night. The windows of the restaurants on the boulevards
+glittered with lights. At the top of the Rue Vivienne, just at the spot
+where he ever saw the young woman lying dead--that unknown young woman
+whose image he always bore with him--he now beheld a large carriage in
+which a party of masked women, with bare shoulders and laughing voices,
+were venting their impatience at being detained, and expressing their
+horror of that endless procession of convicts. The whole of the way from
+Paris to Havre the prisoners never received a mouthful of bread or a
+drink of water. The officials had forgotten to give them their rations
+before starting, and it was not till thirty-six hours afterwards, when
+they had been stowed away in the hold of the frigate _Canada_, that they
+at last broke their fast.
+
+No, Florent had never again been free from hunger. He recalled all the
+past to mind, but could not recollect a single hour of satiety. He had
+become dry and withered; his stomach seemed to have shrunk; his skin
+clung to his bones. And now that he was back in Paris once more, he
+found it fat and sleek and flourishing, teeming with food in the midst
+of the darkness. He had returned to it on a couch of vegetables; he
+lingered in its midst encompassed by unknown masses of food which still
+and ever increased and disquieted him. Had that happy carnival night
+continued throughout those seven years, then? Once again he saw the
+glittering windows on the boulevards, the laughing women, the luxurious,
+greedy city which he had quitted on that far-away January night; and it
+seemed to him that everything had expanded and increased in harmony
+with those huge markets, whose gigantic breathing, still heavy from the
+indigestion of the previous day, he now began to hear.
+
+Old Mother Chantemesse had by this time made up her mind to buy a dozen
+bunches of turnips. She put them in her apron, which she held closely
+pressed to her person, thus making herself look yet more corpulent than
+she was; and for some time longer she lingered there, still gossiping in
+a drawling voice. When at last she went away, Madame Francois again sat
+down by the side of Florent.
+
+"Poor old Mother Chantemesse!" she said; "she must be at least
+seventy-two. I can remember her buying turnips of my father when I was
+a mere chit. And she hasn't a relation in the world; no one but a young
+hussy whom she picked up I don't know where and who does nothing but
+bring her trouble. Still, she manages to live, selling things by the
+ha'p'orth and clearing her couple of francs profit a day. For my own
+part, I'm sure that I could never spend my days on the foot-pavement in
+this horrid Paris! And she hasn't even any relations here!"
+
+"You have some relations in Paris, I suppose?" she asked presently,
+seeing that Florent seemed disinclined to talk.
+
+Florent did not appear to hear her. A feeling of distrust came back to
+him. His head was teeming with old stories of the police, stories of
+spies prowling about at every street corner, and of women selling the
+secrets which they managed to worm out of the unhappy fellows they
+deluded. Madame Francois was sitting close beside him and certainly
+looked perfectly straightforward and honest, with her big calm face,
+above which was bound a black and yellow handkerchief. She seemed about
+five and thirty years of age, and was somewhat stoutly built, with a
+certain hardy beauty due to her life in the fresh air. A pair of black
+eyes, which beamed with kindly tenderness, softened the more masculine
+characteristics of her person. She certainly was inquisitive, but her
+curiosity was probably well meant.
+
+"I've a nephew in Paris," she continued, without seeming at all offended
+by Florent's silence. "He's turned out badly though, and has enlisted.
+It's a pleasant thing to have somewhere to go to and stay at, isn't it?
+I dare say there's a big surprise in store for your relations when they
+see you. But it's always a pleasure to welcome one of one's own people
+back again, isn't it?"
+
+She kept her eyes fixed upon him while she spoke, doubtless
+compassionating his extreme scragginess; fancying, too, that there was
+a "gentleman" inside those old black rags, and so not daring to slip a
+piece of silver into his hand. At last, however, she timidly murmured:
+"All the same, if you should happen just at present to be in want of
+anything----"
+
+But Florent checked her with uneasy pride. He told her that he had
+everything he required, and had a place to go to. She seemed quite
+pleased to hear this, and, as though to tranquillise herself concerning
+him, repeated several times: "Well, well, in that case you've only got
+to wait till daylight."
+
+A large bell at the corner of the fruit market, just over Florent's
+head, now began to ring. The slow regular peals seemed to gradually
+dissipate the slumber that yet lingered all around. Carts were still
+arriving, and the shouts of the waggoners, the cracking of their whips,
+and the grinding of the paving-stones beneath the iron-bound wheels and
+the horses' shoes sounded with an increasing din. The carts could now
+only advance by a series of spasmodic jolts, and stretched in a long
+line, one behind the other, till they were lost to sight in the distant
+darkness, whence a confused roar ascended.
+
+Unloading was in progress all along the Rue du Pont Neuf, the vehicles
+being drawn up close to the edge of the footways, while their teams
+stood motionless in close order as at a horse fair. Florent felt
+interested in one enormous tumbrel which was piled up with magnificent
+cabbages, and had only been backed to the kerb with the greatest
+difficulty. Its load towered above the lofty gas lamp whose bright light
+fell full upon the broad leaves which looked like pieces of dark green
+velvet, scalloped and goffered. A young peasant girl, some sixteen years
+old, in a blue linen jacket and cap, had climbed on to the tumbrel,
+where, buried in the cabbages to her shoulders, she took them one by one
+and threw them to somebody concealed in the shade below. Every now and
+then the girl would slip and vanish, overwhelmed by an avalanche of
+the vegetables, but her rosy nose soon reappeared amidst the teeming
+greenery, and she broke into a laugh while the cabbages again flew down
+between Florent and the gas lamp. He counted them mechanically as they
+fell. When the cart was emptied he felt worried.
+
+The piles of vegetables on the pavement now extended to the verge of the
+roadway. Between the heaps, the market gardeners left narrow paths to
+enable people to pass along. The whole of the wide footway was covered
+from end to end with dark mounds. As yet, in the sudden dancing gleams
+of light from the lanterns, you only just espied the luxuriant fulness
+of the bundles of artichokes, the delicate green of the lettuces, the
+rosy coral of the carrots, and dull ivory of the turnips. And these
+gleams of rich colour flitted along the heaps, according as the lanterns
+came and went. The footway was now becoming populated: a crowd of people
+had awakened, and was moving hither and thither amidst the vegetables,
+stopping at times, and chattering and shouting. In the distance a loud
+voice could be heard crying, "Endive! who's got endive?" The gates of
+the pavilion devoted to the sale of ordinary vegetables had just been
+opened; and the retail dealers who had stalls there, with white caps on
+their heads, fichus knotted over their black jackets, and skirts pinned
+up to keep them from getting soiled, now began to secure their stock for
+the day, depositing their purchases in some huge porters' baskets placed
+upon the ground. Between the roadway and the pavilion these baskets were
+to be seen coming and going on all sides, knocking against the
+crowded heads of the bystanders, who resented the pushing with coarse
+expressions, whilst all around was a clamour of voices growing hoarse
+by prolonged wrangling over a sou or two. Florent was astonished by
+the calmness of the female market gardeners, with bandanas and bronzed
+faces, displayed amidst all this garrulous bargaining of the markets.
+
+Behind him, on the footway of the Rue Rambuteau, fruit was being sold.
+Hampers and low baskets covered with canvas or straw stood there in long
+lines, a strong odour of over-ripe mirabelle plums was wafted hither and
+thither. At last a subdued and gentle voice, which he had heard for some
+time past, induced him to turn his head, and he saw a charming darksome
+little woman sitting on the ground and bargaining.
+
+"Come now, Marcel," said she, "you'll take a hundred sous, won't you?"
+
+The man to whom she was speaking was closely wrapped in his cloak and
+made no reply; however, after a silence of five minutes or more, the
+young woman returned to the charge.
+
+"Come now, Marcel; a hundred sous for that basket there, and four francs
+for the other one; that'll make nine francs altogether."
+
+Then came another interval.
+
+"Well, tell me what you will take."
+
+"Ten francs. You know that well enough already; I told you so before.
+But what have you done with your Jules this morning, La Sarriette?"
+
+The young woman began to laugh as she took a handful of small change out
+of her pocket.
+
+"Oh," she replied, "Jules is still in bed. He says that men were not
+intended to work."
+
+She paid for the two baskets, and carried them into the fruit pavilion,
+which had just been opened. The market buildings still retained their
+gloom-wrapped aspect of airy fragility, streaked with the thousand lines
+of light that gleamed from the venetian shutters. People were beginning
+to pass along the broad covered streets intersecting the pavilions, but
+the more distant buildings still remained deserted amidst the increasing
+buzz of life on the footways. By Saint Eustache the bakers and wine
+sellers were taking down their shutters, and the ruddy shops, with their
+gas lights flaring, showed like gaps of fire in the gloom in which the
+grey house-fronts were yet steeped. Florent noticed a baker's shop on
+the left-hand side of the Rue Montorgueil, replete and golden with its
+last baking, and fancied he could scent the pleasant smell of the hot
+bread. It was now half past four.
+
+Madame Francois by this time had disposed of nearly all her stock. She
+had only a few bunches of carrots left when Lacaille once more made his
+appearance with his sack.
+
+"Well," said he, "will you take a sou now?"
+
+"I knew I should see you again," the good woman quietly answered. "You'd
+better take all I have left. There are seventeen bunches."
+
+"That makes seventeen sous."
+
+"No; thirty-four."
+
+At last they agreed to fix the price at twenty-five sous. Madame
+Francois was anxious to be off.
+
+"He'd been keeping his eye upon me all the time," she said to Florent,
+when Lacaille had gone off with the carrots in his sack. "That old rogue
+runs things down all over the markets, and he often waits till the last
+peal of the bell before spending four sous in purchase. Oh, these Paris
+folk! They'll wrangle and argue for an hour to save half a sou, and then
+go off and empty their purses at the wine shop."
+
+Whenever Madame Francois talked of Paris she always spoke in a tone of
+disdain, and referred to the city as though it were some ridiculous,
+contemptible, far-away place, in which she only condescended to set foot
+at nighttime.
+
+"There!" she continued, sitting down again, beside Florent, on some
+vegetables belonging to a neighbour, "I can get away now."
+
+Florent bent his head. He had just committed a theft. When Lacaille
+went off he had caught sight of a carrot lying on the ground, and having
+picked it up he was holding it tightly in his right hand. Behind him
+were some bundles of celery and bunches of parsley were diffusing
+pungent odours which painfully affected him.
+
+"Well, I'm off now!" said Madame Francois.
+
+However, she felt interested in this stranger, and could divine that
+he was suffering there on that foot-pavement, from which he had never
+stirred. She made him fresh offers of assistance, but he again refused
+them, with a still more bitter show of pride. He even got up and
+remained standing to prove that he was quite strong again. Then, as
+Madame Francois turned her head away, he put the carrot to his mouth.
+But he had to remove it for a moment, in spite of the terrible longing
+which he felt to dig his teeth into it; for Madame Francois turned round
+again and looking him full in the face, began to question him with
+her good-natured womanly curiosity. Florent, to avoid speaking, merely
+answered by nods and shakes of the head. Then, slowly and gently, he
+began to eat the carrot.
+
+The worthy woman was at last on the point of going off, when a powerful
+voice exclaimed close beside her, "Good morning, Madame Francois."
+
+The speaker was a slim young man, with big bones and a big head. His
+face was bearded, and he had a very delicate nose and narrow sparkling
+eyes. He wore on his head a rusty, battered, black felt hat, and was
+buttoned up in an immense overcoat, which had once been of a soft
+chestnut hue, but which rain had discoloured and streaked with
+long greenish stains. Somewhat bent, and quivering with a nervous
+restlessness which was doubtless habitual with him, he stood there in a
+pair of heavy laced shoes, and the shortness of his trousers allowed a
+glimpse of his coarse blue hose.
+
+"Good morning, Monsieur Claude," the market gardener replied cheerfully.
+"I expected you, you know, last Monday, and, as you didn't come, I've
+taken care of your canvas for you. I've hung it up on a nail in my
+room."
+
+"You are really very kind, Madame Francois. I'll go to finish that study
+of mine one of these days. I wasn't able to go on Monday. Has your big
+plum tree still got all its leaves?"
+
+"Yes, indeed."
+
+"I wanted to know, because I mean to put it in a corner of the picture.
+It will come in nicely by the side of the fowl house. I have been
+thinking about it all the week. What lovely vegetables are in the market
+this morning! I came down very early, expecting a fine sunrise effect
+upon all these heaps of cabbages."
+
+With a wave of the arm he indicated the footway.
+
+"Well, well, I must be off now," said Madame Francois. "Good-bye for the
+present. We shall meet again soon, I hope, Monsieur Claude."
+
+However, as she turned to go, she introduced Florent to the young
+artist.
+
+"This gentleman, it seems, has just come from a distance," said she.
+"He feels quite lost in your scampish Paris. I dare say you might be of
+service to him."
+
+Then she at last took her departure, feeling pleased at having left the
+two men together. Claude looked at Florent with a feeling of interest.
+That tall, slight, wavy figure seemed to him original. Madame Francois's
+hasty presentation was in his eyes quite sufficient, and he addressed
+Florent with the easy familiarity of a lounger accustomed to all sorts
+of chance encounters.
+
+"I'll accompany you," he said; "which way are you going?"
+
+Florent felt ill at ease; he was not wont to unbosom himself so readily.
+However, ever since his arrival in Paris, a question had been trembling
+on his lips, and now he ventured to ask it, with the evident fear of
+receiving an unfavourable reply.
+
+"Is the Rue Pirouette still in existence?"
+
+"Oh, yes," answered the artist. "A very curious corner of old Paris
+is the Rue Pirouette. It twists and turns like a dancing girl, and the
+houses bulge out like pot-bellied gluttons. I've made an etching of it
+that isn't half bad. I'll show it to you when you come to see me. Is it
+to the Rue Pirouette that you want to go?"
+
+Florent, who felt easier and more cheerful now that he knew the street
+still existed, declared that he did not want to go there; in fact, he
+did not want to go anywhere in particular. All his distrust awoke into
+fresh life at Claude's insistence.
+
+"Oh! never mind," said the artist, "let's go to the Rue Pirouette all
+the same. It has such a fine colour at night time. Come along; it's only
+a couple of yards away."
+
+Florent felt constrained to follow him, and the two men walked off, side
+by side, stepping over the hampers and vegetables like a couple of old
+friends. On the footway of the Rue Rambuteau there were some immense
+heaps of cauliflowers, symmetrically piled up like so many cannonballs.
+The soft-white flowers spread out like huge roses in the midst of their
+thick green leaves, and the piles had something of the appearance
+of bridal bouquets ranged in a row in colossal flower stands. Claude
+stopped in front of them, venting cries of admiration.
+
+Then, on turning into the Rue Pirouette, which was just opposite,
+he pointed out each house to his companion, and explained his views
+concerning it. There was only a single gas lamp, burning in a corner.
+The buildings, which had settled down and swollen, threw their
+pent-houses forward in such wise as to justify Claude's allusion to
+pot-bellied gluttons, whilst their gables receded, and on either side
+they clung to their neighbours for support. Three or four, however,
+standing in gloomy recesses, appeared to be on the point of toppling
+forward. The solitary gas lamp illumined one which was snowy with a
+fresh coat of whitewash, suggesting some flabby broken-down old dowager,
+powdered and bedaubed in the hope of appearing young. Then the others
+stretched away into the darkness, bruised, dented, and cracked,
+greeny with the fall of water from their roofs, and displaying such
+an extraordinary variety of attitudes and tints that Claude could not
+refrain from laughing as he contemplated them.
+
+Florent, however, came to stand at the corner of the rue de Mondetour,
+in front of the last house but one on the left. Here the three floors,
+each with two shutterless windows, having little white curtains closely
+drawn, seemed wrapped in sleep; but, up above, a light could be seen
+flitting behind the curtains of a tiny gable casement. However, the
+sight of the shop beneath the pent-house seemed to fill Florent with the
+deepest emotion. It was kept by a dealer in cooked vegetables, and was
+just being opened. At its far end some metal pans were glittering, while
+on several earthen ones in the window there was a display of cooked
+spinach and endive, reduced to a paste and arranged in conical mounds
+from which customers were served with shovel-like carvers of white
+metal, only the handles of which were visible. This sight seemed to
+rivet Florent to the ground with surprise. He evidently could not
+recognize the place. He read the name of the shopkeeper, Godeboeuf,
+which was painted on a red sign board up above, and remained quite
+overcome by consternation. His arms dangling beside him, he began to
+examine the cooked spinach, with the despairing air of one on whom some
+supreme misfortune falls.
+
+However, the gable casement was now opened, and a little old woman
+leaned out of it, and looked first at the sky and then at the markets in
+the distance.
+
+"Ah, Mademoiselle Saget is an early riser," exclaimed Claude, who had
+just raised his head. And, turning to his companion, he added: "I once
+had an aunt living in that house. It's a regular hive of tittle-tattle!
+Ah, the Mehudins are stirring now, I see. There's a light on the second
+floor."
+
+Florent would have liked to question his companion, but the latter's
+long discoloured overcoat give him a disquieting appearance. So without
+a word Florent followed him, whilst he went on talking about the
+Mehudins. These Mehudins were fish-girls, it seemed; the older one was a
+magnificent creature, while the younger one, who sold fresh-water
+fish, reminded Claude of one of Murillo's virgins, whenever he saw her
+standing with her fair face amidst her carps and eels.
+
+From this Claude went on to remark with asperity that Murillo painted
+like an ignoramus. But all at once he stopped short in the middle of the
+street.
+
+"Come!" he exclaimed, "tell me where it is that you want to go."
+
+"I don't want to go anywhere just at present," replied Florent in
+confusion. "Let's go wherever you like."
+
+Just as they were leaving the Rue Pirouette, some one called to Claude
+from a wine shop at the corner of the street. The young man went in,
+dragging Florent with him. The shutters had been taken down on one side
+only, and the gas was still burning in the sleepy atmosphere of the
+shop. A forgotten napkin and some cards that had been used in the
+previous evening's play were still lying on the tables; and the fresh
+breeze that streamed in through the open doorway freshened the close,
+warm vinous air. The landlord, Monsieur Lebigre, was serving his
+customers. He wore a sleeved waistcoat, and his fat regular features,
+fringed by an untidy beard, were still pale with sleep. Standing in
+front of the counter, groups of men, with heavy, tired eyes, were
+drinking, coughing, and spitting, whilst trying to rouse themselves
+by the aid of white wine and brandy. Amongst them Florent recognised
+Lacaille, whose sack now overflowed with various sorts of vegetables.
+He was taking his third dram with a friend, who was telling him a long
+story about the purchase of a hamper of potatoes.[*] When he had emptied
+his glass, he went to chat with Monsieur Lebigre in a little glazed
+compartment at the end of the room, where the gas had not yet been
+lighted.
+
+     [*] At the Paris central markets potatoes are sold by the
+     hamper, not by the sack as in England.--Translator.
+
+"What will you take?" Claude asked of Florent.
+
+He had on entering grasped the hand of the person who had called out
+to him. This was a market porter,[*] a well-built young man of two and
+twenty at the most. His cheeks and chin were clean-shaven, but he wore
+a small moustache, and looked a sprightly, strapping fellow with his
+broad-brimmed hat covered with chalk, and his wool-worked neck-piece,
+the straps falling from which tightened his short blue blouse. Claude,
+who called him Alexandre, patted his arms, and asked him when they were
+going to Charentonneau again. Then they talked about a grand excursion
+they had made together in a boat on the Marne, when they had eaten a
+rabbit for supper in the evening.
+
+     [*] _Fort_ is the French term, literally "a strong man," as
+     every market porter needs to be.--Translator.
+
+"Well, what will you take?" Claude again asked Florent.
+
+The latter looked at the counter in great embarrassment. At one end of
+it some stoneware pots, encircled with brass bands and containing punch
+and hot wine, were standing over the short blue flames of a gas stove.
+Florent at last confessed that a glass of something warm would be
+welcome. Monsieur Lebigre thereupon served them with three glasses of
+punch. In a basket near the pots were some smoking hot rolls which had
+only just arrived. However, as neither of the others took one, Florent
+likewise refrained, and drank his punch. He felt it slipping down into
+his empty stomach, like a steam of molten lead. It was Alexandre who
+paid for the "shout."
+
+"He's a fine fellow, that Alexandre!" said Claude, when he and Florent
+found themselves alone again on the footway of the Rue Rambuteau. "He's
+a very amusing companion to take into the country. He's fond of showing
+his strength. And then he's so magnificently built! I have seen him
+stripped. Ah, if I could only get him to pose for me in the nude out in
+the open air! Well, we'll go and take a turn through the markets now, if
+you like."
+
+Florent followed, yielding entirely to his new friend's guidance. A
+bright glow at the far end of the Rue Rambuteau announced the break of
+day. The far-spreading voice of the markets was become more sonorous,
+and every now and then the peals of a bell ringing in some distant
+pavilion mingled with the swelling, rising clamour. Claude and Florent
+entered one of the covered streets between the fish and poultry
+pavilions. Florent raised his eyes and looked at the lofty vault
+overhead, the inner timbers of which glistened amidst a black lacework
+of iron supports. As he turned into the great central thoroughfare he
+pictured himself in some strange town, with its various districts and
+suburbs, promenades and streets, squares and cross-roads, all suddenly
+placed under shelter on a rainy day by the whim of some gigantic power.
+The deep gloom brooding in the hollows of the roofs multiplied, as it
+were, the forest of pillars, and infinitely increased the number of the
+delicate ribs, railed galleries, and transparent shutters. And over
+the phantom city and far away into the depths of the shade, a teeming,
+flowering vegetation of luxuriant metal-work, with spindle-shaped stems
+and twining knotted branches, covered the vast expanse as with the
+foliage of some ancient forest. Several departments of the markets
+still slumbered behind their closed iron gates. The butter and poultry
+pavilions displayed rows of little trellised stalls and long alleys,
+which lines of gas lights showed to be deserted. The fish market,
+however, had just been opened, and women were flitting to and fro
+amongst the white slabs littered with shadowy hampers and cloths. Among
+the vegetables and fruit and flowers the noise and bustle were gradually
+increasing. The whole place was by degree waking up, from the popular
+quarter where the cabbages are piled at four o'clock in the morning,
+to the lazy and wealthy district which only hangs up its pullets and
+pheasants when the hands of the clock point to eight.
+
+The great covered alleys were now teeming with life. All along the
+footways on both sides of the road there were still many market
+gardeners, with other small growers from the environs of Paris,
+who displayed baskets containing their "gatherings" of the previous
+evening--bundles of vegetables and clusters of fruit. Whilst the crowd
+incessantly paced hither and thither, vehicles barred the road; and
+Florent, in order to pass them, had to press against some dingy sacks,
+like coal-sacks in appearance, and so numerous and heavy that the
+axle-trees of the vans bent beneath them. They were quite damp, and
+exhaled a fresh odour of seaweed. From a rent low down in the side of
+one of them a black stream of big mussels was trickling.
+
+Florent and Claude had now to pause at every step. The fish was arriving
+and one after another the drays of the railway companies drove up laden
+with wooden cages full of the hampers and baskets that had come by train
+from the sea coast. And to get out of the way of the fish drays, which
+became more and more numerous and disquieting, the artist and Florent
+rushed amongst the wheels of the drays laden with butter and eggs and
+cheese, huge yellow vehicles bearing coloured lanterns, and drawn by
+four horses. The market porters carried the cases of eggs, and baskets
+of cheese and butter, into the auction pavilion, where clerks were
+making entries in note books by the light of the gas.
+
+Claude was quite charmed with all this uproar, and forgot everything to
+gaze at some effect of light, some group of blouses, or the picturesque
+unloading of a cart. At last they extricated themselves from the crowd,
+and as they continued on their way along the main artery they presently
+found themselves amidst an exquisite perfume which seemed to be
+following them. They were in the cut-flower market. All over the
+footways, to the right and left, women were seated in front of large
+rectangular baskets full of bunches of roses, violets, dahlias, and
+marguerites. At times the clumps darkened and looked like splotches
+of blood, at others they brightened into silvery greys of the softest
+tones. A lighted candle, standing near one basket, set amidst the
+general blackness quite a melody of colour--the bright variegations
+of marguerites, the blood-red crimson of dahlias, the bluey purple of
+violets, and the warm flesh tints of roses. And nothing could have
+been sweeter or more suggestive of springtide than this soft breath of
+perfume encountered on the footway, on emerging from the sharp odours of
+the fish market and the pestilential smell of the butter and the cheese.
+
+Claude and Florent turned round and strolled about, loitering among the
+flowers. They halted with some curiosity before several women who were
+selling bunches of fern and bundles of vine-leaves, neatly tied up in
+packets of five and twenty. Then they turned down another covered alley,
+which was almost deserted, and where their footsteps echoed as though
+they had been walking through a church. Here they found a little cart,
+scarcely larger than a wheelbarrow, to which was harnessed a diminutive
+donkey, who, no doubt, felt bored, for at sight of them he began braying
+with such prolonged and sonorous force that the vast roofing of the
+markets fairly trembled. Then the horses began to neigh in reply, there
+was a sound of pawing and tramping, a distant uproar, which swelled,
+rolled along, then died away.
+
+Meantime, in the Rue Berger in front of them, Claude and Florent
+perceived a number of bare, frontless, salesmen's shops, where, by the
+light of flaring gas jets, they could distinguish piles of hampers and
+fruit, enclosed by three dirty walls which were covered with addition
+sums in pencil. And the two wanderers were still standing there,
+contemplating this scene, when they noticed a well-dressed woman huddled
+up in a cab which looked quite lost and forlorn in the block of carts as
+it stealthily made its way onwards.
+
+"There's Cinderella coming back without her slippers," remarked Claude
+with a smile.
+
+They began chatting together as they went back towards the markets.
+Claude whistled as he strolled along with his hands in his pockets,
+and expatiated on his love for this mountain of food which rises every
+morning in the very centre of Paris. He prowled about the footways night
+after night, dreaming of colossal still-life subjects, paintings of an
+extraordinary character. He had even started on one, having his friend
+Marjolin and that jade Cadine to pose for him; but it was hard work to
+paint those confounded vegetables and fruit and fish and meat--they were
+all so beautiful! Florent listened to the artist's enthusiastic talk
+with a void and hunger-aching stomach. It did not seem to occur to
+Claude that all those things were intended to be eaten. Their charm for
+him lay in their colour. Suddenly, however, he ceased speaking and, with
+a gesture that was habitual to him, tightened the long red sash which he
+wore under his green-stained coat.
+
+And then with a sly expression he resumed:
+
+"Besides, I breakfast here, through my eyes, at any rate, and that's
+better than getting nothing at all. Sometimes, when I've forgotten to
+dine on the previous day, I treat myself to a perfect fit of indigestion
+in the morning by watching the carts arrive here laden with all sorts
+of good things. On such mornings as those I love my vegetables more than
+ever. Ah! the exasperating part, the rank injustice of it all, is that
+those rascally Philistines really eat these things!"
+
+Then he went on to tell Florent of a supper to which a friend had
+treated him at Baratte's on a day of affluence. They had partaken of
+oysters, fish, and game. But Baratte's had sadly fallen, and all the
+carnival life of the old Marche des Innocents was now buried. In place
+thereof they had those huge central markets, that colossus of ironwork,
+that new and wonderful town. Fools might say what they liked; it was the
+embodiment of the spirit of the times. Florent, however, could not
+at first make out whether he was condemning the picturesqueness of
+Baratte's or its good cheer.
+
+But Claude next began to inveigh against romanticism. He preferred his
+piles of vegetables, he said, to the rags of the middle ages; and he
+ended by reproaching himself with guilty weakness in making an etching
+of the Rue Pirouette. All those grimy old places ought to be levelled
+to the ground, he declared, and modern houses ought to be built in their
+stead.
+
+"There!" he exclaimed, coming to a halt, "look at the corner of the
+footway yonder! Isn't that a picture readymade, ever so much more human
+and natural than all their confounded consumptive daubs?"
+
+Along the covered way women were now selling hot soup and coffee. At one
+corner of the foot-pavement a large circle of customers clustered round
+a vendor of cabbage soup. The bright tin caldron, full of broth, was
+steaming over a little low stove, through the holes of which came the
+pale glow of the embers. From a napkin-lined basket the woman took some
+thin slices of bread and dropped them into yellow cups; then with a
+ladle she filled the cups with liquor. Around her were saleswomen neatly
+dressed, market gardeners in blouses, porters with coats soiled by the
+loads they had carried, poor ragged vagabonds--in fact, all the early
+hungry ones of the markets, eating, and scalding their mouths, and
+drawing back their chins to avoid soiling them with the drippings from
+their spoons. The delighted artist blinked, and sought a point of view
+so as to get a good ensemble of the picture. That cabbage soup, however,
+exhaled a very strong odour. Florent, for his part, turned his head
+away, distressed by the sight of the full cups which the customers
+emptied in silence, glancing around them the while like suspicious
+animals. As the woman began serving a fresh customer, Claude himself was
+affected by the odorous steam of the soup, which was wafted full in his
+face.
+
+He again tightened his sash, half amused and half annoyed. Then resuming
+his walk, and alluding to the punch paid for by Alexandre, he said to
+Florent in a low voice:
+
+"It's very odd, but have you ever noticed that although a man can always
+find somebody to treat him to something to drink, he can never find a
+soul who will stand him anything to eat?"
+
+The dawn was now rising. The houses on the Boulevard de Sebastopol at
+the end of the Rue de la Cossonnerie were still black; but above the
+sharp line of their slate roofs a patch of pale blue sky, circumscribed
+by the arch-pieces of the covered way, showed like a gleaming half-moon.
+Claude, who had been bending over some grated openings on a level with
+the ground, through which a glimpse could be obtained of deep cellars
+where gas lights glimmered, now glanced up into the air between the
+lofty pillars, as though scanning the dark roofs which fringed the clear
+sky. Then he halted again, with his eyes fixed on one of the light iron
+ladders which connect the superposed market roofs and give access from
+one to the other. Florent asked him what he was seeking there.
+
+"I'm looking for that scamp of a Marjolin," replied the artist. "He's
+sure to be in some guttering up there, unless, indeed, he's been
+spending the night in the poultry cellars. I want him to give me a
+sitting."
+
+Then he went on to relate how a market saleswoman had found his friend
+Marjolin one morning in a pile of cabbages, and how Marjolin had grown
+up in all liberty on the surrounding footways. When an attempt had been
+made to send him to school he had fallen ill, and it had been necessary
+to bring him back to the markets. He knew every nook and corner of them,
+and loved them with a filial affection, leading the agile life of a
+squirrel in that forest of ironwork. He and Cadine, the hussy whom
+Mother Chantemesse had picked up one night in the old Market of the
+Innocents, made a pretty couple--he, a splendid foolish fellow, as
+glowing as a Rubens, with a ruddy down on his skin which attracted the
+sunlight; and she, slight and sly, with a comical phiz under her tangle
+of black curly hair.
+
+Whilst talking Claude quickened his steps, and soon brought his
+companion back to Saint Eustache again. Florent, whose legs were once
+more giving way, dropped upon a bench near the omnibus office. The
+morning air was freshening. At the far end of the Rue Rambuteau rosy
+gleams were streaking the milky sky, which higher up was slashed by
+broad grey rifts. Such was the sweet balsamic scent of this dawn, that
+Florent for a moment fancied himself in the open country, on the brow of
+a hill. But behind the bench Claude pointed out to him the many aromatic
+herbs and bulbs on sale. All along the footway skirting the tripe
+market there were, so to say, fields of thyme and lavender, garlic and
+shallots; and round the young plane-trees on the pavement the vendors
+had twined long branches of laurel, forming trophies of greenery. The
+strong scent of the laurel leaves prevailed over every other odour.
+
+At present the luminous dial of Saint Eustache was paling as a
+night-light does when surprised by the dawn. The gas jets in the wine
+shops in the neighbouring streets went out one by one, like stars
+extinguished by the brightness. And Florent gazed at the vast markets
+now gradually emerging from the gloom, from the dreamland in which
+he had beheld them, stretching out their ranges of open palaces.
+Greenish-grey in hue, they looked more solid now, and even more colossal
+with their prodigious masting of columns upholding an endless expanse
+of roofs. They rose up in geometrically shaped masses; and when all the
+inner lights had been extinguished and the square uniform buildings were
+steeped in the rising dawn, they seemed typical of some gigantic modern
+machine, some engine, some caldron for the supply of a whole people,
+some colossal belly, bolted and riveted, built up of wood and glass and
+iron, and endowed with all the elegance and power of some mechanical
+motive appliance working there with flaring furnaces, and wild,
+bewildering revolutions of wheels.
+
+Claude, however, had enthusiastically sprung on to the bench, and stood
+upon it. He compelled his companion to admire the effect of the dawn
+rising over the vegetables. There was a perfect sea of these extending
+between the two clusters of pavilions from Saint Eustache to the Rue des
+Halles. And in the two open spaces at either end the flood of greenery
+rose to even greater height, and quite submerged the pavements. The dawn
+appeared slowly, softly grey in hue, and spreading a light water-colour
+tint over everything. These surging piles akin to hurrying waves, this
+river of verdure rushing along the roadway like an autumn torrent,
+assumed delicate shadowy tints--tender violet, blush-rose, and greeny
+yellow, all the soft, light hues which at sunrise make the sky look like
+a canopy of shot silk. And by degrees, as the fires of dawn rose higher
+and higher at the far end of the Rue Rambuteau, the mass of vegetation
+grew brighter and brighter, emerging more and more distinctly from the
+bluey gloom that clung to the ground. Salad herbs, cabbage-lettuce,
+endive, and succory, with rich soil still clinging to their roots,
+exposed their swelling hearts; bundles of spinach, bundles of sorrel,
+clusters of artichokes, piles of peas and beans, mounds of cos-lettuce,
+tied round with straws, sounded every note in the whole gamut of
+greenery, from the sheeny lacquer-like green of the pods to the
+deep-toned green of the foliage; a continuous gamut with ascending and
+descending scales which died away in the variegated tones of the heads
+of celery and bundles of leeks. But the highest and most sonorous notes
+still came from the patches of bright carrots and snowy turnips, strewn
+in prodigious quantities all along the markets and lighting them up with
+the medley of their two colours.
+
+At the crossway in the Rue des Halles cabbages were piled up in
+mountains; there were white ones, hard and compact as metal balls, curly
+savoys, whose great leaves made them look like basins of green bronze,
+and red cabbages, which the dawn seemed to transform into superb masses
+of bloom with the hue of wine-lees, splotched with dark purple and
+carmine. At the other side of the markets, at the crossway near Saint
+Eustache, the end of the Rue Rambuteau was blocked by a barricade of
+orange-hued pumpkins, sprawling with swelling bellies in two superposed
+rows. And here and there gleamed the glistening ruddy brown of a hamper
+of onions, the blood-red crimson of a heap of tomatoes, the quiet yellow
+of a display of marrows, and the sombre violet of the fruit of the
+eggplant; while numerous fat black radishes still left patches of gloom
+amidst the quivering brilliance of the general awakening.
+
+Claude clapped his hands at the sight. He declared that those
+"blackguard vegetables" were wild, mad, sublime! He stoutly maintained
+that they were not yet dead, but, gathered in the previous evening,
+waited for the morning sun to bid him good-bye from the flag-stones
+of the market. He could observe their vitality, he declared, see their
+leaves stir and open as though their roots were yet firmly and warmly
+embedded in well-manured soil. And here, in the markets, he added, he
+heard the death-rattle of all the kitchen gardens of the environs of
+Paris.
+
+A crowd of white caps, loose black jackets, and blue blouses was
+swarming in the narrow paths between the various piles. The big baskets
+of the market porters passed along slowly, above the heads of the
+throng. Retail dealers, costermongers, and greengrocers were making
+their purchases in haste. Corporals and nuns clustered round the
+mountains of cabbages, and college cooks prowled about inquisitively, on
+the look-out for good bargains. The unloading was still going on;
+heavy tumbrels, discharging their contents as though these were so many
+paving-stones, added more and more waves to the sea of greenery which
+was now beating against the opposite footways. And from the far end of
+the Rue du Pont Neuf fresh rows of carts were still and ever arriving.
+
+"What a fine sight it is!" exclaimed Claude in an ecstasy of enthusiasm.
+
+Florent was suffering keenly. He fancied that all this was some
+supernatural temptation, and, unwilling to look at the markets any
+longer, turned towards Saint Eustache, a side view of which he obtained
+from the spot where he now stood. With its roses, and broad arched
+windows, its bell-turret, and roofs of slate, it looked as though
+painted in sepia against the blue of the sky. He fixed his eyes at last
+on the sombre depths of the Rue Montorgueil, where fragments of
+gaudy sign boards showed conspicuously, and on the corner of the Rue
+Montmartre, where there were balconies gleaming with letters of gold.
+And when he again glanced at the cross-roads, his gaze was solicited by
+other sign boards, on which such inscriptions as "Druggist and Chemist,"
+"Flour and Grain" appeared in big red and black capital letters upon
+faded backgrounds. Near these corners, houses with narrow windows were
+now awakening, setting amidst the newness and airiness of the Rue du
+Pont Neuf a few of the yellow ancient facades of olden Paris. Standing
+at the empty windows of the great drapery shop at the corner of the
+Rue Rambuteau a number of spruce-looking counter-jumpers in their shirt
+sleeves, with snowy-white wristbands and tight-fitting pantaloons,
+were "dressing" their goods. Farther away, in the windows of the severe
+looking, barrack-like Guillot establishment, biscuits in gilt wrappers
+and fancy cakes on glass stands were tastefully set out. All the shops
+were now open; and workmen in white blouses, with tools under their
+arms, were hurrying along the road.
+
+Claude had not yet got down from the bench. He was standing on tiptoe in
+order to see the farther down the streets. Suddenly, in the midst of the
+crowd which he overlooked, he caught sight of a fair head with long wavy
+locks, followed by a little black one covered with curly tumbled hair.
+
+"Hallo, Marjolin! Hallo, Cadine!" he shouted; and then, as his voice was
+drowned by the general uproar, he jumped to the ground and started off.
+But all at once, recollecting that he had left Florent behind him, he
+hastily came back. "I live at the end of the Impasse des Bourdonnais,"
+he said rapidly. "My name's written in chalk on the door, Claude
+Lantier. Come and see the etching of the Rue Pirouette."
+
+Then he vanished. He was quite ignorant of Florent's name, and, after
+favouring him with his views on art, parted from him as he had met him,
+at the roadside.
+
+Florent was now alone, and at first this pleased him. Ever since Madame
+Francoise had picked him up in the Avenue de Neuilly he had been
+coming and going in a state of pain fraught somnolence which had quite
+prevented him from forming any definite ideas of his surroundings. Now
+at last he was at liberty to do what he liked, and he tried to shake
+himself free from that intolerable vision of teeming food by which he
+was pursued. But his head still felt empty and dizzy, and all that he
+could find within him was a kind of vague fear. The day was now growing
+quite bright, and he could be distinctly seen. He looked down at his
+wretched shabby coat and trousers. He buttoned the first, dusted the
+latter, and strove to make a bit of a toilet, fearing lest those black
+rags of his should proclaim aloud whence he had come. He was seated in
+the middle of the bench, by the side of some wandering vagabonds who
+had settled themselves there while waiting for the sunrise. The
+neighbourhood of the markets is a favourite spot with vagrants in the
+small hours of the morning. However, two constables, still in night
+uniform, with cloaks and _kepis_, paced up and down the footway side by
+side, their hands resting behind their backs; and every time they passed
+the bench they glanced at the game which they scented there. Florent
+felt sure that they recognised him, and were consulting together about
+arresting him. At this thought his anguish of mind became extreme. He
+felt a wild desire to get up and run away; but he did not dare to do
+so, and was quite at a loss as to how he might take himself off. The
+repeated glances of the constables, their cold, deliberate scrutiny
+caused him the keenest torture. At length he rose from the bench, making
+a great effort to restrain himself from rushing off as quickly as his
+long legs could carry him; and succeeded in walking quietly away, though
+his shoulders quivered in the fear he felt of suddenly feeling the rough
+hands of the constables clutching at his collar from behind.
+
+He had now only one thought, one desire, which was to get away from
+the markets as quickly as possible. He would wait and make his
+investigations later on, when the footways should be clear. The three
+streets which met here--the Rue Montmartre, Rue Montorgueil, and Rue
+Turbigo--filled him with uneasiness. They were blocked by vehicles of
+all kinds, and their footways were crowded with vegetables. Florent went
+straight along as far as the Rue Pierre Lescot, but there the cress and
+the potato markets seemed to him insuperable obstacles. So he resolved
+to take the Rue Rambuteau. On reaching the Boulevard de Sebastopol,
+however, he came across such a block of vans and carts and waggonettes
+that he turned back and proceeded along the Rue Saint Denis. Then he got
+amongst the vegetables once more. Retail dealers had just set up their
+stalls, formed of planks resting on tall hampers; and the deluge of
+cabbages and carrots and turnips began all over again. The markets were
+overflowing. Florent tried to make his escape from this pursuing
+flood which ever overtook him in his flight. He tried the Rue de la
+Cossonnerie, the Rue Berger, the Square des Innocents, the Rue de
+la Ferronnerie, and the Rue des Halles. And at last he came to a
+standstill, quite discouraged and scared at finding himself unable to
+escape from the infernal circle of vegetables, which now seemed to dance
+around him, twining clinging verdure about his legs.
+
+The everlasting stream of carts and horses stretched away as far as the
+Rue de Rivoli and the Place de l'Hotel de Ville. Huge vans were carrying
+away supplies for all the greengrocers and fruiterers of an entire
+district; _chars-a-bancs_ were starting for the suburbs with straining,
+groaning sides. In the Rue de Pont Neuf Florent got completely
+bewildered. He stumbled upon a crowd of hand-carts, in which numerous
+costermongers were arranging their purchases. Amongst them he recognised
+Lacaille, who went off along the Rue Saint Honore, pushing a barrow of
+carrots and cauliflowers before him. Florent followed him, in the hope
+that he would guide him out of the mob. The pavement was now quite
+slippery, although the weather was dry, and the litter of artichoke
+stalks, turnip tops, and leaves of all kinds made walking somewhat
+dangerous. Florent stumbled at almost every step. He lost sight of
+Lacaille in the Rue Vauvilliers, and on approaching the corn market
+he again found the streets barricaded with vehicles. Then he made no
+further attempt to struggle; he was once more in the clutch of the
+markets, and their stream of life bore him back. Slowly retracing his
+steps, he presently found himself by Saint Eustache again.
+
+He now heard the loud continuous rumbling of the waggons that were
+setting out from the markets. Paris was doling out the daily food of its
+two million inhabitants. These markets were like some huge central organ
+beating with giant force, and sending the blood of life through every
+vein of the city. The uproar was akin to that of colossal jaws--a mighty
+sound to which each phase of the provisioning contributed, from the
+whip-cracking of the larger retail dealers as they started off for the
+district markets to the dragging pit-a-pat of the old shoes worn by the
+poor women who hawked their lettuces in baskets from door to door.
+
+Florent turned into a covered way on the left, intersecting the group of
+four pavilions whose deep silent gloom he had remarked during the night.
+He hoped that he might there find a refuge, discover some corner in
+which he could hide himself. But these pavilions were now as busy, as
+lively as the others. Florent walked on to the end of the street. Drays
+were driving up at a quick trot, crowding the market with cages full of
+live poultry, and square hampers in which dead birds were stowed in deep
+layers. On the other side of the way were other drays from which porters
+were removing freshly killed calves, wrapped in canvas, and laid at full
+length in baskets, whence only the four bleeding stumps of their legs
+protruded. There were also whole sheep, and sides and quarters of beef.
+Butchers in long white aprons marked the meat with a stamp, carried it
+off, weighted it, and hung it up on hooks in the auction room. Florent,
+with his face close to the grating, stood gazing at the rows of hanging
+carcasses, at the ruddy sheep and oxen and paler calves, all streaked
+with yellow fat and sinews, and with bellies yawning open. Then he
+passed along the sidewalk where the tripe market was held, amidst the
+pallid calves' feet and heads, the rolled tripe neatly packed in boxes,
+the brains delicately set out in flat baskets, the sanguineous livers,
+and purplish kidneys. He checked his steps in front of some long
+two-wheeled carts, covered with round awnings, and containing sides of
+pork hung on each side of the vehicle over a bed of straw. Seen from
+the back end, the interiors of the carts looked like recesses of some
+tabernacle, like some taper-lighted chapel, such was the glow of all the
+bare flesh they contained. And on the beds of straw were lines of tin
+cans, full of the blood that had trickled from the pigs. Thereupon
+Florent was attacked by a sort of rage. The insipid odour of the meat,
+the pungent smell of the tripe exasperated him. He made his way out of
+the covered road, preferring to return once more to the footwalk of the
+Rue de Pont Neuf.
+
+He was enduring perfect agony. The shiver of early morning came upon
+him; his teeth chattered, and he was afraid of falling to the ground and
+finding himself unable to rise again. He looked about, but could see no
+vacant place on any bench. Had he found one he would have dropped
+asleep there, even at the risk of being awakened by the police. Then, as
+giddiness nearly blinded him, he leaned for support against a tree,
+with his eyes closed and his ears ringing. The raw carrot, which he had
+swallowed almost without chewing, was torturing his stomach, and the
+glass of punch which he had drunk seemed to have intoxicated him. He was
+indeed intoxicated with misery, weariness, and hunger. Again he felt a
+burning fire in the pit of the stomach, to which he every now and then
+carried his hands, as though he were trying to stop up a hole through
+which all his life was oozing away. As he stood there he fancied that
+the foot-pavement rocked beneath him; and thinking that he might perhaps
+lessen his sufferings by walking, he went straight on through the
+vegetables again. He lost himself among them. He went along a narrow
+footway, turned down another, was forced to retrace his steps, bungled
+in doing so, and once more found himself amidst piles of greenery. Some
+heaps were so high that people seemed to be walking between walls
+of bundles and bunches. Only their heads slightly overtopped these
+ramparts, and passed along showing whitely or blackly according to the
+colour of their hats or caps; whilst the huge swinging baskets, carried
+aloft on a level with the greenery, looked like osier boats floating on
+a stagnant, mossy lake.
+
+Florent stumbled against a thousand obstacles--against porters taking up
+their burdens, and saleswomen disputing in rough tones. He slipped over
+the thick bed of waste leaves and stumps which covered the footway, and
+was almost suffocated by the powerful odour of crushed verdure. At last
+he halted in a sort of confused stupor, and surrendered to the pushing
+of some and the insults of others; and then he became a mere waif, a
+piece of wreckage tossed about on the surface of that surging sea.
+
+He was fast losing all self-respect, and would willingly have begged.
+The recollection of his foolish pride during the night exasperated him.
+If he had accepted Madame Francois's charity, if he had not felt such
+idiotic fear of Claude, he would not now have been stranded there
+groaning in the midst of these cabbages. And he was especially angry
+with himself for not having questioned the artist when they were in the
+Rue Pirouette. Now, alas! he was alone and deserted, liable to die in
+the streets like a homeless dog.
+
+For the last time he raised his eyes and looked at the markets. At
+present they were glittering in the sun. A broad ray was pouring through
+the covered road from the far end, cleaving the massy pavilions with an
+arcade of light, whilst fiery beams rained down upon the far expanse of
+roofs. The huge iron framework grew less distinct, assumed a bluey hue,
+became nothing but a shadowy silhouette outlined against the flaming
+flare of the sunrise. But up above a pane of glass took fire, drops of
+light trickled down the broad sloping zinc plates to the gutterings; and
+then, below, a tumultuous city appeared amidst a haze of dancing golden
+dust. The general awakening had spread, from the first start of the
+market gardeners snoring in their cloaks, to the brisk rolling of the
+food-laden railway drays. And the whole city was opening its iron gates,
+the footways were humming, the pavilions roaring with life. Shouts and
+cries of all kinds rent the air; it was as though the strain, which
+Florent had heard gathering force in the gloom ever since four in the
+morning, had now attained its fullest volume. To the right and left, on
+all sides indeed, the sharp cries accompanying the auction sales sounded
+shrilly like flutes amidst the sonorous bass roar of the crowd. It was
+the fish, the butter, the poultry, and the meat being sold.
+
+The pealing of bells passed through the air, imparting a quiver to the
+buzzing of the opening markets. Around Florent the sun was setting the
+vegetables aflame. He no longer perceived any of those soft water-colour
+tints which had predominated in the pale light of early morning. The
+swelling hearts of the lettuces were now gleaming brightly, the scales
+of greenery showed forth with wondrous vigour, the carrots glowed
+blood-red, the turnips shone as if incandescent in the triumphant
+radiance of the sun.
+
+On Florent's left some waggons were discharging fresh loads of cabbages.
+He turned his eyes, and away in the distance saw carts yet streaming out
+of the Rue Turbigo. The tide was still and ever rising. He had felt
+it about his ankles, then on a level with his stomach, and now it was
+threatening to drown him altogether. Blinded and submerged, his ears
+buzzing, his stomach overpowered by all that he had seen, he asked for
+mercy; and wild grief took possession of him at the thought of dying
+there of starvation in the very heart of glutted Paris, amidst the
+effulgent awakening of her markets. Big hot tears started from his eyes.
+
+Walking on, he had now reached one of the larger alleys. Two women, one
+short and old, the other tall and withered, passed him, talking together
+as they made their way towards the pavilions.
+
+"So you've come to do your marketing, Mademoiselle Saget?" said the tall
+withered woman.
+
+"Well, yes, Madame Lecoeur, if you can give it such a name as marketing.
+I'm a lone woman, you know, and live on next to nothing. I should have
+liked a small cauliflower, but everything is so dear. How is butter
+selling to-day?"
+
+"At thirty-four sous. I have some which is first rate. Will you come and
+look at it?"
+
+"Well, I don't know if I shall want any to-day; I've still a little lard
+left."
+
+Making a supreme effort, Florent followed these two women. He
+recollected having heard Claude name the old one--Mademoiselle
+Saget--when they were in the Rue Pirouette; and he made up his mind
+to question her when she should have parted from her tall withered
+acquaintance.
+
+"And how's your niece?" Mademoiselle Saget now asked.
+
+"Oh, La Sarriette does as she likes," Madame Lecoeur replied in a bitter
+tone. "She's chosen to set up for herself and her affairs no longer
+concern me. When her lovers have beggared her, she needn't come to me
+for any bread."
+
+"And you were so good to her, too! She ought to do well this year; fruit
+is yielding big profits. And your brother-in-law, how is he?"
+
+"Oh, he----"
+
+Madame Lecoeur bit her lips, and seemed disinclined to say anything
+more.
+
+"Still the same as ever, I suppose?" continued Mademoiselle Saget. "He's
+a very worthy man. Still, I once heard it said that he spent his money
+in such a way that--"
+
+"But does anyone know how he spends his money?" interrupted Madame
+Lecoeur, with much asperity. "He's a miserly niggard, a scurvy fellow,
+that's what I say! Do you know, mademoiselle, he'd see me die of
+starvation rather than lend me five francs! He knows quite well that
+there's nothing to be made out of butter this season, any more than
+out of cheese and eggs; whereas he can sell as much poultry as ever he
+chooses. But not once, I assure you, not once has he offered to help me.
+I am too proud, as you know, to accept any assistance from him; still it
+would have pleased me to have had it offered."
+
+"Ah, by the way, there he is, your brother-in-law!" suddenly exclaimed
+Mademoiselle Saget, lowering her voice.
+
+The two women turned and gazed at a man who was crossing the road to
+enter the covered way close by.
+
+"I'm in a hurry," murmured Madame Lecoeur. "I left my stall without
+anyone to look after it; and, besides, I don't want to speak to him."
+
+However, Florent also had mechanically turned round and glanced at the
+individual referred to. This was a short, squarely-built man, with a
+cheery look and grey, close-cut brush-like hair. Under each arm he was
+carrying a fat goose, whose head hung down and flapped against his legs.
+And then all at once Florent made a gesture of delight. Forgetting his
+fatigue, he ran after the man, and, overtaking him, tapped him on the
+shoulder.
+
+"Gavard!" he exclaimed.
+
+The other raised his head and stared with surprise at Florent's tall
+black figure, which he did not at first recognise. Then all at once:
+"What! is it you?" he cried, as if overcome with amazement. "Is it
+really you?"
+
+He all but let his geese fall, and seemed unable to master his surprise.
+On catching sight, however, of his sister-in-law and Mademoiselle Saget,
+who were watching the meeting at a distance, he began to walk on again.
+
+"Come along; don't let us stop here," he said. "There are too many eyes
+and tongues about."
+
+When they were in the covered way they began to chat. Florent related
+how he had gone to the Rue Pirouette, at which Gavard seemed much amused
+and laughed heartily. Then he told Florent that his brother Quenu had
+moved from that street and had reopened his pork shop close by, in the
+Rue Rambuteau, just in front of the markets. And afterwards he was again
+highly amused to hear that Florent had been wandering about all that
+morning with Claude Lantier, an odd kind of fish, who, strangely enough,
+said he, was Madame Quenu's nephew. Thus chatting, Gavard was on the
+point of taking Florent straight to the pork shop, but, on hearing that
+he had returned to France with false papers, he suddenly assumed all
+sorts of solemn and mysterious airs, and insisted upon walking some
+fifteen paces in front of him, to avoid attracting attention. After
+passing through the poultry pavilion, where he hung his geese up in his
+stall, he began to cross the Rue Rambuteau, still followed by Florent;
+and then, halting in the middle of the road, he glanced significantly
+towards a large and well-appointed pork shop.
+
+The sun was obliquely enfilading the Rue Rambuteau, lighting up the
+fronts of the houses, in the midst of which the Rue Pirouette formed a
+dark gap. At the other end the great pile of Saint Eustache glittered
+brightly in the sunlight like some huge reliquary. And right through
+the crowd, from the distant crossway, an army of street-sweepers was
+advancing in file down the road, the brooms swishing rhythmically,
+while scavengers provided with forks pitched the collected refuse into
+tumbrels, which at intervals of a score of paces halted with a noise
+like the chattering of broken pots. However, all Florent's attention was
+concentrated on the pork shop, open and radiant in the rising sun.
+
+It stood very near the corner of the Rue Pirouette and provided quite
+a feast for the eyes. Its aspect was bright and smiling, touches of
+brilliant colour showing conspicuously amidst all the snowy marble. The
+sign board, on which the name of QUENU-GRADELLE glittered in fat
+gilt letters encircled by leaves and branches painted on a soft-hued
+background, was protected by a sheet of glass. On two panels, one on
+each side of the shop-front, and both, like the board above, covered
+with glass, were paintings representing various chubby little cupids
+playing amidst boars' heads, pork chops and strings of sausages; and
+these latter still-life subjects, embellished with scrolls and bows,
+had been painted in such soft tones that the uncooked pork which they
+represented had the pinkiness of raspberry jam. Within this pleasing
+framework arose the window display, arranged upon a bed of fine
+blue-paper shavings. Here and there fern-leaves, tastefully disposed,
+changed the plates which they encircled into bouquets fringed with
+foliage. There was a wealth of rich, luscious, melting things. Down
+below, quite close to the window, jars of preserved sausage-meat were
+interspersed with pots of mustard. Above these were some small, plump,
+boned hams. Golden with their dressings of toasted bread-crumbs, and
+adorned at the knuckles with green rosettes. Next came the larger
+dishes, some containing preserved Strasburg tongues, enclosed in
+bladders coloured a bright red and varnished, so that they looked quite
+sanguineous beside the pale sausages and trotters; then there were
+black-puddings coiled like harmless snakes, healthy looking chitterlings
+piled up two by two; Lyons sausages in little silver copes that made
+them look like choristers; hot pies, with little banner-like tickets
+stuck in them; big hams, and great glazed joints of veal and pork, whose
+jelly was as limpid as sugar-candy. In the rear were other dishes and
+earthen pans in which meat, minced and sliced, slumbered beneath lakes
+of melted fat. And betwixt the various plates and dishes, jars and
+bottle of sauce, cullis, stock and preserved truffles, pans of _foie
+gras_ and boxes of sardines and tunny-fish were strewn over the bed of
+paper shavings. A box of creamy cheeses, and one of edible snails, the
+apertures of whose shells were dressed with butter and parsley, had been
+placed carelessly at either corner. Finally, from a bar overhead strings
+of sausages and saveloys of various sizes hung down symmetrically like
+cords and tassels; while in the rear fragments of intestinal membranes
+showed like lacework, like some _guipure_ of white flesh. And on the
+highest tier in this sanctuary of gluttony, amidst the membranes and
+between two bouquets of purple gladioli, the window stand was crowned
+by a small square aquarium, ornamented with rock-work, and containing a
+couple of gold-fish, which were continually swimming round it.
+
+Florent's whole body thrilled at the sight. Then he perceived a woman
+standing in the sunlight at the door of the shop. With her prosperous,
+happy look in the midst of all those inviting things she added to the
+cherry aspect of the place. She was a fine woman and quite blocked the
+doorway. Still, she was not over stout, but simply buxom, with the full
+ripeness of her thirty years. She had only just risen, yet her glossy
+hair was already brushed smooth and arranged in little flat bands over
+her temples, giving her an appearance of extreme neatness. She had the
+fine skin, the pinky-white complexion common to those whose life is
+spent in an atmosphere of raw meat and fat. There was a touch of gravity
+about her demeanour, her movements were calm and slow; what mirth or
+pleasure she felt she expressed by her eyes, her lips retaining all
+their seriousness. A collar of starched linen encircled her neck, white
+sleevelets reached to her elbows, and a white apron fell even over the
+tips of her shoes, so that you saw but little of her black cashmere
+dress, which clung tightly to her well-rounded shoulders and swelling
+bosom. The sun rays poured hotly upon all the whiteness she displayed.
+However, although her bluish-black hair, her rosy face, and bright
+sleeves and apron were steeped in the glow of light, she never once
+blinked, but enjoyed her morning bath of sunshine with blissful
+tranquillity, her soft eyes smiling the while at the flow and riot of
+the markets. She had the appearance of a very worthy woman.
+
+"That is your brother's wife, your sister-in-law, Lisa," Gavard said to
+Florent.
+
+He had saluted her with a slight inclination of the head. Then he darted
+along the house passage, continuing to take the most minute precautions,
+and unwilling to let Florent enter the premises through the shop, though
+there was no one there. It was evident that he felt great pleasure in
+dabbling in what he considered to be a compromising business.
+
+"Wait here," he said, "while I go to see whether your brother is alone.
+You can come in when I clap my hands."
+
+Thereupon he opened a door at the end of the passage. But as soon as
+Florent heard his brother's voice behind it, he sprang inside at a
+bound. Quenu, who was much attached to him, threw his arms round his
+neck, and they kissed each other like children.
+
+"Ah! dash it all! Is it really you, my dear fellow?" stammered the pork
+butcher. "I never expected to see you again. I felt sure you were dead!
+Why, only yesterday I was saying to Lisa, 'That poor fellow, Florent!'"
+
+However, he stopped short, and popping his head into the shop, called
+out, "Lisa! Lisa!" Then turning towards a little girl who had crept into
+a corner, he added, "Pauline, go and find your mother."
+
+The little one did not stir, however. She was an extremely fine
+child, five years of age, with a plump chubby face, bearing a strong
+resemblance to that of the pork butcher's wife. In her arms she was
+holding a huge yellow cat, which had cheerfully surrendered itself to
+her embrace, with its legs dangling downwards; and she now squeezed
+it tightly with her little arms, as if she were afraid that yonder
+shabby-looking gentleman might rob her of it.
+
+Lisa, however, leisurely made her appearance.
+
+"Here is my brother Florent!" exclaimed Quenu.
+
+Lisa addressed him as "Monsieur," and gave him a kindly welcome. She
+scanned him quietly from head to foot, without evincing any disagreeable
+surprise. Merely a faint pout appeared for a moment on her lips. Then,
+standing by, she began to smile at her husband's demonstrations of
+affection. Quenu, however, at last recovered his calmness, and noticing
+Florent's fleshless, poverty-stricken appearance, exclaimed: "Ah, my
+poor fellow, you haven't improved in your looks since you were over
+yonder. For my part, I've grown fat; but what would you have!"
+
+He had indeed grown fat, too fat for his thirty years. He seemed to be
+bursting through his shirt and apron, through all the snowy-white linen
+in which he was swathed like a huge doll. With advancing years his
+clean-shaven face had become elongated, assuming a faint resemblance to
+the snout of one of those pigs amidst whose flesh his hands worked and
+lived the whole day through. Florent scarcely recognised him. He had now
+seated himself, and his glance turned from his brother to handsome Lisa
+and little Pauline. They were all brimful of health, squarely built,
+sleek, in prime condition; and in their turn they looked at Florent with
+the uneasy astonishment which corpulent people feel at the sight of a
+scraggy person. The very cat, whose skin was distended by fat, dilated
+its yellow eyes and scrutinised him with an air of distrust.
+
+"You'll wait till we have breakfast, won't you?" asked Quenu. "We have
+it early, at ten o'clock."
+
+A penetrating odour of cookery pervaded the place; and Florent looked
+back upon the terrible night which he had just spent, his arrival
+amongst the vegetables, his agony in the midst of the markets, the
+endless avalanches of food from which he had just escaped. And then in a
+low tone and with a gentle smile he responded:
+
+"No; I'm really very hungry, you see."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Florent had just begun to study law in Paris when his mother died. She
+lived at Le Vigan, in the department of the Gard, and had taken for
+her second husband one Quenu, a native of Yvetot in Normandy, whom some
+sub-prefect had transplanted to the south and then forgotten there. He
+had remained in employment at the sub-prefecture, finding the country
+charming, the wine good, and the women very amiable. Three years after
+his marriage he had been carried off by a bad attack of indigestion,
+leaving as sole legacy to his wife a sturdy boy who resembled him. It
+was only with very great difficulty that the widow could pay the college
+fees of Florent, her elder son, the issue of her first marriage. He
+was a very gentle youth, devoted to his studies, and constantly won the
+chief prizes at school. It was upon him that his mother lavished all her
+affection and based all her hopes. Perhaps, in bestowing so much love on
+this slim pale youth, she was giving evidence of her preference for her
+first husband, a tender-hearted, caressing Provencal, who had loved
+her devotedly. Quenu, whose good humour and amiability had at first
+attracted her, had perhaps displayed too much self-satisfaction, and
+shown too plainly that he looked upon himself as the main source
+of happiness. At all events she formed the opinion that her
+younger son--and in southern families younger sons are still often
+sacrificed--would never do any good; so she contented herself with
+sending him to a school kept by a neighbouring old maid, where the lad
+learned nothing but how to idle his time away. The two brothers grew up
+far apart from each other, as though they were strangers.
+
+When Florent arrived at Le Vigan his mother was already buried. She had
+insisted upon having her illness concealed from him till the very last
+moment, for fear of disturbing his studies. Thus he found little Quenu,
+who was then twelve years old, sitting and sobbing alone on a table in
+the middle of the kitchen. A furniture dealer, a neighbour, gave him
+particulars of his mother's last hours. She had reached the end of her
+resources, had killed herself by the hard work which she had undertaken
+to earn sufficient money that her elder son might continue his legal
+studies. To her modest trade in ribbons, the profits of which were but
+small, she had been obliged to add other occupations, which kept her
+up very late at night. Her one idea of seeing Florent established as an
+advocate, holding a good position in the town, had gradually caused her
+to become hard and miserly, without pity for either herself or others.
+Little Quenu was allowed to wander about in ragged breeches, and in
+blouses from which the sleeves were falling away. He never dared to
+serve himself at table, but waited till he received his allowance of
+bread from his mother's hands. She gave herself equally thin slices, and
+it was to the effects of this regimen that she had succumbed, in deep
+despair at having failed to accomplish her self-allotted task.
+
+This story made a most painful impression upon Florent's tender nature,
+and his sobs wellnigh choked him. He took his little half brother in his
+arms, held him to his breast, and kissed him as though to restore to him
+the love of which he had unwittingly deprived him. Then he looked at the
+lad's gaping shoes, torn sleeves, and dirty hands, at all the manifest
+signs of wretchedness and neglect. And he told him that he would take
+him away, and that they would both live happily together. The next day,
+when he began to inquire into affairs, he felt afraid that he would not
+be able to keep sufficient money to pay for the journey back to Paris.
+However, he was determined to leave Le Vigan at any cost. He was
+fortunately able to sell the little ribbon business, and this enabled
+him to discharge his mother's debts, for despite her strictness in money
+matters she had gradually run up bills. Then, as there was nothing left,
+his mother's neighbour, the furniture dealer, offered him five hundred
+francs for her chattels and stock of linen. It was a very good bargain
+for the dealer, but the young man thanked him with tears in his eyes.
+He bought his brother some new clothes, and took him away that same
+evening.
+
+On his return to Paris he gave up all thought of continuing to attend
+the Law School, and postponed every ambitious project. He obtained a
+few pupils, and established himself with little Quenu in the Rue Royer
+Collard, at the corner of the Rue Saint Jacques, in a big room which he
+furnished with two iron bedsteads, a wardrobe, a table, and four chairs.
+He now had a child to look after, and this assumed paternity was very
+pleasing to him. During the earlier days he attempted to give the lad
+some lessons when he returned home in the evening, but Quenu was an
+unwilling pupil. He was dull of understanding, and refused to learn,
+bursting into tears and regretfully recalling the time when his mother
+had allowed him to run wild in the streets. Florent thereupon stopped
+his lessons in despair, and to console the lad promised him a holiday of
+indefinite length. As an excuse for his own weakness he repeated that he
+had not brought his brother to Paris to distress him. To see him grow up
+in happiness became his chief desire. He quite worshipped the boy, was
+charmed with his merry laughter, and felt infinite joy in seeing him
+about him, healthy and vigorous, and without a care. Florent for his
+part remained very slim and lean in his threadbare coat, and his face
+began to turn yellow amidst all the drudgery and worry of teaching; but
+Quenu grew up plump and merry, a little dense, indeed, and scarce able
+to read or write, but endowed with high spirits which nothing could
+ruffle, and which filled the big gloomy room in the Rue Royer Collard
+with gaiety.
+
+Years, meantime, passed by. Florent, who had inherited all his mother's
+spirit of devotion, kept Quenu at home as though he were a big, idle
+girl. He did not even suffer him to perform any petty domestic duties,
+but always went to buy the provisions himself, and attended to the
+cooking and other necessary matters. This kept him, he said, from
+indulging in his own bad thoughts. He was given to gloominess, and
+fancied that he was disposed to evil. When he returned home in the
+evening, splashed with mud, and his head bowed by the annoyances to
+which other people's children had subjected him, his heart melted
+beneath the embrace of the sturdy lad whom he found spinning his top
+on the tiled flooring of the big room. Quenu laughed at his brother's
+clumsiness in making omelettes, and at the serious fashion in which he
+prepared the soup-beef and vegetables. When the lamp was extinguished,
+and Florent lay in bed, he sometimes gave way to feelings of sadness. He
+longed to resume his legal studies, and strove to map out his duties in
+such wise as to secure time to follow the programme of the faculty.
+He succeeded in doing this, and was then perfectly happy. But a slight
+attack of fever, which confined him to his room for a week, made such a
+hole in his purse, and caused him so much alarm, that he abandoned all
+idea of completing his studies. The boy was now getting a big
+fellow, and Florent took a post as teacher in a school in the Rue de
+l'Estrapade, at a salary of eighteen hundred francs per annum. This
+seemed like a fortune to him. By dint of economy he hoped to be able to
+amass a sum of money which would set Quenu going in the world. When the
+lad reached his eighteenth year Florent still treated him as though he
+were a daughter for whom a dowry must be provided.
+
+However, during his brother's brief illness Quenu himself had made
+certain reflections. One morning he proclaimed his desire to work,
+saying that he was now old enough to earn his own living. Florent was
+deeply touched at this. Just opposite, on the other side of the street,
+lived a working watchmaker whom Quenu, through the curtainless window,
+could see leaning over a little table, manipulating all sorts of
+delicate things, and patiently gazing at them through a magnifying glass
+all day long. The lad was much attracted by the sight, and declared that
+he had a taste for watchmaking. At the end of a fortnight, however, he
+became restless, and began to cry like a child of ten, complaining
+that the work was too complicated, and that he would never be able to
+understand all the silly little things that enter into the construction
+of a watch.
+
+His next whim was to be a locksmith; but this calling he found too
+fatiguing. In a couple of years he tried more than ten different trades.
+Florent opined that he acted rightly, that it was wrong to take up a
+calling one did not like. However, Quenu's fine eagerness to work for
+his living strained the resources of the little establishment very
+seriously. Since he had begun flitting from one workshop to another
+there had been a constant succession of fresh expenses; money had gone
+in new clothes, in meals taken away from home, and in the payment of
+footings among fellow workmen. Florent's salary of eighteen hundred
+francs was no longer sufficient, and he was obliged to take a couple
+of pupils in the evenings. For eight years he had continued to wear the
+same old coat.
+
+However, the two brothers had made a friend. One side of the house in
+which they lived overlooked the Rue Saint Jacques, where there was a
+large poultry-roasting establishment[*] kept by a worthy man called
+Gavard, whose wife was dying from consumption amidst an atmosphere
+redolent of plump fowls. When Florent returned home too late to cook a
+scrap of meat, he was in the habit of laying out a dozen sous or so on
+a small portion of turkey or goose at this shop. Such days were feast
+days. Gavard in time grew interested in this tall, scraggy customer,
+learned his history, and invited Quenu into his shop. Before long the
+young fellow was constantly to be found there. As soon as his brother
+left the house he came downstairs and installed himself at the rear
+of the roasting shop, quite enraptured with the four huge spits which
+turned with a gentle sound in front of the tall bright flames.
+
+     [*] These rotisseries, now all but extinct, were at one time
+     a particular feature of the Parisian provision trade. I can
+     myself recollect several akin to the one described by M.
+     Zola. I suspect that they largely owed their origin to the
+     form and dimensions of the ordinary Parisian kitchen stove,
+     which did not enable people to roast poultry at home in a
+     convenient way. In the old French cuisine, moreover, roast
+     joints of meat were virtually unknown; roasting was almost
+     entirely confined to chickens, geese, turkeys, pheasants,
+     etc.; and among the middle classes people largely bought
+     their poultry already cooked of the _rotisseur_, or else
+     confided it to him for the purpose of roasting, in the same
+     way as our poorer classes still send their joints to the
+     baker's. Roasting was also long looked upon in France as a
+     very delicate art. Brillat-Savarin, in his famous
+     _Physiologie du Gout_, lays down the dictum that "A man may
+     become a cook, but is born a _rotisseur_."--Translator.
+
+The broad copper bands of the fireplace glistened brightly, the poultry
+steamed, the fat bubbled melodiously in the dripping-pan, and the spits
+seemed to talk amongst themselves and to address kindly words to Quenu,
+who, with a long ladle, devoutly basted the golden breasts of the fat
+geese and turkeys. He would stay there for hours, quite crimson in the
+dancing glow of the flames, and laughing vaguely, with a somewhat stupid
+expression, at the birds roasting in front of him. Indeed, he did
+not awake from this kind of trance until the geese and turkeys were
+unspitted. They were placed on dishes, the spits emerged from their
+carcasses smoking hot, and a rich gravy flowed from either end and
+filled the shop with a penetrating odour. Then the lad, who, standing
+up, had eagerly followed every phase of the dishing, would clap his
+hands and begin to talk to the birds, telling them that they were very
+nice, and would be eaten up, and that the cats would have nothing but
+their bones. And he would give a start of delight whenever Gavard handed
+him a slice of bread, which he forthwith put into the dripping-pan that
+it might soak and toast there for half an hour.
+
+It was in this shop, no doubt, that Quenu's love of cookery took its
+birth. Later on, when he had tried all sorts of crafts, he returned,
+as though driven by fate, to the spits and the poultry and the savoury
+gravy which induces one to lick one's fingers. At first he was afraid
+of vexing his brother, who was a small eater and spoke of good fare with
+the disdain of a man who is ignorant of it; but afterwards, on seeing
+that Florent listened to him when he explained the preparation of some
+very elaborate dish, he confessed his desires and presently found a
+situation at a large restaurant. From that time forward the life of the
+two brothers was settled. They continued to live in the room in the Rue
+Royer Collard, whither they returned every evening; the one glowing and
+radiant from his hot fire, the other with the depressed countenance of
+a shabby, impecunious teacher. Florent still wore his old black coat, as
+he sat absorbed in correcting his pupils' exercises; while Quenu, to
+put himself more at ease, donned his white apron, cap, and jacket, and,
+flitting about in front of the stove, amused himself by baking some
+dainty in the oven. Sometimes they smiled at seeing themselves thus
+attired, the one all in black, the other all in white. These different
+garbs, one bright and the other sombre, seemed to make the big room half
+gay and half mournful. Never, however, was there so much harmony in a
+household marked by such dissimilarity. Though the elder brother grew
+thinner and thinner, consumed by the ardent temperament which he had
+inherited from his Provencal father, and the younger one waxed fatter
+and fatter like a true son of Normandy, they loved each other in the
+brotherhood they derived from their mother--a mother who had been all
+devotion.
+
+They had a relation in Paris, a brother of their mother's, one Gradelle,
+who was in business as a pork butcher in the Rue Pirouette, near
+the central markets. He was a fat, hard-hearted, miserly fellow, and
+received his nephews as though they were starving paupers the first time
+they paid him a visit. They seldom went to see him afterwards. On
+his nameday Quenu would take him a bunch of flowers, and receive a
+half-franc piece in return for it. Florent's proud and sensitive nature
+suffered keenly when Gradelle scrutinised his shabby clothes with the
+anxious, suspicious glance of a miser apprehending a request for a
+dinner, or the loan of a five-franc piece. One day, however, it occurred
+to Florent in all artlessness to ask his uncle to change a hundred-franc
+note for him, and after this the pork butcher showed less alarm at sight
+of the lads, as he called them. Still, their friendship got no further
+than these infrequent visits.
+
+These years were like a long, sweet, sad dream to Florent. As they
+passed he tasted to the full all the bitter joys of self-sacrifice. At
+home, in the big room, life was all love and tenderness; but out in the
+world, amidst the humiliations inflicted on him by his pupils, and
+the rough jostling of the streets, he felt himself yielding to wicked
+thoughts. His slain ambitions embittered him. It was long before he
+could bring himself to bow to his fate, and accept with equanimity the
+painful lot of a poor, plain, commonplace man. At last, to guard against
+the temptations of wickedness, he plunged into ideal goodness, and
+sought refuge in a self-created sphere of absolute truth and justice. It
+was then that he became a republican, entering into the republican idea
+even as heart-broken girls enter a convent. And not finding a republic
+where sufficient peace and kindliness prevailed to lull his troubles to
+sleep, he created one for himself. He took no pleasure in books. All
+the blackened paper amidst which he lived spoke of evil-smelling
+class-rooms, of pellets of paper chewed by unruly schoolboys, of long,
+profitless hours of torture. Besides, books only suggested to him a
+spirit of mutiny and pride, whereas it was of peace and oblivion that he
+felt most need. To lull and soothe himself with the ideal imaginings, to
+dream that he was perfectly happy, and that all the world would likewise
+become so, to erect in his brain the republican city in which he would
+fain have lived, such now became his recreation, the task, again and
+again renewed, of all his leisure hours. He no longer read any books
+beyond those which his duties compelled him to peruse; he preferred
+to tramp along the Rue Saint Jacques as far as the outer boulevards,
+occasionally going yet a greater distance and returning by the Barriere
+d'Italie; and all along the road, with his eyes on the Quartier
+Mouffetard spread out at his feet, he would devise reforms of great
+moral and humanitarian scope, such as he thought would change that city
+of suffering into an abode of bliss. During the turmoil of February
+1848, when Paris was stained with blood he became quite heartbroken, and
+rushed from one to another of the public clubs demanding that the blood
+which had been shed should find atonement in "the fraternal embrace
+of all republicans throughout the world." He became one of those
+enthusiastic orators who preached revolution as a new religion, full of
+gentleness and salvation. The terrible days of December 1851, the days
+of the Coup d'Etat, were required to wean him from his doctrines of
+universal love. He was then without arms; allowed himself to be captured
+like a sheep, and was treated as though he were a wolf. He awoke from
+his sermon on universal brotherhood to find himself starving on the cold
+stones of a casemate at Bicetre.
+
+Quenu, when two and twenty, was distressed with anguish when his brother
+did not return home. On the following day he went to seek his corpse at
+the cemetery of Montmartre, where the bodies of those shot down on the
+boulevards had been laid out in a line and covered with straw, from
+beneath which only their ghastly heads projected. However, Quenu's
+courage failed him, he was blinded by his tears, and had to pass twice
+along the line of corpses before acquiring the certainty that Florent's
+was not among them. At last, at the end of a long and wretched week, he
+learned at the Prefecture of Police that his brother was a prisoner. He
+was not allowed to see him, and when he pressed the matter the police
+threatened to arrest him also. Then he hastened off to his uncle
+Gradelle, whom he looked upon as a person of importance, hoping that he
+might be able to enlist his influence in Florent's behalf. But Gradelle
+waxed wrathful, declared that Florent deserved his fate, that he ought
+to have known better than to have mixed himself up with those rascally
+republicans. And he even added that Florent was destined to turn out
+badly, that it was written on his face.
+
+Quenu wept copiously and remained there, almost choked by his sobs. His
+uncle, a little ashamed of his harshness, and feeling that he ought to
+do something for him, offered to receive him into his house. He wanted
+an assistant, and knew that his nephew was a good cook. Quenu was so
+much alarmed by the mere thought of going back to live alone in the
+big room in the Rue Royer Collard, that then and there he accepted
+Gradelle's offer. That same night he slept in his uncle's house, in
+a dark hole of a garret just under the room, where there was scarcely
+space for him to lie at full length. However, he was less wretched there
+than he would have been opposite his brother's empty couch.
+
+He succeeded at length in obtaining permission to see Florent; but on
+his return from Bicetre he was obliged to take to his bed. For nearly
+three weeks he lay fever-stricken, in a stupefied, comatose state.
+Gradelle meantime called down all sorts of maledictions on his
+republican nephew; and one morning, when he heard of Florent's departure
+for Cayenne, he went upstairs, tapped Quenu on the hands, awoke him, and
+bluntly told him the news, thereby bringing about such a reaction that
+on the following day the young man was up and about again. His grief
+wore itself out, and his soft flabby flesh seemed to absorb his tears.
+A month later he laughed again, and then grew vexed and unhappy with
+himself for having been merry; but his natural light-heartedness soon
+gained the mastery, and he laughed afresh in unconscious happiness.
+
+He now learned his uncle's business, from which he derived even more
+enjoyment than from cookery. Gradelle told him, however, that he must
+not neglect his pots and pans, that it was rare to find a pork butcher
+who was also a good cook, and that he had been lucky in serving in a
+restaurant before coming to the shop. Gradelle, moreover, made full use
+of his nephew's acquirements, employed him to cook the dinners sent out
+to certain customers, and placed all the broiling, and the preparation
+of pork chops garnished with gherkins in his special charge. As the
+young man was of real service to him, he grew fond of him after his
+own fashion, and would nip his plump arms when he was in a good humour.
+Gradelle had sold the scanty furniture of the room in the Rue Royer
+Collard and retained possession of the proceeds--some forty francs or
+so--in order, said he, to prevent the foolish lad, Quenu, from making
+ducks and drakes of the cash. After a time, however, he allowed his
+nephew six francs a month a pocket-money.
+
+Quenu now became quite happy, in spite of the emptiness of his purse and
+the harshness with which he was occasionally treated. He liked to have
+life doled out to him; Florent had treated him too much like an indolent
+girl. Moreover, he had made a friend at his uncle's. Gradelle, when his
+wife died, had been obliged to engage a girl to attend to the shop, and
+had taken care to choose a healthy and attractive one, knowing that a
+good-looking girl would set off his viands and help to tempt custom.
+Amongst his acquaintances was a widow, living in the Rue Cuvier, near
+the Jardin des Plantes, whose deceased husband had been postmaster at
+Plassans, the seat of a sub-prefecture in the south of France. This
+lady, who lived in a very modest fashion on a small annuity, had brought
+with her from Plassans a plump, pretty child, whom she treated as her
+own daughter. Lisa, as the young one was called, attended upon her with
+much placidity and serenity of disposition. Somewhat seriously inclined,
+she looked quite beautiful when she smiled. Indeed, her great charm came
+from the exquisite manner in which she allowed this infrequent smile
+of hers to escape her. Her eyes then became most caressing, and her
+habitual gravity imparted inestimable value to these sudden, seductive
+flashes. The old lady had often said that one of Lisa's smiles would
+suffice to lure her to perdition.
+
+When the widow died she left all her savings, amounting to some ten
+thousand francs, to her adopted daughter. For a week Lisa lived alone in
+the Rue Cuvier; it was there that Gradelle came in search of her. He had
+become acquainted with her by often seeing her with her mistress when
+the latter called on him in the Rue Pirouette; and at the funeral
+she had struck him as having grown so handsome and sturdy that he had
+followed the hearse all the way to the cemetery, though he had not
+intended to do so. As the coffin was being lowered into the grave, he
+reflected what a splendid girl she would be for the counter of a pork
+butcher's shop. He thought the matter over, and finally resolved to
+offer her thirty francs a month, with board and lodging. When he made
+this proposal, Lisa asked for twenty-four hours to consider it. Then
+she arrived one morning with a little bundle of clothes, and her ten
+thousand francs concealed in the bosom of her dress. A month later the
+whole place belonged to her; she enslaved Gradelle, Quenu, and even the
+smallest kitchen-boy. For his part, Quenu would have cut off his fingers
+to please her. When she happened to smile, he remained rooted to the
+floor, laughing with delight as he gazed at her.
+
+Lisa was the eldest daughter of the Macquarts of Plassans, and her
+father was still alive.[*] But she said that he was abroad, and never
+wrote to him. Sometimes she just dropped a hint that her mother, now
+deceased, had been a hard worker, and that she took after her. She
+worked, indeed, very assiduously. However, she sometimes added that
+the worthy woman had slaved herself to death in striving to support her
+family. Then she would speak of the respective duties of husband and
+wife in such a practical though modest fashion as to enchant Quenu. He
+assured her that he fully shared her ideas. These were that everyone,
+man or woman, ought to work for his or her living, that everyone was
+charged with the duty of achieving personal happiness, that great harm
+was done by encouraging habits of idleness, and that the presence of so
+much misery in the world was greatly due to sloth. This theory of hers
+was a sweeping condemnation of drunkenness, of all the legendary loafing
+ways of her father Macquart. But, though she did not know it, there was
+much of Macquart's nature in herself. She was merely a steady, sensible
+Macquart with a logical desire for comfort, having grasped the truth
+of the proverb that as you make your bed so you lie on it. To sleep in
+blissful warmth there is no better plan than to prepare oneself a soft
+and downy couch; and to the preparation of such a couch she gave all
+her time and all her thoughts. When no more than six years old she
+had consented to remain quietly on her chair the whole day through on
+condition that she should be rewarded with a cake in the evening.
+
+[*] See M. Zola's novel, _The Fortune of the Rougons_.--Translator
+
+At Gradelle's establishment Lisa went on leading the calm, methodical
+life which her exquisite smiles illumined. She had not accepted the pork
+butcher's offer at random. She reckoned upon finding a guardian in him;
+with the keen scent of those who are born lucky she perhaps foresaw that
+the gloomy shop in the Rue Pirouette would bring her the comfortable
+future she dreamed of--a life of healthy enjoyment, and work without
+fatigue, each hour of which would bring its own reward. She attended to
+her counter with the quiet earnestness with which she had waited upon
+the postmaster's widow; and the cleanliness of her aprons soon became
+proverbial in the neighbourhood. Uncle Gradelle was so charmed with this
+pretty girl that sometimes, as he was stringing his sausages, he would
+say to Quenu: "Upon my word, if I weren't turned sixty, I think I should
+be foolish enough to marry her. A wife like she'd make is worth her
+weight in gold to a shopkeeper, my lad."
+
+Quenu himself was growing still fonder of her, though he laughed merrily
+one day when a neighbour accused him of being in love with Lisa. He was
+not worried with love-sickness. The two were very good friends, however.
+In the evening they went up to their bedrooms together. Lisa slept in a
+little chamber adjoining the dark hole which the young man occupied.
+She had made this room of hers quite bright by hanging it with muslin
+curtains. The pair would stand together for a moment on the landing,
+holding their candles in their hands, and chatting as they unlocked
+their doors. Then, as they closed them, they said in friendly tones:
+
+"Good night, Mademoiselle Lisa."
+
+"Good night, Monsieur Quenu."
+
+As Quenu undressed himself he listened to Lisa making her own
+preparations. The partition between the two rooms was very thin. "There,
+she is drawing her curtains now," he would say to himself; "what can she
+be doing, I wonder, in front of her chest of drawers? Ah! she's sitting
+down now and taking off her shoes. Now she's blown her candle out. Well,
+good night. I must get to sleep"; and at times, when he heard her bed
+creak as she got into it, he would say to himself with a smile, "Dash
+it all! Mademoiselle Lisa is no feather." This idea seemed to amuse him,
+and presently he would fall asleep thinking about the hams and salt pork
+that he had to prepare the next morning.
+
+This state of affairs went on for a year without causing Lisa a single
+blush or Quenu a moment's embarrassment. When the girl came into the
+kitchen in the morning at the busiest moment of the day's work, they
+grasped hands over the dishes of sausage-meat. Sometimes she helped him,
+holding the skins with her plump fingers while he filled them with meat
+and fat. Sometimes, too, with the tips of their tongues they just tasted
+the raw sausage-meat, to see if it was properly seasoned. She was able
+to give Quenu some useful hints, for she knew of many favourite southern
+recipes, with which he experimented with much success. He was often
+aware that she was standing behind his shoulder, prying into the pans.
+If he wanted a spoon or a dish, she would hand it to him. The heat of
+the fire would bring their blood to their skins; still, nothing in
+the world would have induced the young man to cease stirring the fatty
+_bouillis_ which were thickening over the fire while the girl stood
+gravely by him, discussing the amount of boiling that was necessary.
+In the afternoon, when the shop lacked customers, they quietly chatted
+together for hours at a time. Lisa sat behind the counter, leaning back,
+and knitting in an easy, regular fashion; while Quenu installed himself
+on a big oak block, dangling his legs and tapping his heels against the
+wood. They got on wonderfully well together, discussing all sorts of
+subjects, generally cookery, and then Uncle Gradelle and the neighbours.
+Lisa also amused the young man with stories, just as though he were a
+child. She knew some very pretty ones--some miraculous legends, full of
+lambs and little angels, which she narrated in a piping voice, with all
+her wonted seriousness. If a customer happened to come in, she saved
+herself the trouble of moving by asking Quenu to get the required pot of
+lard or box of snails. And at eleven o'clock they went slowly up to
+bed as on the previous night. As they closed their doors, they calmly
+repeated the words:
+
+"Good night, Mademoiselle Lisa."
+
+"Good night, Monsieur Quenu."
+
+One morning Uncle Gradelle was struck dead by apoplexy while preparing
+a galantine. He fell forward, with his face against the chopping-block.
+Lisa did not lose her self-possession. She remarked that the dead man
+could not be left lying in the middle of the kitchen, and had the body
+removed into a little back room where Gradelle had slept. Then she
+arranged with the assistants what should be said. It must be given out
+that the master had died in his bed; otherwise the whole district would
+be disgusted, and the shop would lose its customers. Quenu helped to
+carry the dead man away, feeling quite confused, and astonished at
+being unable to shed any tears. Presently, however, he and Lisa cried
+together. Quenu and his brother Florent were the sole heirs. The gossips
+of the neighbourhood credited old Gradelle with the possession of a
+considerable fortune. However, not a single crown could be discovered.
+Lisa seemed very restless and uneasy. Quenu noticed how pensive she
+became, how she kept on looking around her from morning till night, as
+though she had lost something. At last she decided to have a thorough
+cleaning of the premises, declaring that people were beginning to talk,
+that the story of the old man's death had got about, and that it was
+necessary they should make a great show of cleanliness. One afternoon,
+after remaining in the cellar for a couple of hours, whither she herself
+had gone to wash the salting-tubs, she came up again, carrying something
+in her apron. Quenu was just then cutting up a pig's fry. She waited
+till he had finished, talking awhile in an easy, indifferent fashion.
+But there was an unusual glitter in her eyes, and she smiled her most
+charming smile as she told him that she wanted to speak to him. She led
+the way upstairs with seeming difficulty, impeded by what she had in her
+apron, which was strained almost to bursting.
+
+By the time she reached the third floor she found herself short of
+breath, and for a moment was obliged to lean against the balustrade.
+Quenu, much astonished, followed her into her bedroom without saying a
+word. It was the first time she had ever invited him to enter it. She
+closed the door, and letting go the corners of her apron, which her
+stiffened fingers could no longer hold up, she allowed a stream of gold
+and silver coins to flow gently upon her bed. She had discovered Uncle
+Gradelle's treasure at the bottom of a salting-tub. The heap of money
+made a deep impression in the softy downy bed.
+
+Lisa and Quenu evinced a quiet delight. They sat down on the edge of the
+bed, Lisa at the head and Quenu at the foot, on either side of the heap
+of coins, and they counted the money out upon the counterpane, so as to
+avoid making any noise. There were forty thousand francs in gold, and
+three thousand francs in silver, whilst in a tin box they found bank
+notes to the value of forty-two thousand francs. It took them two hours
+to count up the treasure. Quenu's hands trembled slightly, and it was
+Lisa who did most of the work.
+
+They arranged the gold on the pillow in little heaps, leaving the silver
+in the hollow depression of the counterpane. When they had ascertained
+the total amount--eighty-five thousand francs, to them an enormous
+sum--they began to chat. And their conversation naturally turned upon
+their future, and they spoke of their marriage, although there had never
+been any previous mention of love between them. But this heap of money
+seemed to loosen their tongues. They had gradually seated themselves
+further back on the bed, leaning against the wall, beneath the white
+muslin curtains; and as they talked together, their hands, playing with
+the heap of silver between them, met, and remained linked amidst
+the pile of five-franc pieces. Twilight surprised them still sitting
+together. Then, for the first time, Lisa blushed at finding the young
+man by her side. For a few moments, indeed, although not a thought of
+evil had come to them, they felt much embarrassed. Then Lisa went to
+get her own ten thousand francs. Quenu wanted her to put them with his
+uncle's savings. He mixed the two sums together, saying with a laugh
+that the money must be married also. Then it was agreed that Lisa should
+keep the hoard in her chest of drawers. When she had locked it up they
+both quietly went downstairs. They were now practically husband and
+wife.
+
+The wedding took place during the following month. The neighbours
+considered the match a very natural one, and in every way suitable. They
+had vaguely heard the story of the treasure, and Lisa's honesty was the
+subject of endless eulogy. After all, said the gossips, she might well
+have kept the money herself, and not have spoken a word to Quenu about
+it; if she had spoken, it was out of pure honesty, for no one had seen
+her find the hoard. She well deserved, they added, that Quenu should
+make her his wife. That Quenu, by the way, was a lucky fellow; he
+wasn't a beauty himself, yet he had secured a beautiful wife, who had
+disinterred a fortune for him. Some even went so far as to whisper that
+Lisa was a simpleton for having acted as she had done; but the young
+woman only smiled when people speaking to her vaguely alluded to all
+these things. She and her husband lived on as previously, in happy
+placidity and quiet affection. She still assisted him as before, their
+hands still met amidst the sausage-meat, she still glanced over his
+shoulder into the pots and pans, and still nothing but the great fire in
+the kitchen brought the blood to their cheeks.
+
+However, Lisa was a woman of practical common sense, and speedily saw
+the folly of allowing eighty-five thousand francs to lie idle in a chest
+of drawers. Quenu would have willingly stowed them away again at the
+bottom of the salting-tub until he had gained as much more, when they
+could have retired from business and have gone to live at Suresnes, a
+suburb to which both were partial. Lisa, however, had other ambitions.
+The Rue Pirouette did not accord with her ideas of cleanliness, her
+craving for fresh air, light, and healthy life. The shop where Uncle
+Gradelle had accumulated his fortune, sou by sou, was a long, dark
+place, one of those suspicious looking pork butchers' shops of the old
+quarters of the city, where the well-worn flagstones retain a strong
+odour of meat in spite of constant washings. Now the young woman longed
+for one of those bright modern shops, ornamented like a drawing-room,
+and fringing the footway of some broad street with windows of
+crystalline transparence. She was not actuated by any petty ambition to
+play the fine lady behind a stylish counter, but clearly realised that
+commerce in its latest development needed elegant surroundings. Quenu
+showed much alarm the first time his wife suggested that they ought to
+move and spend some of their money in decorating a new shop. However,
+Lisa only shrugged her shoulders and smiled at finding him so timorous.
+
+One evening, when night was falling and the shop had grown dark, Quenu
+and Lisa overheard a woman of the neighbourhood talking to a friend
+outside their door.
+
+"No, indeed! I've given up dealing with them," said she. "I wouldn't buy
+a bit of black-pudding from them now on any account. They had a dead man
+in their kitchen, you know."
+
+Quenu wept with vexation. The story of Gradelle's death in the kitchen
+was clearly getting about; and his nephew began to blush before his
+customers when he saw them sniffing his wares too closely. So, of his
+own accord, he spoke to his wife of her proposal to take a new shop.
+Lisa, without saying anything, had already been looking out for other
+premises, and had found some, admirably situated, only a few yards
+away, in the Rue Rambuteau. The immediate neighbourhood of the central
+markets, which were being opened just opposite, would triple their
+business, and make their shop known all over Paris.
+
+Quenu allowed himself to be drawn into a lavish expenditure of money; he
+laid out over thirty thousand francs in marble, glass, and gilding.
+Lisa spent hours with the workmen, giving her views about the slightest
+details. When she was at last installed behind the counter, customers
+arrived in a perfect procession, merely for the sake of examining the
+shop. The inside walls were lined from top to bottom with white marble.
+The ceiling was covered with a huge square mirror, framed by a broad
+gilded cornice, richly ornamented, whilst from the centre hung a crystal
+chandelier with four branches. And behind the counter, and on the left,
+and at the far end of the shop were other mirrors, fitted between the
+marble panels and looking like doors opening into an infinite series
+of brightly lighted halls, where all sorts of appetising edibles were
+displayed. The huge counter on the right hand was considered a very fine
+piece of work. At intervals along the front were lozenge-shaped panels
+of pinky marble. The flooring was of tiles, alternately white and pink,
+with a deep red fretting as border. The whole neighbourhood was proud
+of the shop, and no one again thought of referring to the kitchen in
+the Rue Pirouette, where a man had died. For quite a month women stopped
+short on the footway to look at Lisa between the saveloys and bladders
+in the window. Her white and pink flesh excited as much admiration as
+the marbles. She seemed to be the soul, the living light, the healthy,
+sturdy idol of the pork trade; and thenceforth one and all baptised her
+"Lisa the beauty."
+
+To the right of the shop was the dining-room, a neat looking apartment
+containing a sideboard, a table, and several cane-seated chairs of light
+oak. The matting on the floor, the wallpaper of a soft yellow tint, the
+oil-cloth table-cover, coloured to imitate oak, gave the room a somewhat
+cold appearance, which was relieved only by the glitter of a brass
+hanging lamp, suspended from the ceiling, and spreading its big shade
+of transparent porcelain over the table. One of the dining-room doors
+opened into the huge square kitchen, at the end of which was a small
+paved courtyard, serving for the storage of lumber--tubs, barrels
+and pans, and all kinds of utensils not in use. To the left of the
+water-tap, alongside the gutter which carried off the greasy water,
+stood pots of faded flowers, removed from the shop window, and slowly
+dying.
+
+Business was excellent. Quenu, who had been much alarmed by the initial
+outlay, now regarded his wife with something like respect, and told his
+friends that she had "a wonderful head." At the end of five years they
+had nearly eighty thousand francs invested in the State funds. Lisa
+would say that they were not ambitious, that they had no desire to pile
+up money too quickly, or else she would have enabled her husband to
+gain hundreds and thousands of francs by prompting him to embark in the
+wholesale pig trade. But they were still young, and had plenty of
+time before them; besides, they didn't care about a rough, scrambling
+business, but preferred to work at their ease, and enjoy life, instead
+of wearing themselves out with endless anxieties.
+
+"For instance," Lisa would add in her expansive moments, "I have, you
+know, a cousin in Paris. I never see him, as the two families have
+fallen out. He has taken the name of Saccard,[*] on account of certain
+matters which he wants to be forgotten. Well, this cousin of mine, I'm
+told, makes millions and millions of francs; but he gets no enjoyment
+out of life. He's always in a state of feverish excitement, always
+rushing hither and thither, up to his neck in all sorts of worrying
+business. Well, it's impossible, isn't it, for such a man to eat his
+dinner peaceably in the evening? We, at any rate, can take our meals
+comfortably, and make sure of what we eat, and we are not harassed by
+worries as he is. The only reason why people should care for money
+is that money's wanted for one to live. People like comfort; that's
+natural. But as for making money simply for the sake of making it, and
+giving yourself far more trouble and anxiety to gain it than you can
+ever get pleasure from it when it's gained, why, as for me, I'd rather
+sit still and cross my arms. And besides, I should like to see all those
+millions of my cousin's. I can't say that I altogether believe in
+them. I caught sight of him the other day in his carriage. He was quite
+yellow, and looked ever so sly. A man who's making money doesn't have
+that kind of expression. But it's his business, and not mine. For our
+part, we prefer to make merely a hundred sous at a time, and to get a
+hundred sous' worth of enjoyment out of them."
+
+[*] See M. Zola's novel, _Money_.
+
+The household was undoubtedly thriving. A daughter had been born to the
+young couple during their first year of wedlock, and all three of
+them looked blooming. The business went on prosperously, without any
+laborious fatigue, just as Lisa desired. She had carefully kept free of
+any possible source of trouble or anxiety, and the days went by in an
+atmosphere of peaceful, unctuous prosperity. Their home was a nook of
+sensible happiness--a comfortable manger, so to speak, where father,
+mother, and daughter could grow sleek and fat. It was only Quenu who
+occasionally felt sad, through thinking of his brother Florent. Up to
+the year 1856 he had received letters from him at long intervals. Then
+no more came, and he had learned from a newspaper that three convicts
+having attempted to escape from the Ile du Diable, had been drowned
+before they were able to reach the mainland. He had made inquiries
+at the Prefecture of Police, but had not learnt anything definite; it
+seemed probable that his brother was dead. However, he did not lose
+all hope, though months passed without any tidings. Florent, in the
+meantime, was wandering about Dutch Guiana, and refrained from writing
+home as he was ever in hope of being able to return to France. Quenu at
+last began to mourn for him as one mourns for those whom one has been
+unable to bid farewell. Lisa had never known Florent, but she spoke
+very kindly whenever she saw her husband give way to his sorrow; and
+she evinced no impatience when for the hundredth time or so he began to
+relate stories of his early days, of his life in the big room in the
+Rue Royer Collard, the thirty-six trades which he had taken up one after
+another, and the dainties which he had cooked at the stove, dressed all
+in white, while Florent was dressed all in black. To such talk as this,
+indeed, she listened placidly, with a complacency which never wearied.
+
+It was into the midst of all this happiness, ripening after careful
+culture, that Florent dropped one September morning just as Lisa was
+taking her matutinal bath of sunshine, and Quenu, with his eyes still
+heavy with sleep, was lazily applying his fingers to the congealed fat
+left in the pans from the previous evening. Florent's arrival caused
+a great commotion. Gavard advised them to conceal the "outlaw," as
+he somewhat pompously called Florent. Lisa, who looked pale, and more
+serious than was her wont, at last took him to the fifth floor, where
+she gave him the room belonging to the girl who assisted her in the
+shop. Quenu had cut some slices of bread and ham, but Florent was
+scarcely able to eat. He was overcome by dizziness and nausea, and went
+to bed, where he remained for five days in a state of delirium,
+the outcome of an attack of brain-fever, which fortunately received
+energetic treatment. When he recovered consciousness he perceived Lisa
+sitting by his bedside, silently stirring some cooling drink in a cup.
+As he tried to thank her, she told him that he must keep perfectly
+quiet, and that they could talk together later on. At the end of another
+three days Florent was on his feet again. Then one morning Quenu went up
+to tell him that Lisa awaited them in her room on the first floor.
+
+Quenu and his wife there occupied a suite of three rooms and a
+dressing-room. You first passed through an antechamber, containing
+nothing but chairs, and then a small sitting-room, whose furniture,
+shrouded in white covers, slumbered in the gloom cast by the Venetian
+shutters, which were always kept closed so as to prevent the light blue
+of the upholstery from fading. Then came the bedroom, the only one of
+the three which was really used. It was very comfortably furnished in
+mahogany. The bed, bulky and drowsy of aspect in the depths of the
+damp alcove, was really wonderful, with its four mattresses, its four
+pillows, its layers of blankets, and its corpulent _edredon_. It was
+evidently a bed intended for slumber. A mirrored wardrobe, a washstand
+with drawers, a small central table with a worked cover, and several
+chairs whose seats were protected by squares of lace, gave the room an
+aspect of plain but substantial middle-class luxury. On the left-hand
+wall, on either side of the mantelpiece, which was ornamented with some
+landscape-painted vases mounted on bronze stands, and a gilt timepiece
+on which a figure of Gutenberg, also gilt, stood in an attitude of
+deep thought, hung portraits in oils of Quenu and Lisa, in ornate
+oval frames. Quenu had a smiling face, while Lisa wore an air of grave
+propriety; and both were dressed in black and depicted in flattering
+fashion, their features idealised, their skins wondrously smooth,
+their complexions soft and pinky. A carpet, in the Wilton style, with
+a complicated pattern of roses mingling with stars, concealed the
+flooring; while in front of the bed was a fluffy mat, made out of long
+pieces of curly wool, a work of patience at which Lisa herself had
+toiled while seated behind her counter. But the most striking object
+of all in the midst of this array of new furniture was a great square,
+thick-set secretaire, which had been re-polished in vain, for the cracks
+and notches in the marble top and the scratches on the old mahogany
+front, quite black with age, still showed plainly. Lisa had desired to
+retain this piece of furniture, however, as Uncle Gradelle had used it
+for more than forty years. It would bring them good luck, she said. It's
+metal fastenings were truly something terrible, it's lock was like that
+of a prison gate, and it was so heavy that it could scarcely be moved.
+
+When Florent and Quenu entered the room they found Lisa seated at the
+lowered desk of the secretaire, writing and putting down figures in a
+big, round, and very legible hand. She signed to them not to disturb
+her, and the two men sat down. Florent looked round the room, and
+notably at the two portraits, the bed and the timepiece, with an air of
+surprise.
+
+"There!" at last exclaimed Lisa, after having carefully verified a whole
+page of calculations. "Listen to me now; we have an account to render to
+you, my dear Florent."
+
+It was the first time that she had so addressed him. However, taking up
+the page of figures, she continued: "Your Uncle Gradelle died without
+leaving a will. Consequently you and your brother are his sole heirs. We
+now have to hand your share over to you."
+
+"But I do not ask you for anything!" exclaimed Florent, "I don't wish
+for anything!"
+
+Quenu had apparently been in ignorance of his wife's intentions. He
+turned rather pale and looked at her with an expression of displeasure.
+Of course, he certainly loved his brother dearly; but there was no
+occasion to hurl his uncle's money at him in this way. There would have
+been plenty of time to go into the matter later on.
+
+"I know very well, my dear Florent," continued Lisa, "that you did not
+come back with the intention of claiming from us what belongs to you;
+but business is business, you know, and we had better get things settled
+at once. Your uncle's savings amounted to eighty-five thousand francs. I
+have therefore put down forty-two thousand five hundred to your credit.
+See!"
+
+She showed him the figures on the sheet of paper.
+
+"It is unfortunately not so easy to value the shop, plant,
+stock-in-trade, and goodwill. I have only been able to put down
+approximate amounts, but I don't think I have underestimated anything.
+Well, the total valuation which I have made comes to fifteen thousand
+three hundred and ten francs; your half of which is seven thousand six
+hundred and fifty-five francs, so that your share amounts, in all, to
+fifty thousand one hundred and fifty-five francs. Please verify it for
+yourself, will you?"
+
+She had called out the figures in a clear, distinct voice, and she now
+handed the paper to Florent, who was obliged to take it.
+
+"But the old man's business was certainly never worth fifteen thousand
+francs!" cried Quenu. "Why, I wouldn't have given ten thousand for it!"
+
+He had ended by getting quite angry with his wife. Really, it was absurd
+to carry honesty to such a point as that! Had Florent said one word
+about the business? No, indeed, he had declared that he didn't wish for
+anything.
+
+"The business was worth fifteen thousand three hundred and ten francs,"
+Lisa re-asserted, calmly. "You will agree with me, my dear Florent, that
+it is quite unnecessary to bring a lawyer into our affairs. It is for us
+to arrange the division between ourselves, since you have now turned up
+again. I naturally thought of this as soon as you arrived; and, while
+you were in bed with the fever, I did my best to draw up this little
+inventory. It contains, as you see, a fairly complete statement of
+everything. I have been through our old books, and have called up my
+memory to help me. Read it aloud, and I will give you any additional
+information you may want."
+
+Florent ended by smiling. He was touched by this easy and, as it were,
+natural display of probity. Placing the sheet of figures on the young
+woman's knee, he took hold of her hand and said, "I am very glad, my
+dear Lisa, to hear that you are prosperous, but I will not take your
+money. The heritage belongs to you and my brother, who took care of my
+uncle up to the last. I don't require anything, and I don't intend to
+hamper you in carrying on your business."
+
+Lisa insisted, and even showed some vexation, while Quenu gnawed his
+thumbs in silence to restrain himself.
+
+"Ah!" resumed Florent with a laugh, "if Uncle Gradelle could hear you,
+I think he'd come back and take the money away again. I was never a
+favourite of his, you know."
+
+"Well, no," muttered Quenu, no longer able to keep still, "he certainly
+wasn't over fond of you."
+
+Lisa, however, still pressed the matter. She did not like to have money
+in her secretaire that did not belong to her; it would worry her, said
+she; the thought of it would disturb her peace. Thereupon Florent, still
+in a joking way, proposed to invest his share in the business. Moreover,
+said he, he did not intend to refuse their help; he would, no doubt, be
+unable to find employment all at once; and then, too, he would need a
+complete outfit, for he was scarcely presentable.
+
+"Of course," cried Quenu, "you will board and lodge with us, and we will
+buy you all that you want. That's understood. You know very well that we
+are not likely to leave you in the streets, I hope!"
+
+He was quite moved now, and even felt a trifle ashamed of the alarm he
+had experienced at the thought of having to hand over a large amount of
+money all at once. He began to joke, and told his brother that he would
+undertake to fatten him. Florent gently shook his hand; while Lisa
+folded up the sheet of figures and put it away in a drawer of the
+secretaire.
+
+"You are wrong," she said by way of conclusion. "I have done what I was
+bound to do. Now it shall be as you wish. But, for my part, I should
+never have had a moment's peace if I had not put things before you. Bad
+thoughts would quite upset me."
+
+They then began to speak of another matter. It would be necessary to
+give some reason for Florent's presence, and at the same time avoid
+exciting the suspicion of the police. He told them that in order to
+return to France he had availed himself of the papers of a poor fellow
+who had died in his arms at Surinam from yellow fever. By a singular
+coincidence this young fellow's Christian name was Florent.
+
+Florent Laquerriere, to give him his name in full, had left but one
+relation in Paris, a female cousin, and had been informed of her death
+while in America. Nothing could therefore be easier than for Quenu's
+half brother to pass himself off as the man who had died at Surinam.
+Lisa offered to take upon herself the part of the female cousin. They
+then agreed to relate that their cousin Florent had returned from
+abroad, where he had failed in his attempts to make a fortune, and that
+they, the Quenu-Gradelles, as they were called in the neighbourhood, had
+received him into their house until he could find suitable employment.
+When this was all settled, Quenu insisted upon his brother making
+a thorough inspection of the rooms, and would not spare him the
+examination of a single stool. Whilst they were in the bare looking
+chamber containing nothing but chairs, Lisa pushed open a door, and
+showing Florent a small dressing room, told him that the shop girl
+should sleep in it, so that he could retain the bedroom on the fifth
+floor.
+
+In the evening Florent was arrayed in new clothes from head to foot.
+He had insisted upon again having a black coat and black trousers, much
+against the advice of Quenu, upon whom black had a depressing effect.
+No further attempts were made to conceal his presence in the house, and
+Lisa told the story which had been planned to everyone who cared to
+hear it. Henceforth Florent spent almost all his time on the premises,
+lingering on a chair in the kitchen or leaning against the marble-work
+in the shop. At meal times Quenu plied him with food, and evinced
+considerable vexation when he proved such a small eater and left half
+the contents of his liberally filled plate untouched. Lisa had resumed
+her old life, evincing a kindly tolerance of her brother-in-law's
+presence, even in the morning, when he somewhat interfered with the
+work. Then she would momentarily forget him, and on suddenly perceiving
+his black form in front of her give a slight start of surprise,
+followed, however, by one of her sweet smiles, lest he might feel at
+all hurt. This skinny man's disinterestedness had impressed her, and she
+regarded him with a feeling akin to respect, mingled with vague fear.
+Florent had for his part only felt that there was great affection around
+him.
+
+When bedtime came he went upstairs, a little wearied by his lazy day,
+with the two young men whom Quenu employed as assistants, and who slept
+in attics adjoining his own. Leon, the apprentice, was barely fifteen
+years of age. He was a slight, gentle looking lad, addicted to stealing
+stray slices of ham and bits of sausages. These he would conceal under
+his pillow, eating them during the night without any bread. Several
+times at about one o'clock in the morning Florent almost fancied that
+Leon was giving a supper-party; for he heard low whispering followed by
+a sound of munching jaws and rustling paper. And then a rippling girlish
+laugh would break faintly on the deep silence of the sleeping house like
+the soft trilling of a flageolet.
+
+The other assistant, Auguste Landois, came from Troyes. Bloated with
+unhealthy fat, he had too large a head, and was already bald, although
+only twenty-eight years of age. As he went upstairs with Florent on the
+first evening, he told him his story in a confused, garrulous way. He
+had at first come to Paris merely for the purpose of perfecting himself
+in the business, intending to return to Troyes, where his cousin,
+Augustine Landois, was waiting for him, and there setting up for himself
+as a pork butcher. He and she had had the game godfather and bore
+virtually the same Christian name. However, he had grown ambitious; and
+now hoped to establish himself in business in Paris by the aid of the
+money left him by his mother, which he had deposited with a notary
+before leaving Champagne.
+
+Auguste had got so far in his narrative when the fifth floor was
+reached; however, he still detained Florent, in order to sound the
+praises of Madame Quenu, who had consented to send for Augustine Landois
+to replace an assistant who had turned out badly. He himself was now
+thoroughly acquainted with his part of the business, and his cousin was
+perfecting herself in shop management. In a year or eighteen months they
+would be married, and then they would set up on their own account in
+some populous corner of Paris, at Plaisance most likely. They were in no
+great hurry, he added, for the bacon trade was very bad that year.
+Then he proceeded to tell Florent that he and his cousin had been
+photographed together at the fair of St. Ouen, and he entered the attic
+to have another look at the photograph, which Augustine had left on
+the mantelpiece, in her desire that Madame Quenu's cousin should have a
+pretty room. Auguste lingered there for a moment, looking quite livid
+in the dim yellow light of his candle, and casting his eyes around the
+little chamber which was still full of memorials of the young girl.
+Next, stepping up to the bed, he asked Florent if it was comfortable.
+His cousin slept below now, said he, and would be better there in the
+winter, for the attics were very cold. Then at last he went off, leaving
+Florent alone with the bed, and standing in front of the photograph.
+As shown on the latter Auguste looked like a sort of pale Quenu, and
+Augustine like an immature Lisa.
+
+Florent, although on friendly terms with the assistants, petted by his
+brother, and cordially treated by Lisa, presently began to feel very
+bored. He had tried, but without success, to obtain some pupils;
+moreover, he purposely avoided the students' quarter for fear of being
+recognised. Lisa gently suggested to him that he had better try to
+obtain a situation in some commercial house, where he could take charge
+of the correspondence and keep the books. She returned to this subject
+again and again, and at last offered to find a berth for him herself.
+She was gradually becoming impatient at finding him so often in her way,
+idle, and not knowing what to do with himself. At first this impatience
+was merely due to the dislike she felt of people who do nothing but
+cross their arms and eat, and she had no thought of reproaching him for
+consuming her substance.
+
+"For my own part," she would say to him, "I could never spend the whole
+day in dreamy lounging. You can't have any appetite for your meals. You
+ought to tire yourself."
+
+Gavard, also, was seeking a situation for Florent, but in a very
+extraordinary and most mysterious fashion. He would have liked to find
+some employment of a dramatic character, or in which there should be a
+touch of bitter irony, as was suitable for an outlaw. Gavard was a man
+who was always in opposition. He had just completed his fiftieth year,
+and he boasted that he had already passed judgment on four Governments.
+He still contemptuously shrugged his shoulders at the thought of Charles
+X, the priests and nobles and other attendant rabble, whom he had helped
+to sweep away. Louis Philippe, with his bourgeois following, had been an
+imbecile, and he could tell how the citizen-king had hoarded his coppers
+in a woollen stocking. As for the Republic of '48, that had been a
+mere farce, the working classes had deceived him; however, he no longer
+acknowledged that he had applauded the Coup d'Etat, for he now looked
+upon Napoleon III as his personal enemy, a scoundrel who shut himself
+up with Morny and others to indulge in gluttonous orgies. He was never
+weary of holding forth upon this subject. Lowering his voice a little,
+he would declare that women were brought to the Tuileries in closed
+carriages every evening, and that he, who was speaking, had one night
+heard the echoes of the orgies while crossing the Place du Carrousel. It
+was Gavard's religion to make himself as disagreeable as possible to any
+existing Government. He would seek to spite it in all sorts of ways,
+and laugh in secret for several months at the pranks he played. To begin
+with, he voted for candidates who would worry the Ministers at the Corps
+Legislatif. Then, if he could rob the revenue, or baffle the police, and
+bring about a row of some kind or other, he strove to give the affair as
+much of an insurrectionary character as possible. He told a great many
+lies, too; set himself up as being a very dangerous man; talked as
+though "the satellites of the Tuileries" were well acquainted with him
+and trembled at the sight of him; and asserted that one half of them
+must be guillotined, and the other half transported, the next time there
+was "a flare-up." His violent political creed found food in boastful,
+bragging talk of this sort; he displayed all the partiality for a
+lark and a rumpus which prompts a Parisian shopkeeper to take down
+his shutters on a day of barricade-fighting to get a good view of the
+corpses of the slain. When Florent returned from Cayenne, Gavard opined
+that he had got hold of a splendid chance for some abominable trick, and
+bestowed much thought upon the question of how he might best vent his
+spleen on the Emperor and Ministers and everyone in office, down to the
+very lowest police constable.
+
+Gavard's manners with Florent were altogether those of a man tasting
+some forbidden pleasure. He contemplated him with blinking eyes, lowered
+his voice even when making the most trifling remark, and grasped his
+hand with all sorts of masonic flummery. He had at last lighted upon
+something in the way of an adventure; he had a friend who was really
+compromised, and could, without falsehood speak of the dangers he
+incurred. He undoubtedly experienced a secret alarm at the sight of
+this man who had returned from transportation, and whose fleshlessness
+testified to the long sufferings he had endured; however, this touch of
+alarm was delightful, for it increased his notion of his own importance,
+and convinced him that he was really doing something wonderful in
+treating a dangerous character as a friend. Florent became a sort of
+sacred being in his eyes: he swore by him alone, and had recourse to his
+name whenever arguments failed him and he wanted to crush the Government
+once and for all.
+
+Gavard had lost his wife in the Rue Saint Jacques some months after the
+Coup d'Etat; however, he had kept on his roasting shop till 1856. At
+that time it was reported that he had made large sums of money by going
+into partnership with a neighbouring grocer who had obtained a contract
+for supplying dried vegetables to the Crimean expeditionary corps. The
+truth was, however, that, having sold his shop, he lived on his income
+for a year without doing anything. He himself did not care to talk
+about the real origin of his fortune, for to have revealed it would have
+prevented him from plainly expressing his opinion of the Crimean War,
+which he referred to as a mere adventurous expedition, "undertaken
+simply to consolidate the throne and to fill certain persons' pockets."
+At the end of a year he had grown utterly weary of life in his bachelor
+quarters. As he was in the habit of visiting the Quenu-Gradelles almost
+daily, he determined to take up his residence nearer to them, and came
+to live in the Rue de la Cossonnerie. The neighbouring markets, with
+their noisy uproar and endless chatter, quite fascinated him; and he
+decided to hire a stall in the poultry pavilion, just for the purpose
+of amusing himself and occupying his idle hours with all the gossip.
+Thenceforth he lived amidst ceaseless tittle-tattle, acquainted with
+every little scandal in the neighbourhood, his head buzzing with
+the incessant yelping around him. He blissfully tasted a thousand
+titillating delights, having at last found his true element, and bathing
+in it, with the voluptuous pleasure of a carp swimming in the sunshine.
+Florent would sometimes go to see him at his stall. The afternoons were
+still very warm. All along the narrow alleys sat women plucking
+poultry. Rays of light streamed in between the awnings, and in the
+warm atmosphere, in the golden dust of the sunbeams, feathers fluttered
+hither and thither like dancing snowflakes. A trail of coaxing calls and
+offers followed Florent as he passed along. "Can I sell you a fine duck,
+monsieur?" "I've some very fine fat chickens here, monsieur; come and
+see!" "Monsieur! monsieur, do just buy this pair of pigeons!" Deafened
+and embarrassed he freed himself from the women, who still went on
+plucking as they fought for possession of him; and the fine down flew
+about and wellnigh choked him, like hot smoke reeking with the strong
+odour of the poultry. At last, in the middle of the alley, near the
+water-taps, he found Gavard ranting away in his shirt-sleeves, in front
+of his stall, with his arms crossed over the bib of his blue apron. He
+reigned there, in a gracious, condescending way, over a group of ten or
+twelve women. He was the only male dealer in that part of the market.
+He was so fond of wagging his tongue that he had quarrelled with five or
+six girls whom he had successively engaged to attend to his stall, and
+had now made up his mind to sell his goods himself, naively explaining
+that the silly women spent the whole blessed day in gossiping, and that
+it was beyond his power to manage them. As someone, however, was still
+necessary to supply his place whenever he absented himself he took in
+Marjolin, who was prowling about, after attempting in turn all the petty
+market callings.
+
+Florent sometimes remained for an hour with Gavard, amazed by his
+ceaseless flow of chatter, and his calm serenity and assurance amid the
+crowd of petticoats. He would interrupt one woman, pick a quarrel with
+another ten stalls away, snatch a customer from a third, and make as
+much noise himself as his hundred and odd garrulous neighbours, whose
+incessant clamour kept the iron plates of the pavilion vibrating
+sonorously like so many gongs.
+
+The poultry dealer's only relations were a sister-in-law and a niece.
+When his wife died, her eldest sister, Madame Lecoeur, who had become
+a widow about a year previously, had mourned for her in an exaggerated
+fashion, and gone almost every evening to tender consolation to the
+bereaved husband. She had doubtless cherished the hope that she might
+win his affection and fill the yet warm place of the deceased. Gavard,
+however, abominated lean women; and would, indeed, only stroke such
+cats and dogs as were very fat; so that Madame Lecoeur, who was long and
+withered, failed in her designs.
+
+With her feelings greatly hurt, furious at the ex-roaster's five-franc
+pieces eluding her grasp, she nurtured great spite against him. He
+became the enemy to whom she devoted all her time. When she saw him
+set up in the markets only a few yards away from the pavilion where she
+herself sold butter and eggs and cheese, she accused him of doing so
+simply for the sake of annoying her and bringing her bad luck. From that
+moment she began to lament, and turned so yellow and melancholy that she
+indeed ended by losing her customers and getting into difficulties. She
+had for a long time kept with her the daughter of one of her sisters,
+a peasant woman who had sent her the child and then taken no further
+trouble about it.
+
+This child grew up in the markets. Her surname was Sarriet, and so she
+soon became generally known as La Sarriette. At sixteen years of age she
+had developed into such a charming sly-looking puss that gentlemen came
+to buy cheeses at her aunt's stall simply for the purpose of ogling her.
+She did not care for the gentlemen, however; with her dark hair, pale
+face, and eyes glistening like live embers, her sympathies were with the
+lower ranks of the people. At last she chose as her lover a young man
+from Menilmontant who was employed by her aunt as a porter. At twenty
+she set up in business as a fruit dealer with the help of some funds
+procured no one knew how; and thenceforth Monsieur Jules, as her lover
+was called, displayed spotless hands, a clean blouse, and a velvet cap;
+and only came down to the market in the afternoon, in his slippers.
+They lived together on the third storey of a large house in the Rue
+Vauvilliers, on the ground floor of which was a disreputable cafe.
+
+Madame Lecoeur's acerbity of temper was brought to a pitch by what she
+called La Sarriette's ingratitude, and she spoke of the girl in the most
+violent and abusive language. They broke off all intercourse, the aunt
+fairly exasperated, and the niece and Monsieur Jules concocting stories
+about the aunt, which the young man would repeat to the other dealers
+in the butter pavilion. Gavard found La Sarriette very entertaining,
+and treated her with great indulgence. Whenever they met he would
+good-naturedly pat her cheeks.
+
+One afternoon, whilst Florent was sitting in his brother's shop, tired
+out with the fruitless pilgrimages he had made during the morning in
+search of work, Marjolin made his appearance there. This big lad,
+who had the massiveness and gentleness of a Fleming, was a protege of
+Lisa's. She would say that there was no evil in him; that he was
+indeed a little bit stupid, but as strong as a horse, and particularly
+interesting from the fact that nobody knew anything of his parentage. It
+was she who had got Gavard to employ him.
+
+Lisa was sitting behind the counter, feeling annoyed by the sight of
+Florent's muddy boots which were soiling the pink and white tiles of the
+flooring. Twice already had she risen to scatter sawdust about the shop.
+However, she smiled at Marjolin as he entered.
+
+"Monsieur Gavard," began the young man, "has sent me to ask--"
+
+But all at once he stopped and glanced round; then in a lower voice he
+resumed: "He told me to wait till there was no one with you, and then to
+repeat these words, which he made me learn by heart: 'Ask them if there
+is no danger, and if I can come and talk to them of the matter they know
+about.'"
+
+"Tell Monsieur Gavard that we are expecting him," replied Lisa, who was
+quite accustomed to the poultry dealer's mysterious ways.
+
+Marjolin, however, did not go away; but remained in ecstasy before the
+handsome mistress of the shop, contemplating her with an expression of
+fawning humility.
+
+Touched, as it were, by this mute adoration, Lisa spoke to him again.
+
+"Are you comfortable with Monsieur Gavard?" she asked. "He's not an
+unkind man, and you ought to try to please him."
+
+"Yes, Madame Lisa."
+
+"But you don't behave as you should, you know. Only yesterday I saw you
+clambering about the roofs of the market again; and, besides, you are
+constantly with a lot of disreputable lads and lasses. You ought to
+remember that you are a man now, and begin to think of the future."
+
+"Yes, Madame Lisa."
+
+However, Lisa had to get up to wait upon a lady who came in and wanted
+a pound of pork chops. She left the counter and went to the block at
+the far end of the shop. Here, with a long, slender knife, she cut three
+chops in a loin of pork; and then, raising a small cleaver with her
+strong hand, dealt three sharp blows which separated the chops from
+the loin. At each blow she dealt, her black merino dress rose slightly
+behind her, and the ribs of her stays showed beneath her tightly
+stretched bodice. She slowly took up the chops and weighed them with an
+air of gravity, her eyes gleaming and her lips tightly closed.
+
+When the lady had gone, and Lisa perceived Marjolin still full of
+delight at having seen her deal those three clean, forcible blows with
+the cleaver, she at once called out to him, "What! haven't you gone
+yet?"
+
+He thereupon turned to go, but she detained him for a moment longer.
+
+"Now, don't let me see you again with that hussy Cadine," she said. "Oh,
+it's no use to deny it! I saw you together this morning in the tripe
+market, watching men breaking the sheep's heads. I can't understand
+what attraction a good-looking young fellow like you can find in such a
+slipshod slattern as Cadine. Now then, go and tell Monsieur Gavard that
+he had better come at once, while there's no one about."
+
+Marjolin thereupon went off in confusion, without saying a word.
+
+Handsome Lisa remained standing behind her counter, with her head turned
+slightly in the direction of her markets, and Florent gazed at her in
+silence, surprised to see her looking so beautiful. He had never looked
+at her properly before; indeed, he did not know the right way to look at
+a woman. He now saw her rising above the viands on the counter. In front
+of her was an array of white china dishes, containing long Arles and
+Lyons sausages, slices of which had already been cut off, with tongues
+and pieces of boiled pork; then a pig's head in a mass of jelly; an open
+pot of preserved sausage-meat, and a large box of sardines disclosing a
+pool of oil. On the right and left, upon wooden platters, were mounds
+of French and Italian brawn, a common French ham, of a pinky hue, and a
+Yorkshire ham, whose deep red lean showed beneath a broad band of fat.
+There were other dishes too, round ones and oval ones, containing spiced
+tongue, truffled galantine, and a boar's head stuffed with pistachio
+nuts; while close to her, in reach of her hand, stood some yellow
+earthen pans containing larded veal, _pate de foie gras_, and hare-pie.
+
+As there were no signs of Gavard's coming, she arranged some fore-end
+bacon upon a little marble shelf at the end of the counter, put the jars
+of lard and dripping back into their places, wiped the plates of each
+pair of scales, and saw to the fire of the heater, which was getting
+low. Then she turned her head again, and gazed in silence towards
+the markets. The smell of all the viands ascended around her, she was
+enveloped, as it were, by the aroma of truffles. She looked beautifully
+fresh that afternoon. The whiteness of all the dishes was supplemented
+by that of her sleevelets and apron, above which appeared her plump
+neck and rosy cheeks, which recalled the soft tones of the hams and the
+pallor of all the transparent fat.
+
+As Florent continued to gaze at her he began to feel intimidated,
+disquieted by her prim, sedate demeanour; and in lieu of openly looking
+at her he ended by glancing surreptitiously in the mirrors around the
+shop, in which her back and face and profile could be seen. The mirror
+on the ceiling, too, reflected the top of her head, with its tightly
+rolled chignon and the little bands lowered over her temples. There
+seemed, indeed, to be a perfect crowd of Lisas, with broad shoulders,
+powerful arms, and round, full bosoms. At last Florent checked his
+roving eyes, and let them rest on a particularly pleasing side view of
+the young woman as mirrored between two pieces of pork. From the hooks
+running along the whole line of mirrors and marbles hung sides of pork
+and bands of larding fat; and Lisa, with her massive neck, rounded hips,
+and swelling bosom seen in profile, looked like some waxwork queen in
+the midst of the dangling fat and meat. However, she bent forward and
+smiled in a friendly way at the two gold-fish which were ever and ever
+swimming round the aquarium in the window.
+
+Gavard entered the shop. With an air of great importance he went to
+fetch Quenu from the kitchen. Then he seated himself upon a small
+marble-topped table, while Florent remained on his chair and Lisa behind
+the counter; Quenu meantime leaning his back against a side of pork.
+And thereupon Gavard announced that he had at last found a situation for
+Florent. They would be vastly amused when they heard what it was, and
+the Government would be nicely caught.
+
+But all at once he stopped short, for a passing neighbour, Mademoiselle
+Saget, having seen such a large party gossiping together at the
+Quenu-Gradelles', had opened the door and entered the shop. Carrying
+her everlasting black ribbonless straw hat, which appropriately cast a
+shadow over her prying white face, she saluted the men with a slight bow
+and Lisa with a sharp smile.
+
+She was an acquaintance of the family, and still lived in the house
+in the Rue Pirouette where she had resided for the last forty years,
+probably on a small private income; but of that she never spoke. She
+had, however, one day talked of Cherbourg, mentioning that she had been
+born there. Nothing further was ever known of her antecedents. All her
+conversation was about other people; she could tell the whole story of
+their daily lives, even to the number of things they sent to be
+washed each month; and she carried her prying curiosity concerning her
+neighbours' affairs so far as to listen behind their doors and open
+their letters. Her tongue was feared from the Rue Saint Denis to the
+Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and from the Rue Saint Honore to the Rue
+Mauconseil. All day long she went ferreting about with her empty bag,
+pretending that she was marketing, but in reality buying nothing, as her
+sole purpose was to retail scandal and gossip, and keep herself fully
+informed of every trifling incident that happened. Indeed, she had
+turned her brain into an encyclopaedia brimful of every possible
+particular concerning the people of the neighbourhood and their homes.
+
+Quenu had always accused her of having spread the story of his Uncle
+Gradelle's death on the chopping-block, and had borne her a grudge ever
+since. She was extremely well posted in the history of Uncle Gradelle
+and the Quenus, and knew them, she would say, by heart. For the last
+fortnight, however, Florent's arrival had greatly perplexed her, filled
+her, indeed, with a perfect fever of curiosity. She became quite ill
+when she discovered any unforeseen gap in her information. And yet she
+could have sworn that she had seen that tall lanky fellow somewhere or
+other before.
+
+She remained standing in front of the counter, examining the dishes one
+after another, and saying in a shrill voice:
+
+"I hardly know what to have. When the afternoon comes I feel quite
+famished for my dinner, and then, later on, I don't seem able to fancy
+anything at all. Have you got a cutlet rolled in bread-crumbs left,
+Madame Quenu?"
+
+Without waiting for a reply, she removed one of the covers of the
+heater. It was that of the compartment reserved for the chitterlings,
+sausages, and black-puddings. However, the chafing-dish was quite cold,
+and there was nothing left but one stray forgotten sausage.
+
+"Look under the other cover, Mademoiselle Saget," said Lisa. "I believe
+there's a cutlet there."
+
+"No, it doesn't tempt me," muttered the little old woman, poking her
+nose under the other cover, however, all the same. "I felt rather a
+fancy for one, but I'm afraid a cutlet would be rather too heavy in the
+evening. I'd rather have something, too, that I need not warm."
+
+While speaking she had turned towards Florent and looked at him; then
+she looked at Gavard, who was beating a tattoo with his finger-tips
+on the marble table. She smiled at them, as though inviting them to
+continue their conversation.
+
+"Wouldn't a little piece of salt pork suit you?" asked Lisa.
+
+"A piece of salt pork? Yes, that might do."
+
+Thereupon she took up the fork with plated handle, which was lying at
+the edge of the dish, and began to turn all the pieces of pork about,
+prodding them, lightly tapping the bones to judge of their thickness,
+and minutely scrutinising the shreds of pinky meat. And as she turned
+them over she repeated, "No, no; it doesn't tempt me."
+
+"Well, then, have a sheep's tongue, or a bit of brawn, or a slice of
+larded veal," suggested Lisa patiently.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget, however, shook her head. She remained there for
+a few minutes longer, pulling dissatisfied faces over the different
+dishes; then, seeing that the others were determined to remain silent,
+and that she would not be able to learn anything, she took herself off.
+
+"No; I rather felt a fancy for a cutlet rolled in bread-crumbs," she
+said as she left the shop, "but the one you have left is too fat. I must
+come another time."
+
+Lisa bent forward to watch her through the sausage-skins hanging in the
+shop-front, and saw her cross the road and enter the fruit market.
+
+"The old she-goat!" growled Gavard.
+
+Then, as they were now alone again, he began to tell them of the
+situation he had found for Florent. A friend of his, he said, Monsieur
+Verlaque, one of the fish market inspectors, was so ill that he was
+obliged to take a rest; and that very morning the poor man had told
+him that he should be very glad to find a substitute who would keep his
+berth open for him in case he should recover.
+
+"Verlaque, you know, won't last another six months," added Gavard, "and
+Florent will keep the place. It's a splendid idea, isn't it? And it will
+be such a take-in for the police! The berth is under the Prefecture, you
+know. What glorious fun to see Florent getting paid by the police, eh?"
+
+He burst into a hearty laugh; the idea struck him as so extremely
+comical.
+
+"I won't take the place," Florent bluntly replied. "I've sworn I'll
+never accept anything from the Empire, and I would rather die of
+starvation than serve under the Prefecture. It is quite out of the
+question, Gavard, quite so!"
+
+Gavard seemed somewhat put out on hearing this. Quenu had lowered his
+head, while Lisa, turning round, looked keenly at Florent, her neck
+swollen, her bosom straining her bodice almost to bursting point. She
+was just going to open her mouth when La Sarriette entered the shop, and
+there was another pause in the conversation.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed La Sarriette with her soft laugh, "I'd almost
+forgotten to get any bacon fat. Please, Madame Quenu, cut me a dozen
+thin strips--very thin ones, you know; I want them for larding larks.
+Jules has taken it into his head to eat some larks. Ah! how do you do,
+uncle?"
+
+She filled the whole shop with her dancing skirts and smiled brightly at
+everyone. Her face looked fresh and creamy, and on one side her hair was
+coming down, loosened by the wind which blew through the markets. Gavard
+grasped her hands, while she with merry impudence resumed: "I'll bet
+that you were talking about me just as I came in. Tell me what you were
+saying, uncle."
+
+However, Lisa now called to her, "Just look and tell me if this is thin
+enough."
+
+She was cutting the strips of bacon fat with great care on a piece of
+board in front of her. Then as she wrapped them up she inquired, "Can I
+give you anything else?"
+
+"Well, yes," replied La Sarriette; "since I'm about it, I think I'll
+have a pound of lard. I'm awfully fond of fried potatoes; I can make a
+breakfast off a penn'orth of potatoes and a bunch of radishes. Yes, I'll
+have a pound of lard, please, Madame Quenu."
+
+Lisa placed a sheet of stout paper in the pan of the scales. Then she
+took the lard out of a jar under the shelves with a boxwood spatula,
+gently adding small quantities to the fatty heap, which began to melt
+and run slightly. When the plate of the scale fell, she took up the
+paper, folded it, and rapidly twisted the ends with her finger-tips.
+
+"That makes twenty-four sous," she said; "the bacon is six sous--thirty
+sous altogether. There's nothing else you want, is there?"
+
+"No," said La Sarriette, "nothing." She paid her money, still laughing
+and showing her teeth, and staring the men in the face. Her grey skirt
+was all awry, and her loosely fastened red neckerchief allowed a little
+of her white bosom to appear. Before she went away she stepped up to
+Gavard again, and pretending to threaten him exclaimed: "So you won't
+tell me what you were talking about as I came in? I could see you
+laughing from the street. Oh, you sly fellow! Ah! I sha'n't love you any
+longer!"
+
+Then she left the shop and ran across the road.
+
+"It was Mademoiselle Saget who sent her here," remarked handsome Lisa
+drily.
+
+Then silence fell again for some moments. Gavard was dismayed at
+Florent's reception of his proposal. Lisa was the first to speak. "It
+was wrong of you to refuse the post, Florent," she said in the most
+friendly tones. "You know how difficult it is to find any employment,
+and you are not in a position to be over-exacting."
+
+"I have my reasons," Florent replied.
+
+Lisa shrugged her shoulders. "Come now," said she, "you really can't be
+serious, I'm sure. I can understand that you are not in love with the
+Government, but it would be too absurd to let your opinions prevent
+you from earning your living. And, besides, my dear fellow, the Emperor
+isn't at all a bad sort of man. You don't suppose, do you, that he knew
+you were eating mouldy bread and tainted meat? He can't be everywhere,
+you know, and you can see for yourself that he hasn't prevented us here
+from doing pretty well. You are not at all just; indeed you are not."
+
+Gavard, however, was getting very fidgety. He could not bear to hear
+people speak well of the Emperor.
+
+"No, no, Madame Quenu," he interrupted; "you are going too far. It is a
+scoundrelly system altogether."
+
+"Oh, as for you," exclaimed Lisa vivaciously, "you'll never rest until
+you've got yourself plundered and knocked on the head as the result of
+all your wild talk. Don't let us discuss politics; you would only make
+me angry. The question is Florent, isn't it? Well, for my part, I say
+that he ought to accept this inspectorship. Don't you think so too,
+Quenu?"
+
+Quenu, who had not yet said a word, was very much put out by his wife's
+sudden appeal.
+
+"It's a good berth," he replied, without compromising himself.
+
+Then, amidst another interval of awkward silence, Florent resumed: "I
+beg you, let us drop the subject. My mind is quite made up. I shall
+wait."
+
+"You will wait!" cried Lisa, losing patience.
+
+Two rosy fires had risen to her cheeks. As she stood there, erect, in
+her white apron, with rounded, swelling hips, it was with difficulty
+that she restrained herself from breaking out into bitter words.
+However, the entrance of another person into the shop arrested her
+anger. The new arrival was Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"Can you let me have half a pound of mixed meats at fifty sous the
+pound?" she asked.
+
+She at first pretended not to notice her brother-in-law; but presently
+she just nodded her head to him, without speaking. Then she scrutinised
+the three men from head to foot, doubtless hoping to divine their secret
+by the manner in which they waited for her to go. She could see that she
+was putting them out, and the knowledge of this rendered her yet more
+sour and angular, as she stood there in her limp skirts, with her long,
+spider-like arms bent and her knotted fingers clasped beneath her apron.
+Then, as she coughed slightly, Gavard, whom the silence embarrassed,
+inquired if she had a cold.
+
+She curtly answered in the negative. Her tightly stretched skin was of
+a red-brick colour on those parts of her face where her bones protruded,
+and the dull fire burning in her eyes and scorching their lids testified
+to some liver complaint nurtured by the querulous jealousy of her
+disposition. She turned round again towards the counter, and watched
+each movement made by Lisa as she served her with the distrustful glance
+of one who is convinced that an attempt will be made to defraud her.
+
+"Don't give me any saveloy," she exclaimed; "I don't like it."
+
+Lisa had taken up a slender knife, and was cutting some thin slices
+of sausage. She next passed on to the smoked ham and the common ham,
+cutting delicate slices from each, and bending forward slightly as she
+did so, with her eyes ever fixed on the knife. Her plump rosy hands,
+flitting about the viands with light and gentle touches, seemed to have
+derived suppleness from contact with all the fat.
+
+"You would like some larded veal, wouldn't you?" she asked, bringing a
+yellow pan towards her.
+
+Madame Lecoeur seemed to be thinking the matter over at considerable
+length; however, she at last said that she would have some. Lisa had
+now begun to cut into the contents of the pans, from which she removed
+slices of larded veal and hare _pate_ on the tip of a broad-bladed
+knife. And she deposited each successive slice on the middle of a sheet
+of paper placed on the scales.
+
+"Aren't you going to give me some of the boar's head with pistachio
+nuts?" asked Madame Lecoeur in her querulous voice.
+
+Lisa was obliged to add some of the boar's head. But the butter dealer
+was getting exacting, and asked for two slices of galantine. She was
+very fond of it. Lisa, who was already irritated, played impatiently
+with the handles of the knives, and told her that the galantine was
+truffled, and that she could only include it in an "assortment" at three
+francs the pound. Madame Lecoeur, however, continued to pry into the
+dishes, trying to find something else to ask for. When the "assortment"
+was weighed she made Lisa add some jelly and gherkins to it. The block
+of jelly, shaped like a Savoy cake, shook on its white china dish
+beneath the angry violence of Lisa's hand; and as with her finger-tips
+she took a couple of gherkins from a jar behind the heater, she made the
+vinegar spurt over the sides.
+
+"Twenty-five sous, isn't it?" Madame Lecoeur leisurely inquired.
+
+She fully perceived Lisa's covert irritation, and greatly enjoyed the
+sight of it, producing her money as slowly as possible, as though,
+indeed, her silver had got lost amongst the coppers in her pocket. And
+she glanced askance at Gavard, relishing the embarrassed silence which
+her presence was prolonging, and vowing that she would not go off, since
+they were hiding some trickery or other from her. However, Lisa at
+last put the parcel in her hands, and she was then obliged to make her
+departure. She went away without saying a word, but darting a searching
+glance all round the shop.
+
+"It was that Saget who sent her too!" burst out Lisa, as soon as the old
+woman was gone. "Is the old wretch going to send the whole market here
+to try to find out what we talk about? What a prying, malicious set they
+are! Did anyone ever hear before of crumbed cutlets and 'assortments'
+being bought at five o'clock in the afternoon? But then they'd rack
+themselves with indigestion rather than not find out! Upon my word,
+though, if La Saget sends anyone else here, you'll see the reception
+she'll get. I would bundle her out of the shop, even if she were my own
+sister!"
+
+The three men remained silent in presence of this explosion of anger.
+Gavard had gone to lean over the brass rail of the window-front, where,
+seemingly lost in thought, he began playing with one of the cut-glass
+balusters detached from its wire fastening. Presently, however, he
+raised his head. "Well, for my part," he said, "I looked upon it all as
+an excellent joke."
+
+"Looked upon what as a joke?" asked Lisa, still quivering with
+indignation.
+
+"The inspectorship."
+
+She raised her hands, gave a last glance at Florent, and then sat down
+upon the cushioned bench behind the counter and said nothing further.
+Gavard, however, began to explain his views at length; the drift of his
+argument being that it was the Government which would look foolish in
+the matter, since Florent would be taking its money.
+
+"My dear fellow," he said complacently, "those scoundrels all but
+starved you to death, didn't they? Well, you must make them feed you
+now. It's a splendid idea; it caught my fancy at once!"
+
+Florent smiled, but still persisted in his refusal. Quenu, in the hope
+of pleasing his wife, did his best to find some good arguments. Lisa,
+however, appeared to pay no further attention to them. For the last
+moment or two she had been looking attentively in the direction of the
+markets. And all at once she sprang to her feet again, exclaiming, "Ah!
+it is La Normande that they are sending to play the spy on us now! Well,
+so much the worse for La Normande; she shall pay for the others!"
+
+A tall female pushed the shop door open. It was the handsome fish-girl,
+Louise Mehudin, generally known as La Normande. She was a bold-looking
+beauty, with a delicate white skin, and was almost as plump as Lisa,
+but there was more effrontery in her glance, and her bosom heaved with
+warmer life. She came into the shop with a light swinging step, her gold
+chain jingling on her apron, her bare hair arranged in the latest style,
+and a bow at her throat, a lace bow, which made her one of the most
+coquettish-looking queens of the markets. She brought a vague odour
+of fish with her, and a herring-scale showed like a tiny patch of
+mother-of-pearl near the little finger of one of her hands. She and
+Lisa having lived in the same house in the Rue Pirouette, were intimate
+friends, linked by a touch of rivalry which kept each of them busy
+with thoughts of the other. In the neighbourhood people spoke of "the
+beautiful Norman," just as they spoke of "beautiful Lisa." This brought
+them into opposition and comparison, and compelled each of them to do
+her utmost to sustain her reputation for beauty. Lisa from her counter
+could, by stooping a little, perceive the fish-girl amidst her salmon
+and turbot in the pavilion opposite; and each kept a watch on the
+other. Beautiful Lisa laced herself more tightly in her stays; and the
+beautiful Norman replied by placing additional rings on her fingers and
+additional bows on her shoulders. When they met they were very bland and
+unctuous and profuse in compliments; but all the while their eyes
+were furtively glancing from under their lowered lids, in the hope of
+discovering some flaw. They made a point of always dealing with each
+other, and professed great mutual affection.
+
+"I say," said La Normande, with her smiling air, "it's to-morrow evening
+that you make your black-puddings, isn't it?"
+
+Lisa maintained a cold demeanour. She seldom showed any anger; but when
+she did it was tenacious, and slow to be appeased. "Yes," she replied
+drily, with the tips of her lips.
+
+"I'm so fond of black-puddings, you know, when they come straight out
+of the pot," resumed La Normande. "I'll come and get some of you
+to-morrow."
+
+She was conscious of her rival's unfriendly greeting. However, she
+glanced at Florent, who seemed to interest her; and then, unwilling to
+go off without having the last word, she was imprudent enough to add: "I
+bought some black-pudding of you the day before yesterday, you know, and
+it wasn't quite sweet."
+
+"Not quite sweet!" repeated Lisa, very pale, and her lips quivering.
+
+She might, perhaps, have once more restrained herself, for fear of La
+Normande imagining that she was overcome by envious spite at the
+sight of the lace bow; but the girl, not content with playing the spy,
+proceeded to insult her, and that was beyond endurance. So, leaning
+forward, with her hands clenched on the counter, she exclaimed, in a
+somewhat hoarse voice: "I say! when you sold me that pair of soles
+last week, did I come and tell you, before everybody that they were
+stinking?"
+
+"Stinking! My soles stinking!" cried the fish dealer, flushing scarlet.
+
+For a moment they remained silent, choking with anger, but glaring
+fiercely at each other over the array of dishes. All their honeyed
+friendship had vanished; a word had sufficed to reveal what sharp teeth
+there were behind their smiling lips.
+
+"You're a vulgar, low creature!" cried the beautiful Norman. "You'll
+never catch me setting foot in here again, I can tell you!"
+
+"Get along with you, get along with you," exclaimed beautiful Lisa. "I
+know quite well whom I've got to deal with!"
+
+The fish-girl went off, hurling behind her a coarse expression which
+left Lisa quivering. The whole scene had passed so quickly that the
+three men, overcome with amazement, had not had time to interfere.
+Lisa soon recovered herself, and was resuming the conversation, without
+making any allusion to what had just occurred, when the shop girl,
+Augustine, returned from an errand on which she had been sent. Lisa
+thereupon took Gavard aside, and after telling him to say nothing for
+the present to Monsieur Verlaque, promised that she would undertake to
+convince her brother-in-law in a couple of days' time at the utmost.
+Quenu then returned to his kitchen, while Gavard took Florent off with
+him. And as they were just going into Monsieur Lebigre's to drink a drop
+of vermouth together he called his attention to three women standing in
+the covered way between the fish and poultry pavilions.
+
+"They're cackling together!" he said with an envious air.
+
+The markets were growing empty, and Mademoiselle Saget, Madame Lecoeur,
+and La Sarriette alone lingered on the edge of the footway. The old maid
+was holding forth.
+
+"As I told you before, Madame Lecoeur," said she, "they've always got
+your brother-in-law in their shop. You saw him there yourself just now,
+didn't you?"
+
+"Oh yes, indeed! He was sitting on a table, and seemed quite at home."
+
+"Well, for my part," interrupted La Sarriette, "I heard nothing wrong;
+and I can't understand why you're making such a fuss."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget shrugged her shoulders. "Ah, you're very innocent
+yet, my dear," she said. "Can't you see why the Quenus are always
+attracting Monsieur Gavard to their place? Well, I'll wager that he'll
+leave all he has to their little Pauline."
+
+"You believe that, do you?" cried Madame Lecoeur, white with rage. Then,
+in a mournful voice, as though she had just received some heavy blow,
+she continued: "I am alone in the world, and have no one to take my
+part; he is quite at liberty to do as he pleases. His niece sides with
+him too--you heard her just now. She has quite forgotten all that she
+cost me, and wouldn't stir a hand to help me."
+
+"Indeed, aunt," exclaimed La Sarriette, "you are quite wrong there! It's
+you who've never had anything but unkind words for me."
+
+They became reconciled on the spot, and kissed one another. The niece
+promised that she would play no more pranks, and the aunt swore by
+all she held most sacred that she looked upon La Sarriette as her own
+daughter. Then Mademoiselle Saget advised them as to the steps they
+ought to take to prevent Gavard from squandering his money. And they
+all agreed that the Quenu-Gradelles were very disreputable folks, and
+required closely watching.
+
+"I don't know what they're up to just now," said the old maid, "but
+there's something suspicious going on, I'm sure. What's your opinion,
+now, of that fellow Florent, that cousin of Madame Quenu's?"
+
+The three women drew more closely together, and lowered their voices.
+
+"You remember," said Madame Lecoeur, "that we saw him one morning with
+his boots all split, and his clothes covered with dust, looking just
+like a thief who's been up to some roguery. That fellow quite frightens
+me."
+
+"Well, he's certainly very thin," said La Sarriette, "but he isn't
+ugly."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget was reflecting, and she expressed her thoughts
+aloud. "I've been trying to find out something about him for the last
+fortnight, but I can make nothing of it. Monsieur Gavard certainly knows
+him. I must have met him myself somewhere before, but I can't remember
+where."
+
+She was still ransacking her memory when La Normande swept up to them
+like a whirlwind. She had just left the pork shop.
+
+"That big booby Lisa has got nice manners, I must say!" she cried,
+delighted to be able to relieve herself. "Fancy her telling me that I
+sold nothing but stinking fish! But I gave her as good as she deserved,
+I can tell you! A nice den they keep, with their tainted pig meat which
+poisons all their customers!"
+
+"But what had you been saying to her?" asked the old maid, quite
+frisky with excitement, and delighted to hear that the two women had
+quarrelled.
+
+"I! I'd said just nothing at all--no, not that! I just went into the
+shop and told her very civilly that I'd buy some black-pudding to-morrow
+evening, and then she overwhelmed me with abuse. A dirty hypocrite she
+is, with her saint-like airs! But she'll pay more dearly for this than
+she fancies!"
+
+The three women felt that La Normande was not telling them the truth,
+but this did not prevent them from taking her part with a rush of bad
+language. They turned towards the Rue Rambuteau with insulting mien,
+inventing all sorts of stories about the uncleanliness of the cookery at
+the Quenu's shop, and making the most extraordinary accusations. If the
+Quenus had been detected selling human flesh the women could not have
+displayed more violent and threatening anger. The fish-girl was obliged
+to tell her story three times over.
+
+"And what did the cousin say?" asked Mademoiselle Saget, with wicked
+intent.
+
+"The cousin!" repeated La Normande, in a shrill voice. "Do you really
+believe that he's a cousin? He's some lover or other, I'll wager, the
+great booby!"
+
+The three others protested against this. Lisa's honourability was an
+article of faith in the neighbourhood.
+
+"Stuff and nonsense!" retorted La Normande. "You can never be sure about
+those smug, sleek hypocrites."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget nodded her head as if to say that she was not
+very far from sharing La Normande's opinion. And she softly added:
+"Especially as this cousin has sprung from no one knows where; for it's
+a very doubtful sort of account that the Quenus give of him."
+
+"Oh, he's the fat woman's sweetheart, I tell you!" reaffirmed the
+fish-girl; "some scamp or vagabond picked up in the streets. It's easy
+enough to see it."
+
+"She has given him a complete outfit," remarked Madame Lecoeur. "He must
+be costing her a pretty penny."
+
+"Yes, yes," muttered the old maid; "perhaps you are right. I must really
+get to know something about him."
+
+Then they all promised to keep one another thoroughly informed of
+whatever might take place in the Quenu-Gradelle establishment. The
+butter dealer pretended that she wished to open her brother-in-law's
+eyes as to the sort of places he frequented. However, La Normande's
+anger had by this time toned down, and, a good sort of girl at heart,
+she went off, weary of having talked so much on the matter.
+
+"I'm sure that La Normande said something or other insolent," remarked
+Madame Lecoeur knowingly, when the fish-girl had left them. "It is just
+her way; and it scarcely becomes a creature like her to talk as she did
+of Lisa."
+
+The three women looked at each other and smiled. Then, when Madame
+Lecoeur also had gone off, La Sarriette remarked to Mademoiselle Saget:
+"It is foolish of my aunt to worry herself so much about all these
+affairs. It's that which makes her so thin. Ah! she'd have willingly
+taken Gavard for a husband if she could only have got him. Yet she used
+to beat me if ever a young man looked my way."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget smiled once more. And when she found herself alone,
+and went back towards the Rue Pirouette, she reflected that those three
+cackling hussies were not worth a rope to hang them. She was, indeed,
+a little afraid that she might have been seen with them, and the idea
+somewhat troubled her, for she realised that it would be bad policy to
+fall out with the Quenu-Gradelles, who, after all, were well-to-do folks
+and much esteemed. So she went a little out of her way on purpose to
+call at Taboureau the baker's in the Rue Turbigo--the finest baker's
+shop in the whole neighbourhood. Madame Taboureau was not only an
+intimate friend of Lisa's, but an accepted authority on every subject.
+When it was remarked that "Madame Taboureau had said this," or "Madame
+Taboureau had said that," there was no more to be urged. So the old
+maid, calling at the baker's under pretence of inquiring at what time
+the oven would be hot, as she wished to bring a dish of pears to be
+baked, took the opportunity to eulogise Lisa, and lavish praise upon the
+sweetness and excellence of her black-puddings. Then, well pleased at
+having prepared this moral alibi and delighted at having done what she
+could to fan the flames of a quarrel without involving herself in it,
+she briskly returned home, feeling much easier in her mind, but
+still striving to recall where she had previously seen Madame Quenu's
+so-called cousin.
+
+That same evening, after dinner, Florent went out and strolled for some
+time in one of the covered ways of the markets. A fine mist was rising,
+and a grey sadness, which the gas lights studded as with yellow tears,
+hung over the deserted pavilions. For the first time Florent began to
+feel that he was in the way, and to recognise the unmannerly fashion in
+which he, thin and artless, had tumbled into this world of fat people;
+and he frankly admitted to himself that his presence was disturbing
+the whole neighbourhood, and that he was a source of discomfort to the
+Quenus--a spurious cousin of far too compromising appearance. These
+reflections made him very sad; not, indeed, that they had noticed the
+slightest harshness on the part of his brother or Lisa: it was their
+very kindness, rather, that was troubling him, and he accused himself of
+a lack of delicacy in quartering himself upon them. He was beginning to
+doubt the propriety of his conduct. The recollection of the conversation
+in the shop during the afternoon caused him a vague disquietude. The
+odour of the viands on Lisa's counter seemed to penetrate him; he felt
+himself gliding into nerveless, satiated cowardice. Perhaps he had acted
+wrongly in refusing the inspectorship offered him. This reflection gave
+birth to a stormy struggle in his mind, and he was obliged to brace and
+shake himself before he could recover his wonted rigidity of principles.
+However, a moist breeze had risen, and was blowing along the covered
+way, and he regained some degree of calmness and resolution on being
+obliged to button up his coat. The wind seemingly swept from his clothes
+all the greasy odour of the pork shop, which had made him feel so
+languid.
+
+He was returning home when he met Claude Lantier. The artist, hidden
+in the folds of his greenish overcoat, spoke in a hollow voice full of
+suppressed anger. He was in a passion with painting, declared that it
+was a dog's trade, and swore that he would not take up a brush again as
+long as he lived. That very afternoon he had thrust his foot through a
+study which he had been making of the head of that hussy Cadine.
+
+Claude was subject to these outbursts, the fruit of his inability to
+execute the lasting, living works which he dreamed of. And at such times
+life became an utter blank to him, and he wandered about the streets,
+wrapped in the gloomiest thoughts, and waiting for the morning as for a
+sort of resurrection. He used to say that he felt bright and cheerful in
+the morning, and horribly miserable in the evening.[*] Each of his days
+was a long effort ending in disappointment. Florent scarcely recognised
+in him the careless night wanderer of the markets. They had already met
+again at the pork shop, and Claude, who knew the fugitive's story, had
+grasped his hand and told him that he was a sterling fellow. It was very
+seldom, however, that the artist went to the Quenus'.
+
+     [*] Claude Lantier's struggle for fame is fully described in
+     M. Zola's novel, _L'Oeuvre_ ("His Masterpiece").
+     --Translator.
+
+"Are you still at my aunt's?" he asked. "I can't imagine how you manage
+to exist amidst all that cookery. The places reeks with the smell of
+meat. When I've been there for an hour I feel as though I shouldn't want
+anything to eat for another three days. I ought not to have gone there
+this morning; it was that which made me make a mess of my work."
+
+Then, after he and Florent had taken a few steps in silence, he resumed:
+
+"Ah! the good people! They quite grieve me with their fine health. I had
+thought of painting their portraits, but I've never been able to succeed
+with such round faces, in which there is never a bone. Ah! You wouldn't
+find my aunt Lisa kicking her foot through her pans! I was an idiot to
+have destroyed Cadine's head! Now that I come to think of it, it wasn't
+so very bad, perhaps, after all."
+
+Then they began to talk about Aunt Lisa. Claude said that his mother[*]
+had not seen anything of her for a long time, and he hinted that the
+pork butcher's wife was somewhat ashamed of her sister having married
+a common working man; moreover, she wasn't at all fond of unfortunate
+folks. Speaking of himself, he told Florent that a benevolent gentleman
+had sent him to college, being very pleased with the donkeys and old
+women that he had managed to draw when only eight years old; but the
+good soul had died, leaving him an income of a thousand francs, which
+just saved him from perishing of hunger.
+
+[*] Gervaise, the heroine of the _Assommoir_.
+
+"All the same, I would rather have been a working man," continued
+Claude. "Look at the carpenters, for instance. They are very happy
+folks, the carpenters. They have a table to make, say; well, they make
+it, and then go off to bed, happy at having finished the table, and
+perfectly satisfied with themselves. Now I, on the other hand, scarcely
+get any sleep at nights. All those confounded pictures which I can't
+finish go flying about my brain. I never get anything finished and done
+with--never, never!"
+
+His voice almost broke into a sob. Then he attempted to laugh; and
+afterwards began to swear and pour forth coarse expressions, with the
+cold rage of one who, endowed with a delicate, sensitive mind, doubts
+his own powers, and dreams of wallowing in the mire. He ended by
+squatting down before one of the gratings which admit air into the
+cellars beneath the markets--cellars where the gas is continually kept
+burning. And in the depths below he pointed out Marjolin and Cadine
+tranquilly eating their supper, whilst seated on one of the stone blocks
+used for killing the poultry. The two young vagabonds had discovered a
+means of hiding themselves and making themselves at home in the cellars
+after the doors had been closed.
+
+"What a magnificent animal he is, eh!" exclaimed Claude, with envious
+admiration, speaking of Marjolin. "He and Cadine are happy, at all
+events! All they care for is eating and kissing. They haven't a care
+in the world. Ah, you do quite right, after all, to remain at the pork
+shop; perhaps you'll grow sleek and plump there."
+
+Then he suddenly went off. Florent climbed up to his garret, disturbed
+by Claude's nervous restlessness, which revived his own uncertainty.
+On the morrow, he avoided the pork shop all the morning, and went for
+a long walk on the quays. When he returned to lunch, however, he was
+struck by Lisa's kindliness. Without any undue insistence she again
+spoke to him about the inspectorship, as of something which was well
+worth his consideration. As he listened to her, with a full plate in
+front of him, he was affected, in spite of himself, by the prim comfort
+of his surroundings. The matting beneath his feet seemed very soft;
+the gleams of the brass hanging lamp, the soft, yellow tint of
+the wallpaper, and the bright oak of the furniture filled him with
+appreciation of a life spent in comfort, which disturbed his notions of
+right and wrong. He still, however, had sufficient strength to persist
+in his refusal, and repeated his reasons; albeit conscious of the bad
+taste he was showing in thus ostentatiously parading his animosity and
+obstinacy in such a place. Lisa showed no signs of vexation; on the
+contrary, she smiled, and the sweetness of her smile embarrassed Florent
+far more than her suppressed irritation of the previous evening. At
+dinner the subject was not renewed; they talked solely of the great
+winter saltings, which would keep the whole staff of the establishment
+busily employed.
+
+The evenings were growing cold, and as soon as they had dined they
+retired into the kitchen, where it was very warm. The room was so large,
+too, that several people could sit comfortably at the square central
+table, without in any way impeding the work that was going on. Lighted
+by gas, the walls were coated with white and blue tiles to a height
+of some five or six feet from the floor. On the left was a great iron
+stove, in the three apertures of which were set three large round pots,
+their bottoms black with soot. At the end was a small range, which,
+fitted with an oven and a smoking-place, served for the broiling; and
+up above, over the skimming-spoons, ladles, and long-handled forks, were
+several numbered drawers, containing rasped bread, both fine and coarse,
+toasted crumbs, spices, cloves, nutmegs, and pepper. On the right,
+leaning heavily against the wall, was the chopping-block, a huge mass
+of oak, slashed and scored all over. Attached to it were several
+appliances, an injecting pump, a forcing-machine, and a mechanical
+mincer, which, with their wheels and cranks, imparted to the place an
+uncanny and mysterious aspect, suggesting some kitchen of the infernal
+regions.
+
+Then, all round the walls upon shelves, and even under the tables,
+were iron pots, earthenware pans, dishes, pails, various kinds of tin
+utensils, a perfect battery of deep copper saucepans, and swelling
+funnels, racks of knives and choppers, rows of larding-pins and
+needles--a perfect world of greasy things. In spite of the extreme
+cleanliness, grease was paramount; it oozed forth from between the blue
+and white tiles on the wall, glistened on the red tiles of the flooring,
+gave a greyish glitter to the stove, and polished the edges of the
+chopping-block with the transparent sheen of varnished oak. And, indeed,
+amidst the ever-rising steam, the continuous evaporation from the three
+big pots, in which pork was boiling and melting, there was not a single
+nail from ceiling to floor from which grease did not exude.
+
+The Quenu-Gradelles prepared nearly all their stock themselves. All that
+they procured from outside were the potted meats of celebrated firms,
+with jars of pickles and preserves, sardines, cheese, and edible snails.
+They consequently became very busy after September in filling the
+cellars which had been emptied during the summer. They continued working
+even after the shop had been closed for the night. Assisted by Auguste
+and Leon, Quenu would stuff sausages-skins, prepare hams, melt down
+lard, and salt the different sorts of bacon. There was a tremendous
+noise of cauldrons and cleavers, and the odour of cooking spread through
+the whole house. All this was quite independent of the daily business
+in fresh pork, _pate de fois gras_, hare patty, galantine, saveloys and
+black-puddings.
+
+That evening, at about eleven o'clock, Quenu, after placing a couple of
+pots on the fire in order to melt down some lard, began to prepare the
+black-puddings. Auguste assisted him. At one corner of the square table
+Lisa and Augustine sat mending linen, whilst opposite to them, on the
+other side, with his face turned towards the fireplace, was Florent.
+Leon was mincing some sausage-meat on the oak block in a slow,
+rhythmical fashion.
+
+Auguste first of all went out into the yard to fetch a couple of
+jug-like cans full of pigs' blood. It was he who stuck the animals in
+the slaughter house. He himself would carry away the blood and interior
+portions of the pigs, leaving the men who scalded the carcasses to bring
+them home completely dressed in their carts. Quenu asserted that no
+assistant in all Paris was Auguste' equal as a pig-sticker. The truth
+was that Auguste was a wonderfully keen judge of the quality of the
+blood; and the black-pudding proved good every time that he said such
+would be the case.
+
+"Well, will the black-pudding be good this time?" asked Lisa.
+
+August put down the two cans and slowly answered: "I believe so, Madame
+Quenu; yes, I believe so. I tell it at first by the way the blood flows.
+If it spurts out very gently when I pull out the knife, that's a bad
+sign, and shows that the blood is poor."
+
+"But doesn't that depend on how far the knife has been stuck in?" asked
+Quenu.
+
+A smile came over Auguste's pale face. "No," he replied; "I always let
+four digits of the blade go in; that's the right way to measure. But the
+best sign of all is when the blood runs out and I beat it with my
+hand when it pours into the pail; it ought to be of a good warmth, and
+creamy, without being too thick."
+
+Augustine had put down her needle, and with her eyes raised was now
+gazing at Auguste. On her ruddy face, crowned by wiry chestnut hair,
+there was an expression of profound attention. Lisa and even little
+Pauline were also listening with deep interest.
+
+"Well, I beat it, and beat it, and beat it," continued the young man,
+whisking his hand about as though he were whipping cream. "And then,
+when I take my hand out and look at it, it ought to be greased, as it
+were, by the blood and equally coated all over. And if that's the case,
+anyone can say without fear of mistake that the black-puddings will be
+good."
+
+He remained for a moment in an easy attitude, complacently holding his
+hand in the air. This hand, which spent so much of its time in pails of
+blood, had brightly gleaming nails, and looked very rosy above his white
+sleeve. Quenu had nodded his head in approbation, and an interval
+of silence followed. Leon was still mincing. Pauline, however, after
+remaining thoughtful for a little while, mounted upon Florent's feet
+again, and in her clear voice exclaimed: "I say, cousin, tell me the
+story of the gentleman who was eaten by the wild beasts!"
+
+It was probably the mention of the pig's blood which had aroused in the
+child's mind the recollection of "the gentleman who had been eaten by
+the wild beasts." Florent did not at first understand what she referred
+to, and asked her what gentleman she meant. Lisa began to smile.
+
+"She wants you to tell her," she said, "the story of that unfortunate
+man--you know whom I mean--which you told to Gavard one evening. She
+must have heard you."
+
+At this Florent grew very grave. The little girl got up, and taking the
+big cat in her arms, placed it on his knees, saying that Mouton also
+would like to hear the story. Mouton, however, leapt on to the table,
+where, with rounded back, he remained contemplating the tall, scraggy
+individual who for the last fortnight had apparently afforded him matter
+for deep reflection. Pauline meantime began to grow impatient, stamping
+her feet and insisting on hearing the story.
+
+"Oh, tell her what she wants," said Lisa, as the child persisted and
+became quite unbearable; "she'll leave us in peace then."
+
+Florent remained silent for a moment longer, with his eyes turned
+towards the floor. Then slowly raising his head he let his gaze rest
+first on the two women who were plying their needles, and next on Quenu
+and Auguste, who were preparing the pot for the black-puddings. The gas
+was burning quietly, the stove diffused a gentle warmth, and all the
+grease of the kitchen glistened in an atmosphere of comfort such as
+attends good digestion
+
+Then, taking little Pauline upon his knee, and smiling a sad smile,
+Florent addressed himself to the child as follows[*]:--
+
+     [*] Florent's narrative is not romance, but is based on the
+     statements of several of the innocent victims whom the third
+     Napoleon transported to Cayenne when wading through blood to
+     the power which he so misused.--Translator.
+
+"Once upon a time there was a poor man who was sent away, a long, long
+way off, right across the sea. On the ship which carried him were four
+hundred convicts, and he was thrown among them. He was forced to live
+for five weeks amidst all those scoundrels, dressed like them in coarse
+canvas, and feeding at their mess. Foul insects preyed on him, and
+terrible sweats robbed him of all his strength. The kitchen, the
+bakehouse, and the engine-room made the orlop deck so terribly hot that
+ten of the convicts died from it. In the daytime they were sent up in
+batches of fifty to get a little fresh air from the sea; and as the crew
+of the ship feared them, a couple of cannons were pointed at the little
+bit of deck where they took exercise. The poor fellow was very glad
+indeed when his turn to go up came. His terrible perspiration then
+abated somewhat; still, he could not eat, and felt very ill. During the
+night, when he was manacled again, and the rolling of the ship in the
+rough sea kept knocking him against his companions, he quite broke down,
+and began to cry, glad to be able to do so without being seen."
+
+Pauline was listening with dilated eyes, and her little hands crossed
+primly in front of her.
+
+"But this isn't the story of the gentleman who was eaten by the wild
+beasts," she interrupted. "This is quite a different story; isn't it
+now, cousin?"
+
+"Wait a bit, and you'll see," replied Florent gently. "I shall come
+to the gentleman presently. I'm telling you the whole story from the
+beginning."
+
+"Oh, thank you," murmured the child, with a delighted expression.
+However, she remained thoughtful, evidently struggling with some great
+difficulty to which she could find no explanation. At last she spoke.
+
+"But what had the poor man done," she asked, "that he was sent away and
+put in the ship?"
+
+Lisa and Augustine smiled. They were quite charmed with the child's
+intelligence; and Lisa, without giving the little one a direct reply,
+took advantage of the opportunity to teach her a lesson by telling her
+that naughty children were also sent away in boats like that.
+
+"Oh, then," remarked Pauline judiciously, "perhaps it served my cousin's
+poor man quite right if he cried all night long."
+
+Lisa resumed her sewing, bending over her work. Quenu had not listened.
+He had been cutting some little rounds of onion over a pot placed on the
+fire; and almost at once the onions began to crackle, raising a clear
+shrill chirrup like that of grasshoppers basking in the heat. They gave
+out a pleasant odour too, and when Quenu plunged his great wooden spoon
+into the pot the chirruping became yet louder, and the whole kitchen was
+filled with the penetrating perfume of the onions. Auguste meantime was
+preparing some bacon fat in a dish, and Leon's chopper fell faster
+and faster, and every now and then scraped the block so as to gather
+together the sausage-meat, now almost a paste.
+
+"When they got across the sea," Florent continued, "they took the man to
+an island called the Devil's Island,[*] where he found himself amongst
+others who had been carried away from their own country. They were
+all very unhappy. At first they were kept to hard labour, just like
+convicts. The gendarme who had charge of them counted them three times
+every day, so as to be sure that none were missing. Later on, they were
+left free to do as they liked, being merely locked up at night in a big
+wooden hut, where they slept in hammocks stretched between two bars.
+At the end of the year they went about barefooted, as their boots were
+quite worn out, and their clothes had become so ragged that their flesh
+showed through them. They had built themselves some huts with trunks
+of trees as a shelter against the sun, which is terribly hot in those
+parts; but these huts did not shield them against the mosquitoes, which
+covered them with pimples and swellings during the night. Many of them
+died, and the others turned quite yellow, so shrunken and wretched,
+with their long, unkempt beards, that one could not behold them without
+pity."
+
+     [*] The Ile du Diable. This spot was selected as the place
+     of detention of Captain Dreyfus, the French officer
+     convicted in 1894 of having divulged important military
+     documents to foreign powers.--Translator.
+
+"Auguste, give me the fat," cried Quenu; and when the apprentice had
+handed him the dish he let the pieces of bacon-fat slide gently into the
+pot, and then stirred them with his spoon. A yet denser steam now rose
+from the fireplace.
+
+"What did they give them to eat?" asked little Pauline, who seemed
+deeply interested.
+
+"They gave them maggoty rice and foul meat," answered Florent, whose
+voice grew lower as he spoke. "The rice could scarcely be eaten. When
+the meat was roasted and very well done it was just possible to swallow
+it; but if it was boiled, it smelt so dreadfully that the men had nausea
+and stomach ache."
+
+"I'd rather have lived upon dry bread," said the child, after thinking
+the matter carefully over.
+
+Leon, having finished the mincing, now placed the sausage-meat upon the
+square table in a dish. Mouton, who had remained seated with his eyes
+fixed upon Florent, as though filled with amazement by his story, was
+obliged to retreat a few steps, which he did with a very bad grace. Then
+he rolled himself up, with his nose close to the sausage-meat, and began
+to purr.
+
+Lisa was unable to conceal her disgust and amazement. That foul
+rice, that evil-smelling meat, seemed to her to be scarcely credible
+abominations, which disgraced those who had eaten them as much as it did
+those who had provided them; and her calm, handsome face and round neck
+quivered with vague fear of the man who had lived upon such horrid food.
+
+"No, indeed, it was not a land of delights," Florent resumed, forgetting
+all about little Pauline, and fixing his dreamy eyes upon the steaming
+pot. "Every day brought fresh annoyances--perpetual grinding tyranny,
+the violation of every principle of justice, contempt for all human
+charity, which exasperated the prisoners, and slowly consumed them with
+a fever of sickly rancour. They lived like wild beasts, with the lash
+ceaselessly raised over their backs. Those torturers would have liked to
+kill the poor man--Oh, no; it can never be forgotten; it is impossible!
+Such sufferings will some day claim vengeance."
+
+His voice had fallen, and the pieces of fat hissing merrily in the pot
+drowned it with the sound of their boiling. Lisa, however, heard him,
+and was frightened by the implacable expression which had suddenly come
+over his face; and, recollecting the gentle look which he habitually
+wore, she judged him to be a hypocrite.
+
+Florent's hollow voice had brought Pauline's interest and delight to the
+highest pitch, and she fidgeted with pleasure on his knee.
+
+"But the man?" she exclaimed. "Go on about the man!"
+
+Florent looked at her, and then appeared to remember, and smiled his sad
+smile again.
+
+"The man," he continued, "was weary of remaining on the island, and
+had but one thought--that of making his escape by crossing the sea
+and reaching the mainland, whose white coast line could be seen on the
+horizon in clear weather. But it was no easy matter to escape. It was
+necessary that a raft should be built, and as several of the prisoners
+had already made their escape, all the trees on the island had been
+felled to prevent the others from obtaining timber. The island was,
+indeed, so bare and naked, so scorched by the blazing sun, that life in
+it had become yet more perilous and terrible. However, it occurred to
+the man and two of his companions to employ the timbers of which their
+huts were built; and one evening they put out to sea on some rotten
+beams, which they had fastened together with dry branches. The wind
+carried them towards the coast. Just as daylight was about to appear,
+the raft struck on a sandbank with such violence that the beams were
+severed from their lashings and carried out to sea. The three poor
+fellows were almost engulfed in the sand. Two of them sank in it to
+their waists, while the third disappeared up to his chin, and his
+companions were obliged to pull him out. At last they reached a rock,
+so small that there was scarcely room for them to sit down upon it. When
+the sun rose they could see the coast in front of them, a bar of grey
+cliffs stretching all along the horizon. Two, who knew how to swim,
+determined to reach those cliffs. They preferred to run the risk of
+being drowned at once to that of slowly starving on the rock. But they
+promised their companion that they would return for him when they had
+reached land and had been able to procure a boat."
+
+"Ah, I know now!" cried little Pauline, clapping her hands with glee.
+"It's the story of the gentleman who was eaten by the crabs!"
+
+"They succeeded in reaching the coast," continued Florent, "but it was
+quite deserted; and it was only at the end of four days that they were
+able to get a boat. When they returned to the rock, they found their
+companion lying on his back, dead, and half-eaten by crabs, which were
+still swarming over what remained of his body."[*]
+
+     [*] In deference to the easily shocked feelings of the
+     average English reader I have somewhat modified this
+     passage. In the original M. Zola fully describes the awful
+     appearance of the body.--Translator.
+A murmur of disgust escaped Lisa and Augustine, and a horrified grimace
+passed over the face of Leon, who was preparing the skins for the
+black-puddings. Quenu stopped in the midst of his work and looked
+at Auguste, who seemed to have turned faint. Only little Pauline
+was smiling. In imagination the others could picture those swarming,
+ravenous crabs crawling all over the kitchen, and mingling gruesome
+odours with the aroma of the bacon-fat and onions.
+
+"Give me the blood," cried Quenu, who had not been following the story.
+
+Auguste came up to him with the two cans, from which he slowly
+poured the blood, while Quenu, as it fell, vigorously stirred the
+now thickening contents of the pot. When the cans were emptied, Quenu
+reached up to one of the drawers above the range, and took out some
+pinches of spice. Then he added a plentiful seasoning of pepper.
+
+"They left him there, didn't they," Lisa now asked of Florent, "and
+returned themselves in safety?"
+
+"As they were going back," continued Florent, "the wind changed, and
+they were driven out into the open sea. A wave carried away one of their
+oars, and the water swept so furiously into the boat that their whole
+time was taken up in baling it out with their hands. They tossed about
+in this way in sight of the coast, carried away by squalls and then
+brought back again by the tide, without a mouthful of bread to eat, for
+their scanty stock of provisions had been consumed. This went on for
+three days."
+
+"Three days!" cried Lisa in stupefaction; "three days without food!"
+
+"Yes, three days without food. When the east wind at last brought them
+to shore, one of them was so weak that he lay on the beach the whole
+day. In the evening he died. His companion had vainly attempted to get
+him to chew some leaves which he gathered from the trees."
+
+At this point Augustine broke into a slight laugh. Then, ashamed at
+having done so and not wishing to be considered heartless, she stammered
+out in confusion: "Oh! I wasn't laughing at that. It was Mouton. Do just
+look at Mouton, madame."
+
+Then Lisa in her turn began to smile. Mouton, who had been lying all
+this time with his nose close to the dish of sausage-meat, had probably
+begun to feel distressed and disgusted by the presence of all this food,
+for he had risen and was rapidly scratching the table with his paws as
+though he wanted to bury the dish and its contents. At last, however,
+turning his back to it and lying down on his side, he stretched himself
+out, half closing his eyes and rubbing his head against the table with
+languid pleasure. Then they all began to compliment Mouton. He never
+stole anything, they said, and could be safely left with the meat.
+Pauline related that he licked her fingers and washed her face after
+dinner without trying to bite her.
+
+However, Lisa now came back to the question as to whether it were
+possible to live for three days without food. In her opinion it was not.
+"No," she said, "I can't believe it. No one ever goes three days
+without food. When people talk of a person dying of hunger, it is a mere
+expression. They always get something to eat, more or less. It is only
+the most abandoned wretches, people who are utterly lost----"
+
+She was doubtless going to add, "vagrant rogues," but she stopped short
+and looked at Florent. The scornful pout of her lips and the expression
+of her bright eyes plainly signified that in her belief only villains
+made such prolonged fasts. It seemed to her that a man able to remain
+without food for three days must necessarily be a very dangerous
+character. For, indeed, honest folks never placed themselves in such a
+position.
+
+Florent was now almost stifling. In front of him the stove, into which
+Leon had just thrown several shovelfuls of coal, was snoring like a lay
+clerk asleep in the sun; and the heat was very great. Auguste, who had
+taken charge of the lard melting in the pots, was watching over it in a
+state of perspiration, and Quenu wiped his brow with his sleeve whilst
+waiting for the blood to mix. A drowsiness such as follows gross
+feeding, an atmosphere heavy with indigestion, pervaded the kitchen.
+
+"When the man had buried his comrade in the sand," Florent continued
+slowly, "he walked off alone straight in front of him. Dutch Guiana, in
+which country he now was, is a land of forests intermingled with rivers
+and swamps. The man walked on for more than a week without coming across
+a single human dwelling-place. All around, death seemed to be lurking
+and lying in wait for him. Though his stomach was racked by hunger, he
+often did not dare to eat the bright-coloured fruits which hung from the
+trees; he was afraid to touch the glittering berries, fearing lest they
+should be poisonous. For whole days he did not see a patch of sky, but
+tramped on beneath a canopy of branches, amidst a greenish gloom that
+swarmed with horrible living creatures. Great birds flew over his head
+with a terrible flapping of wings and sudden strange calls resembling
+death groans; apes sprang, wild animals rushed through the thickets
+around him, bending the saplings and bringing down a rain of leaves, as
+though a gale were passing. But it was particularly the serpents that
+turned his blood cold when, stepping upon a matting of moving, withered
+leaves, he caught sight of their slim heads gliding amidst a horrid maze
+of roots. In certain nooks, nooks of dank shadow, swarming colonies
+of reptiles--some black, some yellow, some purple, some striped, some
+spotted, and some resembling withered reeds--suddenly awakened into life
+and wriggled away. At such times the man would stop and look about for
+a stone on which he might take refuge from the soft yielding ground
+into which his feet sank; and there he would remain for hours,
+terror-stricken on espying in some open space near by a boa, who,
+with tail coiled and head erect, swayed like the trunk of a big tree
+splotched with gold.
+
+"At night he used to sleep in the trees, alarmed by the slightest
+rustling of the branches, and fancying that he could hear endless swarms
+of serpents gliding through the gloom. He almost stifled beneath the
+interminable expanse of foliage. The gloomy shade reeked with close,
+oppressive heat, a clammy dankness and pestilential sweat, impregnated
+with the coarse aroma of scented wood and malodorous flowers.
+
+"And when at last, after a long weary tramp, the man made his way out of
+the forest and beheld the sky again, he found himself confronted by wide
+rivers which barred his way. He skirted their banks, keeping a watchful
+eye on the grey backs of the alligators and the masses of drifting
+vegetation, and then, when he came to a less suspicious-looking spot,
+he swam across. And beyond the rivers the forests began again. At other
+times there were vast prairie lands, leagues of thick vegetation, in
+which, at distant intervals, small lakes gleamed bluely. The man then
+made a wide detour, and sounded the ground beneath him before advancing,
+having but narrowly escaped from being swallowed up and buried beneath
+one of those smiling plains which he could hear cracking at each step he
+took. The giant grass, nourished by all the collected humus, concealed
+pestiferous marshes, depths of liquid mud; and amongst the expanses of
+verdure spread over the glaucous immensity to the very horizon there
+were only narrow stretches of firm ground with which the traveller must
+be acquainted if he would avoid disappearing for ever. One night the
+man sank down as far as his waist. At each effort he made to extricate
+himself the mud threatened to rise to his mouth. Then he remained
+quite still for nearly a couple of hours; and when the moon rose he was
+fortunately able to catch hold of a branch of a tree above his head. By
+the time he reached a human dwelling his hands and feet were bruised and
+bleeding, swollen with poisonous stings. He presented such a pitiable,
+famished appearance that those who saw him were afraid of him. They
+tossed him some food fifty yards away from the house, and the master of
+it kept guard over his door with a loaded gun."
+
+Florent stopped, his voice choked by emotion, and his eyes gazing
+blankly before him. For some minutes he had seemed to be speaking to
+himself alone. Little Pauline, who had grown drowsy, was lying in his
+arms with her head thrown back, though striving to keep her wondering
+eyes open. And Quenu, for his part, appeared to be getting impatient.
+
+"Why, you stupid!" he shouted to Leon, "don't you know how to hold a
+skin yet? What do you stand staring at me for? It's the skin you should
+look at, not me! There, hold it like that, and don't move again!"
+
+With his right hand Leon was raising a long string of sausage-skin, at
+one end of which a very wide funnel was inserted; while with his left
+hand he coiled the black-pudding round a metal bowl as fast as Quenu
+filled the funnel with big spoonfuls of the meat. The latter, black and
+steaming, flowed through the funnel, gradually inflating the skin, which
+fell down again, gorged to repletion and curving languidly. As Quenu had
+removed the pot from the range both he and Leon stood out prominently,
+he broad visaged, and the lad slender of profile, in the burning glow
+which cast over their pale faces and white garments a flood of rosy
+light.
+
+Lisa and Augustine watched the filling of the skin with great interest,
+Lisa especially; and she in her turn found fault with Leon because he
+nipped the skin too tightly with his fingers, which caused knots to
+form, she said. When the skin was quite full, Quenu let it slip gently
+into a pot of boiling water; and seemed quite easy in his mind again,
+for now nothing remained but to leave it to boil.
+
+"And the man--go on about the man!" murmured Pauline, opening her eyes,
+and surprised at no longer hearing the narrative.
+
+Florent rocked her on his knee, and resumed his story in a slow,
+murmuring voice, suggestive of that of a nurse singing an infant to
+sleep.
+
+"The man," he said, "arrived at a large town. There he was at first
+taken for an escaped convict, and was kept in prison for several months.
+Then he was released, and turned his hand to all sorts of work. He
+kept accounts and taught children to read, and at one time he was even
+employed as a navvy in making an embankment. He was continually hoping
+to return to his own country. He had saved the necessary amount of money
+when he was attacked by yellow fever. Then, believing him to be dead,
+those about him divided his clothes amongst themselves; so that when he
+at last recovered he had not even a shirt left. He had to begin all over
+again. The man was very weak, and was afraid he might have to remain
+where he was. But at last he was able to get away, and he returned."
+
+His voice had sunk lower and lower, and now died away altogether in a
+final quivering of his lips. The close of the story had lulled little
+Pauline to sleep, and she was now slumbering with her head on Florent's
+shoulder. He held her with one arm, and still gently rocked her on his
+knee. No one seemed to pay any further attention to him, so he remained
+still and quiet where he was, holding the sleeping child.
+
+Now came the tug of war, as Quenu said. He had to remove the
+black-puddings from the pot. In order to avoid breaking them or getting
+them entangled, he coiled them round a thick wooden pin as he drew them
+out, and then carried them into the yard and hung them on screens, where
+they quickly dried. Leon helped him, holding up the drooping ends. And
+as these reeking festoons of black-pudding crossed the kitchen they left
+behind them a trail of odorous steam, which still further thickened the
+dense atmosphere.
+
+Auguste, on his side, after giving a hasty glance at the lard moulds,
+now took the covers off the two pots in which the fat was simmering, and
+each bursting bubble discharged an acrid vapour into the kitchen. The
+greasy haze had been gradually rising ever since the beginning of
+the evening, and now it shrouded the gas and pervaded the whole room,
+streaming everywhere, and veiling the ruddy whiteness of Quenu and his
+two assistants. Lisa and Augustine had risen from their seats; and all
+were panting as though they had eaten too much.
+
+Augustine carried the sleeping Pauline upstairs; and Quenu, who liked to
+fasten up the kitchen himself, gave Auguste and Leon leave to go to
+bed, saying that he would fetch the black-pudding himself. The younger
+apprentice stole off with a very red face, having managed to secrete
+under his shirt nearly a yard of the pudding, which must have almost
+scalded him. Then the Quenus and Florent remained alone, in silence.
+Lisa stood nibbling a little piece of the hot pudding, keeping her
+pretty lips well apart all the while, for fear of burning them, and
+gradually the black compound vanished in her rosy mouth.
+
+"Well," said she, "La Normande was foolish in behaving so rudely; the
+black-pudding's excellent to-day."
+
+However, there was a knock at the passage door, and Gavard, who stayed
+at Monsieur Lebigre's every evening until midnight, came in. He had
+called for a definite answer about the fish inspectorship.
+
+"You must understand," he said, "that Monsieur Verlaque cannot wait any
+longer; he is too ill. So Florent must make up his mind. I have promised
+to give a positive answer early to-morrow."
+
+"Well, Florent accepts," Lisa quietly remarked, taking another nibble at
+some black-pudding.
+
+Florent, who had remained in his chair, overcome by a strange feeling of
+prostration, vainly endeavoured to rise and protest.
+
+"No, no, say nothing," continued Lisa; "the matter is quite settled. You
+have suffered quite enough already, my dear Florent. What you have just
+been telling us is enough to make one shudder. It is time now for you
+to settle down. You belong to a respectable family, you received a good
+education, and it is really not fitting that you should go wandering
+about the highways like a vagrant. At your age childishness is no longer
+excusable. You have been foolish; well, all that will be forgotten
+and forgiven. You will take your place again among those of your own
+class--the class of respectable folks--and live in future like other
+people."
+
+Florent listened in astonishment, quite unable to say a word. Lisa
+was, doubtless, right. She looked so healthy, so serene, that it was
+impossible to imagine that she desired anything but what was proper. It
+was he, with his fleshless body and dark, equivocal-looking countenance,
+who must be in the wrong, and indulging in unrighteous dreams. He could,
+indeed, no longer understand why he had hitherto resisted.
+
+Lisa, however, continued to talk to him with an abundant flow of words,
+as though he were a little boy found in fault and threatened with the
+police. She assumed, indeed, a most maternal manner, and plied him with
+the most convincing reasons. And at last, as a final argument, she said:
+
+"Do it for us, Florent. We occupy a fair position in the neighbourhood
+which obliges us to use a certain amount of circumspection; and, to tell
+you the truth, between ourselves, I'm afraid that people will begin
+to talk. This inspectorship will set everything right; you will be
+somebody; you will even be an honour to us."
+
+Her manner had become caressingly persuasive, and Florent was penetrated
+by all the surrounding plenteousness, all the aroma filling the kitchen,
+where he fed, as it were, on the nourishment floating in the atmosphere.
+He sank into blissful meanness, born of all the copious feeding that
+went on in the sphere of plenty in which he had been living during the
+last fortnight. He felt, as it were, the titillation of forming fat
+which spread slowly all over his body. He experienced the languid
+beatitude of shopkeepers, whose chief concern is to fill their bellies.
+At this late hour of night, in the warm atmosphere of the kitchen, all
+his acerbity and determination melted away. That peaceable evening,
+with the odour of the black-pudding and the lard, and the sight of plump
+little Pauline slumbering on his knee, had so enervated him that he
+found himself wishing for a succession of such evenings--endless ones
+which would make him fat.
+
+However, it was the sight of Mouton that chiefly decided him. Mouton was
+sound asleep, with his stomach turned upwards, one of his paws resting
+on his nose, and his tail twisted over this side, as though to keep him
+warm; and he was slumbering with such an expression of feline happiness
+that Florent, as he gazed at him, murmured: "No, it would be too
+foolish! I accept the berth. Say that I accept it, Gavard."
+
+Then Lisa finished eating her black-pudding, and wiped her fingers on
+the edge of her apron. And next she got her brother-in-law's candle
+ready for him, while Gavard and Quenu congratulated him on his decision.
+It was always necessary for a man to settle down, said they; the
+breakneck freaks of politics did not provide one with food. And,
+meantime, Lisa, standing there with the lighted candle in her hand,
+looked at him with an expression of satisfaction resting on her handsome
+face, placid like that of some sacred cow.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Three days later the necessary formalities were gone through, and
+without demur the police authorities at the Prefecture accepted Florent
+on Monsieur Verlaque's recommendation as his substitute. Gavard, by the
+way, had made it a point to accompany them. When he again found himself
+alone with Florent he kept nudging his ribs with his elbow as they
+walked along together, and laughed, without saying anything, while
+winking his eyes in a jeering way. He seemed to find something very
+ridiculous in the appearance of the police officers whom they met on
+the Quai de l'Horloge, for, as he passed them, he slightly shrugged his
+shoulders and made the grimace of a man seeking to restrain himself from
+laughing in people's faces.
+
+On the following morning Monsieur Verlaque began to initiate the new
+inspector into the duties of his office. It had been arranged that
+during the next few days he should make him acquainted with the
+turbulent sphere which he would have to supervise. Poor Verlaque,
+as Gavard called him was a pale little man, swathed in flannels,
+handkerchiefs, and mufflers. Constantly coughing, he made his way
+through the cool, moist atmosphere, and running waters of the fish
+market, on a pair of scraggy legs like those of a sickly child.
+
+When Florent made his appearance on the first morning, at seven o'clock,
+he felt quite distracted; his eyes were dazed, his head ached with
+all the noise and riot. Retail dealers were already prowling about
+the auction pavilion; clerks were arriving with their ledgers, and
+consigners' agents, with leather bags slung over their shoulders, sat
+on overturned chairs by the salesmen's desks, waiting to receive their
+cash. Fish was being unloaded and unpacked not only in the enclosure,
+but even on the footways. All along the latter were piles of small
+baskets, an endless arrival of cases and hampers, and sacks of mussels,
+from which streamlets of water trickled. The auctioneers' assistants,
+all looking very busy, sprang over the heaps, tore away the straw at
+the tops of the baskets, emptied the latter, and tossed them aside.
+They then speedily transferred their contents in lots to huge wickerwork
+trays, arranging them with a turn of the hand so that they might show
+to the best advantage. And when the large tray-like baskets were all
+set out, Florent could almost fancy that a whole shoal of fish had got
+stranded there, still quivering with life, and gleaming with rosy nacre,
+scarlet coral, and milky pearl, all the soft, pale, sheeny hues of the
+ocean.
+
+The deep-lying forests of seaweed, in which the mysterious life of the
+ocean slumbers, seemed at one haul of the nets to have yielded up all
+they contained. There were cod, keeling, whiting, flounders, plaice,
+dabs, and other sorts of common fish of a dingy grey with whitish
+splotches; there were conger-eels, huge serpent-like creatures, with
+small black eyes and muddy, bluish skins, so slimy that they still
+seemed to be gliding along, yet alive. There were broad flat skate
+with pale undersides edged with a soft red, and superb backs bumpy with
+vertebrae, and marbled down to the tautly stretched ribs of their
+fins with splotches of cinnabar, intersected by streaks of the tint of
+Florentine bronze--a dark medley of colour suggestive of the hues of a
+toad or some poisonous flower. Then, too, there were hideous dog-fish,
+with round heads, widely-gaping mouths like those of Chinese idols, and
+short fins like bats' wings; fit monsters to keep yelping guard over the
+treasures of the ocean grottoes. And next came the finer fish, displayed
+singly on the osier trays; salmon that gleamed like chased silver, every
+scale seemingly outlined by a graving-tool on a polished metal surface;
+mullet with larger scales and coarser markings; large turbot and huge
+brill with firm flesh white like curdled milk; tunny-fish, smooth and
+glossy, like bags of blackish leather; and rounded bass, with widely
+gaping mouths which a soul too large for the body seemed to have rent
+asunder as it forced its way out amidst the stupefaction of death. And
+on all sides there were sole, brown and grey, in pairs; sand-eels, slim
+and stiff, like shavings of pewter; herrings, slightly twisted, with
+bleeding gills showing on their silver-worked skins; fat dories tinged
+with just a suspicion of carmine; burnished mackerel with green-streaked
+backs, and sides gleaming with ever-changing iridescence; and rosy
+gurnets with white bellies, their head towards the centre of the baskets
+and their tails radiating all around, so that they simulated some
+strange florescence splotched with pearly white and brilliant vermilion.
+There were rock mullet, too, with delicious flesh, flushed with the
+pinky tinge peculiar to the Cyprinus family; boxes of whiting with
+opaline reflections; and baskets of smelts--neat little baskets, pretty
+as those used for strawberries, and exhaling a strong scent of violets.
+And meantime the tiny black eyes of the shrimps dotted as with beads
+of jet their soft-toned mass of pink and grey; and spiny crawfish and
+lobsters striped with black, all still alive, raised a grating sound as
+they tried to crawl along with their broken claws.
+
+Florent gave but indifferent attention to Monsieur Verlaque's
+explanations. A flood of sunshine suddenly streamed through the lofty
+glass roof of the covered way, lighting up all these precious colours,
+toned and softened by the waves--the iridescent flesh-tints of the
+shell-fish, the opal of the whiting, the pearly nacre of the mackerel,
+the ruddy gold of the mullets, the plated skins of the herrings, and
+massive silver of the salmon. It was as though the jewel-cases of some
+sea-nymph had been emptied there--a mass of fantastical, undreamt-of
+ornaments, a streaming and heaping of necklaces, monstrous bracelets,
+gigantic brooches, barbaric gems and jewels, the use of which could not
+be divined. On the backs of the skate and the dog-fish you saw, as it
+were, big dull green and purple stones set in dark metal, while the
+slender forms of the sand-eels and the tails and fins of the smelts
+displayed all the delicacy of finely wrought silver-work.
+
+And meantime Florent's face was fanned by a fresh breeze, a sharp, salt
+breeze redolent of the sea. It reminded him of the coasts of Guiana and
+his voyages. He half fancied that he was gazing at some bay left dry by
+the receding tide, with the seaweed steaming in the sun, the bare rocks
+drying, and the beach smelling strongly of the brine. All around him
+the fish in their perfect freshness exhaled a pleasant perfume, that
+slightly sharp, irritating perfume which depraves the appetite.
+
+Monsieur Verlaque coughed. The dampness was affecting him, and he
+wrapped his muffler more closely about his neck.
+
+"Now," said he, "we will pass on to the fresh water fish."
+
+This was in a pavilion beside the fruit market, the last one, indeed, in
+the direction of the Rue Rambuteau. On either side of the space reserved
+for the auctions were large circular stone basins, divided into separate
+compartments by iron gratings. Slender streams of water flowed from
+brass jets shaped like swan's necks; and the compartments were filled
+with swarming colonies of crawfish, black-backed carp ever on the
+move, and mazy tangles of eels, incessantly knotting and unknotting
+themselves. Again was Monsieur Verlaque attacked by an obstinate fit
+of coughing. The moisture of the atmosphere was more insipid here
+than amongst the sea water fish: there was a riverside scent, as of
+sun-warmed water slumbering on a bed of sand.
+
+A great number of crawfishes had arrived from Germany that morning in
+cases and hampers, and the market was also crowded with river fish from
+Holland and England. Several men were unpacking shiny carp from the
+Rhine, lustrous with ruddy metallic hues, their scales resembling
+bronzed _cloisonne_ enamel; and others were busy with huge pike, the
+cruel iron-grey brigands of the waters, who ravenously protruded their
+savage jaws; or with magnificent dark-hued with verdigris. And amidst
+these suggestions of copper, iron, and bronze, the gudgeon and perch,
+the trout, the bleak, and the flat-fish taken in sweep-nets showed
+brightly white, the steel-blue tints of their backs gradually toning
+down to the soft transparency of their bellies. However, it was the
+fat snowy-white barbel that supplied the liveliest brightness in this
+gigantic collection of still life.
+
+Bags of young carp were being gently emptied into the basins. The fish
+spun round, then remained motionless for a moment, and at last shot away
+and disappeared. Little eels were turned out of their hampers in a mass,
+and fell to the bottom of the compartments like tangled knots of snakes;
+while the larger ones--those whose bodies were about as thick as a
+child's arm--raised their heads and slipped of their own accord into the
+water with the supple motion of serpents gliding into the concealment
+of a thicket. And meantime the other fish, whose death agony had
+been lasting all the morning as they lay on the soiled osiers of the
+basket-trays, slowly expired amidst all the uproar of the auctions,
+opening their mouths as though to inhale the moisture of the air, with
+great silent gasps, renewed every few seconds.
+
+However, Monsieur Verlaque brought Florent back to the salt water fish.
+He took him all over the place and gave him the minutest particulars
+about everything. Round the nine salesmen's desks ranged along three
+sides of the pavilion there was now a dense crowd of surging, swaying
+heads, above which appeared the clerks, perched upon high chairs and
+making entries in their ledgers.
+
+"Are all these clerks employed by the salesmen?" asked Florent.
+
+By way of reply Monsieur Verlaque made a detour along the outside
+footway, led him into the enclosure of one of the auctions, and then
+explained the working of the various departments of the big yellow
+office, which smelt strongly of fish and was stained all over
+by drippings and splashings from the hampers. In a little glazed
+compartment up above, the collector of the municipal dues took note of
+the prices realised by the different lots of fish. Lower down, seated
+upon high chairs and with their wrists resting upon little desks, were
+two female clerks, who kept account of the business on behalf of the
+salesmen. At each end of the stone table in front of the office was a
+crier who brought the basket-trays forward in turn, and in a bawling
+voice announced what each lot consisted of; while above him the female
+clerk, pen in hand, waited to register the price at which the lots
+were knocked down. And outside the enclosure, shut up in another little
+office of yellow wood, Monsieur Verlaque showed Florent the cashier, a
+fat old woman, who was ranging coppers and five-franc pierces in piles.
+
+"There is a double control, you see," said Monsieur Verlaque; "the
+control of the Prefecture of the Seine and that of the Prefecture of
+Police. The latter, which licenses the salesmen, claims to have the
+right of supervision over them; and the municipality asserts its right
+to be represented at the transactions as they are subject to taxation."
+
+He went on expatiating at length in his faint cold voice respecting the
+rival claims of the two Prefectures. Florent, however, was paying but
+little heed, his attention being concentrated on a female clerk sitting
+on one of the high chairs just in front of him. She was a tall, dark
+woman of thirty, with big black eyes and an easy calmness of manner, and
+she wrote with outstretched fingers like a girl who had been taught the
+regulation method of the art.
+
+However, Florent's attention was diverted by the yelping of the crier,
+who was just offering a magnificent turbot for sale.
+
+"I've a bid of thirty francs! Thirty francs, now; thirty francs!"
+
+He repeated these words in all sorts of keys, running up and down a
+strange scale of notes full of sudden changes. Humpbacked and with his
+face twisted askew, and his hair rough and disorderly, he wore a great
+blue apron with a bib; and with flaming eyes and outstretched arms he
+cried vociferously: "Thirty-one! thirty-two! thirty-three! Thirty-three
+francs fifty centimes! thirty-three fifty!"
+
+Then he paused to take breath, turning the basket-tray and pushing it
+farther upon the table. The fish-wives bent forward and gently touched
+the turbot with their finger-tips. Then the crier began again with
+renewed energy, hurling his figures towards the buyers with a wave
+of the hand and catching the slightest indication of a fresh bid--the
+raising of a finger, a twist of the eyebrows, a pouting of the lips, a
+wink, and all with such rapidity and such a ceaseless jumble of words
+that Florent, utterly unable to follow him, felt quite disconcerted
+when, in a sing-song voice like that of a priest intoning the final
+words of a versicle, he chanted: "Forty-two! forty-two! The turbot goes
+for forty-two francs."
+
+It was the beautiful Norman who had made the last bid. Florent
+recognised her as she stood in the line of fish-wives crowding against
+the iron rails which surrounded the enclosure. The morning was fresh
+and sharp, and there was a row of tippets above the display of big white
+aprons, covering the prominent bosoms and stomachs and sturdy shoulders.
+With high-set chignon set off with curls, and white and dainty skin,
+the beautiful Norman flaunted her lace bow amidst tangled shocks of
+hair covered with dirty kerchiefs, red noses eloquent of drink,
+sneering mouths, and battered faces suggestive of old pots. And she also
+recognised Madame Quenu's cousin, and was so surprised to see him there
+that she began gossiping to her neighbours about him.
+
+The uproar of voices had become so great that Monsieur Verlaque
+renounced all further attempt to explain matters to Florent. On the
+footway close by, men were calling out the larger fish with
+prolonged shouts, which sounded as though they came from gigantic
+speaking-trumpets; and there was one individual who roared "Mussels!
+Mussels!" in such a hoarse, cracked, clamorous voice that the very roofs
+of the market shook. Some sacks of mussels were turned upside down,
+and their contents poured into hampers, while others were emptied with
+shovels. And there was a ceaseless procession of basket-trays containing
+skate, soles, mackerel, conger-eels, and salmon, carried backwards and
+forwards amidst the ever-increasing cackle and pushing of the fish-women
+as they crowded against the iron rails which creaked with their
+pressure. The humpbacked crier, now fairly on the job, waved his skinny
+arms in the air and protruded his jaws. Presently, seemingly lashed into
+a state of frenzy by the flood of figures that spurted from his lips, he
+sprang upon a stool, where, with his mouth twisted spasmodically and
+his hair streaming behind him, he could force nothing more than
+unintelligible hisses from his parched throat. And in the meantime, up
+above, the collector of municipal dues, a little old man, muffled in
+a collar of imitation astrachan, remained with nothing but his nose
+showing under his black velvet skullcap. And the tall, dark-complexioned
+female clerk, with eyes shining calmly in her face, which had been
+slightly reddened by the cold, sat on her high wooden chair, quietly
+writing, apparently unruffled by the continuous rattle which came from
+the hunchback below her.
+
+"That fellow Logre is wonderful," muttered Monsieur Verlaque with a
+smile. "He is the best crier in the markets. I believe he could make
+people buy boot soles in the belief they were fish!"
+
+Then he and Florent went back into the pavilion. As they again passed
+the spot where the fresh water fish was being sold by auction, and where
+the bidding seemed much quieter, Monsieur Verlaque explained that French
+river fishing was in a bad way.[*] The crier here, a fair, sorry-looking
+fellow, who scarcely moved his arms, was disposing of some lots of eels
+and crawfish in a monotonous voice, while the assistants fished fresh
+supplies out of the stone basins with their short-handled nets.
+
+     [*] M. Zola refers, of course, to the earlier years of the
+     Second Empire. Under the present republican Government,
+     which has largely fostered fish culture, matters have
+     considerably improved.--Translator.
+
+However, the crowd round the salesmen's desks was still increasing.
+Monsieur Verlaque played his part as Florent's instructor in the most
+conscientious manner, clearing the way by means of his elbows, and
+guiding his successor through the busiest parts. The upper-class retail
+dealers were there, quietly waiting for some of the finer fish, or
+loading the porters with their purchases of turbot, tunny, and salmon.
+The street-hawkers who had clubbed together to buy lots of herrings and
+small flat-fish were dividing them on the pavement. There were also some
+people of the smaller middle class, from distant parts of the city, who
+had come down at four o'clock in the morning to buy a really fresh fish,
+and had ended by allowing some enormous lot, costing from forty to fifty
+francs, to be knocked down to them, with the result that they would
+be obliged to spend the whole day in getting their friends and
+acquaintances to take the surplus off their hands. Every now and then
+some violent pushing would force a gap through part of the crowd. A
+fish-wife, who had got tightly jammed, freed herself, shaking her fists
+and pouring out a torrent of abuse. Then a compact mass of people again
+collected, and Florent, almost suffocated, declared that he had seen
+quite enough, and understood all that was necessary.
+
+As Monsieur Verlaque was helping him to extricate himself from the
+crowd, they found themselves face to face with the handsome Norman.
+She remained stock-still in front of them, and with her queenly air
+inquired:
+
+"Well, is it quite settled? You are going to desert us, Monsieur
+Verlaque?"
+
+"Yes, yes," replied the little man; "I am going to take a rest in the
+country, at Clamart. The smell of the fish is bad for me, it seems.
+Here, this is the gentleman who is going to take my place."
+
+So speaking he turned round to introduce Florent to her. The handsome
+Norman almost choked; however, as Florent went off, he fancied he could
+hear her whisper to her neighbours, with a laugh: "Well, we shall have
+some fine fun now, see if we don't!"
+
+The fish-wives had begun to set out their stalls. From all the taps at
+the corners of the marble slabs water was gushing freely; and there was
+a rustling sound all round, like the plashing of rain, a streaming of
+stiff jets of water hissing and spurting. And then, from the lower side
+of the sloping slabs, great drops fell with a softened murmur, splashing
+on the flagstones where a mass of tiny streams flowed along here
+and there, turning holes and depressions into miniature lakes, and
+afterwards gliding in a thousand rills down the slope towards the Rue
+Rambuteau. A moist haze ascended, a sort of rainy dust, bringing fresh
+whiffs of air to Florent's face, whiffs of that salt, pungent sea breeze
+which he remembered so well; while in such fish as was already laid out
+he once more beheld the rosy nacres, gleaming corals, and milky pearls,
+all the rippling colour and glaucous pallidity of the ocean world.
+
+That first morning left him much in doubt; indeed, he regretted that he
+had yielded to Lisa's insistence. Ever since his escape from the greasy
+drowsiness of the kitchen he had been accusing himself of base weakness
+with such violence that tears had almost risen in his eyes. But he did
+not dare to go back on his word. He was a little afraid of Lisa, and
+could see the curl of her lips and the look of mute reproach upon her
+handsome face. He felt that she was too serious a woman to be trifled
+with. However, Gavard happily inspired him with a consoling thought.
+On the evening of the day on which Monsieur Verlaque had conducted him
+through the auction sales, Gavard took him aside and told him, with a
+good deal of hesitation, that "the poor devil" was not at all well off.
+And after various remarks about the scoundrelly Government which ground
+the life out of its servants without allowing them even the means to die
+in comfort, he ended by hinting that it would be charitable on Florent's
+part to surrender a part of his salary to the old inspector. Florent
+welcomed the suggestion with delight. It was only right, he considered,
+for he looked upon himself simply as Monsieur Verlaque's temporary
+substitute; and besides, he himself really required nothing, as he
+boarded and lodged with his brother. Gavard added that he thought if
+Florent gave up fifty francs out of the hundred and fifty which he
+would receive monthly, the arrangement would be everything that could
+be desired; and, lowering his voice, he added that it would not be for
+long, for the poor fellow was consumptive to his very bones. Finally
+it was settled that Florent should see Monsieur Verlaque's wife, and
+arrange matters with her, to avoid any possibility of hurting the old
+man's feelings.
+
+The thought of this kindly action afforded Florent great relief, and he
+now accepted his duties with the object of doing good, thus continuing
+to play the part which he had been fulfilling all his life. However, he
+made the poultry dealer promise that he would not speak of the matter
+to anyone; and as Gavard also felt a vague fear of Lisa, he kept the
+secret, which was really very meritorious in him.
+
+And now the whole pork shop seemed happy. Handsome Lisa manifested the
+greatest friendliness towards her brother-in-law. She took care that he
+went to bed early, so as to be able to rise in good time; she kept his
+breakfast hot for him; and she no longer felt ashamed at being seen
+talking to him on the footway, now that he wore a laced cap. Quenu,
+quite delighted by all these good signs, sat down to table in the
+evening between his wife and brother with a lighter heart than ever.
+They often lingered over dinner till nine o'clock, leaving the shop in
+Augustine's charge, and indulging in a leisurely digestion interspersed
+with gossip about the neighbourhood, and the dogmatic opinions of Lisa
+on political topics; Florent also had to relate how matters had gone in
+the fish market that day. He gradually grew less frigid, and began
+to taste the happiness of a well-regulated existence. There was a
+well-to-do comfort and trimness about the light yellowish dining room
+which had a softening influence upon him as soon as he crossed its
+threshold. Handsome Lisa's kindly attentions wrapped him, as it were, in
+cotton-wool; and mutual esteem and concord reigned paramount.
+
+Gavard, however, considered the Quenu-Gradelles' home to be too drowsy.
+He forgave Lisa her weakness for the Emperor, because, he said, one
+ought never to discuss politics with women, and beautiful Madame
+Quenu was, after all, a very worthy person, who managed her business
+admirably. Nevertheless, he much preferred to spend his evenings at
+Monsieur Lebigre's, where he met a group of friends who shared his own
+opinions. Thus when Florent was appointed to the inspectorship of the
+fish market, Gavard began to lead him astray, taking him off for hours,
+and prompting him to lead a bachelor's life now that he had obtained a
+berth.
+
+Monsieur Lebigre was the proprietor of a very fine establishment, fitted
+up in the modern luxurious style. Occupying the right-hand corner of the
+Rue Pirouette, and looking on to the Rue Rambuteau, it formed, with its
+four small Norwegian pines in green-painted tubs flanking the doorway, a
+worthy pendant to the big pork shop of the Quenu-Gradelles. Through the
+clear glass windows you could see the interior, which was decorated with
+festoons of foliage, vine branches, and grapes, painted on a soft green
+ground. The floor was tiled with large black and white squares. At
+the far end was the yawning cellar entrance, above which rose a spiral
+staircase hung with red drapery, and leading to the billiard-room on the
+first floor. The counter or "bar" on the right looked especially rich,
+and glittered like polished silver. Its zinc-work, hanging with a broad
+bulging border over the sub-structure of white and red marble, edged it
+with a rippling sheet of metal as if it were some high altar laden
+with embroidery. At one end, over a gas stove, stood porcelain pots,
+decorated with circles of brass, and containing punch and hot wine. At
+the other extremity was a tall and richly sculptured marble fountain,
+from which a fine stream of water, so steady and continuous that it
+looked as though it were motionless, flowed into a basin. In the centre,
+edged on three sides by the sloping zinc surface of the counter, was a
+second basin for rinsing and cooling purposes, where quart bottles of
+draught wine, partially empty, reared their greenish necks. Then on the
+counter, to the right and left of this central basin, were batches
+of glasses symmetrically arranged: little glasses for brandy, thick
+tumblers for draught wine, cup glasses for brandied fruits, glasses for
+absinthe, glass mugs for beer, and tall goblets, all turned upside down
+and reflecting the glitter of the counter. On the left, moreover, was a
+metal urn, serving as a receptacle for gratuities; whilst a similar one
+on the right bristled with a fan-like arrangement of coffee spoons.
+
+Monsieur Lebigre was generally to be found enthroned behind his counter
+upon a seat covered with buttoned crimson leather. Within easy reach of
+his hand were the liqueurs in cut-glass decanters protruding from the
+compartments of a stand. His round back rested against a huge mirror
+which completely filled the panel behind him; across it ran two glass
+shelves supporting an array of jars and bottles. Upon one of them the
+glass jars of preserved fruits, cherries, plums, and peaches, stood out
+darkly; while on the other, between symmetrically arranged packets of
+finger biscuits, were bright flasks of soft green and red and yellow
+glass, suggesting strange mysterious liqueurs, or floral extracts of
+exquisite limpidity. Standing on the glass shelf in the white glow of
+the mirror, these flasks, flashing as if on fire, seemed to be suspended
+in the air.
+
+To give his premises the appearance of a cafe, Monsieur Lebigre had
+placed two small tables of bronzed iron and four chairs against the
+wall, in front of the counter. A chandelier with five lights and
+frosted globes hung down from the ceiling. On the left was a round gilt
+timepiece, above a _tourniquet_[*] fixed to the wall. Then at the far
+end came the private "cabinet," a corner of the shop shut off by a
+partition glazed with frosted glass of a small square pattern. In the
+daytime this little room received a dim light from a window that looked
+on to the Rue Pirouette; and in the evening, a gas jet burnt over the
+two tables painted to resemble marble. It was there that Gavard and
+his political friends met each evening after dinner. They looked upon
+themselves as being quite at home there, and had prevailed on the
+landlord to reserve the place for them. When Monsieur Lebigre had closed
+the door of the glazed partition, they knew themselves to be so safely
+screened from intrusion that they spoke quite unreservedly of the great
+"sweep out" which they were fond of discussing. No unprivileged customer
+would have dared to enter.
+
+     [*] This is a kind of dial turning on a pivot, and usually
+     enclosed in a brass frame, from which radiate a few small
+     handles or spokes. Round the face of the dial--usually of
+     paper--are various numerals, and between the face and its
+     glass covering is a small marble or wooden ball. The
+     appliance is used in lieu of dice or coins when two or more
+     customers are "tossing" for drinks. Each in turn sends the
+     dial spinning round, and wins or loses according to the
+     numeral against which the ball rests when the dial stops. As
+     I can find no English name for the appliance, I have thought
+     it best to describe it.--Translator.
+
+On the first day that Gavard took Florent off he gave him some
+particulars of Monsieur Lebigre. He was a good fellow, he said, who
+sometimes came to drink his coffee with them; and, as he had said one
+day that he had fought in '48, no one felt the least constraint in his
+presence. He spoke but little, and seemed rather thick-headed. As the
+gentlemen passed him on their way to the private room they grasped
+his hand in silence across the glasses and bottles. By his side on
+the crimson leather seat behind the counter there was generally a fair
+little woman, whom he had engaged as counter assistant in addition
+to the white-aproned waiter who attended to the tables and the
+billiard-room. The young woman's name was Rose, and she seemed a very
+gentle and submissive being. Gavard, with a wink of his eye, told
+Florent that he fancied Lebigre had a weakness for her. It was she, by
+the way, who waited upon the friends in the private room, coming and
+going, with her happy, humble air, amidst the stormiest political
+discussions.
+
+Upon the day on which the poultry dealer took Florent to Lebigre's to
+present him to his friends, the only person whom the pair found in the
+little room when they entered it was a man of some fifty years of age,
+of a mild and thoughtful appearance. He wore a rather shabby-looking hat
+and a long chestnut-coloured overcoat, and sat, with his chin resting
+on the ivory knob of a thick cane, in front of a glass mug full of beer.
+His mouth was so completely concealed by a vigorous growth of beard that
+his face had a dumb, lipless appearance.
+
+"How are you, Robine?" exclaimed Gavard.
+
+Robine silently thrust out his hand, without making any reply, though
+his eyes softened into a slight smile of welcome. Then he let his chin
+drop on to the knob of his cane again, and looked at Florent over his
+beer. Florent had made Gavard swear to keep his story a secret for fear
+of some dangerous indiscretion; and he was not displeased to observe a
+touch of distrust in the discreet demeanour of the gentleman with the
+heavy beard. However, he was really mistaken in this, for Robine never
+talked more than he did now. He was always the first to arrive, just
+as the clock struck eight; and he always sat in the same corner, never
+letting go his hold of his cane, and never taking off either his hat or
+his overcoat. No one had ever seen him without his hat upon his head. He
+remained there listening to the talk of the others till midnight, taking
+four hours to empty his mug of beer, and gazing successively at the
+different speakers as though he heard them with his eyes. When Florent
+afterwards questioned Gavard about Robine, the poultry dealer spoke of
+the latter as though he held him in high esteem. Robine, he asserted,
+was an extremely clever and able man, and, though he was unable to say
+exactly where he had given proof of his hostility to the established
+order of things, he declared that he was one of the most dreaded of the
+Government's opponents. He lived in the Rue Saint Denis, in rooms
+to which no one as a rule could gain admission. The poultry dealer,
+however, asserted that he himself had once been in them. The wax floors,
+he said, were protected by strips of green linen; and there were covers
+over the furniture, and an alabaster timepiece with columns. He had
+caught a glimpse of the back of a lady, who was just disappearing
+through one doorway as he was entering by another, and had taken her
+to be Madame Robine. She appeared to be an old lady of very genteel
+appearance, with her hair arranged in corkscrew curls; but of this he
+could not be quite certain. No one knew why they had taken up their
+abode amidst all the uproar of a business neighbourhood; for the husband
+did nothing at all, spending his days no one knew how and living on no
+one knew what, though he made his appearance every evening as though he
+were tired but delighted with some excursion into the highest regions of
+politics.
+
+"Well, have you read the speech from the throne?" asked Gavard, taking
+up a newspaper that was lying on the table.
+
+Robine shrugged his shoulders. Just at that moment, however, the door
+of the glazed partition clattered noisily, and a hunchback made his
+appearance. Florent at once recognised the deformed crier of the fish
+market, though his hands were now washed and he was neatly dressed, with
+his neck encircled by a great red muffler, one end of which hung down
+over his hump like the skirt of a Venetian cloak.
+
+"Ah, here's Logre!" exclaimed the poultry dealer. "Now we shall hear
+what he thinks about the speech from the throne."
+
+Logre, however, was apparently furious. To begin with he almost broke
+the pegs off in hanging up his hat and muffler. Then he threw himself
+violently into a chair, and brought his fist down on the table, while
+tossing away the newspaper.
+
+"Do you think I read their fearful lies?" he cried.
+
+Then he gave vent to the anger raging within him. "Did ever anyone
+hear," he cried, "of masters making such fools of their people? For two
+whole hours I've been waiting for my pay! There were ten of us in the
+office kicking our heels there. Then at last Monsieur Manoury arrived
+in a cab. Where he had come from I don't know, and don't care, but I'm
+quite sure it wasn't any respectable place. Those salesmen are all a
+parcel of thieves and libertines! And then, too, the hog actually gave
+me all my money in small change!"
+
+Robine expressed his sympathy with Logre by the slight movement of his
+eyelids. But suddenly the hunchback bethought him of a victim upon whom
+to pour out his wrath. "Rose! Rose!" he cried, stretching his head out
+of the little room.
+
+The young woman quickly responded to the call, trembling all over.
+
+"Well," shouted Logre, "what do you stand staring at me like that for?
+Much good that'll do! You saw me come in, didn't you? Why haven't you
+brought me my glass of black coffee, then?"
+
+Gavard ordered two similar glasses, and Rose made all haste to bring
+what was required, while Logre glared sternly at the glasses and little
+sugar trays as if studying them. When he had taken a drink he seemed to
+grow somewhat calmer.
+
+"But it's Charvet who must be getting bored," he said presently. "He is
+waiting outside on the pavement for Clemence."
+
+Charvet, however, now made his appearance, followed by Clemence. He was
+a tall, scraggy young man, carefully shaved, with a skinny nose and
+thin lips. He lived in the Rue Vavin, behind the Luxembourg, and called
+himself a professor. In politics he was a disciple of Hebert.[*] He
+wore his hair very long, and the collar and lapels of his threadbare
+frock-coat were broadly turned back. Affecting the manner and speech of
+a member of the National Convention, he would pour out such a flood of
+bitter words and make such a haughty display of pedantic learning that
+he generally crushed his adversaries. Gavard was afraid of him, though
+he would not confess it; still, in Charvet's absence he would say that
+he really went too far. Robine, for his part, expressed approval
+of everything with his eyes. Logre sometimes opposed Charvet on the
+question of salaries; but the other was really the autocrat of
+the coterie, having the greatest fund of information and the most
+overbearing manner. For more than ten years he and Clemence had lived
+together as man and wife, in accordance with a previously arranged
+contract, the terms of which were strictly observed by both parties to
+it. Florent looked at the young woman with some little surprise, but at
+last he recollected where he had previously seen her. This was at the
+fish auction. She was, indeed, none other than the tall dark female
+clerk whom he had observed writing with outstretched fingers, after the
+manner of one who had been carefully instructed in the art of holding a
+pen.
+
+     [*] Hebert, as the reader will remember, was the furious
+     demagogue with the foul tongue and poisoned pen who edited
+     the _Pere Duchesne_ at the time of the first French
+     Revolution. We had a revival of his politics and his journal
+     in Paris during the Commune of 1871.--Translator.
+
+Rose made her appearance at the heels of the two newcomers. Without
+saying a word she placed a mug of beer before Charvet and a tray before
+Clemence, who in a leisurely way began to compound a glass of "grog,"
+pouring some hot water over a slice of lemon, which she crushed with
+her spoon, and glancing carefully at the decanter as she poured out
+some rum, so as not to add more of it than a small liqueur glass could
+contain.
+
+Gavard now presented Florent to the company, but more especially to
+Charvet. He introduced them to one another as professors, and very able
+men, who would be sure to get on well together. But it was probable that
+he had already been guilty of some indiscretion, for all the men at once
+shook hands with a tight and somewhat masonic squeeze of each other's
+fingers. Charvet, for his part, showed himself almost amiable; and
+whether he and the others knew anything of Florent's antecedents, they
+at all events indulged in no embarrassing allusions.
+
+"Did Manoury pay you in small change?" Logre asked Clemence.
+
+She answered affirmatively, and produced a roll of francs and another of
+two-franc pieces, and unwrapped them. Charvet watched her, and his eyes
+followed the rolls as she replaced them in her pocket, after counting
+their contents and satisfying herself that they were correct.
+
+"We have our accounts to settle," he said in a low voice.
+
+"Yes, we'll settle up to-night," the young woman replied. "But we
+are about even, I should think. I've breakfasted with you four times,
+haven't I? But I lent you a hundred sous last week, you know."
+
+Florent, surprised at hearing this, discreetly turned his head away.
+Then Clemence slipped the last roll of silver into her pocket, drank a
+little of her grog, and, leaning against the glazed partition, quietly
+settled herself down to listen to the men talking politics. Gavard had
+taken up the newspaper again, and, in tones which he strove to render
+comic, was reading out some passages of the speech from the throne which
+had been delivered that morning at the opening of the Chambers. Charvet
+made fine sport of the official phraseology; there was not a single line
+of it which he did not tear to pieces. One sentence afforded especial
+amusement to them all. It was this: "We are confident, gentlemen,
+that, leaning on your lights[*] and the conservative sentiments of the
+country, we shall succeed in increasing the national prosperity day by
+day."
+
+     [*] In the sense of illumination of mind. It has been
+     necessary to give a literal translation of this phrase to
+     enable the reader to realise the point of subsequent
+     witticisms in which Clemence and Gavard indulge.
+     --Translator.
+
+Logre rose up and repeated this sentence, and by speaking through his
+nose succeeded fairly well in mimicking the Emperor's drawling voice.
+
+"It's lovely, that prosperity of his; why, everyone's dying of hunger!"
+said Charvet.
+
+"Trade is shocking," asserted Gavard.
+
+"And what in the name of goodness is the meaning of anybody 'leaning on
+lights'?" continued Clemence, who prided herself upon literary culture.
+
+Robine himself even allowed a faint laugh to escape from the depths of
+his beard. The discussion began to grow warm. The party fell foul of
+the Corps Legislatif, and spoke of it with great severity. Logre did not
+cease ranting, and Florent found him the same as when he cried the fish
+at the auctions--protruding his jaws and hurling his words forward with
+a wave of the arm, whilst retaining the crouching attitude of a snarling
+dog. Indeed, he talked politics in just the same furious manner as he
+offered a tray full of soles for sale.
+
+Charvet, on the other hand, became quieter and colder amidst the smoke
+of the pipes and the fumes of the gas which were now filling the little
+den; and his voice assumed a dry incisive tone, sharp like a guillotine
+blade, while Robine gently wagged his head without once removing his
+chin from the ivory knob of his cane. However, some remark of Gavard's
+led the conversation to the subject of women.
+
+"Woman," declared Charvet drily, "is the equal of man; and, that being
+so, she ought not to inconvenience him in the management of his life.
+Marriage is a partnership, in which everything should be halved. Isn't
+that so, Clemence?"
+
+"Clearly so," replied the young woman, leaning back with her head
+against the wall and gazing into the air.
+
+However, Florent now saw Lacaille, the costermonger, and Alexandre, the
+porter, Claude Lantier's friend, come into the little room. In the past
+these two had long remained at the other table in the sanctum; they did
+not belong to the same class as the others. By the help of politics,
+however, their chairs had drawn nearer, and they had ended by forming
+part of the circle. Charvet, in whose eyes they represented "the
+people," did his best to indoctrinate them with his advanced political
+theories, while Gavard played the part of the shopkeeper free from
+all social prejudices by clinking glasses with them. Alexandre was
+a cheerful, good-humoured giant, with the manner of a big merry lad.
+Lacaille, on the other hand, was embittered; his hair was already
+grizzling; and, bent and wearied by his ceaseless perambulations through
+the streets of Paris, he would at times glance loweringly at the placid
+figure of Robine, and his sound boots and heavy coat.
+
+That evening both Lacaille and Alexandre called for a liqueur glass of
+brandy, and then the conversation was renewed with increased warmth and
+excitement, the party being now quite complete. A little later,
+while the door of the cabinet was left ajar, Florent caught sight of
+Mademoiselle Saget standing in front of the counter. She had taken a
+bottle from under her apron, and was watching Rose as the latter poured
+into it a large measureful of black-currant syrup and a smaller one
+of brandy. Then the bottle disappeared under the apron again, and
+Mademoiselle Saget, with her hands out of sight, remained talking in the
+bright glow of the counter, face to face with the big mirror, in which
+the flasks and bottles of liqueurs were reflected like rows of Venetian
+lanterns. In the evening all the metal and glass of the establishment
+helped to illuminate it with wonderful brilliancy. The old maid,
+standing there in her black skirts, looked almost like some big strange
+insect amidst all the crude brightness. Florent noticed that she was
+trying to inveigle Rose into a conversation, and shrewdly suspected that
+she had caught sight of him through the half open doorway. Since he
+had been on duty at the markets he had met her at almost every step,
+loitering in one or another of the covered ways, and generally in the
+company of Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette. He had noticed also that
+the three women stealthily examined him, and seemed lost in amazement
+at seeing him installed in the position of inspector. That evening,
+however, Rose was no doubt loath to enter into conversation with the old
+maid, for the latter at last turned round, apparently with the intention
+of approaching Monsieur Lebigre, who was playing piquet with a customer
+at one of the bronzed tables. Creeping quietly along, Mademoiselle
+Saget had at last managed to install herself beside the partition of the
+cabinet, when she was observed by Gavard, who detested her.
+
+"Shut the door, Florent!" he cried unceremoniously. "We can't even be by
+ourselves, it seems!"
+
+When midnight came and Lacaille went away he exchanged a few whispered
+words with Monsieur Lebigre, and as the latter shook hands with him he
+slipped four five-franc pieces into his palm, without anyone noticing
+it. "That'll make twenty-two francs that you'll have to pay to-morrow,
+remember," he whispered in his ear. "The person who lends the money
+won't do it for less in future. Don't forget, too, that you owe three
+days' truck hire. You must pay everything off."
+
+Then Monsieur Lebigre wished the friends good night. He was very sleepy
+and should sleep well, he said, with a yawn which revealed his big
+teeth, while Rose gazed at him with an air of submissive humility.
+However, he gave her a push, and told her to go and turn out the gas in
+the little room.
+
+On reaching the pavement, Gavard stumbled and nearly fell. And being in
+a humorous vein, he thereupon exclaimed: "Confound it all! At any rate,
+I don't seem to be leaning on anybody's lights."
+
+This remark seemed to amuse the others, and the party broke up. A little
+later Florent returned to Lebigre's, and indeed he became quite attached
+to the "cabinet," finding a seductive charm in Robine's contemplative
+silence, Logre's fiery outbursts, and Charvet's cool venom. When he went
+home, he did not at once retire to bed. He had grown very fond of his
+attic, that girlish bedroom, where Augustine had left scraps of ribbons,
+souvenirs, and other feminine trifles lying about. There still remained
+some hair-pins on the mantelpiece, with gilt cardboard boxes of buttons
+and lozenges, cutout pictures, and empty pomade pots that retained an
+odour of jasmine. Then there were some reels of thread, needles, and
+a missal lying by the side of a soiled Dream-book in the drawer of
+the rickety deal table. A white summer dress with yellow spots
+hung forgotten from a nail; while upon the board which served as a
+toilet-table a big stain behind the water-jug showed where a bottle of
+bandoline had been overturned. The little chamber, with its narrow iron
+bed, its two rush-bottomed chairs, and its faded grey wallpaper,
+was instinct with innocent simplicity. The plain white curtains, the
+childishness suggested by the cardboard boxes and the Dream-book, and
+the clumsy coquetry which had stained the walls, all charmed Florent and
+brought him back to dreams of youth. He would have preferred not to
+have known that plain, wiry-haired Augustine, but to have been able to
+imagine that he was occupying the room of a sister, some bright sweet
+girl of whose budding womanhood every trifle around him spoke.
+
+Yet another pleasure which he took was to lean out of the garret window
+at nighttime. In front of it was a narrow ledge of roof, enclosed by
+an iron railing, and forming a sort of balcony, on which Augustine had
+grown a pomegranate in a box. Since the nights had turned cold, Florent
+had brought the pomegranate indoors and kept it by the foot of his bed
+till morning. He would linger for a few minutes by the open window,
+inhaling deep draughts of the sharp fresh air which was wafted up from
+the Seine, over the housetops of the Rue de Rivoli. Below him the roofs
+of the markets spread confusedly in a grey expanse, like slumbering
+lakes on whose surface the furtive reflection of a pane of glass gleamed
+every now and then like a silvery ripple. Farther away the roofs of the
+meat and poultry pavilions lay in deeper gloom, and became mere masses
+of shadow barring the horizon. Florent delighted in the great stretch of
+open sky in front of him, in that spreading expanse of the markets which
+amidst all the narrow city streets brought him a dim vision of some
+strip of sea coast, of the still grey waters of a bay scarce quivering
+from the roll of the distant billows. He used to lose himself in dreams
+as he stood there; each night he conjured up the vision of some fresh
+coast line. To return in mind to the eight years of despair which he had
+spent away from France rendered him both very sad and very happy. Then
+at last, shivering all over, he would close the window. Often, as he
+stood in front of the fireplace taking off his collar, the photograph of
+Auguste and Augustine would fill him with disquietude. They seemed to be
+watching him as they stood there, hand in hand, smiling faintly.
+
+Florent's first few weeks at the fish market were very painful to him.
+The Mehudins treated him with open hostility, which infected the whole
+market with a spirit of opposition. The beautiful Norman intended to
+revenge herself on the handsome Lisa, and the latter's cousin seemed a
+victim ready to hand.
+
+The Mehudins came from Rouen. Louise's mother still related how she had
+first arrived in Paris with a basket of eels. She had ever afterwards
+remained in the fish trade. She had married a man employed in the Octroi
+service, who had died leaving her with two little girls. It was she who
+by her full figure and glowing freshness had won for herself in earlier
+days the nickname of "the beautiful Norman," which her eldest daughter
+had inherited. Now five and sixty years of age, Madame Mehudin had
+become flabby and shapeless, and the damp air of the fish market had
+rendered her voice rough and hoarse, and given a bluish tinge to her
+skin. Sedentary life had made her extremely bulky, and her head was
+thrown backwards by the exuberance of her bosom. She had never been
+willing to renounce the fashions of her younger days, but still wore
+the flowered gown, the yellow kerchief, and turban-like head-gear of
+the classic fish-wife, besides retaining the latter's loud voice and
+rapidity of gesture as she stood with her hands on her hips, shouting
+out the whole abusive vocabulary of her calling.
+
+She looked back regretfully to the old Marche des Innocents, which the
+new central markets had supplanted. She would talk of the ancient rights
+of the market "ladies," and mingle stories of fisticuffs exchanged with
+the police with reminiscences of the visits she had paid the Court in
+the time of Charles X and Louis Philippe, dressed in silk, and carrying
+a bouquet of flowers in her hand. Old Mother Mehudin, as she was now
+generally called, had for a long time been the banner-bearer of the
+Sisterhood of the Virgin at St. Leu. She would relate that in the
+processions in the church there she had worn a dress and cap of tulle
+trimmed with satin ribbons, whilst holding aloft in her puffy fingers
+the gilded staff of the richly-fringed silk standard on which the figure
+of the Holy Mother was embroidered.
+
+According to the gossip of the neighbourhood, the old woman had made a
+fairly substantial fortune, though the only signs of it were the massive
+gold ornaments with which she loaded her neck and arms and bosom on
+important occasions. Her two daughters got on badly together as they
+grew up. The younger one, Claire, an idle, fair-complexioned girl,
+complained of the ill-treatment which she received from her sister
+Louise, protesting, in her languid voice, that she could never submit to
+be the other's servant. As they would certainly have ended by coming
+to blows, their mother separated them. She gave her stall in the fish
+market to Louise, while Claire, whom the smell of the skate and the
+herrings affected in the lungs, installed herself among the fresh water
+fish. And from that time the old mother, although she pretended to
+have retired from business altogether, would flit from one stall to the
+other, still interfering in the selling of the fish, and causing her
+daughters continual annoyance by the foul insolence with which she would
+at times speak to customers.
+
+Claire was a fantastical creature, very gentle in her manner, and yet
+continually at loggerheads with others. People said that she invariably
+followed her own whimsical inclinations. In spite of her dreamy, girlish
+face she was imbued with a nature of silent firmness, a spirit of
+independence which prompted her to live apart; she never took things
+as other people did, but would one day evince perfect fairness, and the
+next day arrant injustice. She would sometimes throw the market into
+confusion by suddenly increasing or lowering the prices at her stall,
+without anyone being able to guess her reason for doing so. She
+herself would refuse to explain her motive. By the time she reached her
+thirtieth year, her delicate physique and fine skin, which the water
+of the tanks seemed to keep continually fresh and soft, her small,
+faintly-marked face and lissome limbs would probably become heavy,
+coarse, and flabby, till she would look like some faded saint that had
+stepped from a stained-glass window into the degrading sphere of the
+markets. At twenty-two, however, Claire, in the midst of her carp and
+eels, was, to use Claude Lantier's expression, a Murillo. A Murillo,
+that is, whose hair was often in disorder, who wore heavy shoes and
+clumsily cut dresses, which left her without any figure. But she was
+free from all coquetry, and she assumed an air of scornful contempt when
+Louise, displaying her bows and ribbons, chaffed her about her clumsily
+knotted neckerchiefs. Moreover, she was virtuous; it was said that the
+son of a rich shopkeeper in the neighbourhood had gone abroad in despair
+at having failed to induce her to listen to his suit.
+
+Louise, the beautiful Norman, was of a different nature. She had been
+engaged to be married to a clerk in the corn market; but a sack of flour
+falling upon the young man had broken his back and killed him. Not very
+long afterwards Louise had given birth to a boy. In the Mehudins' circle
+of acquaintance she was looked upon as a widow; and the old fish-wife
+in conversation would occasionally refer to the time when her son-in-law
+was alive.
+
+The Mehudins were a power in the markets. When Monsieur Verlaque had
+finished instructing Florent in his new duties, he advised him to
+conciliate certain of the stall-holders, if he wished his life to be
+endurable; and he even carried his sympathy so far as to put him in
+possession of the little secrets of the office, such as the various
+little breaches of rule that it was necessary to wink at, and those
+at which he would have to feign stern displeasure; and also the
+circumstances under which he might accept a small present. A market
+inspector is at once a constable and a magistrate; he has to maintain
+proper order and cleanliness, and settle in a conciliatory spirit
+all disputes between buyers and sellers. Florent, who was of a weak
+disposition put on an artificial sternness when he was obliged to
+exercise his authority, and generally over-acted his part. Moreover, his
+gloomy, pariah-like face and bitterness of spirit, the result of long
+suffering, were against him.
+
+The beautiful Norman's idea was to involve him in some quarrel or other.
+She had sworn that he would not keep his berth a fortnight. "That fat
+Lisa's much mistaken," said she one morning on meeting Madame Lecoeur,
+"if she thinks that she's going to put people over us. We don't want
+such ugly wretches here. That sweetheart of hers is a perfect fright!"
+
+After the auctions, when Florent commenced his round of inspection,
+strolling slowly through the dripping alleys, he could plainly see the
+beautiful Norman watching him with an impudent smile on her face. Her
+stall, which was in the second row on the left, near the fresh water
+fish department faced the Rue Rambuteau. She would turn round, however,
+and never take her eyes off her victim whilst making fun of him with
+her neighbours. And when he passed in front of her, slowly examining the
+slabs, she feigned hilarious merriment, slapped her fish with her hand,
+and turned her jets of water on at full stream, flooding the pathway.
+Nevertheless Florent remained perfectly calm.
+
+At last, one morning as was bound to happen, war broke out. As Florent
+reached La Normande's stall that day an unbearable stench assailed
+his nostrils. On the marble slab, in addition to part of a magnificent
+salmon, showing its soft roseate flesh, there lay some turbots of creamy
+whiteness, a few conger-eels pierced with black pins to mark their
+divisions, several pairs of soles, and some bass and red mullet--in
+fact, quite a display of fresh fish. But in the midst of it, amongst
+all these fish whose eyes still gleamed and whose gills were of a bright
+crimson, there lay a huge skate of a ruddy tinge, splotched with dark
+stains--superb, indeed, with all its strange colourings. Unfortunately,
+it was rotten; its tail was falling off and the ribs of its fins were
+breaking through the skin.
+
+"You must throw that skate away," said Florent as he came up.
+
+The beautiful Norman broke into a slight laugh. Florent raised his eyes
+and saw her standing before him, with her back against the bronze lamp
+post which lighted the stalls in her division. She had mounted upon
+a box to keep her feet out of the damp, and appeared very tall as he
+glanced at her. She looked also handsomer than usual, with her
+hair arranged in little curls, her sly face slightly bent, her lips
+compressed, and her hands showing somewhat too rosily against her big
+white apron. Florent had never before seen her decked with so much
+jewellery. She had long pendants in her ears, a chain round her neck, a
+brooch in her dress body, and quite a collection of rings on two fingers
+of her left hand and one of her right.
+
+As she still continued to look slyly at Florent, without making any
+reply, the latter continued: "Do you hear? You must remove that skate."
+
+He had not yet noticed the presence of old Madame Mehudin, who sat all
+of a heap on a chair in a corner. She now got up, however, and, with her
+fists resting on the marble slap, insolently exclaimed: "Dear me! And
+why is she to throw her skate away? You won't pay her for it, I'll bet!"
+
+Florent immediately understood the position. The women at the other
+stalls began to titter, and he felt that he was surrounded by covert
+rebellion, which a word might cause to blaze forth. He therefore
+restrained himself, and in person drew the refuse-pail from under the
+stall and dropped the skate into it. Old Madame Mehudin had already
+stuck her hands on her hips, while the beautiful Norman, who had not
+spoken a word, burst into another malicious laugh as Florent strode
+sternly away amidst a chorus of jeers, which he pretended not to hear.
+
+Each day now some new trick was played upon him, and he was obliged to
+walk through the market alleys as warily as though he were in a hostile
+country. He was splashed with water from the sponges employed to
+cleanse the slabs; he stumbled and almost fell over slippery refuse
+intentionally spread in his way; and even the porters contrived to run
+their baskets against the nape of his neck. One day, moreover, when two
+of the fish-wives were quarrelling, and he hastened up to prevent them
+coming to blows, he was obliged to duck in order to escape being slapped
+on either cheek by a shower of little dabs which passed over his head.
+There was a general outburst of laughter on this occasion, and Florent
+always believed that the two fish-wives were in league with the
+Mehudins. However, his old-time experiences as a teacher had endowed
+him with angelic patience, and he was able to maintain a magisterial
+coolness of manner even when anger was hotly rising within him, and
+his whole being quivered with a sense of humiliation. Still, the young
+scamps of the Rue de l'Estrapade had never manifested the savagery
+of these fish-wives, the cruel tenacity of these huge females, whose
+massive figures heaved and shook with a giant-like joy whenever he fell
+into any trap. They stared him out of countenance with their red faces;
+and in the coarse tones of their voices and the impudent gesture of
+their hands he could read volumes of filthy abuse levelled at himself.
+Gavard would have been quite in his element amidst all these petticoats,
+and would have freely cuffed them all round; but Florent, who had
+always been afraid of women, gradually felt overwhelmed as by a sort
+of nightmare in which giant women, buxom beyond all imagination,
+danced threateningly around him, shouting at him in hoarse voices and
+brandishing bare arms, as massive as any prize-fighter's.
+
+Amongst this hoard of females, however, Florent had one friend. Claire
+unhesitatingly declared that the new inspector was a very good fellow.
+When he passed in front of her, pursued by the coarse abuse of the
+others, she gave him a pleasant smile, sitting nonchalantly behind her
+stall, with unruly errant locks of pale hair straying over her neck and
+her brow, and the bodice of her dress pinned all askew. He also often
+saw her dipping her hands into her tanks, transferring the fish from
+one compartment to another, and amusing herself by turning on the brass
+taps, shaped like little dolphins with open mouths, from which the water
+poured in streamlets. Amidst the rustling sound of the water she had
+some of the quivering grace of a girl who has just been bathing and has
+hurriedly slipped on her clothes.
+
+One morning she was particularly amiable. She called the inspector to
+her to show him a huge eel which had been the wonder of the market
+when exhibited at the auction. She opened the grating, which she had
+previously closed over the basin in whose depths the eel seemed to be
+lying sound asleep.
+
+"Wait a moment," she said, "and I'll show it to you."
+
+Then she gently slipped her bare arm into the water; it was not a very
+plump arm, and its veins showed softly blue beneath its satiny skin. As
+soon as the eel felt her touch, it rapidly twisted round, and seemed to
+fill the narrow trough with its glistening greenish coils. And directly
+it had settled down to rest again Claire once more stirred it with her
+fingertips.
+
+"It is an enormous creature," Florent felt bound to say. "I have rarely
+seen such a fine one."
+
+Claire thereupon confessed to him that she had at first been frightened
+of eels; but now she had learned how to tighten her grip so that they
+could not slip away. From another compartment she took a smaller one,
+which began to wriggle both with head and tail, as she held it about
+the middle in her closed fist. This made her laugh. She let it go, then
+seized another and another, scouring the basin and stirring up the whole
+heap of snaky-looking creatures with her slim fingers.
+
+Afterwards she began to speak of the slackness of trade. The hawkers on
+the foot-pavement of the covered way did the regular saleswomen a great
+deal of injury, she said. Meantime her bare arm, which she had not
+wiped, was glistening and dripping with water. Big drops trickled from
+each finger.
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed suddenly, "I must show you my carp, too!"
+
+She now removed another grating, and, using both hands, lifted out a
+large carp, which began to flap its tail and gasp. It was too big to be
+held conveniently, so she sought another one. This was smaller, and she
+could hold it with one hand, but the latter was forced slightly open
+by the panting of the sides each time that the fish gasped. To amuse
+herself it occurred to Claire to pop the tip of her thumb into the
+carp's mouth whilst it was dilated. "It won't bite," said she with her
+gentle laugh; "it's not spiteful. No more are the crawfishes; I'm not
+the least afraid of them."
+
+She plunged her arm into the water again, and from a compartment full
+of a confused crawling mass brought up a crawfish that had caught her
+little finger in its claws. She gave the creature a shake, but it no
+doubt gripped her too tightly, for she turned very red, and snapped off
+its claw with a quick, angry gesture, though still continuing to smile.
+
+"By the way," she continued quickly, to conceal her emotion, "I wouldn't
+trust myself with a pike; he'd cut off my fingers like a knife."
+
+She thereupon showed him some big pike arranged in order of size upon
+clean scoured shelves, beside some bronze-hued tench and little heaps of
+gudgeon. Her hands were now quite slimy with handling the carp, and as
+she stood there in the dampness rising from the tanks, she held them
+outstretched over the dripping fish on the stall. She seemed enveloped
+by an odour of spawn, that heavy scent which rises from among the reeds
+and water-lilies when the fish, languid in the sunlight, discharge their
+eggs. Then she wiped her hands on her apron, still smiling the placid
+smile of a girl who knew nothing of passion in that quivering atmosphere
+of the frigid loves of the river.
+
+The kindliness which Claire showed to Florent was but a slight
+consolation to him. By stopping to talk to the girl he only drew upon
+himself still coarser jeers from the other stallkeepers. Claire shrugged
+her shoulders, and said that her mother was an old jade, and her sister
+a worthless creature. The injustice of the market folk towards the new
+inspector filled her with indignation. The war between them, however,
+grew more bitter every day. Florent had serious thoughts of resigning
+his post; indeed, he would not have retained it for another twenty-four
+hours if he had not been afraid that Lisa might imagine him to be a
+coward. He was frightened of what she might say and what she might
+think. She was naturally well aware of the contest which was going on
+between the fish-wives and their inspector; for the whole echoing market
+resounded with it, and the entire neighbourhood discussed each fresh
+incident with endless comments.
+
+"Ah, well," Lisa would often say in the evening, after dinner, "I'd soon
+bring them to reason if I had anything to do with them! Why, they are a
+lot of dirty jades that I wouldn't touch with the tip of my finger! That
+Normande is the lowest of the low! I'd soon crush her, that I would! You
+should really use your authority, Florent. You are wrong to behave as
+you do. Put your foot down, and they'll all come to their senses very
+quickly, you'll see."
+
+A terrible climax was presently reached. One morning the servant of
+Madame Taboureau, the baker, came to the market to buy a brill; and
+the beautiful Norman, having noticed her lingering near her stall for
+several minutes, began to make overtures to her in a coaxing way: "Come
+and see me; I'll suit you," she said. "Would you like a pair of soles,
+or a fine turbot?"
+
+Then as the servant at last came up, and sniffed at a brill with that
+dissatisfied pout which buyers assume in the hope of getting what they
+want at a lower price, La Normande continued:
+
+"Just feel the weight of that, now," and so saying she laid the brill,
+wrapped in a sheet of thick yellow paper, on the woman's open palm.
+
+The servant, a mournful little woman from Auvergne, felt the weight of
+the brill, and examined its gills, still pouting, and saying not a word.
+
+"And how much do you want for it?" she asked presently, in a reluctant
+tone.
+
+"Fifteen francs," replied La Normande.
+
+At this the servant hastily laid the brill on the stall again, and
+seemed anxious to hurry away, but the other detained her. "Wait a
+moment," said she. "What do you offer?"
+
+"No, no, I can't take it. It is much too dear."
+
+"Come, now, make me an offer."
+
+"Well, will you take eight francs?"
+
+Old Madame Mehudin, who was there, suddenly seemed to wake up, and
+broke out into a contemptuous laugh. Did people think that she and her
+daughter stole the fish they sold? "Eight francs for a brill that size!"
+she exclaimed. "You'll be wanting one for nothing next, to use as a
+cooling plaster!"
+
+Meantime La Normande turned her head away, as though greatly offended.
+However, the servant came back twice and offered nine francs; and
+finally she increased her bid to ten.
+
+"All right, come on, give me your money!" cried the fish-girl, seeing
+that the woman was now really going away.
+
+The servant took her stand in front of the stall and entered into a
+friendly gossip with old Madame Mehudin. Madame Taboureau, she said, was
+so exacting! She had got some people coming to dinner that evening, some
+cousins from Blois a notary and his wife. Madame Taboureau's family,
+she added, was a very respectable one, and she herself, although only a
+baker, had received an excellent education.
+
+"You'll clean it nicely for me, won't you?" added the woman, pausing in
+her chatter.
+
+With a jerk of her finger La Normande had removed the fish's entrails
+and tossed them into a pail. Then she slipped a corner of her apron
+under its gills to wipe away a few grains of sand. "There, my dear," she
+said, putting the fish into the servant's basket, "you'll come back to
+thank me."
+
+Certainly the servant did come back a quarter of an hour afterwards,
+but it was with a flushed, red face. She had been crying, and her little
+body was trembling all over with anger. Tossing the brill on to the
+marble slab, she pointed to a broad gash in its belly that reached the
+bone. Then a flood of broken words burst from her throat, which was
+still contracted by sobbing: "Madame Taboureau won't have it. She says
+she couldn't put it on her table. She told me, too, that I was an idiot,
+and let myself be cheated by anyone. You can see for yourself that the
+fish is spoilt. I never thought of turning it round; I quite trusted
+you. Give me my ten francs back."
+
+"You should look at what you buy," the handsome Norman calmly observed.
+
+And then, as the servant was just raising her voice again, old Madame
+Mehudin got up. "Just you shut up!" she cried. "We're not going to take
+back a fish that's been knocking about in other people's houses. How do
+we know that you didn't let it fall and damage it yourself?"
+
+"I! I damage it!" The little servant was choking with indignation. "Ah!
+you're a couple of thieves!" she cried, sobbing bitterly. "Yes, a couple
+of thieves! Madame Taboureau herself told me so!"
+
+Matters then became uproarious. Boiling over with rage and brandishing
+their fists, both mother and daughter fairly exploded; while the poor
+little servant, quite bewildered by their voices, the one hoarse and
+the other shrill, which belaboured her with insults as though they were
+battledores and she a shuttlecock, sobbed on more bitterly than ever.
+
+"Be off with you! Your Madame Taboureau would like to be half as fresh
+as that fish is! She'd like us to sew it up for her, no doubt!"
+
+"A whole fish for ten francs! What'll she want next!"
+
+Then came coarse words and foul accusations. Had the servant been
+the most worthless of her sex she could not have been more bitterly
+upbraided.
+
+Florent, whom the market keeper had gone to fetch, made his appearance
+when the quarrel was at its hottest. The whole pavilion seemed to be
+in a state of insurrection. The fish-wives, who manifest the keenest
+jealousy of each other when the sale of a penny herring is in question,
+display a united front when a quarrel arises with a buyer. They sang the
+popular old ditty, "The baker's wife has heaps of crowns, which cost her
+precious little"; they stamped their feet, and goaded the Mehudins
+as though the latter were dogs which they were urging on to bite and
+devour. And there were even some, having stalls at the other end of
+the alley, who rushed up wildly, as though they meant to spring at the
+chignon of the poor little woman, she meantime being quite submerged by
+the flood of insulting abuse poured upon her.
+
+"Return mademoiselle her ten francs," said Florent sternly, when he had
+learned what had taken place.
+
+But old Madame Mehudin had her blood up. "As for you, my little man,"
+quoth she, "go to blazes! Here, that's how I'll return the ten francs!"
+
+As she spoke, she flung the brill with all her force at the head of
+Madame Taboureau's servant, who received it full in the face. The blood
+spurted from her nose, and the brill, after adhering for a moment to
+her cheeks, fell to the ground and burst with a flop like that of a wet
+clout. This brutal act threw Florent into a fury. The beautiful Norman
+felt frightened and recoiled, as he cried out: "I suspend you for a
+week, and I will have your licence withdrawn. You hear me?"
+
+Then, as the other fish-wives were still jeering behind him, he turned
+round with such a threatening air that they quailed like wild beasts
+mastered by the tamer, and tried to assume an expression of innocence.
+When the Mehudins had returned the ten francs, Florent peremptorily
+ordered them to cease selling at once. The old woman was choking with
+rage, while the daughter kept silent, but turned very white. She, the
+beautiful Norman, to be driven out of her stall!
+
+Claire said in her quiet voice that it served her mother and sister
+right, a remark which nearly resulted in the two girls tearing each
+other's hair out that evening when they returned home to the Rue
+Pirouette. However, when the Mehudins came back to the market at the
+week's end, they remained very quiet, reserved, and curt of speech,
+though full of a cold-blooded wrath. Moreover, they found the pavilion
+quite calm and restored to order again. From that day forward the
+beautiful Norman must have harboured the thought of some terrible
+vengeance. She felt that she really had Lisa to thank for what had
+happened. She had met her, the day after the battle, carrying her head
+so high, that she had sworn she would make her pay dearly for her glance
+of triumph. She held interminable confabulations with Madame Saget,
+Madame Lecoeur, and La Sarriette, in quiet corners of the market;
+however, all their chatter about the shameless conduct which they
+slanderously ascribed to Lisa and her cousin, and about the hairs which
+they declared were found in Quenu's chitterlings, brought La Normande
+little consolation. She was trying to think of some very malicious plan
+of vengeance, which would strike her rival to the heart.
+
+Her child was growing up in the fish market in all freedom and neglect.
+When but three years old the youngster had been brought there, and day
+by day remained squatting on some rag amidst the fish. He would fall
+asleep beside the big tunnies as though he were one of them, and awake
+among the mackerel and whiting. The little rascal smelt of fish as
+strongly as though he were some big fish's offspring. For a long time
+his favourite pastime, whenever his mother's back was turned, was to
+build walls and houses of herrings; and he would also play at soldiers
+on the marble slab, arranging the red gurnets in confronting lines,
+pushing them against each other, and battering their heads, while
+imitating the sound of drum and trumpet with his lips; after which he
+would throw them all into a heap again, and exclaim that they were dead.
+When he grew older he would prowl about his aunt Claire's stall to get
+hold of the bladders of the carp and pike which she gutted. He placed
+them on the ground and made them burst, an amusement which afforded
+him vast delight. When he was seven he rushed about the alleys, crawled
+under the stalls, ferreted amongst the zinc bound fish boxes, and became
+the spoiled pet of all the women. Whenever they showed him something
+fresh which pleased him, he would clasp his hands and exclaim in
+ecstasy, "Oh, isn't it stunning!" _Muche_ was the exact word which he
+used; _muche_ being the equivalent of "stunning" in the lingo of the
+markets; and he used the expression so often that it clung to him as a
+nickname. He became known all over the place as "Muche." It was Muche
+here, there and everywhere; no one called him anything else. He was to
+be met with in every nook; in out-of-the-way corners of the offices in
+the auction pavilion; among the piles of oyster baskets, and betwixt the
+buckets where the refuse was thrown. With a pinky fairness of skin, he
+was like a young barbel frisking and gliding about in deep water. He
+was as fond of running, streaming water as any young fry. He was
+ever dabbling in the pools in the alleys. He wetted himself with the
+drippings from the tables, and when no one was looking often slyly
+turned on the taps, rejoicing in the bursting gush of water. But it was
+especially beside the fountains near the cellar steps that his mother
+went to seek him in the evening, and she would bring him thence with his
+hands quite blue, and his shoes, and even his pockets, full of water.
+
+At seven years old Muche was as pretty as an angel, and as coarse in his
+manners as any carter. He had curly chestnut hair, beautiful eyes,
+and an innocent-looking mouth which gave vent to language that even a
+gendarme would have hesitated to use. Brought up amidst all the ribaldry
+and profanity of the markets, he had the whole vocabulary of the place
+on the tip of his tongue. With his hands on his hips he often mimicked
+Grandmother Mehudin in her anger, and at these times the coarsest and
+vilest expressions would stream from his lips in a voice of crystalline
+purity that might have belonged to some little chorister chanting the
+_Ave Maria_. He would even try to assume a hoarse roughness of tone,
+seek to degrade and taint that exquisite freshness of childhood which
+made him resemble a _bambino_ on the Madonna's knees. The fish-wives
+laughed at him till they cried; and he, encouraged, could scarcely say a
+couple of words without rapping out an oath. But in spite of all this he
+still remained charming, understanding nothing of the dirt amidst which
+he lived, kept in vigorous health by the fresh breezes and sharp odours
+of the fish market, and reciting his vocabulary of coarse indecencies
+with as pure a face as though he were saying his prayers.
+
+The winter was approaching, and Muche seemed very sensitive to the cold.
+As soon as the chilly weather set in he manifested a strong predilection
+for the inspector's office. This was situated in the left-hand corner of
+the pavilion, on the side of the Rue Rambuteau. The furniture consisted
+of a table, a stack of drawers, an easy-chair, two other chairs, and a
+stove. It was this stove which attracted Muche. Florent quite worshipped
+children, and when he saw the little fellow, with his dripping legs,
+gazing wistfully through the window, he made him come inside. His first
+conversation with the lad caused him profound amazement. Muche sat down
+in front of the stove, and in his quiet voice exclaimed: "I'll just
+toast my toes, do you see? It's d----d cold this morning." Then he broke
+into a rippling laugh, and added: "Aunt Claire looks awfully blue this
+morning. Is it true, sir, that you are sweet on her?"
+
+Amazed though he was, Florent felt quite interested in the odd little
+fellow. The handsome Norman retained her surly bearing, but allowed
+her son to frequent the inspector's office without a word of objection.
+Florent consequently concluded that he had the mother's permission to
+receive the boy, and every afternoon he asked him in; by degrees forming
+the idea of turning him into a steady, respectable young fellow. He
+could almost fancy that his brother Quenu had grown little again, and
+that they were both in the big room in the Rue Royer-Collard once more.
+The life which his self-sacrificing nature pictured to him as perfect
+happiness was a life spent with some young being who would never grow
+up, whom he could go on teaching for ever, and in whose innocence he
+might still love his fellow man. On the third day of his acquaintance
+with Muche he brought an alphabet to the office, and the lad delighted
+him by the intelligence he manifested. He learned his letters with all
+the sharp precocity which marks the Parisian street arab, and derived
+great amusement from the woodcuts illustrating the alphabet.
+
+He found opportunities, too, for plenty of fine fun in the little
+office, where the stove still remained the chief attraction and a source
+of endless enjoyment. At first he cooked potatoes and chestnuts at it,
+but presently these seemed insipid, and he thereupon stole some gudgeons
+from his aunt Claire, roasted them one by one, suspended from a string
+in front of the glowing fire, and then devoured them with gusto, though
+he had no bread. One day he even brought a carp with him; but it was
+impossible to roast it sufficiently, and it made such a smell in the
+office that both window and door had to be thrown open. Sometimes, when
+the odour of all these culinary operations became too strong, Florent
+would throw the fish into the street, but as a rule he only laughed. By
+the end of a couple of months Muche was able to read fairly well, and
+his copy-books did him credit.
+
+Meantime, every evening the lad wearied his mother with his talk about
+his good friend Florent. His good friend Florent had drawn him pictures
+of trees and of men in huts, said he. His good friend Florent waved his
+arm and said that men would be far better if they all knew how to read.
+And at last La Normande heard so much about Florent that she seemed
+to be almost intimate with this man against whom she harboured so much
+rancour. One day she shut Muche up at home to prevent him from going to
+the inspector's, but he cried so bitterly that she gave him his liberty
+again on the following morning. There was very little determination
+about her, in spite of her broad shoulders and bold looks. When the lad
+told her how nice and warm he had been in the office, and came back to
+her with his clothes quite dry, she felt a sort of vague gratitude, a
+pleasure in knowing that he had found a shelter-place where he could sit
+with his feet in front of a fire. Later on, she was quite touched when
+he read her some words from a scrap of soiled newspaper wrapped round
+a slice of conger-eel. By degrees, indeed, she began to think, though
+without admitting it, that Florent could not really be a bad sort of
+fellow. She felt respect for his knowledge, mingled with an increasing
+curiosity to see more of him and learn something of his life. Then, all
+at once, she found an excuse for gratifying this inquisitiveness. She
+would use it as a means of vengeance. It would be fine fun to make
+friends with Florent and embroil him with that great fat Lisa.
+
+"Does your good friend Florent ever speak to you about me?" she asked
+Muche one morning as she was dressing him.
+
+"Oh, no," replied the boy. "We enjoy ourselves."
+
+"Well, you can tell him that I've quite forgiven him, and that I'm much
+obliged to him for having taught you to read."
+
+Thenceforward the child was entrusted with some message every day. He
+went backwards and forwards from his mother to the inspector, and from
+the inspector to his mother, charged with kindly words and questions and
+answers, which he repeated mechanically without knowing their meaning.
+He might, indeed, have been safely trusted with the most compromising
+communications. However, the beautiful Norman felt afraid of appearing
+timid, and so one day she herself went to the inspector's office and sat
+down on the second chair, while Muche was having his writing lesson.
+She proved very suave and complimentary, and Florent was by far the more
+embarrassed of the two. They only spoke of the lad; and when Florent
+expressed a fear that he might not be able to continue the lessons
+in the office, La Normande invited him to come to their home in the
+evening. She spoke also of payment; but at this he blushed, and said
+that he certainly would not come if any mention were made of money.
+Thereupon the young woman determined in her own mind that she would
+recompense him with presents of choice fish.
+
+Peace was thus made between them; the beautiful Norman even took Florent
+under her protection. Apart from this, however, the whole market was
+becoming reconciled to the new inspector, the fish-wives arriving at the
+conclusion that he was really a better fellow than Monsieur Verlaque,
+notwithstanding his strange eyes. It was only old Madame Mehudin who
+still shrugged her shoulders, full of rancour as she was against the
+"long lanky-guts," as she contemptuously called him. And then, too, a
+strange thing happened. One morning, when Florent stopped with a smile
+before Claire's tanks, the girl dropped an eel which she was holding and
+angrily turned her back upon him, her cheeks quite swollen and reddened
+by temper. The inspector was so much astonished that he spoke to La
+Normande about it.
+
+"Oh, never mind her," said the young woman; "she's cracked. She makes
+a point of always differing from everybody else. She only behaved like
+that to annoy me."
+
+La Normande was now triumphant--she strutted about her stall, and became
+more coquettish than ever, arranging her hair in the most elaborate
+manner. Meeting the handsome Lisa one day she returned her look of
+scorn, and even burst out laughing in her face. The certainty she felt
+of driving the mistress of the pork shop to despair by winning her
+cousin from her endowed her with a gay, sonorous laugh, which rolled up
+from her chest and rippled her white plump neck. She now had the whim
+of dressing Muche very showily in a little Highland costume and velvet
+bonnet. The lad had never previously worn anything but a tattered
+blouse. It unfortunately happened, however, that just about this time he
+again became very fond of the water. The ice had melted and the weather
+was mild, so he gave his Scotch jacket a bath, turning the fountain tap
+on at full flow and letting the water pour down his arm from his elbow
+to his hand. He called this "playing at gutters." Then a little later,
+when his mother came up and caught him, she found him with two other
+young scamps watching a couple of little fishes swimming about in his
+velvet cap, which he had filled with water.
+
+For nearly eight months Florent lived in the markets, feeling continual
+drowsiness. After his seven years of suffering he had lighted upon such
+calm quietude, such unbroken regularity of life, that he was scarcely
+conscious of existing. He gave himself up to this jog-trot peacefulness
+with a dazed sort of feeling, continually experiencing surprise at
+finding himself each morning in the same armchair in the little office.
+This office with its bare hut-like appearance had a charm for him. He
+here found a quiet and secluded refuge amidst that ceaseless roar of the
+markets which made him dream of some surging sea spreading around
+him, and isolating him from the world. Gradually, however, a vague
+nervousness began to prey upon him; he became discontented, accused
+himself of faults which he could not define, and began to rebel against
+the emptiness which he experienced more and more acutely in mind and
+body. Then, too, the evil smells of the fish market brought him nausea.
+By degrees he became unhinged, his vague boredom developing into
+restless, nervous excitement.
+
+All his days were precisely alike, spent among the same sounds and the
+same odours. In the mornings the noisy buzzing of the auction sales
+resounded in his ears like a distant echo of bells; and sometimes, when
+there was a delay in the arrival of the fish, the auctions continued
+till very late. Upon these occasions he remained in the pavilion till
+noon, disturbed at every moment by quarrels and disputes, which he
+endeavoured to settle with scrupulous justice. Hours elapsed before he
+could get free of some miserable matter or other which was exciting the
+market. He paced up and down amidst the crush and uproar of the sales,
+slowly perambulating the alleys and occasionally stopping in front of
+the stalls which fringed the Rue Rambuteau, and where lay rosy heaps of
+prawns and baskets of boiled lobsters with tails tied backwards, while
+live ones were gradually dying as they sprawled over the marble
+slabs. And then he would watch gentlemen in silk hats and black gloves
+bargaining with the fish-wives, and finally going off with boiled
+lobsters wrapped in paper in the pockets of their frock-coats.[*]
+Farther away, at the temporary stalls, where the commoner sorts of fish
+were sold, he would recognise the bareheaded women of the neighbourhood,
+who always came at the same hour to make their purchases.
+
+     [*] The little fish-basket for the use of customers, so
+     familiar in London, is not known in Paris.--Translator.
+
+At times he took an interest in some well-dressed lady trailing her lace
+petticoats over the damp stones, and escorted by a servant in a white
+apron; and he would follow her at a little distance on noticing how the
+fish-wives shrugged their shoulders at sight of her air of disgust. The
+medley of hampers and baskets and bags, the crowd of skirts flitting
+along the damp alleys, occupied his attention until lunchtime. He took a
+delight in the dripping water and the fresh breeze as he passed from the
+acrid smell of the shell-fish to the pungent odour of the salted fish.
+It was always with the latter that he brought his official round of
+inspection to a close. The cases of red herrings, the Nantes sardines on
+their layers of leaves, and the rolled cod, exposed for sale under
+the eyes of stout, faded fish-wives, brought him thoughts of a voyage
+necessitating a vast supply of salted provisions.
+
+In the afternoon the markets became quieter, grew drowsy; and Florent
+then shut himself up in his office, made out his reports, and enjoyed
+the happiest hours of his day. If he happened to go out and cross
+the fish market, he found it almost deserted. There was no longer the
+crushing and pushing and uproar of ten o'clock in the morning. The
+fish-wives, seated behind their stalls, leant back knitting, while a
+few belated purchasers prowled about casting sidelong glances at the
+remaining fish, with the thoughtful eyes and compressed lips of women
+closely calculating the price of their dinner. At last the twilight
+fell, there was a noise of boxes being moved, and the fish was laid for
+the night on beds of ice; and then, after witnessing the closing of the
+gates, Florent went off, seemingly carrying the fish market along with
+him in his clothes and his beard and his hair.
+
+For the first few months this penetrating odour caused him no great
+discomfort. The winter was a severe one, the frosts converted the alleys
+into slippery mirrors, and the fountains and marble slabs were fringed
+with a lacework of ice. In the mornings it was necessary to place little
+braziers underneath the taps before a drop of water could be drawn. The
+frozen fish had twisted tails; and, dull of hue and hard to the touch
+like unpolished metal, gave out a ringing sound akin to that of pale
+cast-iron when it snaps. Until February the pavilion presented a most
+mournful appearance: it was deserted, and wrapped in a bristling shroud
+of ice. But with March came a thaw, with mild weather and fogs and rain.
+Then the fish became soft again, and unpleasant odours mingled with the
+smell of mud wafted from the neighbouring streets. These odours were as
+yet vague, tempered by the moisture which clung to the ground. But in
+the blazing June afternoons a reeking stench arose, and the atmosphere
+became heavy with a pestilential haze. The upper windows were then
+opened, and huge blinds of grey canvas were drawn beneath the burning
+sky. Nevertheless, a fiery rain seemed to be pouring down, heating the
+market as though it were a big stove, and there was not a breath of air
+to waft away the noxious emanations from the fish. A visible steam went
+up from the stalls.
+
+The masses of food amongst which Florent lived now began to cause him
+the greatest discomfort. The disgust with which the pork shop had filled
+him came back in a still more intolerable fashion. He almost sickened
+as he passed these masses of fish, which, despite all the water lavished
+upon them, turned bad under a sudden whiff of hot air. Even when he shut
+himself up in his office his discomfort continued, for the abominable
+odour forced its way through the chinks in the woodwork of the window
+and door. When the sky was grey and leaden, the little room remained
+quite dark; and then the day was like a long twilight in the depths of
+some fetid march. He was often attacked by fits of nervous excitement,
+and felt a craving desire to walk; and he would then descend into the
+cellars by the broad staircase opening in the middle of the pavilion. In
+the pent-up air down below, in the dim light of the occasional gas jets,
+he once more found the refreshing coolness diffused by pure cold water.
+He would stand in front of the big tank where the reserve stock of live
+fish was kept, and listen to the ceaseless murmur of the four streamlets
+of water falling from the four corners of the central urn, and then
+spreading into a broad stream and gliding beneath the locked gratings of
+the basins with a gentle and continuous flow. This subterranean spring,
+this stream murmuring in the gloom, had a tranquillising effect upon
+him. Of an evening, too, he delighted in the fine sunsets which threw
+the delicate lacework of the market buildings blackly against the red
+glow of the heavens. The dancing dust of the last sun rays streamed
+through every opening, through every chink of the Venetian shutters,
+and the whole was like some luminous transparency on which the slender
+shafts of the columns, the elegant curves of the girders, and the
+geometrical tracery of the roofs were minutely outlined. Florent
+feasted his eyes on this mighty diagram washed in with Indian ink on
+phosphorescent vellum, and his mind reverted to his old fancy of a
+colossal machine with wheels and levers and beams espied in the crimson
+glow of the fires blazing beneath its boilers. At each consecutive hour
+of the day the changing play of the light--from the bluish haze of early
+morning and the black shadows of noon to the flaring of the sinking sun
+and the paling of its fires in the ashy grey of the twilight--revealed
+the markets under a new aspect; but on the flaming evenings, when the
+foul smells arose and forced their way across the broad yellow beams
+like hot puffs of steam, Florent again experienced discomfort, and
+his dream changed, and he imagined himself in some gigantic knacker's
+boiling-house where the fat of a whole people was being melted down.
+
+The coarseness of the market people, whose words and gestures seemed to
+be infected with the evil smell of the place, also made him suffer. He
+was very tolerant, and showed no mock modesty; still, these impudent
+women often embarrassed him. Madame Francois, whom he had again met,
+was the only one with whom he felt at ease. She showed such pleasure
+on learning he had found a berth and was quite comfortable and out of
+worry, as she put it, that he was quite touched. The laughter of Lisa,
+the handsome Norman, and the others disquieted him; but of Madame
+Francois he would willingly have made a confidante. She never laughed
+mockingly at him; when she did laugh, it was like a woman rejoicing at
+another's happiness. She was a brave, plucky creature, too; hers was a
+hard business in winter, during the frosts, and the rainy weather was
+still more trying. On some mornings Florent saw her arrive in a pouring
+deluge which had been slowly, coldly falling ever since the previous
+night. Between Nanterre and Paris the wheels of her cart had sunk up to
+the axles in mud, and Balthazar was caked with mire to his belly. His
+mistress would pity him and sympathise with him as she wiped him down
+with some old aprons.
+
+"The poor creatures are very sensitive," said she; "a mere nothing gives
+them a cold. Ah, my poor old Balthazar! I really thought that we had
+tumbled into the Seine as we crossed the Neuilly bridge, the rain came
+down in such a deluge!"
+
+While Balthazar was housed in the inn stable his mistress remained in
+the pouring rain to sell her vegetables. The footway was transformed
+into a lake of liquid mud. The cabbages, carrots, and turnips were
+pelted by the grey water, quite drowned by the muddy torrent that rushed
+along the pavement. There was no longer any of that glorious greenery
+so apparent on bright mornings. The market gardeners, cowering in their
+heavy cloaks beneath the downpour, swore at the municipality which,
+after due inquiry, had declared that rain was in no way injurious to
+vegetables, and that there was accordingly no necessity to erect any
+shelters.
+
+Those rainy mornings greatly worried Florent, who thought about Madame
+Francois. He always managed to slip away and get a word with her. But
+he never found her at all low-spirited. She shook herself like a poodle,
+saying that she was quite used to such weather, and was not made of
+sugar, to melt away beneath a few drops of rain. However, he made her
+seek refuge for a few minutes in one of the covered ways, and frequently
+even took her to Monsieur Lebigre's, where they had some hot wine
+together. While she with her peaceful face beamed on him in all
+friendliness, he felt quite delighted with the healthy odour of the
+fields which she brought into the midst of the foul market atmosphere.
+She exhaled a scent of earth, hay, fresh air, and open skies.
+
+"You must come to Nanterre, my lad," she said to him, "and look at my
+kitchen garden. I have put borders of thyme everywhere. How bad your
+villainous Paris does smell!"
+
+Then she went off, dripping. Florent, on his side, felt quite
+re-invigorated when he parted from her. He tried, too the effect of work
+upon the nervous depression from which he suffered. He was a man of a
+very methodical temperament, and sometimes carried out his plans for the
+allotment of his time with a strictness that bordered on mania. He shut
+himself up two evenings a week in order to write an exhaustive work on
+Cayenne. His modest bedroom was excellently adapted, he thought, to
+calm his mind and incline him to work. He lighted his fire, saw that
+the pomegranate at the foot of the bed was looking all right, and then
+seated himself at the little table, and remained working till midnight.
+He had pushed the missal and Dream-book back in the drawer, which was
+now filling with notes, memoranda, manuscripts of all kinds. The work
+on Cayenne made but slow progress, however, as it was constantly being
+interrupted by other projects, plans for enormous undertakings which
+he sketched out in a few words. He successively drafted an outline of
+a complete reform of the administrative system of the markets, a scheme
+for transforming the city dues, levied on produce as it entered Paris,
+into taxes levied upon the sales, a new system of victualling the poorer
+neighbourhoods, and, lastly, a somewhat vague socialist enactment for
+the storing in common warehouses of all the provisions brought to the
+markets, and the ensuring of a minimum daily supply to each household in
+Paris. As he sat there, with his head bent over his table, and his mind
+absorbed in thoughts of all these weighty matters, his gloomy figure
+cast a great black shadow on the soft peacefulness of the garret.
+Sometimes a chaffinch which he had picked up one snowy day in the market
+would mistake the lamplight for the day, and break the silence, which
+only the scratching of Florent's pen on his paper disturbed, by a cry.
+
+Florent was fated to revert to politics. He had suffered too much
+through them not to make them the dearest occupation of his life. Under
+other conditions he might have become a good provincial schoolmaster,
+happy in the peaceful life of some little town. But he had been treated
+as though he were a wolf, and felt as though he had been marked out
+by exile for some great combative task. His nervous discomfort was the
+outcome of his long reveries at Cayenne, the brooding bitterness he had
+felt at his unmerited sufferings, and the vows he had secretly sworn to
+avenge humanity and justice--the former scourged with a whip, and the
+latter trodden under foot. Those colossal markets and their teeming
+odoriferous masses of food had hastened the crisis. To Florent they
+appeared symbolical of some glutted, digesting beast, of Paris,
+wallowing in its fat and silently upholding the Empire. He seemed to be
+encircled by swelling forms and sleek, fat faces, which ever and
+ever protested against his own martyrlike scragginess and sallow,
+discontented visage. To him the markets were like the stomach of the
+shopkeeping classes, the stomach of all the folks of average rectitude
+puffing itself out, rejoicing, glistening in the sunshine, and declaring
+that everything was for the best, since peaceable people had never
+before grown so beautifully fat. As these thoughts passed through his
+mind Florent clenched his fists, and felt ready for a struggle, more
+irritated now by the thought of his exile than he had been when he first
+returned to France. Hatred resumed entire possession of him. He often
+let his pen drop and became absorbed in dreams. The dying fire cast a
+bright glow upon his face; the lamp burned smokily, and the chaffinch
+fell asleep again on one leg, with its head tucked under its wing.
+
+Sometimes Auguste, on coming upstairs at eleven o'clock and seeing the
+light shining under the door, would knock, before going to bed. Florent
+admitted him with some impatience. The assistant sat down in front of
+the fire, speaking but little, and never saying why he had come. His
+eyes would all the time remain fixed upon the photograph of himself and
+Augustine in their Sunday finery. Florent came to the conclusion that
+the young man took a pleasure in visiting the room for the simple reason
+that it had been occupied by his sweetheart; and one evening he asked
+him with a smile if he had guessed rightly.
+
+"Well, perhaps it is so," replied Auguste, very much surprised at the
+discovery which he himself now made of the reasons which actuated him.
+"I'd really never thought of that before. I came to see you without
+knowing why. But if I were to tell Augustine, how she'd laugh!"
+
+Whenever he showed himself at all loquacious, his one eternal theme was
+the pork shop which he was going to set up with Augustine at Plaisance.
+He seemed so perfectly assured of arranging his life in accordance
+with his desires, that Florent grew to feel a sort of respect for him,
+mingled with irritation. After all, the young fellow was very resolute
+and energetic, in spite of his seeming stupidity. He made straight
+for the goal he had in view, and would doubtless reach it in perfect
+assurance and happiness. On the evenings of these visits from the
+apprentice, Florent could not settle down to work again; he went off to
+bed in a discontented mood, and did not recover his equilibrium till
+the thought passed through his mind, "Why, that Auguste is a perfect
+animal!"
+
+Every month he went to Clamart to see Monsieur Verlaque. These visits
+were almost a delight to him. The poor man still lingered on, to the
+great astonishment of Gavard, who had not expected him to last for more
+than six months. Every time that Florent went to see him Verlaque would
+declare that he was feeling better, and was most anxious to resume his
+work again. But the days glided by, and he had serious relapses. Florent
+would sit by his bedside, chat about the fish market, and do what he
+could to enliven him. He deposited on the pedestal table the fifty
+francs which he surrendered to him each month; and the old inspector,
+though the payment had been agreed upon, invariably protested, and
+seemed disinclined to take the money. Then they would begin to speak of
+something else, and the coins remained lying on the table. When Florent
+went away, Madame Verlaque always accompanied him to the street door.
+She was a gentle little woman, of a very tearful disposition. Her one
+topic of conversation was the expense necessitated by her husband's
+illness, the costliness of chicken broth, butcher's meat, Bordeaux
+wine, medicine, and doctors' fees. Her doleful conversation greatly
+embarrassed Florent, and on the first few occasions he did not
+understand the drift of it. But at last, as the poor woman seemed always
+in a state of tears, and kept saying how happy and comfortable they had
+been when they had enjoyed the full salary of eighteen hundred francs
+a year, he timidly offered to make her a private allowance, to be
+kept secret from her husband. This offer, however, she declined,
+inconsistently declaring that the fifty francs were sufficient. But in
+the course of the month she frequently wrote to Florent, calling
+him their saviour. Her handwriting was small and fine, yet she would
+contrive to fill three pages of letter paper with humble, flowing
+sentences entreating the loan of ten francs; and this she at last did so
+regularly that wellnigh the whole of Florent's hundred and fifty francs
+found its way to the Verlaques. The husband was probably unaware of
+it; however, the wife gratefully kissed Florent's hands. This charity
+afforded him the greatest pleasure, and he concealed it as though it
+were some forbidden selfish indulgence.
+
+"That rascal Verlaque is making a fool of you," Gavard would sometimes
+say. "He's coddling himself up finely now that you are doing the work
+and paying him an income."
+
+At last one day Florent replied:
+
+"Oh, we've arranged matters together. I'm only to give him twenty-five
+francs a month in future."
+
+As a matter of fact, Florent had but little need of money. The Quenus
+continued to provide him with board and lodging; and the few francs
+which he kept by him sufficed to pay for the refreshment he took in the
+evening at Monsieur Lebigre's. His life had gradually assumed all the
+regularity of clockwork. He worked in his bedroom, continued to teach
+little Muche twice a week from eight to nine o'clock, devoted an evening
+to Lisa, to avoid offending her, and spent the rest of his spare time in
+the little "cabinet" with Gavard and his friends.
+
+When he went to the Mehudins' there was a touch of tutorial stiffness
+in his gentle demeanour. He was pleased with the old house in the
+Rue Pirouette. On the ground floor he passed through the faint odours
+pervading the premises of the purveyor of cooked vegetables. Big pans of
+boiled spinach and sorrel stood cooling in the little backyard. Then he
+ascended the winding staircase, greasy and dark, with worn and bulging
+steps which sloped in a disquieting manner. The Mehudins occupied the
+whole of the second floor. Even when they had attained to comfortable
+circumstances the old mother had always declined to move into fresh
+quarters, despite all the supplications of her daughters, who dreamt of
+living in a new house in a fine broad street. But on this point the old
+woman was not to be moved; she had lived there, she said, and meant to
+die there. She contented herself, moreover, with a dark little closet,
+leaving the largest rooms to Claire and La Normande. The later, with
+the authority of the elder born, had taken possession of the room that
+overlooked the street; it was the best and largest of the suite. Claire
+was so much annoyed at her sister's action in the matter that she
+refused to occupy the adjoining room, whose window overlooked the yard,
+and obstinately insisted on sleeping on the other side of the landing,
+in a sort of garret, which she did not even have whitewashed. However,
+she had her own key, and so was independent; directly anything happened
+to displease her she locked herself up in her own quarters.
+
+As a rule, when Florent arrived the Mehudins were just finishing
+their dinner. Muche sprang to his neck, and for a moment the young man
+remained seated with the lad chattering between his legs. Then, when
+the oilcloth cover had been wiped, the lesson began on a corner of
+the table. The beautiful Norman gave Florent a cordial welcome. She
+generally began to knit or mend some linen, and would draw her chair up
+to the table and work by the light of the same lamp as the others; and
+she frequently put down her needle to listen to the lesson, which filled
+her with surprise. She soon began to feel warm esteem for this man who
+seemed so clever, who, in speaking to the little one, showed himself as
+gentle as a woman, and manifested angelic patience in again and again
+repeating the same instructions. She no longer considered him at all
+plain, but even felt somewhat jealous of beautiful Lisa. And then she
+drew her chair still nearer, and gazed at Florent with an embarrassing
+smile.
+
+"But you are jogging my elbow, mother, and I can't write," Muche
+exclaimed angrily. "There! see what a blot you've made me make! Get
+further away, do!"
+
+La Normande now gradually began to say a good many unpleasant things
+about beautiful Lisa. She pretended that the latter concealed her real
+age, that she laced her stays so tightly that she nearly suffocated
+herself, and that if she came down of a morning looking so trim and
+neat, without a single hair out of place, it must be because she looked
+perfectly hideous when in dishabille. Then La Normande would raise her
+arm a little, and say that there was no need for her to wear any stays
+to cramp and deform her figure. At these times the lessons would be
+interrupted, and Muche gazed with interest at his mother as she raised
+her arms. Florent listened to her, and even laughed, thinking to himself
+that women were very odd creatures. The rivalry between the beautiful
+Norman and beautiful Lisa amused him.
+
+Muche, however, managed to finish his page of writing. Florent, who was
+a good penman, set him copies in large hand and round hand on slips of
+paper. The words he chose were very long and took up the whole line, and
+he evinced a marked partiality for such expressions as "tyrannically,"
+"liberticide," "unconstitutional," and "revolutionary." At times also
+he made the boy copy such sentences as these: "The day of justice will
+surely come"; "The suffering of the just man is the condemnation of the
+oppressor"; "When the hour strikes, the guilty shall fall." In preparing
+these copy slips he was, indeed, influenced by the ideas which haunted
+his brain; he would for the time become quite oblivious of Muche, the
+beautiful Norman, and all his surroundings. The lad would have copied
+Rousseau's "Contrat Social" had he been told to do so; and thus,
+drawing each letter in turn, he filled page after page with lines of
+"tyrannically" and "unconstitutional."
+
+As long as the tutor remained there, old Madame Mehudin kept fidgeting
+round the table, muttering to herself. She still harboured terrible
+rancour against Florent; and asserted that it was folly to make the lad
+work in that way at a time when children should be in bed. She would
+certainly have turned that "spindle-shanks" out of the house, if the
+beautiful Norman, after a stormy scene, had not bluntly told her that
+she would go to live elsewhere if she were not allowed to receive whom
+she chose. However, the pair began quarrelling again on the subject
+every evening.
+
+"You may say what you like," exclaimed the old woman; "but he's got
+treacherous eyes. And, besides, I'm always suspicious of those skinny
+people. A skinny man's capable of anything. I've never come across a
+decent one yet. That one's as flat as a board. And he's got such an ugly
+face, too! Though I'm sixty-five and more, I'd precious soon send him
+about his business if he came a-courting of me!"
+
+She said this because she had a shrewd idea of how matters were likely
+to turn out. And then she went on to speak in laudatory terms of
+Monsieur Lebigre, who, indeed, paid the greatest attention to the
+beautiful Norman. Apart from the handsome dowry which he imagined she
+would bring with her, he considered that she would be a magnificent
+acquisition to his counter. The old woman never missed an opportunity to
+sound his praises; there was no lankiness, at any rate, about him, said
+she; he was stout and strong, with a pair of calves which would have
+done honour even to one of the Emperor's footmen.
+
+However, La Normande shrugged her shoulders and snappishly replied:
+"What do I care whether he's stout or not? I don't want him or anybody.
+And besides, I shall do as I please."
+
+Then, if the old woman became too pointed in her remarks, the other
+added: "It's no business of yours, and besides, it isn't true. Hold
+your tongue and don't worry me." And thereupon she would go off into
+her room, banging the door behind her. Florent, however, had a yet
+more bitter enemy than Madame Mehudin in the house. As soon as ever he
+arrived there, Claire would get up without a word, take a candle, and go
+off to her own room on the other side of the landing; and she could be
+heard locking her door in a burst of sullen anger. One evening when
+her sister asked the tutor to dinner, she prepared her own food on
+the landing, and ate it in her bedroom; and now and again she secluded
+herself so closely that nothing was seen of her for a week at a time.
+She usually retained her appearance of soft lissomness, but periodically
+had a fit of iron rigidity, when her eyes blazed from under her pale
+tawny locks like those of a distrustful wild animal. Old Mother Mehudin,
+fancying that she might relieve herself in her company, only made her
+furious by speaking to her of Florent; and thereupon the old woman, in
+her exasperation, told everyone that she would have gone off and left
+her daughters to themselves had she not been afraid of their devouring
+each other if they remained alone together.
+
+As Florent went away one evening, he passed in front of Claire's door,
+which was standing wide open. He saw the girl look at him, and turn very
+red. Her hostile demeanour annoyed him; and it was only the timidity
+which he felt in the presence of women that restrained him from seeking
+an explanation of her conduct. On this particular evening he would
+certainly have addressed her if he had not detected Mademoiselle Saget's
+pale face peering over the balustrade of the upper landing. So he went
+his way, but had not taken a dozen steps before Claire's door was closed
+behind him with such violence as to shake the whole staircase. It was
+after this that Mademoiselle Saget, eager to propagate slander, went
+about repeating everywhere that Madame Quenu's cousin was "carrying on"
+most dreadfully with both the Mehudin girls.
+
+Florent, however, gave very little thought to these two handsome young
+women. His usual manner towards them was that of a man who has but
+little success with the sex. Certainly he had come to entertain a
+feeling of genuine friendship for La Normande, who really displayed a
+very good heart when her impetuous temper did not run away with her. But
+he never went any further than this. Moreover, the queenly proportions
+of her robust figure filled him with a kind of alarm; and of an evening,
+whenever she drew her chair up to the lamp and bent forward as though
+to look at Muche's copy-book, he drew in his own sharp bony elbows and
+shrunken shoulders as if realising what a pitiful specimen of humanity
+he was by the side of that buxom, hardy creature so full of the life of
+ripe womanhood. Moreover, there was another reason why he recoiled from
+her. The smells of the markets distressed him; on finishing his duties
+of an evening he would have liked to escape from the fishy odour amidst
+which his days were spent; but, alas! beautiful though La Normande was,
+this odour seemed to adhere to her silky skin. She had tried every
+sort of aromatic oil, and bathed freely; but as soon as the freshening
+influence of the bath was over her blood again impregnated her skin with
+the faint odour of salmon, the musky perfume of smelts, and the pungent
+scent of herrings and skate. Her skirts, too, as she moved about,
+exhaled these fishy smells, and she walked as though amidst an
+atmosphere redolent of slimy seaweed. With her tall, goddess-like
+figure, her purity of form, and transparency of complexion she resembled
+some lovely antique marble that had rolled about in the depths of the
+sea and had been brought to land in some fisherman's net.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget, however, swore by all her gods that Florent was the
+young woman's lover. According to her account, indeed, he courted
+both the sisters. She had quarrelled with the beautiful Norman about
+a ten-sou dab; and ever since this falling-out she had manifested warm
+friendship for handsome Lisa. By this means she hoped the sooner to
+arrive at a solution of what she called the Quenus' mystery. Florent
+still continued to elude her curiosity, and she told her friends that
+she felt like a body without a soul, though she was careful not to
+reveal what was troubling her so grievously. A young girl infatuated
+with a hopeless passion could not have been in more distress than this
+terrible old woman at finding herself unable to solve the mystery of the
+Quenus' cousin. She was constantly playing the spy on Florent, following
+him about, and watching him, in a burning rage at her failure to satisfy
+her rampant curiosity. Now that he had begun to visit the Mehudins she
+was for ever haunting the stairs and landings. She soon discovered that
+handsome Lisa was much annoyed at Florent visiting "those women," and
+accordingly she called at the pork shop every morning with a budget of
+information. She went in shrivelled and shrunk by the frosty air, and,
+resting her hands on the heating-pan to warm them, remained in front of
+the counter buying nothing, but repeating in her shrill voice: "He
+was with them again yesterday; he seems to live there now. I heard La
+Normande call him 'my dear' on the staircase."
+
+She indulged like this in all sorts of lies in order to remain in the
+shop and continue warming her hands for a little longer. On the morning
+after the evening when she had heard Claire close her door behind
+Florent, she spun out her story for a good half hour, inventing all
+sorts of mendacious and abominable particulars.
+
+Lisa, who had assumed a look of contemptuous scorn, said but little,
+simply encouraging Mademoiselle Saget's gossip by her silence. At last,
+however, she interrupted her. "No, no," she said; "I can't really listen
+to all that. Is it possible that there can be such women?"
+
+Thereupon Mademoiselle Saget told Lisa that unfortunately all women were
+not so well conducted as herself. And then she pretended to find all
+sorts of excuses for Florent: it wasn't his fault; he was no doubt a
+bachelor; these women had very likely inveigled him in their snares.
+In this way she hinted questions without openly asking them. But Lisa
+preserved silence with respect to her cousin, merely shrugging her
+shoulders and compressing her lips. When Mademoiselle Saget at last went
+away, the mistress of the shop glanced with disgust at the cover of the
+heating-pan, the glistening metal of which had been tarnished by the
+impression of the old woman's little hands.
+
+"Augustine," she cried, "bring a duster, and wipe the cover of the
+heating-pan. It's quite filthy!"
+
+The rivalry between the beautiful Lisa and the beautiful Norman now
+became formidable. The beautiful Norman flattered herself that she had
+carried a lover off from her enemy; and the beautiful Lisa was indignant
+with the hussy who, by luring the sly cousin to her home, would surely
+end by compromising them all. The natural temperament of each woman
+manifested itself in the hostilities which ensued. The one remained
+calm and scornful, like a lady who holds up her skirts to keep them from
+being soiled by the mud; while the other, much less subject to shame,
+displayed insolent gaiety and swaggered along the footways with the airs
+of a duellist seeking a cause of quarrel. Each of their skirmishes would
+be the talk of the fish market for the whole day. When the beautiful
+Norman saw the beautiful Lisa standing at the door of her shop, she
+would go out of her way in order to pass her, and brush against her with
+her apron; and then the angry glances of the two rivals crossed like
+rapiers, with the rapid flash and thrust of pointed steel. When the
+beautiful Lisa, on the other hand, went to the fish market, she assumed
+an expression of disgust on approaching the beautiful Norman's stall.
+And then she proceeded to purchase some big fish--a turbot or a
+salmon--of a neighbouring dealer, spreading her money out on the marble
+slab as she did so, for she had noticed that this seemed to have a
+painful effect upon the "hussy," who ceased laughing at the sight. To
+hear the two rivals speak, anyone would have supposed that the fish
+and pork they sold were quite unfit for food. However, their principal
+engagements took place when the beautiful Norman was seated at her stall
+and the beautiful Lisa at her counter, and they glowered blackly at each
+other across the Rue Rambuteau. They sat in state in their big white
+aprons, decked out with showy toilets and jewels, and the battle between
+them would commence early in the morning.
+
+"Hallo, the fat woman's got up!" the beautiful Norman would exclaim.
+"She ties herself up as tightly as her sausages! Ah, she's got
+Saturday's collar on again, and she's still wearing that poplin dress!"
+
+At the same moment, on the opposite side of the street, beautiful Lisa
+was saying to her shop girl: "Just look at that creature staring at us
+over yonder, Augustine! She's getting quite deformed by the life she
+leads. Do you see her earrings? She's wearing those big drops of hers,
+isn't she? It makes one feel ashamed to see a girl like that with
+brilliants."
+
+All complaisance, Augustine echoed her mistress's words.
+
+When either of them was able to display a new ornament it was like
+scoring a victory--the other one almost choked with spleen. Every day
+they would scrutinise and count each other's customers, and manifest the
+greatest annoyance if they thought that the "big thing over the way" was
+doing the better business. Then they spied out what each had for lunch.
+Each knew what the other ate, and even watched to see how she digested
+it. In the afternoon, while the one sat amidst her cooked meats and the
+other amidst her fish, they posed and gave themselves airs, as though
+they were queens of beauty. It was then that the victory of the day was
+decided. The beautiful Norman embroidered, selecting the most delicate
+and difficult work, and this aroused Lisa's exasperation.
+
+"Ah!" she said, speaking of her rival, "she had far better mend her
+boy's stockings. He's running about quite barefooted. Just look at that
+fine lady, with her red hands stinking of fish!"
+
+For her part, Lisa usually knitted.
+
+"She's still at that same sock," La Normande would say, as she watched
+her. "She eats so much that she goes to sleep over her work. I pity her
+poor husband if he's waiting for those socks to keep his feet warm!"
+
+They would sit glowering at each other with this implacable hostility
+until evening, taking note of every customer, and displaying such keen
+eyesight that they detected the smallest details of each other's dress
+and person when other women declared that they could see nothing at
+such a distance. Mademoiselle Saget expressed the highest admiration for
+Madame Quenu's wonderful sight when she one day detected a scratch on
+the fish-girl's left cheek. With eyes like those, said the old maid,
+one might even see through a door. However, the victory often remained
+undecided when night fell; sometimes one or other of the rivals was
+temporarily crushed, but she took her revenge on the morrow. Several
+people of the neighbourhood actually laid wagers on these contests, some
+backing the beautiful Lisa and others the beautiful Norman.
+
+At last they ended by forbidding their children to speak to one another.
+Pauline and Muche had formerly been good friends, notwithstanding the
+girl's stiff petticoats and lady-like demeanour, and the lad's tattered
+appearance, coarse language, and rough manners. They had at times played
+together at horses on the broad footway in front of the fish market,
+Pauline always being the horse and Muche the driver. One day, however,
+when the boy came in all simplicity to seek his playmate, Lisa turned
+him out of the house, declaring that he was a dirty little street arab.
+
+"One can't tell what may happen with children who have been so
+shockingly brought up," she observed.
+
+"Yes, indeed; you are quite right," replied Mademoiselle Saget, who
+happened to be present.
+
+When Muche, who was barely seven years old, came in tears to his mother
+to tell her of what had happened, La Normande broke out into a terrible
+passion. At the first moment she felt a strong inclination to rush
+over to the Quenu-Gradelles' and smash everything in their shop. But
+eventually she contented herself with giving Muche a whipping.
+
+"If ever I catch you going there again," she cried, boiling over with
+anger, "you'll get it hot from me, I can tell you!"
+
+Florent, however, was the real victim of the two women. It was he, in
+truth, who had set them by the ears, and it was on his account that
+they were fighting each other. Ever since he had appeared upon the scene
+things had been going from bad to worse. He compromised and disturbed
+and embittered all these people, who had previously lived in such sleek
+peace and harmony. The beautiful Norman felt inclined to claw him when
+he lingered too long with the Quenus, and it was chiefly from an impulse
+of hostile rivalry that she desired to win him to herself. The beautiful
+Lisa, on her side, maintained a cold judicial bearing, and although
+extremely annoyed, forced herself to silence whenever she saw Florent
+leaving the pork shop to go to the Rue Pirouette.
+
+Still, there was now much less cordiality than formerly round the
+Quenus' dinner-table in the evening. The clean, prim dining-room seemed
+to have assumed an aspect of chilling severity. Florent divined a
+reproach, a sort of condemnation in the bright oak, the polished lamp,
+and the new matting. He scarcely dared to eat for fear of letting crumbs
+fall on the floor or soiling his plate. There was a guileless simplicity
+about him which prevented him from seeing how the land really lay.
+He still praised Lisa's affectionate kindliness on all sides; and
+outwardly, indeed, she did continue to treat him with all gentleness.
+
+"It is very strange," she said to him one day with a smile, as though
+she were joking; "although you don't eat at all badly now, you don't get
+fatter. Your food doesn't seem to do you any good."
+
+At this Quenu laughed aloud, and tapping his brother's stomach,
+protested that the whole contents of the pork shop might pass through it
+without depositing a layer of fat as thick as a two-sou piece. However,
+Lisa's insistence on this particular subject was instinct with that same
+suspicious dislike for fleshless men which Madame Mehudin manifested
+more outspokenly; and behind it all there was likewise a veiled allusion
+to the disorderly life which she imagined Florent was leading. She
+never, however, spoke a word to him about La Normande. Quenu had
+attempted a joke on the subject one evening, but Lisa had received it so
+icily that the good man had not ventured to refer to the matter again.
+They would remain seated at table for a few moments after dessert, and
+Florent, who had noticed his sister-in-law's vexation if ever he went
+off too soon, tried to find something to talk about. On these occasions
+Lisa would be near him, and certainly he did not suffer in her presence
+from that fishy smell which assailed him when he was in the company of
+La Normande. The mistress of the pork shop, on the contrary, exhaled an
+odour of fat and rich meats. Moreover, not a thrill of life stirred her
+tight-fitting bodice; she was all massiveness and all sedateness.
+Gavard once said to Florent in confidence that Madame Quenu was no doubt
+handsome, but that for his part he did not admire such armour-plated
+women.
+
+Lisa avoided talking to Quenu of Florent. She habitually prided herself
+on her patience, and considered, too, that it would not be proper to
+cause any unpleasantness between the brothers, unless some peremptory
+reason for her interference should arise. As she said, she could put up
+with a good deal, but, of course, she must not be tried too far. She had
+now reached the period of courteous tolerance, wearing an expressionless
+face, affecting perfect indifference and strict politeness, and
+carefully avoiding everything which might seem to hint that Florent was
+boarding and lodging with them without their receiving the slightest
+payment from him. Not, indeed, that she would have accepted any payment
+from him, she was above all that; still he might, at any rate, she
+thought, have lunched away from the house.
+
+"We never seem to be alone now," she remarked to Quenu one day. "If
+there is anything we want to say to one another we have to wait till we
+go upstairs at night."
+
+And then, one night when they were in bed, she said to him: "Your
+brother earns a hundred and fifty francs a month, doesn't he? Well, it's
+strange he can't put a trifle by to buy himself some more linen. I've
+been obliged to give him three more of your old shirts."
+
+"Oh, that doesn't matter," Quenu replied. "Florent's not hard to please;
+and we must let him keep his money for himself."
+
+"Oh, yes, of course," said Lisa, without pressing the matter further. "I
+didn't mention it for that reason. Whether he spends his money well or
+ill, it isn't our business."
+
+In her own mind she felt quite sure that he wasted his salary at the
+Mehudins'.
+
+Only on one occasion did she break through her habitual calmness of
+demeanour, the quiet reserve which was the result of both natural
+temperament and preconceived design. The beautiful Norman had made
+Florent a present of a magnificent salmon. Feeling very much embarrassed
+with the fish, and not daring to refuse it, he brought it to Lisa.
+
+"You can make a pasty of it," he said ingenuously.
+
+Lisa looked at him sternly with whitening lips. Then, striving to
+restrain her anger, she exclaimed: "Do you think that we are short of
+food? Thank God, we've got quite enough to eat here! Take it back!"
+
+"Well, at any rate, cook it for me," replied Florent, amazed by her
+anger; "I'll eat it myself."
+
+At this she burst out furiously.
+
+"The house isn't an inn! Tell those who gave you the fish to cook it for
+you! I won't have my pans tainted and infected! Take it back again! Do
+you hear?"
+
+If he had not gone away with it, she would certainly have seized it and
+hurled it into the street. Florent took it to Monsieur Lebigre's, where
+Rose was ordered to make a pasty of it; and one evening the pasty was
+eaten in the little "cabinet," Gavard, who was present, "standing"
+some oysters for the occasion. Florent now gradually came more and more
+frequently to Monsieur Lebigre's, till at last he was constantly to be
+met in the little private room. He there found an atmosphere of heated
+excitement in which his political feverishness could pulsate freely.
+At times, now, when he shut himself up in his garret to work, the quiet
+simplicity of the little room irritated him, his theoretical search
+for liberty proved quite insufficient, and it became necessary that he
+should go downstairs, sally out, and seek satisfaction in the trenchant
+axioms of Charvet and the wild outbursts of Logre. During the first few
+evenings the clamour and chatter had made him feel ill at ease; he was
+then quite conscious of their utter emptiness, but he felt a need of
+drowning his thoughts, of goading himself on to some extreme resolution
+which might calm his mental disquietude. The atmosphere of the little
+room, reeking with the odour of spirits and warm with tobacco smoke,
+intoxicated him and filled him with peculiar beatitude, prompting a kind
+of self-surrender which made him willing to acquiesce in the wildest
+ideas. He grew attached to those he met there, and looked for them
+and awaited their coming with a pleasure which increased with habit.
+Robine's mild, bearded countenance, Clemence's serious profile,
+Charvet's fleshless pallor, Logre's hump, Gavard, Alexandre, and
+Lacaille, all entered into his life, and assumed a larger and larger
+place in it. He took quite a sensual enjoyment in these meetings.
+When his fingers closed round the brass knob on the door of the little
+cabinet it seemed to be animated with life, to warm him, and turn of its
+own accord. Had he grasped the supple wrist of a woman he could not have
+felt a more thrilling emotion.
+
+To tell the truth, very serious things took place in that little room.
+One evening, Logre, after indulging in wilder outbursts than usual,
+banged his fist upon the table, declaring that if they were men they
+would make a clean sweep of the Government. And he added that it was
+necessary they should come to an understanding without further delay, if
+they desired to be fully prepared when the time for action arrived. Then
+they all bent their heads together, discussed the matter in lower tones,
+and decided to form a little "group," which should be ready for whatever
+might happen. From that day forward Gavard flattered himself that he
+was a member of a secret society, and was engaged in a conspiracy. The
+little circle received no new members, but Logre promised to put it into
+communication with other associations with which he was acquainted; and
+then, as soon as they held all Paris in their grasp, they would rise
+and make the Tuileries' people dance. A series of endless discussions,
+renewed during several months, then began--discussions on questions of
+organisation, on questions of ways and means, on questions of strategy,
+and of the form of the future Government. As soon as Rose had brought
+Clemence's grog, Charvet's and Robine's beer, the coffee for Logre,
+Gavard, and Florent, and the liqueur glasses of brandy for Lacaille
+and Alexandre, the door of the cabinet was carefully fastened, and the
+debate began.
+
+Charvet and Florent were naturally those whose utterances were listened
+to with the greatest attention. Gavard had not been able to keep his
+tongue from wagging, but had gradually related the whole story of
+Cayenne; and Florent found himself surrounded by a halo of martyrdom.
+His words were received as though they were the expression of
+indisputable dogmas. One evening, however, the poultry dealer, vexed
+at hearing his friend, who happened to be absent, attacked, exclaimed:
+"Don't say anything against Florent; he's been to Cayenne!"
+
+Charvet was rather annoyed by the advantage which this circumstance
+gave to Florent. "Cayenne, Cayenne," he muttered between his teeth. "Ah,
+well, they were not so badly off there, after all."
+
+Then he attempted to prove that exile was a mere nothing, and that real
+suffering consisted in remaining in one's oppressed country, gagged in
+presence of triumphant despotism. And besides, he urged, it wasn't his
+fault that he hadn't been arrested on the Second of December. Next,
+however, he hinted that those who had allowed themselves to be captured
+were imbeciles. His secret jealousy made him a systematic opponent of
+Florent; and the general discussions always ended in a duel between
+these two, who, while their companions listened in silence, would speak
+against one another for hours at a time, without either of them allowing
+that he was beaten.
+
+One of the favourite subjects of discussion was that of the
+reorganisation of the country which would have to be effected on the
+morrow of their victory.
+
+"We are the conquerors, are we not?" began Gavard.
+
+And, triumph being taken for granted, everyone offered his opinion.
+There were two rival parties. Charvet, who was a disciple of Hebert, was
+supported by Logre and Robine; while Florent, who was always absorbed
+in humanitarian dreams, and called himself a Socialist, was backed by
+Alexandre and Lacaille. As for Gavard, he felt no repugnance for violent
+action; but, as he was often twitted about his fortune with no end of
+sarcastic witticisms which annoyed him, he declared himself a Communist.
+
+"We must make a clean sweep of everything," Charvet would curtly say, as
+though he were delivering a blow with a cleaver. "The trunk is rotten,
+and it must come down."
+
+"Yes! yes!" cried Logre, standing up that he might look taller,
+and making the partition shake with the excited motion of his hump.
+"Everything will be levelled to the ground; take my word for it. After
+that we shall see what to do."
+
+Robine signified approval by wagging his beard. His silence seemed
+instinct with delight whenever violent revolutionary propositions were
+made. His eyes assumed a soft ecstatic expression at the mention of the
+guillotine. He half closed them, as though he could see the machine, and
+was filled with pleasant emotion at the sight; and next he would gently
+rub his chin against the knob of his stick, with a subdued purr of
+satisfaction.
+
+"All the same," said Florent, in whose voice a vague touch of sadness
+lingered, "if you cut down the tree it will be necessary to preserve
+some seed. For my part, I think that the tree ought to be preserved, so
+that we may graft new life on it. The political revolution, you know,
+has already taken place; to-day we have got to think of the labourer,
+the working man. Our movement must be altogether a social one. I defy
+you to reject the claims of the people. They are weary of waiting, and
+are determined to have their share of happiness."
+
+These words aroused Alexandre's enthusiasm. With a beaming, radiant face
+he declared that this was true, that the people were weary of waiting.
+
+"And we will have our share," added Lacaille, with a more menacing
+expression. "All the revolutions that have taken place have been for
+the good of the middle classes. We've had quite enough of that sort of
+thing, and the next one shall be for our benefit."
+
+From this moment disagreement set in. Gavard offered to make a division
+of his property, but Logre declined, asserting that he cared nothing for
+money. Then Charvet gradually overcame the tumult, till at last he alone
+was heard speaking.
+
+"The selfishness of the different classes does more than anything else
+to uphold tyranny," said he. "It is wrong of the people to display
+egotism. If they assist us they shall have their share. But why should
+I fight for the working man if the working man won't fight for
+me? Moreover, that is not the question at present. Ten years of
+revolutionary dictatorship will be necessary to accustom a nation like
+France to the fitting enjoyment of liberty."
+
+"All the more so as the working man is not ripe for it, and requires to
+be directed," said Clemence bluntly.
+
+She but seldom spoke. This tall, serious looking girl, alone among
+so many men, listened to all the political chatter with a learnedly
+critical air. She leaned back against the partition, and every now and
+then sipped her grog whilst gazing at the speakers with frowning
+brows or inflated nostrils, thus silently signifying her approval or
+disapproval, and making it quite clear that she held decided opinions
+upon the most complicated matters. At times she would roll a cigarette,
+and puff slender whiffs of smoke from the corners of her mouth, whilst
+lending increased attention to what was being debated. It was as though
+she were presiding over the discussion, and would award the prize to
+the victor when it was finished. She certainly considered that it became
+her, as a woman, to display some reserve in her opinions, and to remain
+calm whilst the men grew more and more excited. Now and then, however,
+in the heat of the debate, she would let a word or a phrase escape her
+and "clench the matter" even for Charvet himself, as Gavard said. In her
+heart she believed herself the superior of all these fellows. The only
+one of them for whom she felt any respect was Robine, and she would
+thoughtfully contemplate his silent bearing.
+
+Neither Florent nor any of the others paid any special attention to
+Clemence. They treated her just as though she were a man, shaking hands
+with her so roughly as almost to dislocate her arms. One evening Florent
+witnessed the periodical settlement of accounts between her and Charvet.
+She had just received her pay, and Charvet wanted to borrow ten francs
+from her; but she first of all insisted that they must reckon up
+how matters stood between them. They lived together in a voluntary
+partnership, each having complete control of his or her earnings, and
+strictly paying his or her expenses. By so doing, said they, they were
+under no obligations to one another, but retained entire freedom. Rent,
+food, washing, and amusements, were all noted down and added up. That
+evening, when the accounts had been verified, Clemence proved to Charvet
+that he already owed her five francs. Then she handed him the other ten
+which he wished to borrow, and exclaimed: "Recollect that you now owe me
+fifteen. I shall expect you to repay me on the fifth, when you get paid
+for teaching little Lehudier."
+
+When Rose was summoned to receive payment for the "drinks," each
+produced the few coppers required to discharge his or her liability.
+Charvet laughingly called Clemence an aristocrat because she drank grog.
+She wanted to humiliate him, said he, and make him feel that he earned
+less than she did, which, as it happened, was the fact. Beneath his
+laugh, however, there was a feeling of bitterness that the girl should
+be better circumstanced than himself, for, in spite of his theory of the
+equality of the sexes, this lowered him.
+
+Although the discussions in the little room had virtually no result,
+they served to exercise the speakers' lungs. A tremendous hubbub
+proceeded from the sanctum, and the panes of frosted glass vibrated
+like drum-skins. Sometimes the uproar became so great that Rose, while
+languidly serving some blouse-wearing customer in the shop, would turn
+her head uneasily.
+
+"Why, they're surely fighting together in there," the customer would
+say, as he put his glass down on the zinc-covered counter, and wiped his
+mouth with the back of his hand.
+
+"Oh, there's no fear of that," Monsieur Lebigre tranquilly replied.
+"It's only some gentlemen talking together."
+
+Monsieur Lebigre, indeed, although very strict with his other customers,
+allowed the politicians to shout as loudly as they pleased, and never
+made the least remark on the subject. He would sit for hours together on
+the bench behind the counter, with his big head lolling drowsily against
+the mirror, whilst he watched Rose uncorking the bottles and giving a
+wipe here and there with her duster. And in spite of the somniferous
+effects of the wine fumes and the warm streaming gaslight, he would keep
+his ears open to the sounds proceeding from the little room. At times,
+when the voices grew noisier than usual, he got up from his seat and
+went to lean against the partition; and occasionally he even pushed the
+door open, and went inside and sat down there for a few minutes, giving
+Gavard a friendly slap on the thigh. And then he would nod approval
+of everything that was said. The poultry dealer asserted that although
+friend Lebigre hadn't the stuff of an orator in him, they might safely
+reckon on him when the "shindy" came.
+
+One morning, however, at the markets, when a tremendous row broke out
+between Rose and one of the fish-wives, through the former accidentally
+knocking over a basket of herrings, Florent heard Rose's employer spoken
+of as a "dirty spy" in the pay of the police. And after he had succeeded
+in restoring peace, all sorts of stories about Monsieur Lebigre were
+poured into his ears. Yes, the wine seller was in the pay of the police,
+the fish-wives said; all the neighbourhood knew it. Before Mademoiselle
+Saget had begun to deal with him she had once met him entering the
+Prefecture to make his report. It was asserted, too, that he was a
+money-monger, a usurer, and lent petty sums by the day to costermongers,
+and let out barrows to them, exacting a scandalous rate of interest in
+return. Florent was greatly disturbed by all this, and felt it his
+duty to repeat it that evening to his fellow politicians. The latter,
+however, only shrugged their shoulders, and laughed at his uneasiness.
+
+"Poor Florent!" Charvet exclaimed sarcastically; "he imagines the whole
+police force is on his track, just because he happens to have been sent
+to Cayenne!"
+
+Gavard gave his word of honour that Lebigre was perfectly staunch and
+true, while Logre, for his part, manifested extreme irritation. He fumed
+and declared that it would be quite impossible for them to get on if
+everyone was to be accused of being a police spy; for his own part, he
+would rather stay at home, and have nothing more to do with politics.
+Why, hadn't people even dared to say that he, Logre himself, who had
+fought in '48 and '51, and had twice narrowly escaped transportation,
+was a spy as well? As he shouted this out, he thrust his jaws forward,
+and glared at the others as though he would have liked to ram the
+conviction that he had nothing to do with the police down their throats.
+At the sight of his furious glances his companions made gestures of
+protestation. However, Lacaille, on hearing Monsieur Lebigre accused of
+usury, silently lowered his head.
+
+The incident was forgotten in the discussions which ensued. Since Logre
+had suggested a conspiracy, Monsieur Lebigre had grasped the hands of
+the frequenters of the little room with more vigor than ever. Their
+custom, to tell the truth, was of but small value to him, for they never
+ordered more than one "drink" apiece. They drained the last drops just
+as they rose to leave, having been careful to allow a little to remain
+in their glasses, even during their most heated arguments. In this wise
+the one "shout" lasted throughout the evening. They shivered as they
+turned out into the cold dampness of the night, and for a moment or two
+remained standing on the footway with dazzled eyes and buzzing ears,
+as though surprised by the dark silence of the street. Rose, meanwhile,
+fastened the shutters behind them. Then, quite exhausted, at a loss for
+another word they shook hands, separated, and went their different ways,
+still mentally continuing the discussion of the evening, and regretting
+that they could not ram their particular theories down each other's
+throats. Robine walked away, with his bent back bobbing up and down, in
+the direction of the Rue Rambuteau; whilst Charvet and Clemence went
+off through the markets on their return to the Luxembourg quarter, their
+heels sounding on the flag-stones in military fashion, whilst they still
+discussed some question of politics or philosophy, walking along side by
+side, but never arm-in-arm.
+
+The conspiracy ripened very slowly. At the commencement of the summer
+the plotters had got no further than agreeing that it was necessary a
+stroke should be attempted. Florent, who had at first looked upon
+the whole business with a kind of distrust, had now, however, come to
+believe in the possibility of a revolutionary movement. He took up the
+matter seriously; making notes, and preparing plans in writing, while
+the others still did nothing but talk. For his part, he began to
+concentrate his whole life in the one persistent idea which made his
+brain throb night after night; and this to such a degree that he at last
+took his brother Quenu with him to Monsieur Lebigre's, as though such a
+course were quite natural. Certainly he had no thought of doing anything
+improper. He still looked upon Quenu as in some degree his pupil, and
+may even have considered it his duty to start him on the proper path.
+Quenu was an absolute novice in politics, but after spending five or six
+evenings in the little room he found himself quite in accord with the
+others. When Lisa was not present he manifested much docility, a sort of
+respect for his brother's opinions. But the greatest charm of the affair
+for him was really the mild dissipation of leaving his shop and shutting
+himself up in the little room where the others shouted so loudly, and
+where Clemence's presence, in his opinion, gave a tinge of rakishness
+and romance to the proceedings. He now made all haste with his
+chitterlings in order that he might get away as early as possible,
+anxious to lose not a single word of the discussions, which seemed to
+him to be very brilliant, though he was not always able to follow them.
+The beautiful Lisa did not fail to notice his hurry to be gone, but as
+yet she refrained from saying anything. When Florent took him off, she
+simply went to the door-step, and watched them enter Monsieur Lebigre's,
+her face paling somewhat, and a severe expression coming into her eyes.
+
+One evening, as Mademoiselle Saget was peering out of her garret
+casement, she recognised Quenu's shadow on the frosted glass of the
+"cabinet" window facing the Rue Pirouette. She had found her casement an
+excellent post of observation, as it overlooked that milky transparency,
+on which the gaslight threw silhouettes of the politicians, with noses
+suddenly appearing and disappearing, gaping jaws abruptly springing into
+sight and then vanishing, and huge arms, apparently destitute of bodies,
+waving hither and thither. This extraordinary jumble of detached
+limbs, these silent but frantic profiles, bore witness to the heated
+discussions that went on in the little room, and kept the old maid
+peering from behind her muslin curtains until the transparency turned
+black. She shrewdly suspected some "bit of trickery," as she phrased it.
+By continual watching she had come to recognise the different shadows
+by their hands and hair and clothes. As she gazed upon the chaos of
+clenched fists, angry heads, and swaying shoulders, which seemed to
+have become detached from their trunks and to roll about one atop of the
+other, she would exclaim unhesitatingly, "Ah, there's that big booby of
+a cousin; there's that miserly old Gavard; and there's the hunchback;
+and there's that maypole of a Clemence!" Then, when the action of the
+shadow-play became more pronounced, and they all seemed to have
+lost control over themselves, she felt an irresistible impulse to go
+downstairs to try to find out what was happening. Thus she now made a
+point of buying her black-currant syrup at nights, pretending that she
+felt out-of-sorts in the morning, and was obliged to take a sip as soon
+as ever she was out of bed. On the evening when she noticed Quenu's
+massive head shadowed on the transparency in close proximity to
+Charvet's fist, she made her appearance at Monsieur Lebigre's in a
+breathless condition. To gain more time, she made Rose rinse out her
+little bottle for her; however, she was about to return to her room when
+she heard the pork butcher exclaim with a sort of childish candour:
+
+"No, indeed, we'll stand for it no longer! We'll make a clean sweep of
+all those humbugging Deputies and Ministers! Yes, we'll send the whole
+lot packing."
+
+Eight o'clock had scarcely struck on the following morning when
+Mademoiselle Saget was already at the pork shop. She found Madame
+Lecoeur and La Sarriette there, dipping their noses into the
+heating-pan, and buying hot sausages for breakfast. As the old maid had
+managed to draw them into her quarrel with La Normande with respect to
+the ten-sou dab, they had at once made friends again with Lisa, and they
+now had nothing but contempt for the handsome fish-girl, and assailed
+her and her sister as good-for-nothing hussies, whose only aim was
+to fleece men of their money. This opinion had been inspired by the
+assertions of Mademoiselle Saget, who had declared to Madame Lecoeur
+that Florent had induced one of the two girls to coquette with Gavard,
+and that the four of them had indulged in the wildest dissipation at
+Barratte's--of course, at the poultry dealer's expense. From the effects
+of this impudent story Madame Lecoeur had not yet recovered; she wore a
+doleful appearance, and her eyes were quite yellow with spleen.
+
+That morning, however, it was for Madame Quenu that the old maid had
+a shock in store. She looked round the counter, and then in her most
+gentle voice remarked:
+
+"I saw Monsieur Quenu last night. They seem to enjoy themselves
+immensely in that little room at Lebigre's, if one may judge from the
+noise they make."
+
+Lisa had turned her head towards the street, listening very attentively,
+but apparently unwilling to show it. The old maid paused, hoping that
+one of the others would question her; and then, in a lower tone, she
+added: "They had a woman with them. Oh, I don't mean Monsieur Quenu, of
+course! I didn't say that; I don't know--"
+
+"It must be Clemence," interrupted La Sarriette; "a big scraggy creature
+who gives herself all sorts of airs just because she went to boarding
+school. She lives with a threadbare usher. I've seen them together;
+they always look as though they were taking each other off to the police
+station."
+
+"Oh, yes; I know," replied the old maid, who, indeed, knew everything
+about Charvet and Clemence, and whose only purpose was to alarm Lisa.
+
+The mistress of the pork shop, however, never flinched. She seemed to be
+absorbed in watching something of great interest in the market yonder.
+Accordingly the old maid had recourse to stronger measures. "I think,"
+said she, addressing herself to Madame Lecoeur, "that you ought to
+advise your brother-in-law to be careful. Last night they were shouting
+out the most shocking things in that little room. Men really seem to
+lose their heads over politics. If anyone had heard them, it might have
+been a very serious matter for them."
+
+"Oh! Gavard will go his own way," sighed Madame Lecoeur. "It only wanted
+this to fill my cup. I shall die of anxiety, I am sure, if he ever gets
+arrested."
+
+As she spoke, a gleam shot from her dim eyes. La Sarriette, however,
+laughed and wagged her little face, bright with the freshness of the
+morning air.
+
+"You should hear what Jules says of those who speak against the Empire,"
+she remarked. "They ought all to be thrown into the Seine, he told me;
+for it seems there isn't a single respectable person amongst them."
+
+"Oh! there's no harm done, of course, so long as only people like myself
+hear their foolish talk," resumed Mademoiselle Saget. "I'd rather cut
+my hand off, you know, than make mischief. Last night now, for instance,
+Monsieur Quenu was saying----"
+
+She again paused. Lisa had started slightly.
+
+"Monsieur Quenu was saying that the Ministers and Deputies and all who
+are in power ought to be shot."
+
+At this Lisa turned sharply, her face quite white and her hands clenched
+beneath her apron.
+
+"Quenu said that?" she curtly asked.
+
+"Yes, indeed, and several other similar things that I can't recollect
+now. I heard him myself. But don't distress yourself like that, Madame
+Quenu. You know very well that I sha'n't breathe a word. I'm quite old
+enough to know what might harm a man if it came out. Oh, no; it will go
+no further."
+
+Lisa had recovered her equanimity. She took a pride in the happy
+peacefulness of her home; she would not acknowledge that there had ever
+been the slightest difference between herself and her husband. And so
+now she shrugged her shoulders and said with a smile: "Oh, it's all a
+pack of foolish nonsense."
+
+When the three others were in the street together they agreed that
+handsome Lisa had pulled a very doleful face; and they were unanimously
+of opinion that the mysterious goings-on of the cousin, the Mehudins,
+Gavard, and the Quenus would end in trouble. Madame Lecoeur inquired
+what was done to the people who got arrested "for politics," but on this
+point Mademoiselle Saget could not enlighten her; she only knew that
+they were never seen again--no, never. And this induced La Sarriette to
+suggest that perhaps they were thrown into the Seine, as Jules had said
+they ought to be.
+
+Lisa avoided all reference to the subject at breakfast and dinner that
+day; and even in the evening, when Florent and Quenu went off together
+to Monsieur Lebigre's, there was no unwonted severity in her glance. On
+that particular evening, however, the question of framing a constitution
+for the future came under discussion, and it was one o'clock in the
+morning before the politicians could tear themselves away from the
+little room. The shutters had already been fastened, and they were
+obliged to leave by a small door, passing out one at a time with bent
+backs. Quenu returned home with an uneasy conscience. He opened the
+three or four doors on his way to bed as gently as possible, walking
+on tip-toe and stretching out his hands as he passed through the
+sitting-room, to avoid a collision with any of the furniture. The whole
+house seemed to be asleep. When he reached the bedroom, he was annoyed
+to find that Lisa had not extinguished the candle, which was burning
+with a tall, mournful flame in the midst of the deep silence. As Quenu
+took off his shoes, and put them down in a corner, the time-piece struck
+half past one with such a clear, ringing sound that he turned in alarm,
+almost frightened to move, and gazing with an expression of angry
+reproach at the shining gilded Gutenberg standing there, with his finger
+on a book. Lisa's head was buried in her pillow, and Quenu could only
+see her back; but he divined that she was merely feigning sleep, and her
+conduct in turning her back upon him was so instinct with reproach that
+he felt sorely ill at ease. At last he slipped beneath the bed-clothes,
+blew out the candle, and lay perfectly still. He could have sworn that
+his wife was awake, though she did not speak to him; and presently he
+fell asleep, feeling intensely miserable, and lacking the courage to say
+good night.
+
+He slept till late, and when he awoke he found himself sprawling in the
+middle of the bed with the eider-down quilt up to his chin, whilst Lisa
+sat in front of the secretaire, arranging some papers. His slumber
+had been so heavy that he had not heard her rise. However, he now took
+courage, and spoke to her from the depths of the alcove: "Why didn't you
+wake me? What are you doing there?"
+
+"I'm sorting the papers in these drawers," she replied in her usual tone
+of voice.
+
+Quenu felt relieved. But Lisa added: "One never knows what may happen.
+If the police were to come--"
+
+"What! the police?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, the police; for you're mixing yourself up with politics
+now."
+
+At this Quenu sat up in bed, quite dazed and confounded by such a
+violent and unexpected attack.
+
+"I mix myself up with politics! I mix myself up with politics!" he
+repeated. "It's no concern of the police. I've nothing to do with any
+compromising matters."
+
+"No," replied Lisa, shrugging her shoulders; "you merely talk about
+shooting everybody."
+
+"I! I!"
+
+"Yes. And you bawl it out in a public-house! Mademoiselle Saget heard
+you. All the neighbourhood knows by this time that you are a Red
+Republican!"
+
+Quenu fell back in bed again. He was not perfectly awake as yet. Lisa's
+words resounded in his ears as though he already heard the heavy tramp
+of gendarmes at the bedroom door. He looked at her as she sat there,
+with her hair already arranged, her figure tightly imprisoned in her
+stays, her whole appearance the same as it was on any other morning; and
+he felt more astonished than ever that she should be so neat and prim
+under such extraordinary circumstances.
+
+"I leave you absolutely free, you know," she continued, as she went on
+arranging the papers. "I don't want to wear the breeches, as the saying
+goes. You are the master, and you are at liberty to endanger your
+position, compromise our credit, and ruin our business."
+
+Then, as Quenu tried to protest, she silenced him with a gesture. "No,
+no; don't say anything," she continued. "This is no quarrel, and I am
+not even asking an explanation from you. But if you had consulted me,
+and we had talked the matter over together, I might have intervened.
+Ah! it's a great mistake to imagine that women understand nothing about
+politics. Shall I tell you what my politics are?"
+
+She had risen from her seat whilst speaking, and was now walking to and
+fro between the bed and the window, wiping as she went some specks
+of dust from the bright mahogany of the mirrored wardrobe and the
+dressing-table.
+
+"My politics are the politics of honest folks," said she. "I'm grateful
+to the Government when business is prosperous, when I can eat my meals
+in peace and comfort, and can sleep at nights without being awakened by
+the firing of guns. There were pretty times in '48, were there not? You
+remember our uncle Gradelle, the worthy man, showing us his books for
+that year? He lost more than six thousand francs. Now that we have got
+the Empire, however, everything prospers. We sell our goods readily
+enough. You can't deny it. Well, then, what is it that you want? How
+will you be better off when you have shot everybody?"
+
+She took her stand in front of the little night-table, crossed her arms
+over her breast, and fixed her eyes upon Quenu, who had shuffled himself
+beneath the bed-clothes, almost out of sight. He attempted to explain
+what it was that his friends wanted, but he got quite confused in his
+endeavours to summarise Florent's and Charvet's political and social
+systems; and could only talk about the disregard shown to principles,
+the accession of the democracy to power, and the regeneration of
+society, in such a strange tangled way that Lisa shrugged her shoulders,
+quite unable to understand him. At last, however, he extricated himself
+from his difficulties by declaring that the Empire was the reign of
+licentiousness, swindling finance, and highway robbery. And, recalling
+an expression of Logre's he added: "We are the prey of a band of
+adventurers, who are pillaging, violating, and assassinating France.
+We'll have no more of them."
+
+Lisa, however, still shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Well, and is that all you have got to say?" she asked with perfect
+coolness. "What has all that got to do with me? Even supposing it were
+true, what then? Have I ever advised you to practise dishonest courses?
+Have I ever prompted you to dishonour your acceptances, or cheat your
+customers, or pile up money by fraudulent practices? Really, you'll end
+by making me quite angry! We are honest folks, and we don't pillage or
+assassinate anybody. That's quite sufficient. What other folks do is no
+concern of ours. If they choose to be rogues it's their affair."
+
+She looked quite majestic and triumphant; and again pacing the room,
+drawing herself up to her full height, she resumed: "A pretty notion
+it is that people are to let their business go to rack and ruin just to
+please those who are penniless. For my part, I'm in favour of making hay
+while the sun shines, and supporting a Government which promotes trade.
+If it does do dishonourable things, I prefer to know nothing about them.
+I know that I myself commit none, and that no one in the neighbourhood
+can point a finger at me. It's only fools who go tilting at windmills.
+At the time of the last elections, you remember, Gavard said that the
+Emperor's candidate had been bankrupt, and was mixed up in all sorts of
+scandalous matters. Well, perhaps that was true, I don't deny it; but
+all the same, you acted wisely in voting for him, for all that was not
+in question; you were not asked to lend the man any money or to transact
+any business with him, but merely to show the Government that you were
+pleased with the prosperity of the pork trade."
+
+At this moment Quenu called to mind a sentence of Charvet's, asserting
+that "the bloated bourgeois, the sleek shopkeepers, who backed up that
+Government of universal gormandising, ought to be hurled into the sewers
+before all others, for it was owing to them and their gluttonous egotism
+that tyranny had succeeded in mastering and preying upon the nation." He
+was trying to complete this piece of eloquence when Lisa, carried off by
+her indignation, cut him short.
+
+"Don't talk such stuff! My conscience doesn't reproach me with anything.
+I don't owe a copper to anybody; I'm not mixed up in any dishonest
+business; I buy and sell good sound stuff; and I charge no more than
+others do. What you say may perhaps apply to people like our cousins,
+the Saccards. They pretend to be even ignorant that I am in Paris; but
+I am prouder than they are, and I don't care a rap for their millions.
+It's said that Saccard speculates in condemned buildings, and cheats and
+robs everybody. I'm not surprised to hear it, for he was always that way
+inclined. He loves money just for the sake of wallowing in it, and then
+tossing it out of his windows, like the imbecile he is. I can understand
+people attacking men of his stamp, who pile up excessive fortunes. For
+my part, if you care to know it, I have but a bad opinion of Saccard.
+But we--we who live so quietly and peaceably, who will need at least
+fifteen years to put by sufficient money to make ourselves comfortably
+independent, we who have no reason to meddle in politics, and whose
+only aim is to bring up our daughter respectably, and to see that our
+business prospers--why you must be joking to talk such stuff about us.
+We are honest folks!"
+
+She came and sat down on the edge of the bed. Quenu was already much
+shaken in his opinions.
+
+"Listen to me, now," she resumed in a more serious voice. "You surely
+don't want to see your own shop pillaged, your cellar emptied, and your
+money taken from you? If these men who meet at Monsieur Lebigre's should
+prove triumphant, do you think that you would then lie as comfortably
+in your bed as you do now? And on going down into the kitchen, do you
+imagine that you would set about making your galantines as peacefully
+as you will presently? No, no, indeed! So why do you talk about
+overthrowing a Government which protects you, and enables you to put
+money by? You have a wife and a daughter, and your first duty is towards
+them. You would be in fault if you imperilled their happiness. It is
+only those who have neither home nor hearth, who have nothing to lose,
+who want to be shooting people. Surely you don't want to pull the
+chestnuts out of the fire for _them_! So stay quietly at home, you
+foolish fellow, sleep comfortably, eat well, make money, keep an easy
+conscience, and leave France to free herself of the Empire if the Empire
+annoys her. France can get on very well without _you_."
+
+She laughed her bright melodious laugh as she finished; and Quenu was
+now altogether convinced. Yes, she was right, after all; and she looked
+so charming, he thought, as she sat there on the edge of the bed, so
+trim, although it was so early, so bright, and so fresh in the dazzling
+whiteness of her linen. As he listened to her his eyes fell on their
+portraits hanging on either side of the fireplace. Yes, they were
+certainly honest folks; they had such a respectable, well-to-do air in
+their black clothes and their gilded frames! The bedroom, too, looked
+as though it belonged to people of some account in the world. The lace
+squares seemed to give a dignified appearance to the chairs; and
+the carpet, the curtains, and the vases decorated with painted
+landscapes--all spoke of their exertions to get on in the world and
+their taste for comfort. Thereupon he plunged yet further beneath the
+eider-down quilt, which kept him in a state of pleasant warmth. He
+began to feel that he had risked losing all these things at Monsieur
+Lebigre's--his huge bed, his cosy room, and his business, on which
+his thoughts now dwelt with tender remorse. And from Lisa, from the
+furniture, from all his cosy surroundings, he derived a sense of comfort
+which thrilled him with a delightful, overpowering charm.
+
+"You foolish fellow!" said his wife, seeing that he was now quite
+conquered. "A pretty business it was that you'd embarked upon; but you'd
+have had to reckon with Pauline and me, I can tell you! And now don't
+bother your head any more about the Government. To begin with, all
+Governments are alike, and if we didn't have this one, we should have
+another. A Government is necessary. But the one thing is to be able to
+live on, to spend one's savings in peace and comfort when one grows old,
+and to know that one has gained one's means honestly."
+
+Quenu nodded his head in acquiescence, and tried to commence a
+justification of his conduct.
+
+"It was Gavard--," he began.
+
+But Lisa's face again assumed a serious expression, and she interrupted
+him sharply.
+
+"No, it was not Gavard. I know very well who it was; and it would be
+a great deal better if he would look after his own safety before
+compromising that of others."
+
+"Is it Florent you mean?" Quenu timidly inquired after a pause.
+
+Lisa did not immediately reply. She got up and went back to the
+secretaire, as if trying to restrain herself.
+
+"Yes, it is Florent," she said presently, in incisive tones. "You know
+how patient I am. I would bear almost anything rather than come between
+you and your brother. The tie of relationship is a sacred thing. But the
+cup is filled to overflowing now. Since your brother came here things
+have been constantly getting worse and worse. But now, I won't say
+anything more; it is better that I shouldn't."
+
+There was another pause. Then, as her husband gazed up at the ceiling
+with an air of embarrassment, she continued, with increased violence:
+
+"Really, he seems to ignore all that we have done for him. We have
+put ourselves to great inconvenience for his sake; we have given him
+Augustine's bedroom, and the poor girl sleeps without a murmur in a
+stuffy little closet where she can scarcely breathe. We board and lodge
+him and give him every attention--but no, he takes it all quite as a
+matter of course. He is earning money, but what he does with it nobody
+knows; or, rather, one knows only too well."
+
+"But there's his share of the inheritance, you know," Quenu ventured to
+say, pained at hearing his brother attacked.
+
+Lisa suddenly stiffened herself as though she were stunned, and her
+anger vanished.
+
+"Yes, you are right; there is his share of the inheritance. Here is
+the statement of it, in this drawer. But he refused to take it; you
+remember, you were present, and heard him. That only proves that he is a
+brainless, worthless fellow. If he had had an idea in his head, he would
+have made something out of that money by now. For my own part, I should
+be very glad to get rid of it; it would be a relief to us. I have told
+him so twice, but he won't listen to me. You ought to persuade him to
+take it. Talk to him about it, will you?"
+
+Quenu growled something in reply; and Lisa refrained from pressing the
+point further, being of opinion that she had done all that could be
+expected of her.
+
+"He is not like other men," she resumed. "He's not a comfortable sort of
+person to have in the house. I shouldn't have said this if we hadn't got
+talking on the subject. I don't busy myself about his conduct, though
+it's setting the whole neighbourhood gossiping about us. Let him eat
+and sleep here, and put us about, if he likes; we can get over that; but
+what I won't tolerate is that he should involve us in his politics. If
+he tries to lead you off again, or compromises us in the least degree,
+I shall turn him out of the house without the least hesitation. I warn
+you, and now you understand!"
+
+Florent was doomed. Lisa was making a great effort to restrain herself,
+to prevent the animosity which had long been rankling in her heart
+from flowing forth. But Florent and his ways jarred against her every
+instinct; he wounded her, frightened her, and made her quite miserable.
+
+"A man who has made such a discreditable career," she murmured, "who has
+never been able to get a roof of his own over his head! I can very well
+understand his partiality for bullets! He can go and stand in their way
+if he chooses; but let him leave honest folks to their families! And
+then, he isn't pleasant to have about one! He reeks of fish in the
+evening at dinner! It prevents me from eating. He himself never lets a
+mouthful go past him, though it's little better he seems to be for it
+all! He can't even grow decently stout, the wretched fellow, to such a
+degree do his bad instincts prey on him!"
+
+She had stepped up to the window whilst speaking, and now saw Florent
+crossing the Rue Rambuteau on his way to the fish market. There was
+a very large arrival of fish that morning; the tray-like baskets were
+covered with rippling silver, and the auction rooms roared with the
+hubbub of their sales. Lisa kept her eyes on the bony shoulders of her
+brother-in-law as he made his way into the pungent smells of the market,
+stooping beneath the sickening sensation which they brought him; and
+the glance with which she followed his steps was that of a woman bent on
+combat and resolved to be victorious.
+
+When she turned round again, Quenu was getting up. As he sat on the edge
+of the bed in his night-shirt, still warm from the pleasant heat of the
+eider-down quilt and with his feet resting on the soft fluffy rug below
+him, he looked quite pale, quite distressed at the misunderstanding
+between his wife and his brother. Lisa, however, gave him one of her
+sweetest smiles, and he felt deeply touched when she handed him his
+socks.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Marjolin had been found in a heap of cabbages at the Market of the
+Innocents. He was sleeping under the shelter of a large white-hearted
+one, a broad leaf of which concealed his rosy childish face It was never
+known what poverty-stricken mother had laid him there. When he was found
+he was already a fine little fellow of two or three years of age,
+very plump and merry, but so backward and dense that he could scarcely
+stammer a few words, and only seemed able to smile. When one of the
+vegetable saleswomen found him lying under the big white cabbage she
+raised such a loud cry of surprise that her neighbours rushed up to
+see what was the matter, while the youngster, still in petticoats, and
+wrapped in a scrap of old blanket, held out his arms towards her.
+He could not tell who his mother was, but opened his eyes in wide
+astonishment as he squeezed against the shoulder of a stout tripe dealer
+who eventually took him up. The whole market busied itself about him
+throughout the day. He soon recovered confidence, ate slices of bread
+and butter, and smiled at all the women. The stout tripe dealer kept him
+for a time, then a neighbour took him; and a month later a third woman
+gave him shelter. When they asked him where his mother was, he waved his
+little hand with a pretty gesture which embraced all the women present.
+He became the adopted child of the place, always clinging to the skirts
+of one or another of the women, and always finding a corner of a bed and
+a share of a meal somewhere. Somehow, too, he managed to find clothes,
+and he even had a copper or two at the bottom of his ragged pockets. It
+was a buxom, ruddy girl dealing in medicinal herbs who gave him the name
+of Marjolin,[*] though no one knew why.
+
+[*] Literally "Marjoram."
+
+When Marjolin was nearly four years of age, old Mother Chantemesse also
+happened to find a child, a little girl, lying on the footway of the Rue
+Saint Denis, near the corner of the market. Judging by the little one's
+size, she seemed to be a couple of years old, but she could already
+chatter like a magpie, murdering her words in an incessant childish
+babble. Old Mother Chantemesse after a time gathered that her name was
+Cadine, and that on the previous evening her mother had left her sitting
+on a doorstep, with instructions to wait till she returned. The child
+had fallen asleep there, and did not cry. She related that she was
+beaten at home; and she gladly followed Mother Chantemesse, seemingly
+quite enchanted with that huge square, where there were so many people
+and such piles of vegetables. Mother Chantemesse, a retail dealer by
+trade, was a crusty but very worthy woman, approaching her sixtieth
+year. She was extremely fond of children, and had lost three boys of her
+own when they were mere babies. She came to the opinion that the chit
+she had found "was far too wide awake to kick the bucket," and so she
+adopted her.
+
+One evening, however, as she was going off home with her right hand
+clasping Cadine's, Marjolin came up and unceremoniously caught hold of
+her left hand.
+
+"Nay, my lad," said the old woman, stopping, "the place is filled. Have
+you left your big Therese, then? What a fickle little gadabout you are!"
+
+The boy gazed at her with his smiling eyes, without letting go of her
+hand. He looked so pretty with his curly hair that she could not resist
+him. "Well, come along, then, you little scamp," said she; "I'll put you
+to bed as well."
+
+Thus she made her appearance in the Rue au Lard, where she lived, with
+a child clinging to either hand. Marjolin made himself quite at home
+there. When the two children proved too noisy the old woman cuffed them,
+delighted to shout and worry herself, and wash the youngsters, and pack
+them away beneath the blankets. She had fixed them up a little bed in
+an old costermonger's barrow, the wheels and shafts of which had
+disappeared. It was like a big cradle, a trifle hard, but retaining a
+strong scent of the vegetables which it had long kept fresh and cool
+beneath a covering of damp cloths. And there, when four years old,
+Cadine and Marjolin slept locked in each other's arms.
+
+They grew up together, and were always to be seen with their arms about
+one another's waist. At night time old Mother Chantemesse heard them
+prattling softly. Cadine's clear treble went chattering on for hours
+together, while Marjolin listened with occasional expressions of
+astonishment vented in a deeper tone. The girl was a mischievous young
+creature, and concocted all sorts of stories to frighten her companion;
+telling him, for instance, that she had one night seen a man, dressed
+all in white, looking at them and putting out a great red tongue, at
+the foot of the bed. Marjolin quite perspired with terror, and anxiously
+asked for further particulars; but the girl would then begin to jeer at
+him, and end by calling him a big donkey. At other times they were
+not so peaceably disposed, but kicked each other beneath the blankets.
+Cadine would pull up her legs, and try to restrain her laughter as
+Marjolin missed his aim, and sent his feet banging against the wall.
+When this happened, old Madame Chantemesse was obliged to get up to put
+the bed-clothes straight again; and, by way of sending the children to
+sleep, she would administer a box on the ear to both of them. For a long
+time their bed was a sort of playground. They carried their toys into
+it, and munched stolen carrots and turnips as they lay side by side.
+Every morning their adopted mother was amazed at the strange things she
+found in the bed--pebbles, leaves, apple cores, and dolls made out of
+scraps of rags. When the very cold weather came, she went off to her
+work, leaving them sleeping there, Cadine's black mop mingling with
+Marjolin's sunny curls, and their mouths so near together that they
+looked as though they were keeping each other warm with their breath.
+
+The room in the Rue au Lard was a big, dilapidated garret, with a single
+window, the panes of which were dimmed by the rain. The children would
+play at hide-and-seek in the tall walnut wardrobe and underneath Mother
+Chantemesse's colossal bed. There were also two or three tables in the
+room, and they crawled under these on all fours. They found the place a
+very charming playground, on account of the dim light and the vegetables
+scattered about in the dark corners. The street itself, too, narrow and
+very quiet, with a broad arcade opening into the Rue de la Lingerie,
+provided them with plenty of entertainment. The door of the house was by
+the side of the arcade; it was a low door and could only be opened half
+way owing to the near proximity of the greasy corkscrew staircase. The
+house, which had a projecting pent roof and a bulging front, dark with
+damp, and displaying greenish drain-sinks near the windows of each
+floor, also served as a big toy for the young couple. They spent their
+mornings below in throwing stones up into the drain-sinks, and the
+stones thereupon fell down the pipes with a very merry clatter. In thus
+amusing themselves, however, they managed to break a couple of windows,
+and filled the drains with stones, so that Mother Chantemesse, who had
+lived in the house for three and forty years, narrowly escaped being
+turned out of it.
+
+Cadine and Marjolin then directed their attention to the vans and drays
+and tumbrels which were drawn up in the quiet street. They clambered on
+to the wheels, swung from the dangling chains, and larked about amongst
+the piles of boxes and hampers. Here also were the back premises of the
+commission agents of the Rue de la Poterie--huge, gloomy warehouses,
+each day filled and emptied afresh, and affording a constant succession
+of delightful hiding-places, where the youngsters buried themselves
+amidst the scent of dried fruits, oranges, and fresh apples. When
+they got tired of playing in his way, they went off to join old
+Madame Chantemesse at the Market of the Innocents. They arrived there
+arm-in-arm, laughing gaily as they crossed the streets with never the
+slightest fear of being run over by the endless vehicles. They knew the
+pavement well, and plunged their little legs knee-deep in the vegetable
+refuse without ever slipping. They jeered merrily at any porter in
+heavy boots who, in stepping over an artichoke stem, fell sprawling
+full-length upon the ground. They were the rosy-cheeked familiar spirits
+of those greasy streets. They were to be seen everywhere.
+
+On rainy days they walked gravely beneath the shelter of a ragged old
+umbrella, with which Mother Chantemesse had protected her stock-in-trade
+for twenty years, and sticking it up in a corner of the market they
+called it their house. On sunny days they romped to such a degree that
+when evening came they were almost too tired to move. They bathed their
+feet in the fountains, dammed up the gutters, or hid themselves beneath
+piles of vegetables, and remained there prattling to each other just as
+they did in bed at night. People passing some huge mountain of cos or
+cabbage lettuces often heard a muffled sound of chatter coming from
+it. And when the green-stuff was removed, the two children would be
+discovered lying side by side on their couch of verdure, their eyes
+glistening uneasily like those of birds discovered in the depth of a
+thicket. As time went on, Cadine could not get along without Marjolin,
+and Marjolin began to cry when he lost sight of Cadine. If they happened
+to get separated, they sought one another behind the petticoats of every
+stallkeeper in the markets, amongst the boxes and under the cabbages. If
+was, indeed, chiefly under the cabbages that they grew up and learned to
+love each other.
+
+Marjolin was nearly eight years old, and Cadine six, when old Madame
+Chantemesse began to reproach them for their idleness. She told them
+that she would interest them in her business, and pay them a sou a day
+to assist her in paring her vegetables. During the first few days the
+children displayed eager zeal; they squatted down on either side of
+the big flat basket with little knives in their hands, and worked away
+energetically. Mother Chantemesse made a specialty of pared vegetables;
+on her stall, covered with a strip of damp black lining, were little
+lots of potatoes, turnips, carrots, and white onions, arranged in
+pyramids of four--three at the base and one at the apex, all quite ready
+to be popped into the pans of dilatory housewives. She also had bundles
+duly stringed in readiness for the soup-pot--four leeks, three carrots,
+a parsnip, two turnips, and a couple of springs of celery. Then there
+were finely cut vegetables for julienne soup laid out on squares of
+paper, cabbages cut into quarters, and little heaps of tomatoes and
+slices of pumpkin which gleamed like red stars and golden crescents
+amidst the pale hues of the other vegetables. Cadine evinced much more
+dexterity than Marjolin, although she was younger. The peelings of the
+potatoes she pared were so thin that you could see through them; she
+tied up the bundles for the soup-pot so artistically that they looked
+like bouquets; and she had a way of making the little heaps she set up,
+though they contained but three carrots or turnips, look like very big
+ones. The passers-by would stop and smile when she called out in her
+shrill childish voice: "Madame! madame! come and try me! Each little
+pile for two sous."
+
+She had her regular customers, and her little piles and bundles were
+widely known. Old Mother Chantemesse, seated between the two children,
+would indulge in a silent laugh which made her bosom rise almost to
+her chin, at seeing them working away so seriously. She paid them their
+daily sous most faithfully. But they soon began to weary of the little
+heaps and bundles; they were growing up, and began to dream of some more
+lucrative business. Marjolin remained very childish for his years, and
+this irritated Cadine. He had no more brains than a cabbage, she often
+said. And it was, indeed, quite useless for her to devise any plan for
+him to make money; he never earned any. He could not even do an errand
+satisfactorily. The girl, on the other hand, was very shrewd. When but
+eight years old she obtained employment from one of those women who sit
+on a bench in the neighbourhood of the markets provided with a basket
+of lemons, and employ a troop of children to go about selling them.
+Carrying the lemons in her hands and offering them at two for three
+sous, Cadine thrust them under every woman's nose, and ran after every
+passer-by. Her hands empty, she hastened back for a fresh supply. She
+was paid two sous for every dozen lemons that she sold, and on good
+days she could earn some five or six sous. During the following year
+she hawked caps at nine sous apiece, which proved a more profitable
+business; only she had to keep a sharp look-out, as street trading of
+this kind is forbidden unless one be licensed. However, she scented
+a policeman at a distance of a hundred yards; and the caps forthwith
+disappeared under her skirts, whilst she began to munch an apple with
+an air of guileless innocence. Then she took to selling pastry, cakes,
+cherry-tarts, gingerbread, and thick yellow maize biscuits on wicker
+trays. Marjolin, however, ate up nearly the whole of her stock-in-trade.
+At last, when she was eleven years old, she succeeded in realising a
+grand idea which had long been worrying her. In a couple of months she
+put by four francs, bought a small _hotte_,[*] and then set up as a
+dealer in birds' food.
+
+[*] A basket carried on the back.--Translator.
+
+It was a big affair. She got up early in the morning and purchased her
+stock of groundsel, millet, and bird-cake from the wholesale
+dealers. Then she set out on her day's work, crossing the river, and
+perambulating the Latin Quarter from the Rue Saint Jacques to the Rue
+Dauphine, and even to the Luxembourg. Marjolin used to accompany her,
+but she would not let him carry the basket. He was only fit to call out,
+she said; and so, in his thick, drawling voice, he would raise the cry,
+"Chickweed for the little birds!"
+
+Then Cadine herself, with her flute-like voice, would start on a strange
+scale of notes ending in a clear, protracted alto, "Chickweed for the
+little birds!"
+
+They each took one side of the road, and looked up in the air as they
+walked along. In those days Marjolin wore a big scarlet waistcoat
+which hung down to his knees; it had belonged to the defunct Monsieur
+Chantemesse, who had been a cab-driver. Cadine for her part wore a white
+and blue check gown, made out of an old tartan of Madame Chantemesse's.
+All the canaries in the garrets of the Latin Quarter knew them; and, as
+they passed along, repeating their cry, each echoing the other's voice,
+every cage poured out a song.
+
+Cadine sold water-cress, too. "Two sous a bunch! Two sous a bunch!" And
+Marjolin went into the shops to offer it for sale. "Fine water-cress!
+Health for the body! Fine fresh water-cress!"
+
+However, the new central markets had just been erected, and the girl
+would stand gazing in ecstacy at the avenue of flower stalls which runs
+through the fruit pavilion. Here on either hand, from end to end, big
+clumps of flowers bloom as in the borders of a garden walk. It is a
+perfect harvest, sweet with perfume, a double hedge of blossoms, between
+which the girls of the neighbourhood love to walk, smiling the while,
+though almost stifled by the heavy perfume. And on the top tiers of the
+stalls are artificial flowers, with paper leaves, in which dewdrops are
+simulated by drops of gum; and memorial wreaths of black and white beads
+rippling with bluish reflections. Cadine's rosy nostrils would dilate
+with feline sensuality; she would linger as long as possible in that
+sweet freshness, and carry as much of the perfume away with her as she
+could. When her hair bobbed under Marjolin's nose he would remark that
+it smelt of pinks. She said that she had given over using pomatum; that
+is was quite sufficient for her to stroll through the flower walk in
+order to scent her hair. Next she began to intrigue and scheme with
+such success that she was engaged by one of the stallkeepers. And then
+Marjolin declared that she smelt sweet from head to foot. She lived in
+the midst of roses, lilacs, wall-flowers, and lilies of the valley;
+and Marjolin would playfully smell at her skirts, feign a momentary
+hesitation, and then exclaim, "Ah, that's lily of the valley!" Next he
+would sniff at her waist and bodice: "Ah, that's wall-flowers!" And at
+her sleeves and wrists: "Ah, that's lilac!" And at her neck, and her
+cheeks and lips: "Ah, but that's roses!" he would cry. Cadine used to
+laugh at him, and call him a "silly stupid," and tell him to get away,
+because he was tickling her with the tip of his nose. As she spoke her
+breath smelt of jasmine. She was verily a bouquet, full of warmth and
+life.
+
+She now got up at four o'clock every morning to assist her mistress in
+her purchases. Each day they bought armfuls of flowers from the
+suburban florists, with bundles of moss, and bundles of fern fronds,
+and periwinkle leaves to garnish the bouquets. Cadine would gaze with
+amazement at the diamonds and Valenciennes worn by the daughters of
+the great gardeners of Montreuil, who came to the markets amidst their
+roses.
+
+On the saints' days of popular observance, such as Saint Mary's, Saint
+Peter's, and Saint Joseph's days, the sale of flowers began at two
+o'clock. More than a hundred thousand francs' worth of cut flowers would
+be sold on the footways, and some of the retail dealers would make
+as much as two hundred francs in a few hours. On days like those only
+Cadine's curly locks peered over the mounds of pansies, mignonette, and
+marguerites. She was quite drowned and lost in the flood of flowers.
+Then she would spend all her time in mounting bouquets on bits of rush.
+In a few weeks she acquired considerable skillfulness in her business,
+and manifested no little originality. Her bouquets did not always
+please everybody, however. Sometimes they made one smile, sometimes they
+alarmed the eyes. Red predominated in them, mottled with violent tints
+of blue, yellow, and violet of a barbaric charm. On the mornings when
+she pinched Marjolin, and teased him till she made him cry, she made up
+fierce-looking bouquets, suggestive of her own bad temper, bouquets
+with strong rough scents and glaring irritating colours. On other days,
+however, when she was softened by some thrill of joy or sorrow, her
+bouquets would assume a tone of silvery grey, very soft and subdued, and
+delicately perfumed.
+
+Then, too, she would set roses, as sanguineous as open hearts, in lakes
+of snow-white pinks; arrange bunches of tawny iris that shot up in
+tufts of flame from foliage that seemed scared by the brilliance of the
+flowers; work elaborate designs, as complicated as those of Smyrna rugs,
+adding flower to flower, as on a canvas; and prepare rippling fanlike
+bouquets spreading out with all the delicacy of lace. Here was a cluster
+of flowers of delicious purity, there a fat nosegay, whatever one might
+dream of for the hand of a marchioness or a fish-wife; all the charming
+quaint fancies, in short, which the brain of a sharp-witted child of
+twelve, budding into womanhood, could devise.
+
+There were only two flowers for which Cadine retained respect; white
+lilac, which by the bundle of eight or ten sprays cost from fifteen to
+twenty francs in the winter time; and camellias, which were still more
+costly, and arrived in boxes of a dozen, lying on beds of moss, and
+covered with cotton wool. She handled these as delicately as though they
+were jewels, holding her breath for fear of dimming their lustre, and
+fastening their short stems to springs of cane with the tenderest care.
+She spoke of them with serious reverence. She told Marjolin one day
+that a speckless white camellia was a very rare and exceptionally lovely
+thing, and, as she was making him admire one, he exclaimed: "Yes;
+it's pretty; but I prefer your neck, you know. It's much more soft and
+transparent than the camellia, and there are some little blue and pink
+veins just like the pencillings on a flower." Then, drawing near and
+sniffing, he murmured: "Ah! you smell of orange blossom to-day."
+
+Cadine was self-willed, and did not get on well in the position of a
+servant, so she ended by setting up in business on her own account. As
+she was only thirteen at the time, and could not hope for a big trade
+and a stall in the flower avenue, she took to selling one-sou bunches
+of violets pricked into a bed of moss in an osier tray which she carried
+hanging from her neck. All day long she wandered about the markets and
+their precincts with her little bit of hanging garden. She loved this
+continual stroll, which relieved the numbness of her limbs after long
+hours spent, with bent knees, on a low chair, making bouquets. She
+fastened her violets together with marvellous deftness as she walked
+along. She counted out six or eight flowers, according to the season,
+doubled a sprig of cane in half, added a leaf, twisted some damp thread
+round the whole, and broke off the thread with her strong young teeth.
+The little bunches seemed to spring spontaneously from the layer of
+moss, so rapidly did she stick them into it.
+
+Along the footways, amidst the jostling of the street traffic, her
+nimble fingers were ever flowering though she gave them not a glance,
+but boldly scanned the shops and passers-by. Sometimes she would rest in
+a doorway for a moment; and alongside the gutters, greasy with kitchen
+slops, she sat, as it were a patch of springtime, a suggestion of green
+woods, and purple blossoms. Her flowers still betokened her frame of
+mind, her fits of bad temper and her thrills of tenderness. Sometimes
+they bristled and glowered with anger amidst their crumpled leaves; at
+other times they spoke only of love and peacefulness as they smiled in
+their prim collars. As Cadine passed along, she left a sweet perfume
+behind her; Marjolin followed her devoutly. From head to foot she now
+exhaled but one scent, and the lad repeated that she was herself a
+violet, a great big violet.
+
+"Do you remember the day when we went to Romainville together?" he would
+say; "Romainville, where there are so many violets. The scent was just
+the same. Oh! don't change again--you smell too sweetly."
+
+And she did not change again. This was her last trade. Still, she often
+neglected her osier tray to go rambling about the neighbourhood. The
+building of the central markets--as yet incomplete--provided both
+children with endless opportunities for amusement. They made their way
+into the midst of the work-yards through some gap or other between
+the planks; they descended into the foundations, and climbed up to the
+cast-iron pillars. Every nook, every piece of the framework witnessed
+their games and quarrels; the pavilions grew up under the touch of their
+little hands. From all this arose the affection which they felt for
+the great markets, and which the latter seemed to return. They were on
+familiar terms with that gigantic pile, old friends as they were, who
+had seen each pin and bolt put into place. They felt no fear of the huge
+monster; but slapped it with their childish hands, treated it like
+a good friend, a chum whose presence brought no constraint. And the
+markets seemed to smile at these two light-hearted children, whose love
+was the song, the idyll of their immensity.
+
+Cadine alone now slept at Mother Chantemesse's. The old woman had packed
+Marjolin off to a neighbour's. This made the two children very unhappy.
+Still, they contrived to spend much of their time together. In the
+daytime they would hide themselves away in the warehouses of the Rue au
+Lard, behind piles of apples and cases of oranges; and in the evening
+they would dive into the cellars beneath the poultry market, and secret
+themselves among the huge hampers of feathers which stood near the
+blocks where the poultry was killed. They were quite alone there, amidst
+the strong smell of the poultry, and with never a sound but the sudden
+crowing of some rooster to break upon their babble and their
+laughter. The feathers amidst which they found themselves were of
+all sorts--turkey's feathers, long and black; goose quills, white and
+flexible; the downy plumage of ducks, soft like cotton wool; and the
+ruddy and mottled feathers of fowls, which at the faintest breath flew
+up in a cloud like a swarm of flies buzzing in the sun. And then in
+wintertime there was the purple plumage of the pheasants, the ashen
+grey of the larks, the splotched silk of the partridges, quails, and
+thrushes. And all these feathers freshly plucked were still warm and
+odoriferous, seemingly endowed with life. The spot was as cosy as a
+nest; at times a quiver as of flapping wings sped by, and Marjolin and
+Cadine, nestling amidst all the plumage, often imagined that they were
+being carried aloft by one of those huge birds with outspread pinions
+that one hears of in the fairy tales.
+
+As time went on their childish affection took the inevitable turn.
+Veritable offsprings of Nature, knowing naught of social conventions and
+restraints, they loved one another in all innocence and guilelessness.
+They mated even as the birds of the air mate, even as youth and maid
+mated in primeval times, because such is Nature's law. At sixteen
+Cadine was a dusky town gipsy, greedy and sensual, whilst Marjolin, now
+eighteen, was a tall, strapping fellow, as handsome a youth as could
+be met, but still with his mental faculties quite undeveloped. He had
+lived, indeed, a mere animal life, which had strengthened his frame, but
+left his intellect in a rudimentary state.
+
+When old Madame Chantemesse realised the turn that things were taking
+she wrathfully upbraided Cadine and struck out vigorously at her with
+her broom. But the hussy only laughed and dodged the blows, and then
+hied off to her lover. And gradually the markets became their home,
+their manger, their aviary, where they lived and loved amidst the meat,
+the butter, the vegetables, and the feathers.
+
+They discovered another little paradise in the pavilion where butter,
+eggs, and cheese were sold wholesale. Enormous walls of empty baskets
+were here piled up every morning, and amidst these Cadine and Marjolin
+burrowed and hollowed out a dark lair for themselves. A mere partition
+of osier-work separated them from the market crowd, whose loud voices
+rang out all around them. They often shook with laughter when people,
+without the least suspicion of their presence, stopped to talk together
+a few yards away from them. On these occasions they would contrive
+peepholes, and spy through them, and when cherries were in season Cadine
+tossed the stones in the faces of all the old women who passed along--a
+pastime which amused them the more as the startled old crones could
+never make out whence the hail of cherry-stones had come. They also
+prowled about the depths of the cellars, knowing every gloomy corner of
+them, and contriving to get through the most carefully locked gates. One
+of their favourite amusements was to visit the track of the subterranean
+railway, which had been laid under the markets, and which those who
+planned the latter had intended to connect with the different goods'
+stations of Paris. Sections of this railway were laid beneath each
+of the covered ways, between the cellars of each pavilion; the work,
+indeed, was in such an advanced state that turn-tables had been put into
+position at all the points of intersection, and were in readiness for
+use. After much examination, Cadine and Marjolin had at last succeeded
+in discovering a loose plank in the hoarding which enclosed the track,
+and they had managed to convert it into a door, by which they could
+easily gain access to the line. There they were quite shut off from
+the world, though they could hear the continuous rumbling of the street
+traffic over their heads.
+
+The line stretched through deserted vaults, here and there illumined
+by a glimmer of light filtering through iron gratings, while in certain
+dark corners gas jets were burning. And Cadine and Marjolin rambled
+about as in the secret recesses of some castle of their own, secure from
+all interruption, and rejoicing in the buzzy silence, the murky glimmer,
+and subterranean secrecy, which imparted a touch of melodrama to their
+experiences. All sorts of smells were wafted through the hoarding from
+the neighbouring cellars; the musty smell of vegetables, the pungency of
+fish, the overpowering stench of cheese, and the warm reek of poultry.
+
+At other times, on clear nights and fine dawns, they would climb on to
+the roofs, ascending thither by the steep staircases of the turrets
+at the angles of the pavilions. Up above they found fields of leads,
+endless promenades and squares, a stretch of undulating country which
+belonged to them. They rambled round the square roofs of the pavilions,
+followed the course of the long roofs of the covered ways, climbed and
+descended the slopes, and lost themselves in endless perambulations of
+discovery. And when they grew tired of the lower levels they ascended
+still higher, venturing up the iron ladders, on which Cadine's skirts
+flapped like flags. Then they ran along the second tier of roofs beneath
+the open heavens. There was nothing save the stars above them. All sorts
+of sounds rose up from the echoing markets, a clattering and rumbling,
+a vague roar as of a distant tempest heard at nighttime. At that height
+the morning breeze swept away the evil smells, the foul breath of
+the awaking markets. They would kiss one another on the edge of the
+gutterings like sparrows frisking on the house-tops. The rising fires
+of the sun illumined their faces with a ruddy glow. Cadine laughed
+with pleasure at being so high up in the air, and her neck shone with
+iridescent tints like a dove's; while Marjolin bent down to look at
+the street still wrapped in gloom, with his hands clutching hold of
+the leads like the feet of a wood-pigeon. When they descended to earth
+again, joyful from their excursion in the fresh air, they would remark
+to one another that they were coming back from the country.
+
+It was in the tripe market that they had made the acquaintance of Claude
+Lantier. They went there every day, impelled thereto by an animal taste
+for blood, the cruel instinct of urchins who find amusement in the sight
+of severed heads. A ruddy stream flowed along the gutters round the
+pavilion; they dipped the tips of their shoes in it, and dammed it up
+with leaves, so as to form large pools of blood. They took a strong
+interest in the arrival of the loads of offal in carts which always
+smelt offensively, despite all the drenchings of water they got; they
+watched the unloading of the bundles of sheep's trotters, which were
+piled up on the ground like filthy paving-stones, of the huge stiffened
+tongues, bleeding at their torn roots, and of the massive bell-shaped
+bullocks' hearts. But the spectacle which, above all others, made
+them quiver with delight was that of the big dripping hampers, full of
+sheep's heads, with greasy horns and black muzzles, and strips of woolly
+skin dangling from bleeding flesh. The sight of these conjured up in
+their minds the idea of some guillotine casting into the baskets the
+heads of countless victims.
+
+They followed the baskets into the depths of the cellar, watching them
+glide down the rails laid over the steps, and listening to the rasping
+noise which the casters of these osier waggons made in their descent.
+Down below there was a scene of exquisite horror. They entered into a
+charnel-house atmosphere, and walked along through murky puddles, amidst
+which every now and then purple eyes seem to be glistening. At times
+the soles of their boots stuck to the ground, at others they splashed
+through the horrible mire, anxious and yet delighted. The gas jets
+burned low, like blinking, bloodshot eyes. Near the water-taps, in the
+pale light falling through the gratings, they came upon the blocks; and
+there they remained in rapture watching the tripe men, who, in aprons
+stiffened by gory splashings, broke the sheep's heads one after another
+with a blow of their mallets. They lingered there for hours, waiting
+till all the baskets were empty, fascinated by the crackling of the
+bones, unable to tear themselves away till all was over. Sometimes an
+attendant passed behind them, cleansing the cellar with a hose; floods
+of water rushed out with a sluice-like roar, but although the violence
+of the discharge actually ate away the surface of the flagstones, it was
+powerless to remove the ruddy stains and stench of blood.
+
+Cadine and Marjolin were sure of meeting Claude between four and five in
+the afternoon at the wholesale auction of the bullocks' lights. He
+was always there amidst the tripe dealers' carts backed up against the
+kerb-stones and the blue-bloused, white-aproned men who jostled him and
+deafened his ears by their loud bids. But he never felt their elbows; he
+stood in a sort of ecstatic trance before the huge hanging lights, and
+often told Cadine and Marjolin that there was no finer sight to be seen.
+The lights were of a soft rosy hue, gradually deepening and turning at
+the lower edges to a rich carmine; and Claude compared them to watered
+satin, finding no other term to describe the soft silkiness of those
+flowing lengths of flesh which drooped in broad folds like ballet
+dancers' skirts. He thought, too, of gauze and lace allowing a glimpse
+of pinky skin; and when a ray of sunshine fell upon the lights and
+girdled them with gold an expression of languorous rapture came into his
+eyes, and he felt happier than if he had been privileged to contemplate
+the Greek goddesses in their sovereign nudity, or the chatelaines of
+romance in their brocaded robes.
+
+The artist became a great friend of the two young scapegraces. He loved
+beautiful animals, and such undoubtedly they were. For a long time he
+dreamt of a colossal picture which should represent the loves of Cadine
+and Marjolin in the central markets, amidst the vegetables, the fish,
+and the meat. He would have depicted them seated on some couch of food,
+their arms circling each other's waists, and their lips exchanging an
+idyllic kiss. In this conception he saw a manifesto proclaiming the
+positivism of art--modern art, experimental and materialistic. And it
+seemed to him also that it would be a smart satire on the school which
+wishes every painting to embody an "idea," a slap for the old traditions
+and all they represented. But during a couple of years he began study
+after study without succeeding in giving the particular "note" he
+desired. In this way he spoilt fifteen canvases. His failure filled him
+with rancour; however, he continued to associate with his two models
+from a sort of hopeless love for his abortive picture. When he met them
+prowling about in the afternoon, he often scoured the neighbourhood
+with them, strolling around with his hands in his pockets, and deeply
+interested in the life of the streets.
+
+They all three trudged along together, dragging their heels over the
+footways and monopolising their whole breadth so as to force others to
+step down into the road. With their noses in the air they sniffed in the
+odours of Paris, and could have recognised every corner blindfold by the
+spirituous emanations of the wine shops, the hot puffs that came from
+the bakehouses and confectioners', and the musty odours wafted from the
+fruiterers'. They would make the circuit of the whole district. They
+delighted in passing through the rotunda of the corn market, that huge
+massive stone cage where sacks of flour were piled up on every side, and
+where their footsteps echoed in the silence of the resonant roof. They
+were fond, too, of the little narrow streets in the neighbourhood, which
+had become as deserted, as black, and as mournful as though they formed
+part of an abandoned city. These were the Rue Babille, the Rue Sauval,
+the Rue des Deux Ecus, and the Rue de Viarmes, this last pallid from its
+proximity to the millers' stores, and at four o'clock lively by reason
+of the corn exchange held there. It was generally at this point that
+they started on their round. They made their way slowly along the
+Rue Vauvilliers, glancing as they went at the windows of the low
+eating-houses, and thus reaching the miserably narrow Rue des
+Prouvaires, where Claude blinked his eyes as he saw one of the covered
+ways of the market, at the far end of which, framed round by this huge
+iron nave, appeared a side entrance of St. Eustache with its rose and
+its tiers of arched windows. And then, with an air of defiance, he would
+remark that all the middle ages and the Renaissance put together were
+less mighty than the central markets. Afterwards, as they paced the
+broad new streets, the Rue du Pont Neuf and the Rue des Halles, he
+explained modern life with its wide footways, its lofty houses, and its
+luxurious shops, to the two urchins. He predicted, too, the advent of
+new and truly original art, whose approach he could divine, and despair
+filled him that its revelation should seemingly be beyond his own
+powers.
+
+Cadine and Marjolin, however, preferred the provincial quietness of the
+Rue des Bourdonnais, where one can play at marbles without fear of
+being run over. The girl perked her head affectedly as she passed the
+wholesale glove and hosiery stores, at each door of which bareheaded
+assistants, with their pens stuck in their ears, stood watching her with
+a weary gaze. And she and her lover had yet a stronger preference for
+such bits of olden Paris as still existed: the Rue de la Poterie and the
+Rue de la Lingerie, with their butter and egg and cheese dealers; the
+Rue de la Ferronerie and the Rue de l'Aiguillerie (the beautiful streets
+of far-away times), with their dark narrow shops; and especially the Rue
+Courtalon, a dank, dirty by-way running from the Place Sainte Opportune
+to the Rue Saint Denis, and intersected by foul-smelling alleys where
+they had romped in their younger days. In the Rue Saint Denis they
+entered into the land of dainties; and they smiled upon the dried
+apples, the "Spanishwood," the prunes, and the sugar-candy in the
+windows of the grocers and druggists. Their ramblings always set them
+dreaming of a feast of good things, and inspired them with a desire to
+glut themselves on the contents of the windows. To them the district
+seemed like some huge table, always laid with an everlasting dessert
+into which they longed to plunge their fingers.
+
+They devoted but a moment to visiting the other blocks of tumble-down
+old houses, the Rue Pirouette, the Rue de Mondetour, the Rue de la
+Petite Truanderie, and the Rue de la Grande Truanderie, for they took
+little interest in the shops of the dealers in edible snails, cooked
+vegetables, tripe, and drink. In the Rue de la Grand Truanderie,
+however, there was a soap factory, an oasis of sweetness in the midst of
+all the foul odours, and Marjolin was fond of standing outside it till
+some one happened to enter or come out, so that the perfume which swept
+through the doorway might blow full in his face. Then with all speed
+they returned to the Rue Pierre Lescot and the Rue Rambuteau. Cadine was
+extremely fond of salted provisions; she stood in admiration before the
+bundles of red-herrings, the barrels of anchovies and capers, and the
+little casks of gherkins and olives, standing on end with wooden spoons
+inside them. The smell of the vinegar titillated her throat; the pungent
+odour of the rolled cod, smoked salmon, bacon and ham, and the sharp
+acidity of the baskets of lemons, made her mouth water longingly. She
+was also fond of feasting her eyes on the boxes of sardines piled up in
+metallic columns amidst the cases and sacks. In the Rue Montorgueil
+and the Rue Montmartre were other tempting-looking groceries and
+restaurants, from whose basements appetising odours were wafted, with
+glorious shows of game and poultry, and preserved-provision shops, which
+last displayed beside their doors open kegs overflowing with yellow
+sourkrout suggestive of old lacework. Then they lingered in the Rue
+Coquilliere, inhaling the odour of truffles from the premises of a
+notable dealer in comestibles, which threw so strong a perfume into the
+street that Cadine and Marjolin closed their eyes and imagined they
+were swallowing all kinds of delicious things. These perfumes, however,
+distressed Claude. They made him realise the emptiness of his stomach,
+he said; and, leaving the "two animals" to feast on the odour of
+the truffles--the most penetrating odour to be found in all the
+neighbourhood--he went off again to the corn market by way of the Rue
+Oblin, studying on his road the old women who sold green-stuff in
+the doorways and the displays of cheap pottery spread out on the
+foot-pavements.
+
+Such were their rambles in common; but when Cadine set out alone with
+her bunches of violets she often went farther afield, making it a point
+to visit certain shops for which she had a particular partiality. She
+had an especial weakness for the Taboureau bakery establishment, one of
+the windows of which was exclusively devoted to pastry. She would follow
+the Rue Turbigo and retrace her steps a dozen times in order to pass
+again and again before the almond cakes, the _savarins_, the St. Honore
+tarts, the fruit tarts, and the various dishes containing bunlike
+_babas_ redolent of rum, eclairs combining the finger biscuit with
+chocolate, and _choux a la crème_, little rounds of pastry overflowing
+with whipped white of egg. The glass jars full of dry biscuits,
+macaroons, and _madeleines_ also made her mouth water; and the bright
+shop with its big mirrors, its marble slabs, its gilding, its bread-bins
+of ornamental ironwork, and its second window in which long glistening
+loaves were displayed slantwise, with one end resting on a crystal
+shelf whilst above they were upheld by a brass rod, was so warm and
+odoriferous of baked dough that her features expanded with pleasure
+when, yielding to temptation, she went in to buy a _brioche_ for two
+sous.
+
+Another shop, one in front of the Square des Innocents, also filled her
+with gluttonous inquisitiveness, a fever of longing desire. This shop
+made a specialty of forcemeat pasties. In addition to the ordinary ones
+there were pasties of pike and pasties of truffled _foie gras_; and the
+girl would gaze yearningly at them, saying to herself that she would
+really have to eat one some day.
+
+Cadine also had her moments of vanity and coquetry. When these fits
+were on her, she bought herself in imagination some of the magnificent
+dresses displayed in the windows of the "Fabriques de France" which
+made the Pointe Saint Eustache gaudy with their pieces of bright stuff
+hanging from the first floor to the footway and flapping in the breeze.
+Somewhat incommoded by the flat basket hanging before her, amidst the
+crowd of market women in dirty aprons gazing at future Sunday dresses,
+the girl would feel the woollens, flannels, and cottons to test the
+texture and suppleness of the material; and she would promise herself a
+gown of bright-coloured flannelling, flowered print, or scarlet poplin.
+Sometimes even from amongst the pieces draped and set off to advantage
+by the window-dressers she would choose some soft sky-blue or
+apple-green silk, and dream of wearing it with pink ribbons. In the
+evenings she would dazzle herself with the displays in the windows of
+the big jewellers in the Rue Montmartre. That terrible street deafened
+her with its ceaseless flow of vehicles, and the streaming crowd never
+ceased to jostle her; still she did not stir, but remained feasting her
+eyes on the blazing splendour set out in the light of the reflecting
+lamps which hung outside the windows. On one side all was white with the
+bright glitter of silver: watches in rows, chains hanging, spoons
+and forks laid crossways, cups, snuff-boxes, napkin-rings, and combs
+arranged on shelves. The silver thimbles, dotting a porcelain stand
+covered with a glass shade, had an especial attraction for her. Then
+on the other side the windows glistened with the tawny glow of gold. A
+cascade of long pendant chains descended from above, rippling with ruddy
+gleams; small ladies' watches, with the backs of their cases displayed,
+sparkled like fallen stars; wedding rings clustered round slender rods;
+bracelets, broaches, and other costly ornaments glittered on the black
+velvet linings of their cases; jewelled rings set their stands aglow
+with blue, green, yellow, and violet flamelets; while on every tier of
+the shelves superposed rows of earrings and crosses and lockets hung
+against the crystal like the rich fringes of altar-cloths. The glow of
+this gold illumined the street half way across with a sun-like radiance.
+And Cadine, as she gazed at it, almost fancied that she was in presence
+of something holy, or on the threshold of the Emperor's treasure
+chamber. She would for a long time scrutinise all this show of gaudy
+jewellery, adapted to the taste of the fish-wives, and carefully read
+the large figures on the tickets affixed to each article; and eventually
+she would select for herself a pair of earrings--pear-shaped drops of
+imitation coral hanging from golden roses.
+
+One morning Claude caught her standing in ecstasy before a
+hair-dresser's window in the Rue Saint Honore. She was gazing at the
+display of hair with an expression of intense envy. High up in the
+window was a streaming cascade of long manes, soft wisps, loose tresses,
+frizzy falls, undulating comb-curls, a perfect cataract of silky and
+bristling hair, real and artificial, now in coils of a flaming red, now
+in thick black crops, now in pale golden locks, and even in snowy white
+ones for the coquette of sixty. In cardboard boxes down below were
+cleverly arranged fringes, curling side-ringlets, and carefully combed
+chignons glossy with pomade. And amidst this framework, in a sort of
+shrine beneath the ravelled ends of the hanging locks, there revolved
+the bust of a woman, arrayed in a wrapper of cherry-coloured satin
+fastened between the breasts with a brass brooch. The figure wore a
+lofty bridal coiffure picked out with sprigs of orange blossom, and
+smiled with a dollish smile. Its eyes were pale blue; its eyebrows were
+very stiff and of exaggerated length; and its waxen cheeks and shoulders
+bore evident traces of the heat and smoke of the gas. Cadine waited
+till the revolving figure again displayed its smiling face, and as its
+profile showed more distinctly and it slowly went round from left to
+right she felt perfectly happy. Claude, however, was indignant, and,
+shaking Cadine, he asked her what she was doing in front of "that
+abomination, that corpse-like hussy picked up at the Morgue!" He flew
+into a temper with the "dummy's" cadaverous face and shoulders, that
+disfigurement of the beautiful, and remarked that artists painted
+nothing but that unreal type of woman nowadays. Cadine, however,
+remained unconvinced by his oratory, and considered the lady extremely
+beautiful. Then, resisting the attempts of the artist to drag her away
+by the arm, and scratching her black mop in vexation, she pointed to an
+enormous ruddy tail, severed from the quarters of some vigorous mare,
+and told him she would have liked to have a crop of hair like that.
+
+During the long rambles when Claude, Cadine, and Marjolin prowled about
+the neighbourhood of the markets, they saw the iron ribs of the giant
+building at the end of every street. Wherever they turned they caught
+sudden glimpses of it; the horizon was always bounded by it; merely the
+aspect under which it was seen varied. Claude was perpetually turning
+round, and particularly in the Rue Montmartre, after passing the church.
+From that point the markets, seen obliquely in the distance, filled him
+with enthusiasm. A huge arcade, a giant, gaping gateway, was open before
+him; then came the crowding pavilions with their lower and upper roofs,
+their countless Venetian shutters and endless blinds, a vision, as it
+were, of superposed houses and palaces; a Babylon of metal of Hindoo
+delicacy of workmanship, intersected by hanging terraces, aerial
+galleries, and flying bridges poised over space. The trio always
+returned to this city round which they strolled, unable to stray
+more than a hundred yards away. They came back to it during the hot
+afternoons when the Venetian shutters were closed and the blinds
+lowered. In the covered ways all seemed to be asleep, the ashy greyness
+was streaked by yellow bars of sunlight falling through the high
+windows. Only a subdued murmur broke the silence; the steps of a few
+hurrying passers-by resounded on the footways; whilst the badge-wearing
+porters sat in rows on the stone ledges at the corners of the pavilions,
+taking off their boots and nursing their aching feet. The quietude
+was that of a colossus at rest, interrupted at times by some cock-crow
+rising from the cellars below.
+
+Claude, Cadine, and Marjolin then often went to see the empty hampers
+piled upon the drays, which came to fetch them every afternoon so that
+they might be sent back to the consignors. There were mountains of them,
+labelled with black letters and figures, in front of the salesmen's
+warehouses in the Rue Berger. The porters arranged them symmetrically,
+tier by tier, on the vehicles. When the pile rose, however, to the
+height of a first floor, the porter who stood below balancing the next
+batch of hampers had to make a spring in order to toss them up to his
+mate, who was perched aloft with arms extended. Claude, who delighted
+in feats of strength and dexterity, would stand for hours watching the
+flight of these masses of osier, and would burst into a hearty laugh
+whenever too vigorous a toss sent them flying over the pile into the
+roadway beyond. He was fond, too, of the footways of the Rue Rambuteau
+and the Rue du Pont Neuf, near the fruit market, where the retail
+dealers congregated. The sight of the vegetables displayed in the open
+air, on trestle-tables covered with damp black rags, was full of charm
+for him. At four in the afternoon the whole of this nook of greenery was
+aglow with sunshine; and Claude wandered between the stalls, inspecting
+the bright-coloured heads of the saleswomen with keen artistic relish.
+The younger ones, with their hair in nets, had already lost all
+freshness of complexion through the rough life they led; while the older
+ones were bent and shrivelled, with wrinkled, flaring faces showing
+under the yellow kerchiefs bound round their heads. Cadine and Marjolin
+refused to accompany him hither, as they could perceive old Mother
+Chantemesse shaking her fist at them, in her anger at seeing them
+prowling about together. He joined them again, however, on the opposite
+footway, where he found a splendid subject for a picture in the
+stallkeepers squatting under their huge umbrellas of faded red, blue,
+and violet, which, mounted upon poles, filled the whole market-side with
+bumps, and showed conspicuously against the fiery glow of the sinking
+sun, whose rays faded amidst the carrots and the turnips. One tattered
+harridan, a century old, was sheltering three spare-looking lettuces
+beneath an umbrella of pink silk, shockingly split and stained.
+
+Cadine and Marjolin had struck up an acquaintance with Leon, Quenu's
+apprentice, one day when he was taking a pie to a house in the
+neighbourhood. They saw him cautiously raise the lid of his pan in a
+secluded corner of the Rue de Mondetour, and delicately take out a ball
+of forcemeat. They smiled at the sight, which gave them a very high
+opinion of Leon. And the idea came to Cadine that she might at last
+satisfy one of her most ardent longings. Indeed, the very next time that
+she met the lad with his basket she made herself very agreeable, and
+induced him to offer her a forcemeat ball. But, although she laughed and
+licked her fingers, she experienced some disappointment. The forcemeat
+did not prove nearly so nice as she had anticipated. On the other hand,
+the lad, with his sly, greedy phiz and his white garments, which made
+him look like a girl going to her first communion, somewhat took her
+fancy.
+
+She invited him to a monster lunch which she gave amongst the hampers
+in the auction room at the butter market. The three of them--herself,
+Marjolin, and Leon--completely secluded themselves from the world within
+four walls of osier. The feast was laid out on a large flat basket.
+There were pears, nuts, cream-cheese, shrimps, fried potatoes,
+and radishes. The cheese came from a fruiterer's in the Rue de la
+Cossonnerie, and was a present; and a "frier" of the Rue de la Grande
+Truanderie had given Cadine credit for two sous' worth of potatoes. The
+rest of the feast, the pears, the nuts, the shrimps, and the radishes,
+had been pilfered from different parts of the market. It was a delicious
+treat; and Leon, desirous of returning the hospitality, gave a supper
+in his bedroom at one o'clock in the morning. The bill of fare included
+cold black-pudding, slices of polony, a piece of salt pork, some
+gherkins, and some goose-fat. The Quenu-Gradelles' shop had provided
+everything. And matters did not stop there. Dainty suppers alternated
+with delicate luncheons, and invitation upon invitation. Three times a
+week there were banquets, either amidst the hampers or in Leon's garret,
+where Florent, on the nights when he lay awake, could hear a stifled
+sound of munching and rippling laughter until day began to break.
+
+The loves of Cadine and Marjolin now took another turn. The youth played
+the gallant, and just as another might entertain his _innamorata_ at a
+champagne supper _en tete a tete_ in a private room, he led Cadine into
+some quiet corner of the market cellars to munch apples or sprigs of
+celery. One day he stole a red-herring, which they devoured with immense
+enjoyment on the roof of the fish market beside the guttering. There was
+not a single shady nook in the whole place where they did not indulge in
+secret feasts. The district, with its rows of open shops full of fruit
+and cakes and preserves, was no longer a closed paradise, in front of
+which they prowled with greedy, covetous appetites. As they passed
+the shops they now extended their hands and pilfered a prune, a few
+cherries, or a bit of cod. They also provisioned themselves at the
+markets, keeping a sharp look-out as they made their way between the
+stalls, picking up everything that fell, and often assisting the fall by
+a push of their shoulders.
+
+In spite, however, of all the marauding, some terrible scores had to be
+run up with the "frier" of the Rue de la Grand Truanderie. This "frier,"
+whose shanty leaned against a tumble-down house, and was propped up by
+heavy joists, green with moss, made a display of boiled mussels lying in
+large earthenware bowls filled to the brim with clear water; of dishes
+of little yellow dabs stiffened by too thick a coating of paste; of
+squares of tripe simmering in a pan; and of grilled herrings, black and
+charred, and so hard that if you tapped them they sounded like wood. On
+certain weeks Cadine owed the frier as much as twenty sous, a crushing
+debt, which required the sale of an incalculable number of bunches of
+violets, for she could count upon no assistance from Marjolin. Moreover,
+she was bound to return Leon's hospitalities; and she even felt some
+little shame at never being able to offer him a scrap of meat. He
+himself had now taken to purloining entire hams. As a rule, he stowed
+everything away under his shirt; and at night when he reached his
+bedroom he drew from his bosom hunks of polony, slices of _pate de foie
+gras_, and bundles of pork rind. They had to do without bread, and there
+was nothing to drink; but no matter. One night Marjolin saw Leon kiss
+Cadine between two mouthfuls; however, he only laughed. He could have
+smashed the little fellow with a blow from his fist, but he felt no
+jealousy in respect of Cadine. He treated her simply as a comrade with
+whom he had chummed for years.
+
+Claude never participated in these feasts. Having caught Cadine one day
+stealing a beet-root from a little hamper lined with hay, he had pulled
+her ears and given her a sound rating. These thieving propensities made
+her perfect as a ne'er-do-well. However, in spite of himself, he could
+not help feeling a sort of admiration for these sensual, pilfering,
+greedy creatures, who preyed upon everything that lay about, feasting
+off the crumbs that fell from the giant's table.
+
+At last Marjolin nominally took service under Gavard, happy in having
+nothing to do except to listen to his master's flow of talk, while
+Cadine still continued to sell violets, quite accustomed by this time to
+old Mother Chantemesse's scoldings. They were still the same children as
+ever, giving way to their instincts and appetites without the slightest
+shame--they were the growth of the slimy pavements of the market
+district, where, even in fine weather, the mud remains black and sticky.
+However, as Cadine walked along the footways, mechanically twisting her
+bunches of violets, she was sometimes disturbed by disquieting reveries;
+and Marjolin, too, suffered from an uneasiness which he could not
+explain. He would occasionally leave the girl and miss some ramble or
+feast in order to go and gaze at Madame Quenu through the windows of her
+pork shop. She was so handsome and plump and round that it did him good
+to look at her. As he stood gazing at her, he felt full and satisfied,
+as though he had just eaten or drunk something extremely nice. And when
+he went off, a sort of hunger and thirst to see her again suddenly came
+upon him. This had been going on for a couple of months. At first he
+had looked at her with the respectful glance which he bestowed upon the
+shop-fronts of the grocers and provision dealers; but subsequently, when
+he and Cadine had taken to general pilfering, he began to regard her
+smooth cheeks much as he regarded the barrels of olives and boxes of
+dried apples.
+
+For some time past Marjolin had seen handsome Lisa every day, in the
+morning. She would pass Gavard's stall, and stop for a moment or two to
+chat with the poultry dealer. She now did her marketing herself, so
+that she might be cheated as little as possible, she said. The truth,
+however, was that she wished to make Gavard speak out. In the pork shop
+he was always distrustful, but at his stall he chatted and talked with
+the utmost freedom. Now, Lisa had made up her mind to ascertain from him
+exactly what took place in the little room at Monsieur Lebigre's; for
+she had no great confidence in her secret police office, Mademoiselle
+Saget. In a short time she learnt from the incorrigible chatterbox a
+lot of vague details which very much alarmed her. Two days after her
+explanation with Quenu she returned home from the market looking very
+pale. She beckoned to her husband to follow her into the dining-room,
+and having carefully closed the door she said to him: "Is your brother
+determined to send us to the scaffold, then? Why did you conceal from me
+what you knew?"
+
+Quenu declared that he knew nothing. He even swore a great oath that he
+had not returned to Monsieur Lebigre's, and would never go there again.
+
+"You will do well not to do so," replied Lisa, shrugging her shoulders,
+"unless you want to get yourself into a serious scrape. Florent is up to
+some evil trick, I'm certain of it! I have just learned quite sufficient
+to show me where he is going. He's going back to Cayenne, do you hear?"
+
+Then, after a pause, she continued in calmer ones: "Oh, the unhappy man!
+He had everything here that he could wish for. He might have redeemed
+his character; he had nothing but good examples before him. But no,
+it is in his blood! He will come to a violent end with his politics! I
+insist upon there being an end to all this! You hear me, Quenu? I gave
+you due warning long ago!"
+
+She spoke the last words very incisively. Quenu bent his head, as if
+awaiting sentence.
+
+"To begin with," continued Lisa, "he shall cease to take his meals here.
+It will be quite sufficient if we give him a bed. He is earning money;
+let him feed himself."
+
+Quenu seemed on the point of protesting, but his wife silenced him by
+adding energetically:
+
+"Make your choice between him and me. If he remains here, I swear to
+you that I will go away, and take my daughter with me. Do you want me to
+tell you the whole truth about him? He is a man capable of anything; he
+has come here to bring discord into our household. But I will set things
+right, you may depend on it. You have your choice between him and me;
+you hear me?"
+
+Then, leaving her husband in silent consternation, she returned to the
+shop, where she served a customer with her usual affable smile. The fact
+was that, having artfully inveigled Gavard into a political discussion,
+the poultry dealer had told her that she would soon see how the land
+lay, that they were going to make a clean sweep of everything, and that
+two determined men like her brother-in-law and himself would suffice to
+set the fire blazing. This was the evil trick of which she had spoken
+to Quenu, some conspiracy to which Gavard was always making mysterious
+allusions with a sniggering grin from which he seemingly desired a great
+deal to be inferred. And in imagination Lisa already saw the gendarmes
+invading the pork shop, gagging herself, her husband, and Pauline, and
+casting them into some underground dungeon.
+
+In the evening, at dinner, she evinced an icy frigidity. She made no
+offers to serve Florent, but several times remarked: "It's very strange
+what an amount of bread we've got through lately."
+
+Florent at last understood. He felt that he was being treated like a
+poor relation who is gradually turned out of doors. For the last two
+months Lisa had dressed him in Quenu's old trousers and coats; and, as
+he was as thin as his brother was fat, these ragged garments had a most
+extraordinary appearance upon him. She also turned her oldest linen over
+to him: pocket-handkerchiefs which had been darned a score of times,
+ragged towels, sheets which were only fit to be cut up into dusters and
+dish-cloths, and worn-out shirts, distended by Quenu's corpulent
+figure, and so short that they would have served Florent as under-vests.
+Moreover, he no longer found around him the same good-natured kindliness
+as in the earlier days. The whole household seemed to shrug its
+shoulders after the example set by handsome Lisa. Auguste and Augustine
+turned their backs upon him, and little Pauline, with the cruel
+frankness of childhood, let fall some bitter remarks about the stains
+on his coat and the holes in his shirt. However, during the last days he
+suffered most at table. He scarcely dared to eat, as he saw the mother
+and daughter fix their gaze upon him whenever he cut himself a piece of
+bread. Quenu meantime peered into his plate, to avoid having to take any
+part in what went on.
+
+That which most tortured Florent was his inability to invent a reason
+for leaving the house. During a week he kept on revolving in his mind a
+sentence expressing his resolve to take his meals elsewhere, but could
+not bring himself to utter it. Indeed, this man of tender nature lived
+in such a world of illusions that he feared he might hurt his brother
+and sister-in-law by ceasing to lunch and dine with them. It had taken
+him over two months to detect Lisa's latent hostility; and even now he
+was sometimes inclined to think that he must be mistaken, and that
+she was in reality kindly disposed towards him. Unselfishness with
+him extended to forgetfulness of his requirements; it was no longer
+a virtue, but utter indifference to self, an absolute obliteration of
+personality. Even when he recognised that he was being gradually turned
+out of the house, his mind never for a moment dwelt upon his share in
+old Gradelle's fortune, or upon the accounts which Lisa had offered him.
+He had already planned out his expenditure for the future; reckoning
+that with what Madame Verlaque still allowed him to retain of his
+salary, and the thirty francs a month which a pupil, obtained through
+La Normande, paid him he would be able to spend eighteen sous on his
+breakfast and twenty-six sous on his dinner. This, he thought, would be
+ample. And so, at last, taking as his excuse the lessons which he was
+giving his new pupil, he emboldened himself one morning to pretend
+that it would be impossible for him in future to come to the house
+at mealtimes. He blushed as he gave utterance to this laboriously
+constructed lie, which had given him so much trouble, and continued
+apologetically:
+
+"You mustn't be offended; the boy only has those hours free. I can
+easily get something to eat, you know; and I will come and have a chat
+with you in the evenings."
+
+Beautiful Lisa maintained her icy reserve, and this increased Florent's
+feeling of trouble. In order to have no cause for self-reproach she had
+been unwilling to send him about his business, preferring to wait till
+he should weary of the situation and go of his own accord. Now he was
+going, and it was a good riddance; and she studiously refrained from
+all show of kindliness for fear it might induce him to remain. Quenu,
+however, showed some signs of emotion, and exclaimed: "Don't think of
+putting yourself about; take your meals elsewhere by all means, if it
+is more convenient. It isn't we who are turning you way; you'll at all
+events dine with us sometimes on Sundays, eh?"
+
+Florent hurried off. His heart was very heavy. When he had gone, the
+beautiful Lisa did not venture to reproach her husband for his weakness
+in giving that invitation for Sundays. She had conquered, and again
+breathed freely amongst the light oak of her dining-room, where she
+would have liked to burn some sugar to drive away the odour of perverse
+leanness which seemed to linger about. Moreover, she continued to remain
+on the defensive; and at the end of another week she felt more alarmed
+than ever. She only occasionally saw Florent in the evenings, and
+began to have all sorts of dreadful thoughts, imagining that her
+brother-in-law was constructing some infernal machine upstairs in
+Augustine's bedroom, or else making signals which would result in
+barricades covering the whole neighbourhood. Gavard, who had become
+gloomy, merely nodded or shook his head when she spoke to him, and left
+his stall for days together in Marjolin's charge. The beautiful Lisa,
+however, determined that she would get to the bottom of affairs. She
+knew that Florent had obtained a day's leave, and intended to spend
+it with Claude Lantier, at Madame Francois's, at Nanterre. As he would
+start in the morning, and remain away till night, she conceived the idea
+of inviting Gavard to dinner. He would be sure to talk freely, at table,
+she thought. But throughout the morning she was unable to meet the
+poultry dealer, and so in the afternoon she went back again to the
+markets.
+
+Marjolin was in the stall alone. He used to drowse there for hours,
+recouping himself from the fatigue of his long rambles. He generally sat
+upon one chair with his legs resting upon another, and his head leaning
+against a little dresser. In the wintertime he took a keen delight in
+lolling there and contemplating the display of game; the bucks hanging
+head downwards, with their fore-legs broken and twisted round their
+necks; the larks festooning the stall like garlands; the big ruddy
+hares, the mottled partridges, the water-fowl of a bronze-grey hue, the
+Russian black cocks and hazel hens, which arrived in a packing of oat
+straw and charcoal;[*] and the pheasants, the magnificent pheasants,
+with their scarlet hoods, their stomachers of green satin, their mantles
+of embossed gold, and their flaming tails, that trailed like trains of
+court robes. All this show of plumage reminded Marjolin of his rambles
+in the cellars with Cadine amongst the hampers of feathers.
+
+     [*] The baskets in which these are sent to Paris are
+     identical with those which in many provinces of Russia serve
+     the _moujiks_ as cradles for their infants.--Translator.
+
+That afternoon the beautiful Lisa found Marjolin in the midst of the
+poultry. It was warm, and whiffs of hot air passed along the narrow
+alleys of the pavilion. She was obliged to stoop before she could see
+him stretched out inside the stall, below the bare flesh of the birds.
+From the hooked bar up above hung fat geese, the hooks sticking in the
+bleeding wounds of their long stiffened necks, while their huge bodies
+bulged out, glowing ruddily beneath their fine down, and, with their
+snowy tails and wings, suggesting nudity encompassed by fine linen.
+And also hanging from the bar, with ears thrown back and feet parted
+as though they were bent on some vigorous leap, were grey rabbits whose
+turned-up tails gleamed whitely, whilst their heads, with sharp teeth
+and dim eyes, laughed with the grin of death. On the counter of the
+stall plucked fowls showed their strained fleshy breasts; pigeons,
+crowded on osier trays, displayed the soft bare skin of innocents;
+ducks, with skin of rougher texture, exhibited their webbed feet; and
+three magnificent turkeys, speckled with blue dots, like freshly-shaven
+chins, slumbered on their backs amidst the black fans of their expanded
+tails. On plates near by were giblets, livers, gizzards, necks, feet,
+and wings; while an oval dish contained a skinned and gutted rabbit,
+with its four legs wide apart, its head bleeding, and is kidneys showing
+through its gashed belly. A streamlet of dark blood, after trickling
+along its back to its tail, had fallen drop by drop, staining the
+whiteness of the dish. Marjolin had not even taken the trouble to wipe
+the block, near which the rabbit's feet were still lying. He reclined
+there with his eyes half closed, encompassed by other piles of dead
+poultry which crowded the shelves of the stall, poultry in paper
+wrappers like bouquets, rows upon rows of protuberant breasts and bent
+legs showing confusedly. And amidst all this mass of food, the young
+fellow's big, fair figure, the flesh of his cheeks, hands, and powerful
+neck covered with ruddy down seemed as soft as that of the magnificent
+turkeys, and as plump as the breasts of the fat geese.
+
+When he caught sight of Lisa, he at once sprang up, blushing at having
+been caught sprawling in this way. He always seemed very nervous and ill
+at ease in Madame Quenu's presence; and when she asked him if Monsieur
+Gavard was there, he stammered out: "No, I don't think so. He was here a
+little while ago, but he want away again."
+
+Lisa looked at him, smiling; she had a great liking for him. But feeling
+something warm brush against her hand, which was hanging by her side,
+she raised a little shriek. Some live rabbits were thrusting their noses
+out of a box under the counter of the stall, and sniffing at her skirts.
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed with a laugh, "it's your rabbits that are tickling
+me."
+
+Then she stooped and attempted to stroke a white rabbit, which darted in
+alarm into a corner of the box.
+
+"Will Monsieur Gavard be back soon, do you think?" she asked, as she
+again rose erect.
+
+Marjolin once more replied that he did not know; then in a hesitating
+way he continued: "He's very likely gone down into the cellars. He told
+me, I think, that he was going there."
+
+"Well, I think I'll wait for him, then," replied Lisa. "Could you let
+him know that I am here? or I might go down to him, perhaps. Yes, that's
+a good idea; I've been intending to go and have a look at the cellars
+for these last five years. You'll take me down, won't you, and explain
+things to me?"
+
+Marjolin blushed crimson, and, hurrying out of the stall, walked on in
+front of her, leaving the poultry to look after itself. "Of course I
+will," said he. "I'll do anything you wish, Madame Lisa."
+
+When they got down below, the beautiful Lisa felt quite suffocated by
+the dank atmosphere of the cellar. She stood at the bottom step, and
+raised her eyes to look at the vaulted roofing of red and white bricks
+arching slightly between the iron ribs upheld by small columns. What
+made her hesitate more than the gloominess of the place was a warm,
+penetrating odour, the exhalations of large numbers of living creatures,
+which irritated her nostrils and throat.
+
+"What a nasty smell!" she exclaimed. "It must be very unhealthy down
+here."
+
+"It never does me any harm," replied Marjolin in astonishment. "There's
+nothing unpleasant about the smell when you've got accustomed to it; and
+it's very warm and cosy down here in the wintertime."
+
+As Lisa followed him, however, she declared that the strong scent of the
+poultry quite turned her stomach, and that she would certainly not
+be able to eat a fowl for the next two months. All around her, the
+storerooms, the small cabins where the stallkeepers keep their live
+stock, formed regular streets, intersecting each other at right angles.
+There were only a few scattered gas lights, and the little alleys seemed
+wrapped in sleep like the lanes of a village where the inhabitants
+have all gone to bed. Marjolin made Lisa feel the close-meshed wiring,
+stretched on a framework of cast iron; and as she made her way along one
+of the streets she amused herself by reading the names of the different
+tenants, which were inscribed on blue labels.
+
+"Monsieur Gavard's place is quite at the far end," said the young man,
+still walking on.
+
+They turned to the left, and found themselves in a sort of blind alley,
+a dark, gloomy spot where not a ray of light penetrated. Gavard was not
+there.
+
+"Oh, it makes no difference," said Marjolin. "I can show you our birds
+just the same. I have a key of the storeroom."
+
+Lisa followed him into the darkness.
+
+"You don't suppose that I can see your birds in this black oven, do
+you?" she asked, laughing.
+
+Marjolin did not reply at once; but presently he stammered out that
+there was always a candle in the storeroom. He was fumbling about the
+lock, and seemed quite unable to find the keyhole. As Lisa came up to
+help him, she felt a hot breath on her neck; and when the young man had
+at last succeeded in opening the door and lighted the candle, she saw
+that he was trembling.
+
+"You silly fellow!" she exclaimed, "to get yourself into such a state
+just because a door won't open! Why, you're no better than a girl, in
+spite of your big fists!"
+
+She stepped inside the storeroom. Gavard had rented two compartments,
+which he had thrown into one by removing the partition between them. In
+the dirt on the floor wallowed the larger birds--the geese, turkeys,
+and ducks--while up above, on tiers of shelves, were boxes with barred
+fronts containing fowls and rabbits. The grating of the storeroom was so
+coated with dust and cobwebs that it looked as though covered with grey
+blinds. The woodwork down below was rotting, and covered with filth.
+Lisa, however, not wishing to vex Marjolin, refrained from any further
+expression of disgust. She pushed her fingers between the bars of the
+boxes, and began to lament the fate of the unhappy fowls, which were
+so closely huddled together and could not even stand upright. Then she
+stroked a duck with a broken leg which was squatting in a corner, and
+the young man told her that it would be killed that very evening, for
+fear lest it should die during the night.
+
+"But what do they do for food?" asked Lisa.
+
+Thereupon he explained to her that poultry would not eat in the dark,
+and that it was necessary to light a candle and wait there till they had
+finished their meal.
+
+"It amuses me to watch them," he continued; "I often stay here with a
+light for hours altogether. You should see how they peck away; and when
+I hide the flame of the candle with my hand they all stand stock-still
+with their necks in the air, just as though the sun had set. It is
+against the rules to leave a lighted candle here and go away. One of the
+dealers, old Mother Palette--you know her, don't you?--nearly burned the
+whole place down the other day. A fowl must have knocked the candle over
+into the straw while she was away."
+
+"A pretty thing, isn't it," said Lisa, "for fowls to insist upon having
+the chandeliers lighted up every time they take a meal?"
+
+This idea made her laugh. Then she came out of the storeroom, wiping her
+feet, and holding up her skirts to keep them from the filth. Marjolin
+blew out the candle and locked the door. Lisa felt rather nervous at
+finding herself in the dark again with this big young fellow, and so she
+hastened on in front.
+
+"I'm glad I came, all the same," she presently said, as he joined her.
+"There is a great deal more under these markets than I ever imagined.
+But I must make haste now and get home again. They'll wonder what has
+become of me at the shop. If Monsieur Gavard comes back, tell him that I
+want to speak to him immediately."
+
+"I expect he's in the killing-room," said Marjolin. "We'll go and see,
+if you like."
+
+Lisa made no reply. She felt oppressed by the close atmosphere which
+warmed her face. She was quite flushed, and her bodice, generally so
+still and lifeless, began to heave. Moreover, the sound of Marjolin's
+hurrying steps behind her filled her with an uneasy feeling. At last she
+stepped aside, and let him go on in front. The lanes of this underground
+village were still fast asleep. Lisa noticed that her companion was
+taking the longest way. When they came out in front of the railway track
+he told her that he had wished to show it to her; and they stood for a
+moment or two looking through the chinks in the hoarding of heavy beams.
+Then Marjolin proposed to take her on to the line; but she refused,
+saying that it was not worth while, as she could see things well enough
+where she was.
+
+As they returned to the poultry cellars they found old Madame Palette in
+front of her storeroom, removing the cords of a large square hamper, in
+which a furious fluttering of wings and scraping of feet could be heard.
+As she unfastened the last knot the lid suddenly flew open, as though
+shot up by a spring, and some big geese thrust out their heads and
+necks. Then, in wild alarm, they sprang from their prison and rushed
+away, craning their necks, and filling the dark cellars with a frightful
+noise of hissing and clattering of beaks. Lisa could not help laughing,
+in spite of the lamentations of the old woman, who swore like a carter
+as she caught hold of two of the absconding birds and dragged them back
+by the neck. Marjolin, meantime, set off in pursuit of a third. They
+could hear him running along the narrow alleys, hunting for the runaway,
+and delighting in the chase. Then, far off in the distance, they heard
+the sounds of a struggle, and presently Marjolin came back again,
+bringing the goose with him. Mother Palette, a sallow-faced old woman,
+took it in her arms and clasped it for a moment to her bosom, in the
+classic attitude of Leda.
+
+"Well, well, I'm sure I don't know what I should have done if you hadn't
+been here," said she. "The other day I had a regular fight with one of
+the brutes; but I had my knife with me, and I cut its throat."
+
+Marjolin was quite out of breath. When they reached the stone blocks
+where the poultry were killed, and where the gas burnt more brightly,
+Lisa could see that he was perspiring, and had bold, glistening eyes.
+She thought he looked very handsome like that, with his broad shoulders,
+big flushed face, and fair curly hair, and she looked at him so
+complacently, with that air of admiration which women feel they may
+safely express for quite young lads, that he relapsed into timid
+bashfulness again.
+
+"Well, Monsieur Gavard isn't here, you see," she said. "You've only made
+me waste my time."
+
+Marjolin, however, began rapidly explaining the killing of the poultry
+to her. Five huge stone slabs stretched out in the direction of the Rue
+Rambuteau under the yellow light of the gas jets. A woman was killing
+fowls at one end; and this led him to tell Lisa that the birds were
+plucked almost before they were dead, the operation thus being much
+easier. Then he wanted her to feel the feathers which were lying in
+heaps on the stone slabs; and told her that they were sorted and sold
+for as much as nine sous the pound, according to their quality. To
+satisfy him, she was also obliged to plunge her hand into the big
+hampers full of down. Then he turned the water-taps, of which there was
+one by every pillar. There was no end to the particulars he gave. The
+blood, he said, streamed along the stone blocks, and collected into
+pools on the paved floor, which attendants sluiced with water every two
+hours, removing the more recent stains with coarse brushes.
+
+When Lisa stooped over the drain which carries away the swillings,
+Marjolin found a fresh text for talk. On rainy days, said he, the water
+sometimes rose through this orifice and flooded the place. It had
+once risen a foot high; and they had been obliged to transport all the
+poultry to the other end of the cellar, which is on a higher level.
+He laughed as he recalled the wild flutter of the terrified creatures.
+However, he had now finished, and it seemed as though there remained
+nothing else for him to show, when all at once he bethought himself of
+the ventilator. Thereupon he took Lisa off to the far end of the cellar,
+and told her to look up; and inside one of the turrets at the corner
+angles of the pavilion she observed a sort of escape-pipe, by which the
+foul atmosphere of the storerooms ascended into space.
+
+Here, in this corner, reeking with abominable odours, Marjolin's
+nostrils quivered, and his breath came and went violently. His long
+stroll with Lisa in these cellars, full of warm animal perfumes, had
+gradually intoxicated him.
+
+She had again turned towards him. "Well," said she, "it was very kind of
+you to show me all this, and when you come to the shop I will give you
+something."
+
+Whilst speaking she took hold of his soft chin, as she often did,
+without recognising that he was no longer a child; and perhaps she
+allowed her hand to linger there a little longer than was her wont. At
+all events, Marjolin, usually so bashful, was thrilled by the caress,
+and all at once he impetuously sprang forward, clasped Lisa by the
+shoulders, and pressed his lips to her soft cheeks. She raised no
+cry, but turned very pale at this sudden attack, which showed her how
+imprudent she had been. And then, freeing herself from the embrace, she
+raised her arm, as she had seen men do in slaughter houses, clenched
+her comely fist, and knocked Marjolin down with a single blow, planted
+straight between his eyes; and as he fell his head came into collision
+with one of the stone slabs, and was split open. Just at that moment the
+hoarse and prolonged crowing of a cock sounded through the gloom.
+
+Handsome Lisa, however, remained perfectly cool. Her lips were tightly
+compressed, and her bosom had recovered its wonted immobility. Up
+above she could hear the heavy rumbling of the markets, and through the
+vent-holes alongside the Rue Rambuteau the noise of the street traffic
+made its way into the oppressive silence of the cellar. Lisa reflected
+that her own strong arm had saved her; and then, fearing lest some
+one should come and find her there, she hastened off, without giving a
+glance at Marjolin. As she climbed the steps, after passing through the
+grated entrance of the cellars, the daylight brought her great relief.
+
+She returned to the shop, quite calm, and only looking a little pale.
+
+"You've been a long time," Quenu said to her.
+
+"I can't find Gavard. I have looked for him everywhere," she quietly
+replied. "We shall have to eat our leg of mutton without him."
+
+Then she filled the lard pot, which she noticed was empty; and cut some
+pork chops for her friend Madame Taboureau, who had sent her little
+servant for them. The blows which she dealt with her cleaver reminded
+her of Marjolin. She felt that she had nothing to reproach herself with.
+She had acted like an honest woman. She was not going to disturb her
+peace of mind; she was too happy to do anything to compromise herself.
+However, she glanced at Quenu, whose neck was coarse and ruddy, and
+whose shaven chin looked as rough as knotted wood; whereas Marjolin's
+chin and neck resembled rosy satin. But then she must not think of him
+any more, for he was no longer a child. She regretted it, and could not
+help thinking that children grew up much too quickly.
+
+A slight flush came back to her cheeks, and Quenu considered that she
+looked wonderfully blooming. He came and sat down beside her at the
+counter for a moment or two. "You ought to go out oftener," said he; "it
+does you good. We'll go to the theatre together one of these nights, if
+you like; to the Gaite, eh? Madame Taboureau has been to see the piece
+they are playing there, and she declares it's splendid."
+
+Lisa smiled, and said they would see about it, and then once more she
+took herself off. Quenu thought that it was too good of her to take so
+much trouble in running about after that brute Gavard. In point of fact,
+however, she had simply gone upstairs to Florent's bedroom, the key
+of which was hanging from a nail in the kitchen. She hoped to find out
+something or other by an inspection of this room, since the poultry
+dealer had failed her. She went slowly round it, examining the bed, the
+mantelpiece, and every corner. The window with the little balcony was
+open, and the budding pomegranate was steeped in the golden beams of the
+setting sun. The room looked to her as though Augustine had never left
+it--had slept there only the night before. There seemed to be nothing
+masculine about the place. She was quite surprised, for she had expected
+to find some suspicious-looking chests, and coffers with strong locks.
+She went to feel Augustine's summer gown, which was still hanging
+against the wall. Then she sat down at the table, and began to read an
+unfinished page of manuscript, in which the word "revolution" occurred
+twice. This alarmed her, and she opened the drawer, which she saw was
+full of papers. But her sense of honour awoke within her in presence of
+the secret which the rickety deal table so badly guarded. She remained
+bending over the papers, trying to understand them without touching
+them, in a state of great emotion, when the shrill song of the
+chaffinch, on whose cage streamed a ray of sunshine, made her start. She
+closed the drawer. It was a base thing that she had contemplated, she
+thought.
+
+Then, as she lingered by the window, reflecting that she ought to go
+and ask counsel of Abbe Roustan, who was a very sensible man, she saw a
+crowd of people round a stretcher in the market square below. The night
+was falling, still she distinctly recognised Cadine weeping in the midst
+of the crowd; while Florent and Claude, whose boots were white with
+dust, stood together talking earnestly at the edge of the footway.
+She hurried downstairs again, surprised to see them back so soon, and
+scarcely had she reached her counter when Mademoiselle Saget entered the
+shop.
+
+"They have found that scamp of a Marjolin in the cellar, with his head
+split open," exclaimed the old maid. "Won't you come to see him, Madame
+Quenu?"
+
+Lisa crossed the road to look at him. The young fellow was lying on his
+back on the stretcher, looking very pale. His eyes were closed, and
+a stiff wisp of his fair hair was clotted with blood. The bystanders,
+however, declared that there was no serious harm done, and, besides, the
+scamp had only himself to blame, for he was always playing all sorts of
+wild pranks in the cellars. It was generally supposed that he had
+been trying to jump over one of the stone blocks--one of his favourite
+amusements--and had fallen with his head against the slab.
+
+"I dare say that hussy there gave him a shove," remarked Mademoiselle
+Saget, pointing to Cadine, who was weeping. "They are always larking
+together."
+
+Meantime the fresh air had restored Marjolin to consciousness, and he
+opened his eyes in wide astonishment. He looked round at everybody, and
+then, observing Lisa bending over him, he gently smiled at her with
+an expression of mingled humility and affection. He seemed to have
+forgotten all that had happened. Lisa, feeling relieved, said that he
+ought to be taken to the hospital at once, and promised to go and see
+him there, and take him some oranges and biscuits. However, Marjolin's
+head had fallen back, and when the stretcher was carried away Cadine
+followed it, with her flat basket slung round her neck, and her hot
+tears rolling down upon the bunches of violets in their mossy bed. She
+certainly had no thoughts for the flowers that she was thus scalding
+with her bitter grief.
+
+As Lisa went back to her shop, she heard Claude say, as he shook hands
+with Florent and parted from him: "Ah! the confounded young scamp! He's
+quite spoiled my day for me! Still, we had a very enjoyable time, didn't
+we?"
+
+Claude and Florent had returned both worried and happy, bringing with
+them the pleasant freshness of the country air. Madame Francois had
+disposed of all her vegetables that morning before daylight; and they
+had all three gone to the Golden Compasses, in the Rue Montorgueil, to
+get the cart. Here, in the middle of Paris, they found a foretaste of
+the country. Behind the Restaurant Philippe, with its frontage of gilt
+woodwork rising to the first floor, there was a yard like that of a
+farm, dirty, teeming with life, reeking with the odour of manure
+and straw. Bands of fowls were pecking at the soft ground. Sheds and
+staircases and galleries of greeny wood clung to the old houses around,
+and at the far end, in a shanty of big beams, was Balthazar, harnessed
+to the cart, and eating the oats in his nosebag. He went down the Rue
+Montorgueil at a slow trot, seemingly well pleased to return to Nanterre
+so soon. However, he was not going home without a load. Madame Francois
+had a contract with the company which undertook the scavenging of the
+markets, and twice a week she carried off with her a load of leaves,
+forked up from the mass of refuse which littered the square. It made
+excellent manure. In a few minutes the cart was filled to overflowing.
+Claude and Florent stretched themselves out on the deep bed of greenery;
+Madame Francois grasped her reins, and Balthazar went off at his slow,
+steady pace, his head somewhat bent by reason of there being so many
+passengers to pull along.
+
+This excursion had been talked of for a long time past. Madame Francois
+laughed cheerily. She was partial to the two men, and promised them
+an _omelette au lard_ as had never been eaten, said she, in "that
+villainous Paris." Florent and Claude revelled in the thought of this
+day of lounging idleness which as yet had scarcely begun to dawn.
+Nanterre seemed to be some distant paradise into which they would
+presently enter.
+
+"Are you quite comfortable?" Madame Francois asked as the cart turned
+into the Rue du Pont Neuf.
+
+Claude declared that their couch was as soft as a bridal bed. Lying on
+their backs, with their hands crossed under their heads, both men were
+looking up at the pale sky from which the stars were vanishing. All
+along the Rue de Rivoli they kept unbroken silence, waiting till they
+should have got clear of the houses, and listening to the worthy woman
+as she chattered to Balthazar: "Take your time, old man," she said to
+him in kindly tones. "We're in no hurry; we shall be sure to get there
+at last."
+
+On reaching the Champs Elysees, when the artist saw nothing but
+tree-tops on either side of him, and the great green mass of the
+Tuileries gardens in the distance, he woke up, as it were, and began to
+talk. When the cart had passed the end of the Rue du Roule he had caught
+a glimpse of the side entrance of Saint Eustache under the giant roofing
+of one of the market covered-ways. He was constantly referring to this
+view of the church, and tried to give it a symbolical meaning.
+
+"It's an odd mixture," he said, "that bit of church framed round by an
+avenue of cast iron. The one will kill the other; the iron will slay
+the stone, and the time is not very far off. Do you believe in chance,
+Florent? For my part, I don't think that it was any mere chance of
+position that set a rose-window of Saint Eustache right in the middle of
+the central markets. No; there's a whole manifesto in it. It is modern
+art, realism, naturalism--whatever you like to call it--that has grown
+up and dominates ancient art. Don't you agree with me?"
+
+Then, as Florent still kept silence, Claude continued: "Besides, that
+church is a piece of bastard architecture, made up of the dying gasp of
+the middle ages, and the first stammering of the Renaissance. Have you
+noticed what sort of churches are built nowadays? They resemble all
+kinds of things--libraries, observatories, pigeon-cotes, barracks; and
+surely no one can imagine that the Deity dwells in such places. The
+pious old builders are all dead and gone; and it would be better to
+cease erecting those hideous carcasses of stone, in which we have no
+belief to enshrine. Since the beginning of the century there has only
+been one large original pile of buildings erected in Paris--a pile in
+accordance with modern developments--and that's the central markets. You
+hear me, Florent? Ah! they are a fine bit of building, though they but
+faintly indicate what we shall see in the twentieth century! And so, you
+see, Saint Eustache is done for! It stands there with its rose-windows,
+deserted by worshippers, while the markets spread out by its side and
+teem with noisy life. Yes! that's how I understand it all, my friend."
+
+"Ah! Monsieur Claude," said Madame Francois, laughing, "the woman who
+cut your tongue-string certainly earned her money. Look at Balthazar
+laying his ears back to listen to you. Come, come, get along,
+Balthazar!"
+
+The cart was slowly making its way up the incline. At this early hour of
+the morning the avenue, with its double lines of iron chairs on either
+pathway, and its lawns, dotted with flowerbeds and clumps of shrubbery,
+stretching away under the blue shadows of the trees, was quite deserted;
+however, at the Rond-Point a lady and gentleman on horseback passed the
+cart at a gentle trot. Florent, who had made himself a pillow with
+a bundle of cabbage-leaves, was still gazing at the sky, in which a
+far-stretching rosy glow was appearing. Every now and then he would
+close his eyes, the better to enjoy the fresh breeze of the morning
+as it fanned his face. He was so happy to escape from the markets, and
+travel on through the pure air, that he remained speechless, and did not
+even listen to what was being said around him.
+
+"And then, too, what fine jokers are those fellows who imprison art in a
+toy-box!" resumed Claude, after a pause. "They are always repeating the
+same idiotic words: 'You can't create art out of science,' says one;
+'Mechanical appliances kill poetry,' says another; and a pack of fools
+wail over the fate of the flowers, as though anybody wished the flowers
+any harm! I'm sick of all such twaddle; I should like to answer all that
+snivelling with some work of open defiance. I should take a pleasure in
+shocking those good people. Shall I tell you what was the finest thing
+I ever produced since I first began to work, and the one which I recall
+with the greatest pleasure? It's quite a story. When I was at my
+Aunt Lisa's on Christmas Eve last year that idiot of an Auguste, the
+assistant, was setting out the shop-window. Well, he quite irritated
+me by the weak, spiritless way in which he arranged the display; and at
+last I requested him to take himself off, saying that I would group
+the things myself in a proper manner. You see, I had plenty of bright
+colours to work with--the red of the tongues, the yellow of the hams,
+the blue of the paper shavings, the rosy pink of the things that had
+been cut into, the green of the sprigs of heath, and the black of the
+black-puddings--ah! a magnificent black, which I have never managed to
+produce on my palette. And naturally, the _crepine_, the small sausages,
+the chitterlings, and the crumbed trotters provided me with delicate
+greys and browns. I produced a perfect work of art. I took the dishes,
+the plates, the pans, and the jars, and arranged the different colours;
+and I devised a wonderful picture of still life, with subtle scales of
+tints leading up to brilliant flashes of colour. The red tongues seemed
+to thrust themselves out like greedy flames, and the black-puddings,
+surrounded by pale sausages, suggested a dark night fraught with
+terrible indigestion. I had produced, you see, a picture symbolical of
+the gluttony of Christmas Eve, when people meet and sup--the midnight
+feasting, the ravenous gorging of stomachs void and faint after all the
+singing of hymns.[*] At the top of everything a huge turkey exhibited
+its white breast, marbled blackly by the truffles showing through its
+skin. It was something barbaric and superb, suggesting a paunch amidst
+a halo of glory; but there was such a cutting, sarcastic touch about it
+all that people crowded to the window, alarmed by the fierce flare of
+the shop-front. When my aunt Lisa came back from the kitchen she was
+quite frightened, and thought I'd set the fat in the shop on fire;
+and she considered the appearance of the turkey so indelicate that she
+turned me out of the place while Auguste re-arranged the window after
+his own idiotic fashion. Such brutes will never understand the language
+of a red splotch by the side of a grey one. Ah, well! that was my
+masterpiece. I have never done anything better."
+
+     [*] An allusion to the "midnight mass" usually celebrated in
+     Roman Catholic churches on Christmas Eve.--Translator.
+
+He relapsed into silence, smiling and dwelling with gratification on
+this reminiscence. The cart had now reached the Arc de Triomphe, and
+strong currents of air swept from the avenues across the expanse of open
+ground. Florent sat up, and inhaled with zest the first odours of grass
+wafted from the fortifications. He turned his back on Paris, anxious
+to behold the country in the distance. At the corner of the Rue de
+Longchamp, Madame Francois pointed out to him the spot where she had
+picked him up. This rendered him thoughtful, and he gazed at her as
+she sat there, so healthy-looking and serene, with her arms slightly
+extended so as to grasp the reins. She looked even handsomer than Lisa,
+with her neckerchief tied over her head, her robust glow of health, and
+her brusque, kindly air. When she gave a slight cluck with her tongue,
+Balthazar pricked up his ears and rattled down the road at a quicker
+pace.
+
+On arriving at Nanterre, the cart turned to the left into a narrow lane,
+skirted some blank walls, and finally came to a standstill at the end of
+a sort of blind alley. It was the end of the world, Madame Francois used
+to say. The load of vegetable leaves now had to be discharged. Claude
+and Florent would not hear of the journeyman gardener, who was planting
+lettuces, leaving his work, but armed themselves with pitchforks and
+proceeded to toss the leaves into the manure pit. This occupation
+afforded them much amusement. Claude had quite a liking for manure,
+since it symbolises the world and its life. The strippings and parings
+of the vegetables, the scourings of the markets, the refuse that fell
+from that colossal table, remained full of life, and returned to the
+spot where the vegetables had previously sprouted, to warm and nourish
+fresh generations of cabbages, turnips, and carrots. They rose again
+in fertile crops, and once more went to spread themselves out upon the
+market square. Paris rotted everything, and returned everything to the
+soil, which never wearied of repairing the ravages of death.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Claude, as he plied his fork for the last time, "here's
+a cabbage-stalk that I'm sure I recognise. It has grown up at least half
+a score of times in that corner yonder by the apricot tree."
+
+This remark made Florent laugh. But he soon became grave again, and
+strolled slowly through the kitchen garden, while Claude made a sketch
+of the stable, and Madame Francois got breakfast ready. The kitchen
+garden was a long strip of ground, divided in the middle by a narrow
+path; it rose slightly, and at the top end, on raising the head, you
+could perceive the low barracks of Mont Valerien. Green hedges separated
+it from other plots of land, and these lofty walls of hawthorn fringed
+the horizon with a curtain of greenery in such wise that of all the
+surrounding country Mont Valerien alone seemed to rise inquisitively
+on tip-toe in order to peer into Madame Francois's close. Great
+peacefulness came from the countryside which could not be seen. Along
+the kitchen garden, between the four hedges, the May sun shone with
+a languid heat, a silence disturbed only by the buzzing of insects,
+a somnolence suggestive of painless parturition. Every now and then a
+faint cracking sound, a soft sigh, made one fancy that one could hear
+the vegetables sprout into being. The patches of spinach and sorrel,
+the borders of radishes, carrots, and turnips, the beds of potatoes
+and cabbages, spread out in even regularity, displaying their dark
+leaf-mould between their tufts of greenery. Farther away, the trenched
+lettuces, onions, leeks, and celery, planted by line in long straight
+rows, looked like soldiers on parade; while the peas and beans were
+beginning to twine their slender tendrils round a forest of sticks,
+which, when June came, they would transform into a thick and verdant
+wood. There was not a weed to be seen. The garden resembled two parallel
+strips of carpet of a geometrical pattern of green on a reddish ground,
+which were carefully swept every morning. Borders of thyme grew like
+greyish fringe along each side of the pathway.
+
+Florent paced backwards and forwards amidst the perfume of the thyme,
+which the sun was warming. He felt profoundly happy in the peacefulness
+and cleanliness of the garden. For nearly a year past he had only seen
+vegetables bruised and crushed by the jolting of the market-carts;
+vegetables torn up on the previous evening, and still bleeding. He
+rejoiced to find them at home, in peace in the dark mould, and sound in
+every part. The cabbages had a bulky, prosperous appearance; the carrots
+looked bright and gay; and the lettuces lounged in line with an air of
+careless indolence. And as he looked at them all, the markets which he
+had left behind him that morning seemed to him like a vast mortuary,
+an abode of death, where only corpses could be found, a charnel-house
+reeking with foul smells and putrefaction. He slackened his steps, and
+rested in that kitchen garden, as after a long perambulation amidst
+deafening noises and repulsive odours. The uproar and the sickening
+humidity of the fish market had departed from him; and he felt as though
+he were being born anew in the pure fresh air. Claude was right, he
+thought. The markets were a sphere of death. The soil was the life, the
+eternal cradle, the health of the world.
+
+"The omelet's ready!" suddenly cried Madame Francois.
+
+When they were all three seated round the table in the kitchen, with
+the door thrown open to the sunshine, they ate their breakfast with
+such light-hearted gaiety that Madame Francois looked at Florent in
+amazement, repeating between each mouthful: "You're quite altered.
+You're ten years younger. It is that villainous Paris which makes you
+seem so gloomy. You've got a little sunshine in your eyes now. Ah! those
+big towns do one's health no good, you ought to come and live here."
+
+Claude laughed, and retorted that Paris was a glorious place. He stuck
+up for it and all that belonged to it, even to its gutters; though at
+the same time retaining a keen affection for the country.
+
+In the afternoon Madame Francois and Florent found themselves alone
+at the end of the garden, in a corner planted with a few fruit trees.
+Seated on the ground, they talked somewhat seriously together. The good
+woman advised Florent with an affectionate and quite maternal kindness.
+She asked him endless questions about his life, and his intentions for
+the future, and begged him to remember that he might always count
+upon her, if ever he thought that she could in the slightest degree
+contribute to his happiness. Florent was deeply touched. No woman had
+ever spoken to him in that way before. Madame Francois seemed to him
+like some healthy, robust plant that had grown up with the vegetables
+in the leaf-mould of the garden; while the Lisas, the Normans, and
+other pretty women of the markets appeared to him like flesh of doubtful
+freshness decked out for exhibition. He here enjoyed several hours of
+perfect well-being, delivered from all that reek of food which sickened
+him in the markets, and reviving to new life amidst the fertile
+atmosphere of the country, like that cabbage stalk which Claude declared
+he had seen sprout up more than half a score of times.
+
+The two men took leave of Madame Francois at about five o'clock. They
+had decided to walk back to Paris; and the market gardener accompanied
+them into the lane. As she bade good-bye to Florent, she kept his hand
+in her own for a moment, and said gently: "If ever anything happens to
+trouble you, remember to come to me."
+
+For a quarter of an hour Florent walked on without speaking, already
+getting gloomy again, and reflecting that he was leaving health behind
+him. The road to Courbevoie was white with dust. However, both men were
+fond of long walks and the ringing of stout boots on the hard ground.
+Little clouds of dust rose up behind their heels at every step,
+while the rays of the sinking sun darted obliquely over the avenue,
+lengthening their shadows in such wise that their heads reached the
+other side of the road, and journeyed along the opposite footway.
+
+Claude, swinging his arms, and taking long, regular strides,
+complacently watched these two shadows, whilst enjoying the rhythmical
+cadence of his steps, which he accentuated by a motion of his shoulders.
+Presently, however, as though just awaking from a dream, he exclaimed:
+"Do you know the 'Battle of the Fat and the Thin'?"
+
+Florent, surprised by the question, replied in the negative; and
+thereupon Claude waxed enthusiastic, talking of that series of prints
+in very eulogical fashion. He mentioned certain incidents: the Fat, so
+swollen that they almost burst, preparing their evening debauch, while
+the Thin, bent double by fasting, looked in from the street with the
+appearance of envious laths; and then, again, the Fat, with hanging
+cheeks, driving off one of the Thin, who had been audacious enough to
+introduce himself into their midst in lowly humility, and who looked
+like a ninepin amongst a population of balls.
+
+In these designs Claude detected the entire drama of human life, and he
+ended by classifying men into Fat and Thin, two hostile groups, one of
+which devours the other, and grows fat and sleek and enjoys itself.
+
+"Cain," said he, "was certainly one of the Fat, and Abel one of the
+Thin. Ever since that first murder, there have been rampant appetites
+which have drained the life-blood of small eaters. It's a continual
+preying of the stronger upon the weaker; each swallowing his neighbour,
+and then getting swallowed in his turn. Beware of the Fat, my friend."
+
+He relapsed into silence for a moment, still watching their two shadows,
+which the setting sun elongated more than ever. Then he murmured: "You
+see, we belong to the Thin--you and I. Those who are no more corpulent
+than we are don't take up much room in the sunlight, eh?"
+
+Florent glanced at the two shadows, and smiled. But Claude waxed angry,
+and exclaimed: "You make a mistake if you think it is a laughing matter.
+For my own part, I greatly suffer from being one of the Thin. If I were
+one of the Fat, I could paint at my ease; I should have a fine studio,
+and sell my pictures for their weight in gold. But, instead of that,
+I'm one of the Thin; and I have to grind my life out in producing things
+which simply make the Fat ones shrug their shoulders. I shall die of it
+all in the end, I'm sure of it, with my skin clinging to my bones, and
+so flattened that they will be able to bury me between two leaves of a
+book. And you, too, you are one of the Thin, a wonderful one; the very
+king of Thin, in fact! Do you remember your quarrel with the fish-wives?
+It was magnificent; all those colossal bosoms flying at your scraggy
+breast! Oh! they were simply acting from natural instinct; they were
+pursuing one of the Thin just as cats pursue a mouse. The Fat, you know,
+have an instinctive hatred of the Thin, to such an extent that they must
+needs drive the latter from their sight, either by means of their teeth
+or their feet. And that is why, if I were in your place, I should take
+my precautions. The Quenus belong to the Fat, and so do the Mehudins;
+indeed, you have none but Fat ones around you. I should feel uneasy
+under such circumstances."
+
+"And what about Gavard, and Mademoiselle Saget, and your friend
+Marjolin?" asked Florent, still smiling.
+
+"Oh, if you like, I will classify all our acquaintances for you,"
+replied Claude. "I've had their heads in a portfolio in my studio for a
+long time past, with memoranda of the order to which they belong. Gavard
+is one of the Fat, but of the kind which pretends to belong to the
+Thin. The variety is by no means uncommon. Mademoiselle Saget and
+Madame Lecoeur belong to the Thin, but to a variety which is much to be
+feared--the Thin ones whom envy drives to despair, and who are capable
+of anything in their craving to fatten themselves. My friend Marjolin,
+little Cadine, and La Sarriette are three Fat ones, still innocent,
+however, and having nothing but the guileless hunger of youth. I may
+remark that the Fat, so long as they've not grown old, are charming
+creatures. Monsieur Lebigre is one of the Fat--don't you think so? As
+for your political friends, Charvet, Clemence, Logre, and Lacaille, they
+mostly belong to the Thin. I only except that big animal Alexandre, and
+that prodigy Robine, who has caused me a vast amount of annoyance."
+
+The artist continued to talk in this strain from the Pont de Neuilly to
+the Arc de Triomphe. He returned to some of those whom he had already
+mentioned, and completed their portraits with a few characteristic
+touches. Logre, he said, was one of the Thin whose belly had been placed
+between his shoulders. Beautiful Lisa was all stomach, and the beautiful
+Norman all bosom. Mademoiselle Saget, in her earlier life, must have
+certainly lost some opportunity to fatten herself, for she detested the
+Fat, while, at the same time, she despised the Thin. As for Gavard,
+he was compromising his position as one of the Fat, and would end by
+becoming as flat as a bug.
+
+"And what about Madame Francois?" Florent asked.
+
+Claude seemed much embarrassed by this question. He cast about for an
+answer, and at last stammered:
+
+"Madame Francois, Madame Francois--well, no, I really don't know; I
+never thought about classifying her. But she's a dear good soul, and
+that's quite sufficient. She's neither one of the Fat nor one of the
+Thin!"
+
+They both laughed. They were now in front of the Arc de Triomphe. The
+sun, over by the hills of Suresnes, was so low on the horizon that their
+colossal shadows streaked the whiteness of the great structure even
+above the huge groups of statuary, like strokes made with a piece of
+charcoal. This increased Claude's merriment, he waved his arms and bent
+his body; and then, as he started on his way again, he said; "Did you
+notice--just as the sun set our two heads shot up to the sky!"
+
+But Florent no longer smiled. Paris was grasping him again, that Paris
+which now frightened him so much, after having cost him so many tears at
+Cayenne. When he reached the markets night was falling, and there was
+a suffocating smell. He bent his head as he once more returned to
+the nightmare of endless food, whilst preserving the sweet yet sad
+recollection of that day of bright health odorous with the perfume of
+thyme.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+At about four o'clock on the afternoon of the following day Lisa betook
+herself to Saint Eustache. For the short walk across the square she had
+arrayed herself very seriously in a black silk gown and thick woollen
+shawl. The handsome Norman, who, from her stall in the fish market,
+watched her till she vanished into the church porch, was quite amazed.
+
+"Hallo! So the fat thing's gone in for priests now, has she?" she
+exclaimed, with a sneer. "Well, a little holy water may do her good!"
+
+She was mistaken in her surmises, however, for Lisa was not a devotee.
+She did not observe the ordinances of the Church, but said that she
+did her best to lead an honest life, and that this was all that was
+necessary. At the same time, however, she disliked to hear religion
+spoken ill of, and often silenced Gavard, who delighted in scandalous
+stories of priests and their doings. Talk of that sort seemed to her
+altogether improper. Everyone, in her opinion, should be allowed to
+believe as they pleased, and every scruple should be respected. Besides,
+the majority of the clergy were most estimable men. She knew Abbe
+Roustan, of Saint Eustache--a distinguished priest, a man of shrewd
+sense, and one, she thought, whose friendship might be safely relied
+upon. And she would wind up by explaining that religion was absolutely
+necessary for the people; she looked upon it as a sort of police force
+that helped to maintain order, and without which no government would be
+possible. When Gavard went too far on this subject and asserted that the
+priests ought to be turned into the streets and have their shops shut
+up, Lisa, shrugged her shoulders and replied: "A great deal of good that
+would do! Why, before a month was over the people would be murdering
+one another in the streets, and you would be compelled to invent another
+God. That was just what happened in '93. You know very well that I'm not
+given to mixing with the priests, but for all that I say that they are
+necessary, as we couldn't do without them."
+
+And so when Lisa happened to enter a church she always manifested
+the utmost decorum. She had bought a handsome missal, which she never
+opened, for use when she was invited to a funeral or a wedding. She
+knelt and rose at the proper times, and made a point of conducting
+herself with all propriety. She assumed, indeed, what she considered a
+sort of official demeanour, such as all well-to-do folks, tradespeople,
+and house-owners ought to observe with regard to religion.
+
+As she entered Saint Eustache that afternoon she let the double doors,
+covered with green baize, faded and worn by the frequent touch of pious
+hands, close gently behind her. Then she dipped her fingers in the holy
+water and crossed herself in the correct fashion. And afterwards, with
+hushed footsteps, she made her way to the chapel of Saint Agnes, where
+two kneeling women with their faces buried in their hands were waiting,
+whilst the blue skirts of a third protruded from the confessional. Lisa
+seemed rather put out by the sight of these women, and, addressing a
+verger who happened to pass along, wearing a black skullcap and
+dragging his feet over the slabs, she inquired: "Is this Monsieur l'Abbe
+Roustan's day for hearing confessions?"
+
+The verger replied that his reverence had only two more penitents
+waiting, and that they would not detain him long, so that if Lisa would
+take a chair her turn would speedily come. She thanked him, without
+telling him that she had not come to confess; and, making up her mind to
+wait, she began to pace the church, going as far as the chief entrance,
+whence she gazed at the lofty, severe, bare nave stretching between the
+brightly coloured aisles. Raising her head a little, she examined the
+high altar, which she considered too plain, having no taste for the cold
+grandeur of stonework, but preferring the gilding and gaudy colouring of
+the side chapels. Those on the side of the Rue du Jour looked greyish in
+the light which filtered through their dusty windows, but on the side
+of the markets the sunset was lighting up the stained glass with lovely
+tints, limpid greens and yellows in particular, which reminded Lisa of
+the bottle of liqueurs in front of Monsieur Lebigre's mirror. She came
+back by this side, which seemed to be warmed by the glow of light,
+and took a passing interest in the reliquaries, altar ornaments, and
+paintings steeped in prismatic reflections. The church was empty,
+quivering with the silence that fell from its vaulted roofing. Here and
+there a woman's dress showed like a dark splotch amidst the vague yellow
+of the chairs; and a low buzzing came from the closed confessionals. As
+Lisa again passed the chapel of Saint Agnes she saw the blue dress still
+kneeling at Abbe Roustan's feet.
+
+"Why, if I'd wanted to confess I could have said everything in ten
+seconds," she thought, proud of her irreproachable integrity.
+
+Then she went on to the end of the church. Behind the high altar, in the
+gloom of a double row of pillars, is the chapel of the Blessed Virgin,
+damp and dark and silent. The dim stained windows only show the flowing
+crimson and violet robes of saints, which blaze like flames of mystic
+love in the solemn, silent adoration of the darkness. It is a weird,
+mysterious spot, like some crepuscular nook of paradise solely illumined
+by the gleaming stars of two tapers. The four brass lamps hanging from
+the roof remain unlighted, and are but faintly seen; on espying them you
+think of the golden censers which the angels swing before the throne of
+Mary. And kneeling on the chairs between the pillars there are always
+women surrendering themselves languorously to the dim spot's voluptuous
+charm.
+
+Lisa stood and gazed tranquilly around her. She did not feel the least
+emotion, but considered that it was a mistake not to light the lamps.
+Their brightness would have given the place a more cheerful look. The
+gloom even struck her as savouring of impropriety. Her face was warmed
+by the flames of some candles burning in a candelabrum by her side, and
+an old woman armed with a big knife was scraping off the wax which had
+trickled down and congealed into pale tears. And amidst the quivering
+silence, the mute ecstasy of adoration prevailing in the chapel, Lisa
+would distinctly hear the rumbling of the vehicles turning out of the
+Rue Montmartre, behind the scarlet and purple saints on the windows,
+whilst in the distance the markets roared without a moment's pause.
+
+Just as Lisa was leaving the chapel, she saw the younger of the
+Mehudins, Claire, the dealer in fresh water fish, come in. The girl
+lighted a taper at the candelabrum, and then went to kneel behind a
+pillar, her knees pressed upon the hard stones, and her face so pale
+beneath her loose fair hair that she seemed a corpse. And believing
+herself to be securely screened from observation, she gave way to
+violent emotion, and wept hot tears with a passionate outpouring of
+prayer which bent her like a rushing wind. Lisa looked on in amazement,
+for the Mehudins were not known to be particularly pious; indeed, Claire
+was accustomed to speak of religion and priests in such terms as to
+horrify one.
+
+"What's the meaning of this, I wonder?" pondered Lisa, as she again
+made her way to the chapel of Saint Agnes. "The hussy must have been
+poisoning some one or other."
+
+Abbe Roustan was at last coming out of his confessional. He was a
+handsome man, of some forty years of age, with a smiling, kindly air.
+When he recognised Madame Quenu he grasped her hand, called her "dear
+lady," and conducted her to the vestry, where, taking off his surplice,
+he told her that he would be entirely at her service in a moment. They
+returned, the priest in his cassock, bareheaded, and Lisa strutting
+along in her shawl, and paced up and down in front of the side-chapels
+adjacent to the Rue du Jour. They conversed together in low tones. The
+sunlight was departing from the stained windows, the church was growing
+dark, and the retreating footsteps of the last worshippers sounded but
+faintly over the flagstones.
+
+Lisa explained her doubts and scruples to Abbe Roustan. There had never
+been any question of religion between them; she never confessed, but
+merely consulted him in cases of difficulty, because he was shrewd
+and discreet, and she preferred him, as she sometimes said, to shady
+business men redolent of the galleys. The abbe, on his side, manifested
+inexhaustible complaisance. He looked up points of law for her in
+the Code, pointed out profitable investments, resolved her moral
+difficulties with great tact, recommended tradespeople to her,
+invariably having an answer ready however diverse and complicated
+her requirements might be. And he supplied all this help in a natural
+matter-of-fact way, without ever introducing the Deity into his talk,
+or seeking to obtain any advantage either for himself or the cause of
+religion. A word of thanks and a smile sufficed him. He seemed glad to
+have an opportunity of obliging the handsome Madame Quenu, of whom his
+housekeeper often spoke to him in terms of praise, as of a woman who was
+highly respected in the neighbourhood.
+
+Their consultation that afternoon was of a peculiarly delicate nature.
+Lisa was anxious to know what steps she might legitimately take, as a
+woman of honour, with respect to her brother-in-law. Had she a right
+to keep a watch upon him, and to do what she could to prevent him from
+compromising her husband, her daughter, and herself? And then how far
+might she go in circumstances of pressing danger? She did not bluntly
+put these questions to the abbe, but asked them with such skilful
+circumlocutions that he was able to discuss the matter without entering
+into personalities. He brought forward arguments on both sides of the
+question, but the conclusion he came to was that a person of integrity
+was entitled, indeed bound, to prevent evil, and was justified in using
+whatever means might be necessary to ensure the triumph of that which
+was right and proper.
+
+"That is my opinion, dear lady," he said in conclusion. "The question
+of means is always a very grave one. It is a snare in which souls
+of average virtue often become entangled. But I know your scrupulous
+conscience. Deliberate carefully over each step you think of taking, and
+if it contains nothing repugnant to you, go on boldly. Pure natures have
+the marvelous gift of purifying all that they touch."
+
+Then, changing his tone of voice, he continued: "Pray give my kind
+regards to Monsieur Quenu. I'll come in to kiss my dear little Pauline
+some time when I'm passing. And now good-bye, dear lady; remember that
+I'm always at your service."
+
+Thereupon he returned to the vestry. Lisa, on her way out, was curious
+to see if Claire was still praying, but the girl had gone back to
+her eels and carp; and in front of the Lady-chapel, which was already
+shrouded in darkness, there was now but a litter of chairs overturned by
+the ardent vehemence of the woman who had knelt there.
+
+When the handsome Lisa again crossed the square, La Normande, who
+had been watching for her exit from the church, recognised her in the
+twilight by the rotundity of her skirts.
+
+"Good gracious!" she exclaimed, "she's been more than an hour in there!
+When the priests set about cleansing her of her sins, the choir-boys
+have to form in line to pass the buckets of filth and empty them in the
+street!"
+
+The next morning Lisa went straight up to Florent's bedroom and settled
+herself there with perfect equanimity. She felt certain that she would
+not be disturbed, and, moreover, she had made up her mind to tell a
+falsehood and say that she had come to see if the linen was clean,
+should Florent by any chance return. Whilst in the shop, however, she
+had observed him busily engaged in the fish market. Seating herself in
+front of the little table, she pulled out the drawer, placed it upon her
+knees, and began to examine its contents, taking the greatest care to
+restore them to their original positions.
+
+First of all she came upon the opening chapters of the work on Cayenne;
+then upon the drafts of Florent's various plans and projects, his
+schemes for converting the Octroi duties into taxes upon sales, for
+reforming the administrative system of the markets, and all the others.
+These pages of small writing, which she set herself to read, bored her
+extremely, and she was about to restore the drawer to its place, feeling
+convinced that Florent concealed the proofs of his wicked designs
+elsewhere, and already contemplating a searching visitation of his
+mattress, when she discovered a photograph of La Normande in an
+envelope. The impression was rather dark. La Normande was standing up
+with her right arm resting on a broken column. Decked out with all
+her jewels, and attired in a new silk dress, the fish-girl was smiling
+impudently, and Lisa, at the sight, forgot all about her brother-in-law,
+her fears, and the purpose for which she had come into the room. She
+became quite absorbed in her examination of the portrait, as often
+happens when one woman scrutinises the photograph of another at her
+ease, without fear of being seen. Never before had she so favourable an
+opportunity to study her rival. She scrutinised her hair, her nose, her
+mouth; held the photograph at a distance, and then brought it closer
+again. And, finally, with compressed lips, she read on the back of it,
+in a big, ugly scrawl: "Louise, to her friend, Florent." This quite
+scandalised her; to her mind it was a confession, and she felt a strong
+impulse to take possession of the photograph, and keep it as a weapon
+against her enemy. However, she slowly replaced it in the envelope on
+coming to the conclusion that this course would be wrong, and reflecting
+that she would always know where to find it should she want it again.
+
+Then, as she again began turning over the loose sheets of paper, it
+occurred to her to look at the back end of the drawer, where Florent had
+relegated Augustine's needles and thread; and there, between the missal
+and the Dream-book, she discovered what she sought, some extremely
+compromising memoranda, simply screened from observation by a wrapper of
+grey paper.
+
+That idea of an insurrection, of the overthrow of the Empire by means
+of an armed rising, which Logre had one evening propounded at Monsieur
+Lebigre's, had slowly ripened in Florent's feverish brain. He soon grew
+to see a duty, a mission in it. Therein undoubtedly lay the task to
+which his escape from Cayenne and his return to Paris predestined him.
+Believing in a call to avenge his leanness upon the city which wallowed
+in food while the upholders of right and equity were racked by hunger
+in exile, he took upon himself the duties of a justiciary, and dreamt of
+rising up, even in the midst of those markets, to sweep away the reign
+of gluttony and drunkenness. In a sensitive nature like his, this idea
+quickly took root. Everything about him assumed exaggerated proportions,
+the wildest fancies possessed him. He imagined that the markets had been
+conscious of his arrival, and had seized hold of him that they might
+enervate him and poison him with their stenches. Then, too, Lisa wanted
+to cast a spell over him, and for two or three days at a time he would
+avoid her, as though she were some dissolving agency which would destroy
+all his power of will should he approach too closely. However, these
+paroxysms of puerile fear, these wild surgings of his rebellious brain,
+always ended in thrills of the gentlest tenderness, with yearnings to
+love and be loved, which he concealed with a boyish shame.
+
+It was more especially in the evening that his mind became blurred by
+all his wild imaginings. Depressed by his day's work, but shunning sleep
+from a covert fear--the fear of the annihilation it brought with it--he
+would remain later than ever at Monsieur Lebigre's, or at the Mehudins';
+and on his return home he still refrained from going to bed, and sat
+up writing and preparing for the great insurrection. By slow degrees he
+devised a complete system of organisation. He divided Paris into twenty
+sections, one for each arrondissement. Each section would have a
+chief, a sort of general, under whose orders there were to be twenty
+lieutenants commanding twenty companies of affiliated associates. Every
+week, among the chiefs, there would be a consultation, which was to be
+held in a different place each time; and, the better to ensure secrecy
+and discretion, the associates would only come in contact with their
+respective lieutenants, these alone communicating with the chiefs of the
+sections. It also occurred to Florent that it would be as well that the
+companies should believe themselves charged with imaginary missions, as
+a means of putting the police upon a wrong scent.
+
+As for the employment of the insurrectionary forces, that would be all
+simplicity. It would, of course, be necessary to wait till the companies
+were quite complete, and then advantage would be taken of the first
+public commotion. They would doubtless only have a certain number of
+guns used for sporting purposes in their possession, so they would
+commence by seizing the police stations and guard-houses, disarming the
+soldiers of the line; resorting to violence as little as possible, and
+inviting the men to make common cause with the people. Afterwards they
+would march upon the Corps Legislatif, and thence to the Hotel de Ville.
+This plan, to which Florent returned night after night, as though it
+were some dramatic scenario which relieved his over-excited nervous
+system, was as yet simply jotted down on scraps of paper, full of
+erasures, which showed how the writer had felt his way, and revealed
+each successive phase of his scientific yet puerile conception. When
+Lisa had glanced through the notes, without understanding some of them,
+she remained there trembling with fear; afraid to touch them further
+lest they should explode in her hands like live shells.
+
+A last memorandum frightened her more than any of the others. It was
+a half sheet of paper on which Florent had sketched the distinguishing
+insignia which the chiefs and the lieutenants were to wear. By the
+side of these were rough drawings of the standards which the different
+companies were to carry; and notes in pencil even described what colours
+the banners should assume. The chiefs were to wear red scarves, and the
+lieutenants red armlets.
+
+To Lisa this seemed like an immediate realisation of the rising; she saw
+all the men with their red badges marching past the pork shop, firing
+bullets into her mirrors and marble, and carrying off sausages
+and chitterlings from the window. The infamous projects of her
+brother-in-law were surely directed against herself--against her own
+happiness. She closed the drawer and looked round the room, reflecting
+that it was she herself who had provided this man with a home--that he
+slept between her sheets and used her furniture. And she was especially
+exasperated at his keeping his abominable infernal machine in that
+little deal table which she herself had used at Uncle Gradelle's before
+her marriage--a perfectly innocent, rickety little table.
+
+For a while she stood thinking what she should do. In the first place,
+it was useless to say anything to Quenu. For a moment it occurred to
+her to provoke an explanation with Florent, but she dismissed that idea,
+fearing lest he would only go and perpetrate his crime elsewhere, and
+maliciously make a point of compromising them. Then gradually growing
+somewhat calmer, she came to the conclusion that her best plan would be
+to keep a careful watch over her brother-in-law. It would be time enough
+to take further steps at the first sign of danger. She already had quite
+sufficient evidence to send him back to the galleys.
+
+On returning to the shop again, she found Augustine in a state of
+great excitement. Little Pauline had disappeared more than half an
+hour before, and to Lisa's anxious questions the young woman could only
+reply: "I don't know where she can have got to, madame. She was on the
+pavement there with a little boy. I was watching them, and then I had to
+cut some ham for a gentleman, and I never saw them again."
+
+"I'll wager it was Muche!" cried Lisa. "Ah, the young scoundrel!"
+
+It was, indeed, Muche who had enticed Pauline away. The little girl, who
+was wearing a new blue-striped frock that day for the first time, had
+been anxious to exhibit it, and had accordingly taken her stand outside
+the shop, manifesting great propriety of bearing, and compressing her
+lips with the grave expression of a little woman of six who is afraid of
+soiling her clothes. Her short and stiffly-starched petticoats stood out
+like the skirts of a ballet girl, allowing a full view of her tightly
+stretched white stockings and little sky-blue boots. Her pinafore,
+which hung low about her neck, was finished off at the shoulders with an
+edging of embroidery, below which appeared her pretty little arms, bare
+and rosy. She had small turquoise rings in her ears, a cross at her
+neck, a blue velvet ribbon in her well-brushed hair; and she displayed
+all her mother's plumpness and softness--the gracefulness, indeed, of a
+new doll.
+
+Muche had caught sight of her from the market, where he was amusing
+himself by dropping little dead fishes into the gutter, following them
+along the kerb as the water carried them away, and declaring that they
+were swimming. However, the sight of Pauline standing in front of the
+shop and looking so smart and pretty made him cross over to her, capless
+as he was, with his blouse ragged, his trousers slipping down, and his
+whole appearance suggestive of a seven-year-old street-arab. His mother
+had certainly forbidden him to play any more with "that fat booby of a
+girl who was stuffed by her parents till she almost burst"; so he stood
+hesitating for a moment, but at last came up to Pauline, and wanted to
+feel her pretty striped frock. The little girl, who had at first felt
+flattered, then put on a prim air and stepped back, exclaiming in a tone
+of displeasure: "Leave me alone. Mother says I'm not to have anything to
+do with you."
+
+This brought a laugh to the lips of Muche, who was a wily, enterprising
+young scamp.
+
+"What a little flat you are!" he retorted. "What does it matter what
+your mother says? Let's go and play at shoving each other, eh?"
+
+He doubtless nourished some wicked idea of dirtying the neat little
+girl; but she, on seeing him prepare to give her a push in the back,
+retreated as though about to return inside the shop. Muche thereupon
+adopted a flattering tone like a born cajoler.
+
+"You silly! I didn't mean it," said he. "How nice you look like that! Is
+that little cross your mother's?"
+
+Pauline perked herself up, and replied that it was her own, whereupon
+Muche gently led her to the corner of the Rue Pirouette, touching her
+skirts the while and expressing his astonishment at their wonderful
+stiffness. All this pleased the little girl immensely. She had been very
+much vexed at not receiving any notice while she was exhibiting herself
+outside the shop. However, in spite of all Muche's blandishments, she
+still refused to leave the footway.
+
+"You stupid fatty!" thereupon exclaimed the youngster, relapsing into
+coarseness. "I'll squat you down in the gutter if you don't look out,
+Miss Fine-airs!"
+
+The girl was dreadfully alarmed. Muche had caught hold of her by
+the hand; but, recognising his mistake in policy, he again put on a
+wheedling air, and began to fumble in his pocket.
+
+"I've got a sou," said he.
+
+The sight of the coin had a soothing effect upon Pauline. The boy held
+up the sou with the tips of his fingers, and the temptation to follow
+it proved so great that the girl at last stepped down into the roadway.
+Muche's diplomacy was eminently successful.
+
+"What do you like best?" he asked.
+
+Pauline gave no immediate answer. She could not make up her mind; there
+were so many things that she liked. Muche, however, ran over a whole
+list of dainties--liquorice, molasses, gum-balls, and powdered sugar.
+The powdered sugar made the girl ponder. One dipped one's fingers into
+it and sucked them; it was very nice. For a while she gravely considered
+the matter. Then, at last making up her mind, she said:
+
+"No, I like the mixed screws the best."
+
+Muche thereupon took hold of her arm, and she unresistingly allowed him
+to lead her away. They crossed the Rue Rambuteau, followed the broad
+footway skirting the markets, and went as far as a grocer's shop in the
+Rue de la Cossonnerie which was celebrated for its mixed screws. These
+mixed screws are small screws of paper in which grocers put up all sorts
+of damaged odds and ends, broken sugar-plums, fragments of crystallised
+chestnuts--all the doubtful residuum of their jars of sweets. Muche
+showed himself very gallant, allowed Pauline to choose the screw--a blue
+one--paid his sou, and did not attempt to dispossess her of the sweets.
+Outside, on the footway, she emptied the miscellaneous collection of
+scraps into both pockets of her pinafore; and they were such little
+pockets that they were quite filled. Then in delight she began to munch
+the fragments one by one, wetting her fingers to catch the fine sugary
+dust, with such effect that she melted the scraps of sweets, and the
+pockets of her pinafore soon showed two brownish stains. Muche laughed
+slily to himself. He had his arm about the girl's waist, and rumpled her
+frock at his ease whilst leading her round the corner of the Rue Pierre
+Lescot, in the direction of the Place des Innocents.
+
+"You'll come and play now, won't you?" he asked. "That's nice what
+you've got in your pockets, ain't it? You see that I didn't want to do
+you any harm, you big silly!"
+
+Thereupon he plunged his own fingers into her pockets, and they entered
+the square together. To this spot, no doubt, he had all along intended
+to lure his victim. He did the honours of the square as though it were
+his own private property, and indeed it was a favourite haunt of his,
+where he often larked about for whole afternoons. Pauline had never
+before strayed so far from home, and would have wept like an abducted
+damsel had it not been that her pockets were full of sweets. The
+fountain in the middle of the flowered lawn was sending sheets of water
+down its tiers of basins, whilst, between the pilasters above, Jean
+Goujon's nymphs, looking very white beside the dingy grey stonework,
+inclined their urns and displayed their nude graces in the grimy air
+of the Saint Denis quarter. The two children walked round the fountain,
+watching the water fall into the basins, and taking an interest in the
+grass, with thoughts, no doubt, of crossing the central lawn, or gliding
+into the clumps of holly and rhododendrons that bordered the railings of
+the square. Little Muche, however, who had now effectually rumpled the
+back of the pretty frock, said with his sly smile:
+
+"Let's play at throwing sand at each other, eh?"
+
+Pauline had no will of her own left; and they began to throw the sand at
+each other, keeping their eyes closed meanwhile. The sand made its way
+in at the neck of the girl's low bodice, and trickled down into her
+stockings and boots. Muche was delighted to see the white pinafore
+become quite yellow. But he doubtless considered that it was still far
+too clean.
+
+"Let's go and plant trees, shall we?" he exclaimed suddenly. "I know how
+to make such pretty gardens."
+
+"Really, gardens!" murmured Pauline full of admiration.
+
+Then, as the keeper of the square happened to be absent, Muche told her
+to make some holes in one of the borders; and dropping on her knees in
+the middle of the soft mould, and leaning forward till she lay at full
+length on her stomach, she dug her pretty little arms into the ground.
+He, meantime, began to hunt for scraps of wood, and broke off branches.
+These were the garden-trees which he planted in the holes that Pauline
+made. He invariably complained, however, that the holes were not deep
+enough, and rated the girl as though she were an idle workman and he an
+indignant master. When she at last got up, she was black from head to
+foot. Her hair was full of mould, her face was smeared with it, she
+looked such a sight with her arms as black as a coalheaver's that Muche
+clapped his hands with glee, and exclaimed: "Now we must water the
+trees. They won't grow, you know, if we don't water them."
+
+That was the finishing stroke. They went outside the square, scooped the
+gutter-water up in the palms of their hands, and then ran back to pour
+it over the bits of wood. On the way, Pauline, who was so fat that she
+couldn't run properly, let the water trickle between her fingers on to
+her frock, so that by the time of her sixth journey she looked as if she
+had been rolled in the gutter. Muche chuckled with delight on beholding
+her dreadful condition. He made her sit down beside him under a
+rhododendron near the garden they had made, and told her that the trees
+were already beginning to grow. He had taken hold of her hand and called
+her his little wife.
+
+"You're not sorry now that you came, are you," he asked, "instead of
+mooning about on the pavement, where there was nothing to do? I know all
+sorts of fun we can have in the streets; you must come with me again.
+You will, won't you? But you mustn't say anything to your mother, mind.
+If you say a word to her, I'll pull your hair the next time I come past
+your shop."
+
+Pauline consented to everything; and then, as a last attention, Muche
+filled both pockets of her pinafore with mould. However, all the sweets
+were finished, and the girl began to get uneasy, and ceased playing.
+Muche thereupon started pinching her, and she burst into tears, sobbing
+that she wanted to go away. But at this the lad only grinned, and played
+the bully, threatening that he would not take her home at all. Then she
+grew terribly alarmed, and sobbed and gasped like a maiden in the power
+of a libertine. Muche would certainly have ended by punching her in
+order to stop her row, had not a shrill voice, the voice of Mademoiselle
+Saget, exclaimed, close by: "Why, I declare it's Pauline! Leave her
+alone, you wicked young scoundrel!"
+
+Then the old maid took the girl by the hand, with endless expressions
+of amazement at the pitiful condition of her clothes. Muche showed no
+alarm, but followed them, chuckling to himself, and declaring that it
+was Pauline who had wanted to come with him, and had tumbled down.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget was a regular frequenter of the Square des Innocents.
+Every afternoon she would spend a good hour there to keep herself well
+posted in the gossip of the common people. On either side there is a
+long crescent of benches placed end to end; and on these the poor folks
+who stifle in the hovels of the neighbouring narrow streets assemble in
+crowds. There are withered, chilly-looking old women in tumbled caps,
+and young ones in loose jackets and carelessly fastened skirts, with
+bare heads and tired, faded faces, eloquent of the wretchedness of their
+lives. There are some men also: tidy old buffers, porters in greasy
+jackets, and equivocal-looking individuals in black silk hats, while the
+foot-path is overrun by a swarm of youngsters dragging toy carts without
+wheels about, filling pails with sand, and screaming and fighting;
+a dreadful crew, with ragged clothes and dirty noses, teeming in the
+sunshine like vermin.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget was so slight and thin that she always managed to
+insinuate herself into a place on one of the benches. She listened to
+what was being said, and started a conversation with her neighbour, some
+sallow-faced workingman's wife, who sat mending linen, from time to time
+producing handkerchiefs and stockings riddled with holes from a little
+basket patched up with string. Moreover, Mademoiselle Saget had
+plenty of acquaintances here. Amidst the excruciating squalling of
+the children, and the ceaseless rumble of the traffic in the Rue Saint
+Denis, she took part in no end of gossip, everlasting tales about the
+tradesmen of the neighbourhood, the grocers, the butchers, and the
+bakers, enough, indeed, to fill the columns of a local paper, and the
+whole envenomed by refusals of credit and covert envy, such as is always
+harboured by the poor. From these wretched creatures she also obtained
+the most disgusting revelations, the gossip of low lodging-houses and
+doorkeepers' black-holes, all the filthy scandal of the neighbourhood,
+which tickled her inquisitive appetite like hot spice.
+
+As she sat with her face turned towards the markets, she had immediately
+in front of her the square and its three blocks of houses, into the
+windows of which her eyes tried to pry. She seemed to gradually rise
+and traverse the successive floors right up to the garret skylights.
+She stared at the curtains; based an entire drama on the appearance of
+a head between two shutters; and, by simply gazing at the facades, ended
+by knowing the history of all the dwellers in these houses. The Baratte
+Restaurant, with its wine shop, its gilt wrought-iron _marquise_,
+forming a sort of terrace whence peeped the foliage of a few plants in
+flower-pots, and its four low storeys, all painted and decorated, had an
+especial interest for her. She gazed at its yellow columns standing
+out against a background of tender blue, at the whole of its imitation
+temple-front daubed on the facade of a decrepit, tumble-down house,
+crowned at the summit by a parapet of painted zinc. Behind the
+red-striped window-blinds she espied visions of nice little lunches,
+delicate suppers, and uproarious, unlimited orgies. And she did not
+hesitate to invent lies about the place. It was there, she declared,
+that Florent came to gorge with those two hussies, the Mehudins, on whom
+he lavished his money.
+
+However, Pauline cried yet louder than before when the old maid took
+hold of her hand. Mademoiselle Saget at first led her towards the gate
+of the square; but before she got there she seemed to change her mind;
+for she sat down at the end of a bench and tried to pacify the child.
+
+"Come, now, give over crying, or the policeman will lock you up," she
+said to Pauline. "I'll take you home safely. You know me, don't you? I'm
+a good friend. Come, come, let me see how prettily you can smile."
+
+The child, however, was choking with sobs and wanted to go away.
+Mademoiselle Saget thereupon quietly allowed her to continue weeping,
+reserving further remarks till she should have finished. The poor little
+creature was shivering all over; her petticoats and stockings were
+wet through, and as she wiped her tears away with her dirty hands she
+plastered the whole of her face with earth to the very tips of her
+ears. When at last she became a little calmer the old maid resumed in
+a caressing tone: "Your mamma isn't unkind, is she? She's very fond of
+you, isn't she?"
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed," replied Pauline, still sobbing.
+
+"And your papa, he's good to you, too, isn't he? He doesn't flog you, or
+quarrel with your mother, does he? What do they talk about when they go
+to bed?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. I'm asleep then."
+
+"Do they talk about your cousin Florent?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget thereupon assumed a severe expression, and got up as
+if about to go away.
+
+"I'm afraid you are a little story-teller," she said. "Don't you know
+that it's very wicked to tell stories? I shall go away and leave you, if
+you tell me lies, and then Muche will come back and pinch you."
+
+Pauline began to cry again at the threat of being abandoned. "Be quiet,
+be quiet, you wicked little imp!" cried the old maid shaking
+her. "There, there, now, I won't go away. I'll buy you a stick of
+barley-sugar; yes, a stick of barley-sugar! So you don't love your
+cousin Florent, eh?"
+
+"No, mamma says he isn't good."
+
+"Ah, then, so you see your mother does say something."
+
+"One night when I was in bed with Mouton--I sleep with Mouton sometimes,
+you know--I heard her say to father, 'Your brother has only escaped from
+the galleys to take us all back with him there.'"
+
+Mademoiselle Saget gave vent to a faint cry, and sprang to her feet,
+quivering all over. A ray of light had just broken upon her. Then
+without a word she caught hold of Pauline's hand and made her run till
+they reached the pork shop, her lips meanwhile compressed by an inward
+smile, and her eyes glistening with keen delight. At the corner of the
+Rue Pirouette, Muche, who had so far followed them, amused at seeing the
+girl running along in her muddy stockings, prudently disappeared.
+
+Lisa was now in a state of terrible alarm; and when she saw her daughter
+so bedraggled and limp, her consternation was such that she turned the
+child round and round, without even thinking of beating her.
+
+"She has been with little Muche," said the old maid, in her malicious
+voice. "I took her away at once, and I've brought her home. I found them
+together in the square. I don't know what they've been up to; but that
+young vagabond is capable of anything."
+
+Lisa could not find a word to say; and she did not know where to take
+hold of her daughter, so great was her disgust at the sight of the
+child's muddy boots, soiled stockings, torn skirts, and filthy face and
+hands. The blue velvet ribbon, the earrings, and the necklet were all
+concealed beneath a crust of mud. But what put the finishing touch to
+Lisa's exasperation was the discovery of the two pockets filled with
+mould. She stooped and emptied them, regardless of the pink and white
+flooring of the shop. And as she dragged Pauline away, she could only
+gasp: "Come along, you filthy thing!"
+
+Quite enlivened by this scene, Mademoiselle Saget now hurriedly made
+her way across the Rue Rambuteau. Her little feet scarcely touched the
+ground; her joy seemed to carry her along like a breeze which fanned her
+with a caressing touch. She had at last found out what she had so much
+wanted to know! For nearly a year she had been consumed by curiosity,
+and now at a single stroke she had gained complete power over Florent!
+This was unhoped-for contentment, positive salvation, for she felt that
+Florent would have brought her to the tomb had she failed much longer in
+satisfying her curiosity about him. At present she was complete mistress
+of the whole neighbourhood of the markets. There was no longer any gap
+in her information. She could have narrated the secret history of every
+street, shop by shop. And thus, as she entered the fruit market, she
+fairly gasped with delight, in a perfect transport of pleasure.
+
+"Hallo, Mademoiselle Saget," cried La Sarriette from her stall, "what
+are you smiling to yourself like that about? Have you won the grand
+prize in the lottery?"
+
+"No, no. Ah, my dear, if you only knew!"
+
+Standing there amidst her fruit, La Sarriette, in her picturesque
+disarray, looked charming. Frizzy hair fell over her brow like vine
+branches. Her bare arms and neck, indeed all the rosy flesh she showed,
+bloomed with the freshness of peach and cherry. She had playfully hung
+some cherries on her ears, black cherries which dangled against her
+cheeks when she stooped, shaking with merry laughter. She was eating
+currants, and her merriment arose from the way in which she was smearing
+her face with them. Her lips were bright red, glistening with the juice
+of the fruit, as though they had been painted and perfumed with some
+seraglio face-paint. A perfume of plum exhaled from her gown, while
+from the kerchief carelessly fastened across her breast came an odour of
+strawberries.
+
+Fruits of all kinds were piled around her in her narrow stall. On the
+shelves at the back were rows of melons, so-called "cantaloups" swarming
+with wart-like knots, "maraichers" whose skin was covered with grey
+lace-like netting, and "culs-de-singe" displaying smooth bare bumps. In
+front was an array of choice fruits, carefully arranged in baskets, and
+showing like smooth round cheeks seeking to hide themselves, or glimpses
+of sweet childish faces, half veiled by leaves. Especially was this the
+case with the peaches, the blushing peaches of Montreuil, with skin
+as delicate and clear as that of northern maidens, and the yellow,
+sun-burnt peaches from the south, brown like the damsels of Provence.
+The apricots, on their beds of moss, gleamed with the hue of amber or
+with that sunset glow which so warmly colours the necks of brunettes at
+the nape, just under the little wavy curls which fall below the chignon.
+The cherries, ranged one by one, resembled the short lips of smiling
+Chinese girls; the Montmorencies suggested the dumpy mouths of buxom
+women; the English ones were longer and graver-looking; the common black
+ones seemed as though they had been bruised and crushed by kisses; while
+the white-hearts, with their patches of rose and white, appeared to
+smile with mingled merriment and vexation. Then piles of apples
+and pears, built up with architectural symmetry, often in pyramids,
+displayed the ruddy glow of budding breasts and the gleaming sheen of
+shoulders, quite a show of nudity, lurking modestly behind a screen of
+fern-leaves. There were all sorts of varieties--little red ones so
+tiny that they seemed to be yet in the cradle, shapeless "rambours"
+for baking, "calvilles" in light yellow gowns, sanguineous-looking
+"Canadas," blotched "chataignier" apples, fair freckled rennets and
+dusky russets. Then came the pears--the "blanquettes," the "British
+queens," the "Beurres," the "messirejeans," and the "duchesses"--some
+dumpy, some long and tapering, some with slender necks, and others with
+thick-set shoulders, their green and yellow bellies picked out at times
+with a splotch of carmine. By the side of these the transparent plums
+resembled tender, chlorotic virgins; the greengages and the Orleans
+plums paled as with modest innocence, while the mirabelles lay like
+golden beads of a rosary forgotten in a box amongst sticks of
+vanilla. And the strawberries exhaled a sweet perfume--a perfume of
+youth--especially those little ones which are gathered in the woods, and
+which are far more aromatic than the large ones grown in gardens,
+for these breathe an insipid odour suggestive of the watering-pot.
+Raspberries added their fragrance to the pure scent. The currants--red,
+white, and black--smiled with a knowing air; whilst the heavy clusters
+of grapes, laden with intoxication, lay languorously at the edges
+of their wicker baskets, over the sides of which dangled some of the
+berries, scorched by the hot caresses of the voluptuous sun.
+
+It was there that La Sarriette lived in an orchard, as it were, in
+an atmosphere of sweet, intoxicating scents. The cheaper fruits--the
+cherries, plums, and strawberries--were piled up in front of her in
+paper-lined baskets, and the juice coming from their bruised ripeness
+stained the stall-front, and steamed, with a strong perfume, in the
+heat. She would feel quite giddy on those blazing July afternoons when
+the melons enveloped her with a powerful, vaporous odour of musk; and
+then with her loosened kerchief, fresh as she was with the springtide of
+life, she brought sudden temptation to all who saw her. It was she--it
+was her arms and necks which gave that semblance of amorous vitality
+to her fruit. On the stall next to her an old woman, a hideous old
+drunkard, displayed nothing but wrinkled apples, pears as flabby
+as herself, and cadaverous apricots of a witch-like sallowness. La
+Sarriette's stall, however, spoke of love and passion. The cherries
+looked like the red kisses of her bright lips; the silky peaches were
+not more delicate than her neck; to the plums she seemed to have lent
+the skin from her brow and chin; while some of her own crimson blood
+coursed through the veins of the currants. All the scents of the
+avenue of flowers behind her stall were but insipid beside the aroma of
+vitality which exhaled from her open baskets and falling kerchief.
+
+That day she was quite intoxicated by the scent of a large arrival of
+mirabelle plums, which filled the market. She could plainly see that
+Mademoiselle Saget had learnt some great piece of news, and she wished
+to make her talk. But the old maid stamped impatiently whilst she
+repeated: "No, no; I've no time. I'm in a great hurry to see Madame
+Lecoeur. I've just learnt something and no mistake. You can come with
+me, if you like."
+
+As a matter of fact, she had simply gone through the fruit market for
+the purpose of enticing La Sarriette to go with her. The girl could
+not refuse temptation. Monsieur Jules, clean-shaven and as fresh as a
+cherub, was seated there, swaying to and fro on his chair.
+
+"Just look after the stall for a minute, will you?" La Sarriette said to
+him. "I'll be back directly."
+
+Jules, however, got up and called after her, in a thick voice: "Not I;
+no fear! I'm off! I'm not going to wait an hour for you, as I did the
+other day. And, besides, those cursed plums of yours quite make my head
+ache."
+
+Then he calmly strolled off, with his hands in his pockets, and the
+stall was left to look after itself. Mademoiselle Saget went so fast
+that La Sarriette had to run. In the butter pavilion a neighbour of
+Madame Lecoeur's told them that she was below in the cellar; and so,
+whilst La Sarriette went down to find her, the old maid installed
+herself amidst the cheeses.
+
+The cellar under the butter market is a very gloomy spot. The rows of
+storerooms are protected by a very fine wire meshing, as a safeguard
+against fire; and the gas jets, which are very few and far between,
+glimmer like yellow splotches destitute of radiance in the heavy,
+malordorous atmosphere beneath the low vault. Madame Lecoeur, however,
+was at work on her butter at one of the tables placed parallel with the
+Rue Berger, and here a pale light filtered through the vent-holes. The
+tables, which are continually sluiced with a flood of water from the
+taps, are as white as though they were quite new. With her back turned
+to the pump in the rear, Madame Lecoeur was kneading her butter in a
+kind of oak box. She took some of different sorts which lay beside her,
+and mixed the varieties together, correcting one by another, just as is
+done in the blending of wines. Bent almost double, and showing sharp,
+bony shoulders, and arms bared to the elbows, as scraggy and knotted as
+pea-rods, she dug her fists into the greasy paste in front of her, which
+was assuming a whitish and chalky appearance. It was trying work, and
+she heaved a sigh at each fresh effort.
+
+"Mademoiselle Saget wants to speak to you, aunt," said La Sarriette.
+
+Madame Lecoeur stopped her work, and pulled her cap over her hair with
+her greasy fingers, seemingly quite careless of staining it. "I've
+nearly finished. Ask her to wait a moment," she said.
+
+"She's got something very particular to tell you," continued La
+Sarriette.
+
+"I won't be more than a minute, my dear."
+
+Then she again plunged her arms into the butter, which buried them up
+to the elbows. Previously softened in warm water, it covered Madame
+Lecoeur's parchment-like skin as with an oily film, and threw the big
+purple veins that streaked her flesh into strong relief. La Sarriette
+was quite disgusted by the sight of those hideous arms working so
+frantically amidst the melting mass. However, she could recall the time
+when her own pretty little hands had manipulated the butter for whole
+afternoons at a time. It had even been a sort of almond-paste to her,
+a cosmetic which had kept her skin white and her nails delicately pink;
+and even now her slender fingers retained the suppleness it had endowed
+them with.
+
+"I don't think that butter of yours will be very good, aunt," she
+continued, after a pause. "Some of the sorts seem much too strong."
+
+"I'm quite aware of that," replied Madame Lecoeur, between a couple of
+groans. "But what can I do? I must use everything up. There are some
+folks who insist upon having butter cheap, and so cheap butter must be
+made for them. Oh! it's always quite good enough for those who buy it."
+
+La Sarriette reflected that she would hardly care to eat butter which
+had been worked by her aunt's arms. Then she glanced at a little jar
+full of a sort of reddish dye. "Your colouring is too pale," she said.
+
+This colouring-matter--"raucourt," as the Parisians call it is used to
+give the butter a fine yellow tint. The butter women imagine that
+its composition is known only to themselves, and keep it very secret.
+However, it is merely made from anotta;[*] though a composition of
+carrots and marigold is at times substituted for it.
+
+     [*] Anotta, which is obtained from the pulp surrounding the
+     seeds of the _Bixa Orellana_, is used for a good many
+     purposes besides the colouring of butter and cheese. It
+     frequently enters into the composition of chocolate, and is
+     employed to dye nankeen. Police court proceedings have also
+     shown that it is well known to the London milkmen, who are
+     in the habit of adding water to their merchandise.
+     --Translator.
+
+"Come, do be quick!" La Sarriette now exclaimed, for she was getting
+impatient, and was, moreover, no longer accustomed to the malodorous
+atmosphere of the cellar. "Mademoiselle Saget will be going. I fancy
+she's got something very important to tell you abut my uncle Gavard."
+
+On hearing this, Madame Lecoeur abruptly ceased working. She at once
+abandoned both butter and dye, and did not even wait to wipe her arms.
+With a slight tap of her hand she settled her cap on her head again, and
+made her way up the steps, at her niece's heels, anxiously repeating:
+"Do you really think that she'll have gone away?"
+
+She was reassured, however, on catching sight of Mademoiselle Saget
+amidst the cheeses. The old maid had taken good care not to go away
+before Madame Lecoeur's arrival. The three women seated themselves at
+the far end of the stall, crowding closely together, and their faces
+almost touching one another. Mademoiselle Saget remained silent for
+two long minutes, and then, seeing that the others were burning with
+curiosity, she began, in her shrill voice: "You know that Florent! Well,
+I can tell you now where he comes from."
+
+For another moment she kept them in suspense; and then, in a deep,
+melodramatic voice, she said: "He comes from the galleys!"
+
+The cheeses were reeking around the three women. On the two shelves at
+the far end of the stall were huge masses of butter: Brittany butters
+overflowing from baskets; Normandy butters, wrapped in canvas, and
+resembling models of stomachs over which some sculptor had thrown damp
+cloths to keep them from drying; while other great blocks had been cut
+into, fashioned into perpendicular rocky masses full of crevasses and
+valleys, and resembling fallen mountain crests gilded by the pale sun of
+an autumn evening.
+
+Beneath the stall show-table, formed of a slab of red marble veined with
+grey, baskets of eggs gleamed with a chalky whiteness; while on layers
+of straw in boxes were Bondons, placed end to end, and Gournays,
+arranged like medals, forming darker patches tinted with green. But
+it was upon the table that the cheeses appeared in greatest profusion.
+Here, by the side of the pound-rolls of butter lying on white-beet
+leaves, spread a gigantic Cantal cheese, cloven here and there as by an
+axe; then came a golden-hued Cheshire, and next a Gruyere, resembling
+a wheel fallen from some barbarian chariot; whilst farther on were some
+Dutch cheeses, suggesting decapitated heads suffused with dry blood, and
+having all that hardness of skulls which in France has gained them
+the name of "death's heads." Amidst the heavy exhalations of these, a
+Parmesan set a spicy aroma. Then there came three Brie cheeses displayed
+on round platters, and looking like melancholy extinct moons. Two of
+them, very dry, were at the full; the third, in its second quarter, was
+melting away in a white cream, which had spread into a pool and flowed
+over the little wooden barriers with which an attempt had been made to
+arrest its course. Next came some Port Saluts, similar to antique discs,
+with exergues bearing their makers' names in print. A Romantour, in its
+tin-foil wrapper, suggested a bar of nougat or some sweet cheese astray
+amidst all these pungent, fermenting curds. The Roqueforts under their
+glass covers also had a princely air, their fat faces marbled with blue
+and yellow, as though they were suffering from some unpleasant malady
+such as attacks the wealthy gluttons who eat too many truffles. And on a
+dish by the side of these, the hard grey goats' milk cheeses, about the
+size of a child's fist, resembled the pebbles which the billy-goats
+send rolling down the stony paths as they clamber along ahead of their
+flocks. Next came the strong smelling cheeses: the Mont d'Ors, of a
+bright yellow hue, and exhaling a comparatively mild odour; the Troyes,
+very thick, and bruised at the edges, and of a far more pungent smell,
+recalling the dampness of a cellar; the Camemberts, suggestive of high
+game; the square Neufchatels, Limbourgs, Marolles, and Pont l'Eveques,
+each adding its own particular sharp scent to the malodorous bouquet,
+till it became perfectly pestilential; the Livarots, ruddy in hue, and
+as irritating to the throat as sulphur fumes; and, lastly, stronger than
+all the others, the Olivets, wrapped in walnut leaves, like the carrion
+which peasants cover with branches as it lies rotting in the hedgerow
+under the blazing sun.
+
+The heat of the afternoon had softened the cheeses; the patches of mould
+on their crusts were melting, and glistening with tints of ruddy bronze
+and verdigris. Beneath their cover of leaves, the skins of the Olivets
+seemed to be heaving as with the slow, deep respiration of a sleeping
+man. A Livarot was swarming with life; and in a fragile box behind the
+scales a Gerome flavoured with aniseed diffused such a pestilential
+smell that all around it the very flies had fallen lifeless on the
+gray-veined slap of ruddy marble.
+
+This Gerome was almost immediately under Mademoiselle Saget's nose; so
+she drew back, and leaned her head against the big sheets of white and
+yellow paper which were hanging in a corner.
+
+"Yes," she repeated, with an expression of disgust, "he comes from the
+galleys! Ah, those Quenu-Gradelles have no reason to put on so many
+airs!"
+
+Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette, however, had burst into exclamations of
+astonishment: "It wasn't possible, surely! What had he done to be sent
+to the galleys? Could anyone, now, have ever suspected that Madame
+Quenu, whose virtue was the pride of the whole neighbourhood, would
+choose a convict for a lover?"
+
+"Ah, but you don't understand at all!" cried the old maid impatiently.
+"Just listen, now, while I explain things. I was quite certain that I
+had seen that great lanky fellow somewhere before."
+
+Then she proceeded to tell them Florent's story. She had recalled to
+mind a vague report which had circulated of a nephew of old Gradelle
+being transported to Cayenne for murdering six gendarmes at a barricade.
+She had even seen this nephew on one occasion in the Rue Pirouette. The
+pretended cousin was undoubtedly the same man. Then she began to bemoan
+her waning powers. Her memory was quite going, she said; she would soon
+be unable to remember anything. And she bewailed her perishing memory
+as bitterly as any learned man might bewail the loss of his notes
+representing the work of a life-time, on seeing them swept away by a
+gust of wind.
+
+"Six gendarmes!" murmured La Sarriette, admiringly; "he must have a very
+heavy fist!"
+
+"And he's made away with plenty of others, as well," added Mademoiselle
+Saget. "I shouldn't advise you to meet him at night!"
+
+"What a villain!" stammered out Madame Lecoeur, quite terrified.
+
+The slanting beams of the sinking sun were now enfilading the pavilion,
+and the odour of the cheeses became stronger than ever. That of the
+Marolles seemed to predominate, borne hither and thither in powerful
+whiffs. Then, however, the wind appeared to change, and suddenly the
+emanations of the Limbourgs were wafted towards the three women, pungent
+and bitter, like the last gasps of a dying man.
+
+"But in that case," resumed Madame Lecoeur, "he must be fat Lisa's
+brother-in-law. And we thought that he was her lover!"
+
+The women exchanged glances. This aspect of the case took them by
+surprise. They were loth to give up their first theory. However, La
+Sarriette, turning to Mademoiselle Saget, remarked: "That must have been
+all wrong. Besides, you yourself say that he's always running after the
+two Mehudin girls."
+
+"Certainly he is," exclaimed Mademoiselle Saget sharply, fancying that
+her word was doubted. "He dangles about them every evening. But, after
+all, it's no concern of ours, is it? We are virtuous women, and what he
+does makes no difference to us, the horrid scoundrel!"
+
+"No, certainly not," agreed the other two. "He's a consummate villain."
+
+The affair was becoming tragical. Of course beautiful Lisa was now
+out of the question, but for this they found ample consolation in
+prophesying that Florent would bring about some frightful catastrophe.
+It was quite clear, they said, that he had got some base design in
+his head. When people like him escaped from gaol it was only to burn
+everything down; and if he had come to the markets it must assuredly be
+for some abominable purpose. Then they began to indulge in the wildest
+suppositions. The two dealers declared that they would put additional
+padlocks to the doors of their storerooms; and La Sarriette called
+to mind that a basket of peaches had been stolen from her during the
+previous week. Mademoiselle Saget, however, quite frightened the two
+others by informing them that that was not the way in which the Reds
+behaved; they despised such trifles as baskets of peaches; their plan
+was to band themselves together in companies of two or three hundred,
+kill everybody they came across, and then plunder and pillage at their
+ease. That was "politics," she said, with the superior air of one who
+knew what she was talking about. Madame Lecoeur felt quite ill. She
+already saw Florent and his accomplices hiding in the cellars, and
+rushing out during the night to set the markets in flames and sack
+Paris.
+
+"Ah! by the way," suddenly exclaimed the old maid, "now I think of it,
+there's all that money of old Gradelle's! Dear me, dear me, those Quenus
+can't be at all at their ease!"
+
+She now looked quite gay again. The conversation took a fresh turn, and
+the others fell foul of the Quenus when Mademoiselle Saget had told them
+the history of the treasure discovered in the salting-tub, with every
+particular of which she was acquainted. She was even able to inform
+them of the exact amount of the money found--eighty-five thousand
+francs--though neither Lisa nor Quenu was aware of having revealed this
+to a living soul. However, it was clear that the Quenus had not given
+the great lanky fellow his share. He was too shabbily dressed for
+that. Perhaps he had never even heard of the discovery of the treasure.
+Plainly enough, they were all thieves in his family. Then the three
+women bent their heads together and spoke in lower tones. They were
+unanimously of opinion that it might perhaps be dangerous to attack the
+beautiful Lisa, but it was decidedly necessary that they should settle
+the Red Republican's hash, so that he might no longer prey upon the
+purse of poor Monsieur Gavard.
+
+At the mention of Gavard there came a pause. The gossips looked at
+each other with a circumspect air. And then, as they drew breath, they
+inhaled the odour of the Camemberts, whose gamy scent had overpowered
+the less penetrating emanations of the Marolles and the Limbourgs, and
+spread around with remarkable power. Every now and then, however, a
+slight whiff, a flutelike note, came from the Parmesan, while the Bries
+contributed a soft, musty scent, the gentle, insipid sound, as it were,
+of damp tambourines. Next followed an overpowering refrain from the
+Livarots, and afterwards the Gerome, flavoured with aniseed, kept up the
+symphony with a high prolonged note, like that of a vocalist during a
+pause in the accompaniment.
+
+"I have seen Madame Leonce," Mademoiselle Saget at last continued, with
+a significant expression.
+
+At this the two others became extremely attentive. Madame Leonce was the
+doorkeeper of the house where Gavard lived in the Rue de la Cossonnerie.
+It was an old house standing back, with its ground floor occupied by an
+importer of oranges and lemons, who had had the frontage coloured blue
+as high as the first floor. Madame Leonce acted as Gavard's housekeeper,
+kept the keys of his cupboards and closets, and brought him up tisane
+when he happened to catch cold. She was a severe-looking woman, between
+fifty and sixty years of age, and spoke slowly, but at endless length.
+Mademoiselle Saget, who went to drink coffee with her every Wednesday
+evening, had cultivated her friendship more closely than ever since the
+poultry dealer had gone to lodge in the house. They would talk about
+the worthy man for hours at a time. They both professed the greatest
+affection for him, and a keen desire to ensure his comfort and
+happiness.
+
+"Yes, I have seen Madame Leonce," repeated the old maid. "We had a cup
+of coffee together last night. She was greatly worried. It seems that
+Monsieur Gavard never comes home now before one o'clock in the morning.
+Last Sunday she took him up some broth, as she thought he looked quite
+ill."
+
+"Oh, she knows very well what she's about," exclaimed Madame Lecoeur,
+whom these attentions to Gavard somewhat alarmed.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget felt bound to defend her friend. "Oh, really, you are
+quite mistaken," said she. "Madame Leonce is much above her position;
+she is quite a lady. If she wanted to enrich herself at Monsieur
+Gavard's expense, she might easily have done so long ago. It seems that
+he leaves everything lying about in the most careless fashion. It's
+about that, indeed, that I want to speak to you. But you'll not repeat
+anything I say, will you? I am telling it you in strict confidence."
+
+Both the others swore that they would never breathe a word of what they
+might hear; and they craned out their necks with eager curiosity, whilst
+the old maid solemnly resumed: "Well, then, Monsieur Gavard has been
+behaving very strangely of late. He has been buying firearms--a great
+big pistol--one of those which revolve, you know. Madame Leonce says
+that things are awful, for this pistol is always lying about on the
+table or the mantelpiece; and she daren't dust anywhere near it. But
+that isn't all. His money--"
+
+"His money!" echoed Madame Lecoeur, with blazing cheeks.
+
+"Well, he's disposed of all his stocks and shares. He's sold everything,
+and keeps a great heap of gold in a cupboard."
+
+"A heap of gold!" exclaimed La Sarriette in ecstasy.
+
+"Yes, a great heap of gold. It covers a whole shelf, and is quite
+dazzling. Madame Leonce told me that one morning Gavard opened the
+cupboard in her presence, and that the money quite blinded her, it shone
+so."
+
+There was another pause. The eyes of the three women were blinking as
+though the dazzling pile of gold was before them. Presently La Sarriette
+began to laugh.
+
+"What a jolly time I would have with Jules if my uncle would give that
+money to me!" said she.
+
+Madame Lecoeur, however, seemed quite overwhelmed by this revelation,
+crushed beneath the weight of the gold which she could not banish from
+her sight. Covetous envy thrilled her. But at last, raising her skinny
+arms and shrivelled hands, her finger-nails still stuffed with butter,
+she stammered in a voice full of bitter distress: "Oh, I mustn't think
+of it! It's too dreadful!"
+
+"Well, it would all be yours, you know, if anything were to happen to
+Monsieur Gavard," retorted Mademoiselle Saget. "If I were in your place,
+I would look after my interests. That revolver means nothing good,
+you may depend upon it. Monsieur Gavard has got into the hands of evil
+counsellors; and I'm afraid it will all end badly."
+
+Then the conversation again turned upon Florent. The three women
+assailed him more violently than ever. And afterwards, with perfect
+composure, they began to discuss what would be the result of all these
+dark goings-on so far as he and Gavard were concerned; certainly it
+would be no pleasant one if there was any gossiping. And thereupon they
+swore that they themselves would never repeat a word of what they knew;
+not, however, because that scoundrel Florent merited any consideration,
+but because it was necessary, at all costs, to save that worthy Monsieur
+Gavard from being compromised. Then they rose from their seats, and
+Mademoiselle Saget was burning as if to go away when the butter dealer
+asked her: "All the same, in case of accident, do you think that Madame
+Leonce can be trusted? I dare say she has the key of the cupboard."
+
+"Well, that's more than I can tell you," replied the old maid. "I
+believe she's a very honest woman; but, after all, there's no telling.
+There are circumstances, you know, which tempt the best of people.
+Anyhow, I've warned you both; and you must do what you think proper."
+
+As the three women stood there, taking leave of each other, the odour
+of the cheeses seemed to become more pestilential than ever. It was a
+cacophony of smells, ranging from the heavily oppressive odour of the
+Dutch cheeses and the Gruyeres to the alkaline pungency of the Olivets.
+From the Cantal, the Cheshire, and the goats' milk cheeses there seemed
+to come a deep breath like the sound of a bassoon, amidst which the
+sharp, sudden whiffs of the Neufchatels, the Troyes, and the Mont
+d'Ors contributed short, detached notes. And then the different odours
+appeared to mingle one with another, the reek of the Limbourgs, the Port
+Saluts, the Geromes, the Marolles, the Livarots, and the Pont l'Eveques
+uniting in one general, overpowering stench sufficient to provoke
+asphyxia. And yet it almost seemed as though it were not the cheeses but
+the vile words of Madame Lecoeur and Mademoiselle Saget that diffused
+this awful odour.
+
+"I'm very much obliged to you, indeed I am," said the butter dealer. "If
+ever I get rich, you shall not find yourself forgotten."
+
+The old maid still lingered in the stall. Taking up a Bondon, she turned
+it round, and put it down on the slab again. Then she asked its price.
+
+"To me!" she added, with a smile.
+
+"Oh, nothing to you," replied Madame Lecoeur. "I'll make you a present
+of it." And again she exclaimed: "Ah, if I were only rich!"
+
+Mademoiselle Saget thereupon told her that some day or other she would
+be rich. The Bondon had already disappeared within the old maid's bag.
+And now the butter dealer returned to the cellar, while Mademoiselle
+Saget escorted La Sarriette back to her stall. On reaching it they
+talked for a moment or two about Monsieur Jules. The fruits around them
+diffused a fresh scent of summer.
+
+"It smells much nicer here than at your aunt's," said the old maid. "I
+felt quite ill a little time ago. I can't think how she manages to exist
+there. But here it's very sweet and pleasant. It makes you look quite
+rosy, my dear."
+
+La Sarriette began to laugh, for she was fond of compliments. Then she
+served a lady with a pound of mirabelle plums, telling her that they
+were as sweet as sugar.
+
+"I should like to buy some of those mirabelles too," murmured
+Mademoiselle Saget, when the lady had gone away; "only I want so few. A
+lone woman, you know."
+
+"Take a handful of them," exclaimed the pretty brunette. "That won't
+ruin me. Send Jules back to me if you see him, will you? You'll most
+likely find him smoking his cigar on the first bench to the right as you
+turn out of the covered way."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget distended her fingers as widely as possible in order
+to take a handful of mirabelles, which joined the Bondon in the bag.
+Then she pretended to leave the market, but in reality made a detour by
+one of the covered ways, thinking, as she walked slowly along, that the
+mirabelles and Bondon would not make a very substantial dinner. When she
+was unable, during her afternoon perambulations, to wheedle stallkeepers
+into filling her bag for her, she was reduced to dining off the merest
+scraps. So she now slyly made her way back to the butter pavilions,
+where, on the side of the Rue Berger, at the back of the offices of the
+oyster salesmen, there were some stalls at which cooked meat was
+sold. Every morning little closed box-like carts, lined with zinc and
+furnished with ventilators, drew up in front of the larger Parisian
+kitchens and carried away the leavings of the restaurants, the
+embassies, and State Ministries. These leavings were conveyed to the
+market cellars and there sorted. By nine o'clock plates of food were
+displayed for sale at prices ranging from three to five sous, their
+contents comprising slices of meat, scraps of game, heads and tails of
+fishes, bits of galantine, stray vegetables, and, by way of dessert,
+cakes scarcely cut into, and other confectionery. Poor starving
+wretches, scantily-paid clerks, and women shivering with fever were
+to be seen crowding around, and the street lads occasionally amused
+themselves by hooting the pale-faced individuals, known to be misers,
+who only made their purchases after slyly glancing about them to see
+that they were not observed.[*] Mademoiselle Saget wriggled her way to
+a stall, the keeper of which boasted that the scraps she sold came
+exclusively from the Tuileries. One day, indeed, she had induced the old
+maid to buy a slice of leg of mutton by informing that it had come from
+the plate of the Emperor himself; and this slice of mutton, eaten with
+no little pride, had been a soothing consolation to Mademoiselle Saget's
+vanity. The wariness of her approach to the stall was, moreover, solely
+caused by her desire to keep well with the neighbouring shop people,
+whose premises she was eternally haunting without ever buying anything.
+Her usual tactics were to quarrel with them as soon as she had managed
+to learn their histories, when she would bestow her patronage upon a
+fresh set, desert it in due course, and then gradually make friends
+again with those with whom she had quarrelled. In this way she made the
+complete circuit of the market neighbourhood, ferreting about in every
+shop and stall. Anyone would have imagined that she consumed an enormous
+amount of provisions, whereas, in point of fact, she lived solely upon
+presents and the few scraps which she was compelled to buy when people
+were not in the giving vein.
+
+     [*] The dealers in these scraps are called _bijoutiers_, or
+     jewellers, whilst the scraps themselves are known as
+     _harlequins_, the idea being that they are of all colours
+     and shapes when mingled together, thus suggesting
+     harlequin's variegated attire.--Translator.
+
+On that particular evening there was only a tall old man standing in
+front of the stall. He was sniffing at a plate containing a mixture
+of meat and fish. Mademoiselle Saget, in her turn, began to sniff at a
+plate of cold fried fish. The price of it was three sous, but, by dint
+of bargaining, she got it for two. The cold fish then vanished into the
+bag. Other customers now arrived, and with a uniform impulse lowered
+their noses over the plates. The smell of the stall was very disgusting,
+suggestive alike of greasy dishes and a dirty sink.[*]
+
+     [*] Particulars of the strange and repulsive trade in
+     harlequins, which even nowadays is not extinct, will be
+     found in Privat d'Anglemont's well-known book _Paris
+     Anecdote_, written at the very period with which M. Zola
+     deals in the present work. My father, Henry Vizetelly, also
+     gave some account of it in his _Glances Back through Seventy
+     Years_, in a chapter describing the odd ways in which
+     certain Parisians contrive to get a living.--Translator.
+
+"Come and see me to-morrow," the stallkeeper called out to the old maid,
+"and I'll put something nice on one side for you. There's going to be a
+grand dinner at the Tuileries to-night."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget was just promising to come, when, happening to turn
+round, she discovered Gavard looking at her and listening to what she
+was saying. She turned very red, and, contracting her skinny shoulders,
+hurried away, affecting not to recognise him. Gavard, however, followed
+her for a few yards, shrugging his shoulders and muttering to himself
+that he was no longer surprised at the old shrew's malice, now he
+knew that "she poisoned herself with the filth carted away from the
+Tuileries."
+
+On the very next morning vague rumours began to circulate in the
+markets. Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette were in their own fashion
+keeping the oaths of silence they had taken. For her own part,
+Mademoiselle Saget warily held her tongue, leaving the two others to
+circulate the story of Florent's antecedents. At first only a few meagre
+details were hawked about in low tones; then various versions of the
+facts got into circulation, incidents were exaggerated, and gradually
+quite a legend was constructed, in which Florent played the part of a
+perfect bogey man. He had killed ten gendarmes at the barricade in the
+Rue Greneta, said some; he had returned to France on a pirate ship whose
+crew scoured the seas to murder everyone they came across, said others;
+whilst a third set declared that ever since his arrival he had been
+observed prowling about at nighttime with suspicious-looking characters,
+of whom he was undoubtedly the leader. Soon the imaginative market
+women indulged in the highest flights of fancy, revelled in the most
+melodramatic ideas. There was talk of a band of smugglers plying their
+nefarious calling in the very heart of Paris, and of a vast central
+association formed for systematically robbing the stalls in the markets.
+Much pity was expressed for the Quenu-Gradelles, mingled with malicious
+allusions to their uncle's fortune. That fortune was an endless subject
+of discussion. The general opinion was that Florent had returned
+to claim his share of the treasure; however, as no good reason was
+forthcoming to explain why the division had not taken place already, it
+was asserted that Florent was waiting for some opportunity which
+might enable him to pocket the whole amount. The Quenu-Gradelles would
+certainly be found murdered some morning, it was said; and a rumour
+spread that dreadful quarrels already took place every night between the
+two brothers and beautiful Lisa.
+
+When these stories reached the ears of the beautiful Norman, she
+shrugged her shoulders and burst out laughing.
+
+"Get away with you!" she cried, "you don't know him. Why, the dear
+fellow's as gentle as a lamb."
+
+She had recently refused the hand of Monsieur Lebigre, who had at last
+ventured upon a formal proposal. For two months past he had given the
+Mehudins a bottle of some liqueur every Sunday. It was Rose who brought
+it, and she was always charged with a compliment for La Normande, some
+pretty speech which she faithfully repeated, without appearing in the
+slightest degree embarrassed by the peculiar commission. When Monsieur
+Lebigre was rejected, he did not pine, but to show that he took no
+offence and was still hopeful, he sent Rose on the following Sunday with
+two bottles of champagne and a large bunch of flowers. She gave them
+into the handsome fish-girl's own hands, repeating, as she did so, the
+wine dealer's prose madrigal:
+
+"Monsieur Lebigre begs you to drink this to his health, which has been
+greatly shaken by you know what. He hopes that you will one day be
+willing to cure him, by being for him as pretty and as sweet as these
+flowers."
+
+La Normande was much amused by the servant's delighted air. She kissed
+her as she spoke to her of her master, and asked her if he wore braces,
+and snored at nights. Then she made her take the champagne and flowers
+back with her. "Tell Monsieur Lebigre," said she, "that he's not to send
+you here again. It quite vexes me to see you coming here so meekly, with
+your bottles under your arms."
+
+"Oh, he wishes me to come," replied Rose, as she went away. "It is wrong
+of you to distress him. He is a very handsome man."
+
+La Normande, however, was quite conquered by Florent's affectionate
+nature. She continued to follow Muche's lessons of an evening in the
+lamplight, indulging the while in a dream of marrying this man who was
+so kind to children. She would still keep her fish stall, while he would
+doubtless rise to a position of importance in the administrative staff
+of the markets. This dream of hers, however, was scarcely furthered by
+the tutor's respectful bearing towards her. He bowed to her, and kept
+himself at a distance, when she have liked to laugh with him, and love
+him as she knew how to love. But it was just this covert resistance
+on Florent's part which continually brought her back to the dream of
+marrying him. She realised that he lived in a loftier sphere than her
+own; and by becoming his wife she imagined that her vanity would reap no
+little satisfaction.
+
+She was greatly surprised when she learned the history of the man she
+loved. He had never mentioned a word of those things to her; and she
+scolded him about it. His extraordinary adventures only increased her
+tenderness for him, and for evenings together she made him relate all
+that had befallen him. She trembled with fear lest the police should
+discover him; but he reassured her, saying that the matter was now too
+old for the police to trouble their heads about it. One evening he told
+her of the woman on the Boulevard Montmartre, the woman in the pink
+bonnet, whose blood had dyed his hands. He still frequently thought of
+that poor creature. His anguish-stricken mind had often dwelt upon her
+during the clear nights he had passed in Cayenne; and he had returned
+to France with a wild dream of meeting her again on some footway in the
+bright sunshine, even though he could still feel her corpse-like weight
+across his legs. And yet, he thought, she might perhaps have recovered.
+At times he received quite a shock while he was walking through the
+streets, on fancying that he recognised her; and he followed pink
+bonnets and shawl-draped shoulders with a wildly beating heart. When he
+closed his eyes he could see her walking, and advancing towards him;
+but she let her shawl slip down, showing the two red stains on her
+chemisette; and then he saw that her face was pale as wax, and that
+her eyes were blank, and her lips distorted by pain. For a long time he
+suffered from not knowing her name, from being forced to look upon her
+as a mere shadow, whose recollection filled him with sorrow. Whenever
+any idea of woman crossed his mind it was always she that rose up before
+him, as the one pure, tender wife. He often found himself fancying that
+she might be looking for him on that boulevard where she had fallen
+dead, and that if she had met him a few seconds sooner she would have
+given him a life of joy. And he wished for no other wife; none other
+existed for him. When he spoke of her, his voice trembled to such a
+degree that La Normande, her wits quickened by her love, guessed his
+secret, and felt jealous.
+
+"Oh, it's really much better that you shouldn't see her again," she said
+maliciously. "She can't look particularly nice by this time."
+
+Florent turned pale with horror at the vision which these words evoked.
+His love was rotting in her grave. He could not forgive La Normande's
+savage cruelty, which henceforth made him see the grinning jaws and
+hollow eyes of a skeleton within that lovely pink bonnet. Whenever the
+fish-girl tried to joke with him on the subject he turned quite angry,
+and silenced her with almost coarse language.
+
+That, however, which especially surprised the beautiful Norman in
+these revelations was the discovery that she had been quite mistaken in
+supposing that she was enticing a lover away from handsome Lisa. This
+so diminished her feeling of triumph, that for a week or so her love
+for Florent abated. She consoled herself, however, with the story of the
+inheritance, no longer calling Lisa a strait-laced prude, but a thief
+who kept back her brother-in-law's money, and assumed sanctimonious airs
+to deceive people. Every evening, while Muche took his writing lesson,
+the conversation turned upon old Gradelle's treasure.
+
+"Did anyone ever hear of such an idea?" the fish-girl would exclaim,
+with a laugh. "Did the old man want to salt his money, since he put
+it in a salting-tub? Eighty-five thousand francs! That's a nice sum
+of money! And, besides, the Quenus, no doubt, lied about it--there
+was perhaps two or three times as much. Ah, if I were in your place, I
+shouldn't lose any time about claiming my share; indeed I shouldn't."
+
+"I've no need of anything," was Florent's invariable answer. "I
+shouldn't know what to do with the money if I had it."
+
+"Oh, you're no man!" cried La Normande, losing all control over herself.
+"It's pitiful! Can't you see that the Quenus are laughing at you? That
+great fat thing passes all her husband's old clothes over to you. I'm
+not saying this to hurt your feelings, but everybody makes remarks about
+it. Why, the whole neighbourhood has seen the greasy pair of trousers,
+which you're now wearing, on your brother's legs for three years and
+more! If I were in your place I'd throw their dirty rags in their faces,
+and insist upon my rights. Your share comes to forty-two thousand five
+hundred francs, doesn't it? Well, I shouldn't go out of the place till
+I'd got forty-two thousand five hundred francs."
+
+It was useless for Florent to explain to her that his sister-in-law had
+offered to pay him his share, that she was taking care of it for him,
+and that it was he himself who had refused to receive it. He entered
+into the most minute particulars, seeking to convince her of the Quenus'
+honesty, but she sarcastically replied: "Oh, yes, I dare say! I know all
+about their honesty. That fat thing folds it up every morning and puts
+it away in her wardrobe for fear it should get soiled. Really, I quite
+pity you, my poor friend. It's easy to gull you, for you can't see any
+further than a child of five. One of these days she'll simply put your
+money in her pocket, and you'll never look on it again. Shall I go, now,
+and claim your share for you, just to see what she says? There'd be
+some fine fun, I can tell you! I'd either have the money, or I'd break
+everything in the house--I swear I would!"
+
+"No, no, it's no business of yours," Florent replied, quite alarmed.
+"I'll see about it; I may possibly be wanting some money soon."
+
+At this La Normande assumed an air of doubt, shrugged her shoulders, and
+told him that he was really too chicken-hearted. Her one great aim now
+was to embroil him with the Quenu-Gradelles, and she employed every
+means she could think of to effect her purpose, both anger and banter,
+as well as affectionate tenderness. She also cherished another design.
+When she had succeeded in marrying Florent, she would go and administer
+a sound cuffing to beautiful Lisa, if the latter did not yield up the
+money. As she lay awake in her bed at night she pictured every detail of
+the scene. She saw herself sitting down in the middle of the pork shop
+in the busiest part of the day, and making a terrible fuss. She brooded
+over this idea to such an extent, it obtained such a hold upon her, that
+she would have been willing to marry Florent simply in order to be able
+to go and demand old Gradelle's forty-two thousand five hundred francs.
+
+Old Madame Mehudin, exasperated by La Normande's dismissal of Monsieur
+Lebigre, proclaimed everywhere that her daughter was mad, and that the
+"long spindle-shanks" must have administered some insidious drug to her.
+When she learned the Cayenne story, her anger was terrible. She called
+Florent a convict and murderer, and said it was no wonder that his
+villainy had kept him lank and flat. Her versions of Florent's biography
+were the most horrible of all that were circulated in the neighbourhood.
+At home she kept a moderately quiet tongue in her head, and restricted
+herself to muttered indignation, and a show of locking up the drawer
+where the silver was kept whenever Florent arrived. One day, however,
+after a quarrel with her elder daughter, she exclaimed:
+
+"Things can't go on much longer like this! It is that vile man who is
+setting you against me. Take care that you don't try me too far, or I'll
+go and denounce him to the police. I will, as true as I stand here!"
+
+"You'll denounce him!" echoed La Normande, trembling violently,
+and clenching her fists. "You'd better not! Ah, if you weren't my
+mother----"
+
+At this, Claire, who was a spectator of the quarrel, began to laugh,
+with a nervous laughter that seemed to rasp her throat. For some time
+past she had been gloomier and more erratic than ever, invariably
+showing red eyes and a pale face.
+
+"Well, what would you do?" she asked. "Would you give her a cuffing?
+Perhaps you'd like to give me, your sister, one as well? I dare say it
+will end in that. But I'll clear the house of him. I'll go to the police
+to save mother the trouble."
+
+Then, as La Normande almost choked with the angry threats that rose
+to her throat, the younger girl added: "I'll spare you the exertion of
+beating me. I'll throw myself into the river as I come back over the
+bridge."
+
+Big tears were streaming from her eyes; and she rushed off to her
+bedroom, banging the doors violently behind her. Old Madame Mehudin said
+nothing more about denouncing Florent. Muche, however, told La Normande
+that he met his grandma talking with Monsieur Lebigre in every corner of
+the neighbourhood.
+
+The rivalry between the beautiful Norman and the beautiful Lisa
+now assumed a less aggressive but more disturbing character. In the
+afternoon, when the red-striped canvas awning was drawn down in front
+of the pork shop, the fish-girl would remark that the big fat thing felt
+afraid, and was concealing herself. She was also much exasperated by
+the occasional lowering of the window-blind, on which was pictured
+a hunting-breakfast in a forest glade, with ladies and gentlemen in
+evening dress partaking of a red pasty, as big as themselves, on the
+yellow grass.
+
+Beautiful Lisa, however, was by no means afraid. As soon as the sun
+began to sink she drew up the blind; and, as she sat knitting behind her
+counter, she serenely scanned the market square, where numerous urchins
+were poking about in the soil under the gratings which protected the
+roots of the plane-trees, while porters smoked their pipes on the
+benches along the footway, at either end of which was an advertisement
+column covered with theatrical posters, alternately green, yellow, red,
+and blue, like some harlequin's costume. And while pretending to watch
+the passing vehicles, Lisa would really be scrutinising the beautiful
+Norman. She might occasionally be seen bending forward, as though her
+eyes were following the Bastille and Place Wagram omnibus to the Pointe
+Saint Eustache, where it always stopped for a time. But this was only a
+manoeuvre to enable her to get a better view of the fish-girl, who, as
+a set-off against the blind, retorted by covering her head and fish with
+large sheets of brown paper, on the pretext of warding off the rays of
+the setting sun. The advantage at present was on Lisa's side, for as
+the time for striking the decisive blow approached she manifested the
+calmest serenity of bearing, whereas her rival, in spite of all her
+efforts to attain the same air of distinction, always lapsed into some
+piece of gross vulgarity, which she afterwards regretted. La Normande's
+ambition was to look "like a lady." Nothing irritated her more than to
+hear people extolling the good manners of her rival. This weak point
+of hers had not escaped old Madame Mehudin's observation, and she now
+directed all her attacks upon it.
+
+"I saw Madame Quenu standing at her door this evening," she would
+say sometimes. "It is quite amazing how well she wears. And she's so
+refined-looking, too; quite the lady, indeed. It's the counter that does
+it, I'm sure. A fine counter gives a woman such a respectable look."
+
+In this remark there was a veiled allusion to Monsieur Lebigre's
+proposal. The beautiful Norman would make no reply; but for a moment or
+two she would seem deep in thought. In her mind's eye she saw herself
+behind the counter of the wine shop at the other corner of the street,
+forming a pendent, as it were, to beautiful Lisa. It was this that first
+shook her love for Florent.
+
+To tell the truth, it was now becoming a very difficult thing to defend
+Florent. The whole neighbourhood was in arms against him; it seemed as
+though everyone had an immediate interest in exterminating him. Some of
+the market people swore that he had sold himself to the police; while
+others asserted that he had been seen in the butter-cellar, attempting
+to make holes in the wire grating, with the intention of tossing lighted
+matches through them. There was a vast increase of slander, a perfect
+flood of abuse, the source of which could not be exactly determined.
+The fish pavilion was the last one to join in the revolt against the
+inspector. The fish-wives liked Florent on account of his gentleness,
+and for some time they defended him; but, influenced by the stallkeepers
+of the butter and fruit pavilions, they at last gave way. Then
+hostilities began afresh between these huge, swelling women and the
+lean and lank inspector. He was lost in the whirl of the voluminous
+petticoats and buxom bodices which surged furiously around his scraggy
+shoulders. However, he understood nothing, but pursued his course
+towards the realisation of his one haunting idea.
+
+At every hour of the day, and in every corner of the market,
+Mademoiselle Saget's black bonnet was now to be seen in the midst of
+this outburst of indignation. Her little pale face seemed to multiply.
+She had sworn a terrible vengeance against the company which assembled
+in Monsieur Lebigre's little cabinet. She accused them of having
+circulated the story that she lived on waste scraps of meat. The truth
+was that old Gavard had told the others one evening that the "old
+nanny-goat" who came to play the spy upon them gorged herself with the
+filth which the Bonapartist clique tossed away. Clemence felt quite ill
+on hearing this, and Robine hurriedly gulped down a draught of beer, as
+though to wash his throat. In Gavard's opinion, the scraps of meat
+left on the Emperor's plate were so much political ordure, the putrid
+remnants of all the filth of the reign. Thenceforth the party at
+Monsieur Lebigre's looked on Mademoiselle Saget as a creature whom no
+one could touch except with tongs. She was regarded as some unclean
+animal that battened upon corruption. Clemence and Gavard circulated the
+story so freely in the markets that the old maid found herself seriously
+injured in her intercourse with the shopkeepers, who unceremoniously
+bade her go off to the scrap-stalls when she came to haggle and gossip
+at their establishments without the least intention of buying anything.
+This cut her off from her sources of information; and sometimes she was
+altogether ignorant of what was happening. She shed tears of rage, and
+in one such moment of anger she bluntly said to La Sarriette and Madame
+Lecoeur: "You needn't give me any more hints: I'll settle your Gavard's
+hash for him now--that I will!"
+
+The two women were rather startled, but refrained from all protestation.
+The next day, however, Mademoiselle Saget had calmed down, and again
+expressed much tender-hearted pity for that poor Monsieur Gavard who was
+so badly advised, and was certainly hastening to his ruin.
+
+Gavard was undoubtedly compromising himself. Ever since the conspiracy
+had begun to ripen he had carried the revolver, which caused Madame
+Leonce so much alarm, in his pocket wherever he went. It was a big,
+formidable-looking weapon, which he had bought of the principal gunmaker
+in Paris. He exhibited it to all the women in the poultry market, like a
+schoolboy who has got some prohibited novel hidden in his desk. First he
+would allow the barrel to peer out of his pocket, and call attention
+to it with a wink. Then he affected a mysterious reticence, indulged in
+vague hints and insinuations--played, in short, the part of a man who
+revelled in feigning fear. The possession of this revolver gave
+him immense importance, placed him definitely amongst the dangerous
+characters of Paris. Sometimes, when he was safe inside his stall, he
+would consent to take it out of his pocket, and exhibit it to two or
+three of the women. He made them stand before him so as to conceal him
+with their petticoats, and then he brandished the weapon, cocked the
+lock, caused the breech to revolve, and took aim at one of the geese or
+turkeys that were hanging in the stall. He was immensely delighted at
+the alarm manifested by the women; but eventually reassured them by
+stating that the revolver was not loaded. However, he carried a supply
+of cartridges about with him, in a case which he opened with the most
+elaborate precautions. When he had allowed his friends to feel
+the weight of the cartridges, he would again place both weapon and
+ammunition in his pockets. And afterwards, crossing his arms over his
+breast, he would chatter away jubilantly for hours.
+
+"A man's a man when he's got a weapon like that," he would say with a
+swaggering air. "I don't care a fig now for the gendarmes. A friend and
+I went to try it last Sunday on the plain of Saint Denis. Of course,
+you know, a man doesn't tell everyone that he's got a plaything of that
+sort. But, ah! my dears, we fired at a tree, and hit it every time. Ah,
+you'll see, you'll see. You'll hear of Anatole one of these days, I can
+tell you."
+
+He had bestowed the name of Anatole upon the revolver; and he carried
+things so far that in a week's time both weapon and cartridges were
+known to all the women in the pavilion. His friendship for Florent
+seemed to them suspicious; he was too sleek and rich to be visited with
+the hatred that was manifested towards the inspector; still, he lost the
+esteem of the shrewder heads amongst his acquaintances, and succeeded in
+terrifying the timid ones. This delighted him immensely.
+
+"It is very imprudent for a man to carry firearms about with him," said
+Mademoiselle Saget. "Monsieur Gavard's revolver will end by playing him
+a nasty trick."
+
+Gavard now showed the most jubilant bearing at Monsieur Lebigre's.
+Florent, since ceasing to take his meals with the Quenus, had come
+almost to live in the little "cabinet." He breakfasted, dined, and
+constantly shut himself up there. In fact he had converted the place
+almost into a sort of private room of his own, where he left his old
+coats and books and papers lying about. Monsieur Lebigre had offered no
+objection to these proceedings; indeed, he had even removed one of the
+tables to make room for a cushioned bench, on which Florent could
+have slept had he felt so inclined. When the inspector manifested any
+scruples about taking advantage of Monsieur Lebigre's kindness, the
+latter told him to do as he pleased, saying that the whole house was at
+his service. Logre also manifested great friendship for him, and even
+constituted himself his lieutenant. He was constantly discussing affairs
+with him, rendering an account of the steps he was supposed to take, and
+furnishing the names of newly affiliated associates. Logre, indeed, had
+now assumed the duties of organiser; on him rested the task of bringing
+the various plotters together, forming the different sections, and
+weaving each mesh of the gigantic net into which Paris was to fall at
+a given signal. Florent meantime remained the leader, the soul of the
+conspiracy.
+
+However, much as the hunchback seemed to toil, he attained no
+appreciable result. Although he had loudly asserted that in each
+district of Paris he knew two or three groups of men as determined and
+trustworthy as those who met at Monsieur Lebigre's, he had never yet
+given any precise information about them, but had merely mentioned a
+name here and there, and recounted stories of endless alleged secret
+expeditions, and the wonderful enthusiasm that the people manifested
+for the cause. He made a great point of the hand-grasps he had received.
+So-and-so, whom he thou'd and thee'd, had squeezed his fingers and
+declared he would join them. At the Gros Caillou a big, burly fellow,
+who would make a magnificent sectional leader, had almost dislocated
+his arm in his enthusiasm; while in the Rue Popincourt a whole group
+of working men had embraced him. He declared that at a day's notice a
+hundred thousand active supporters could be gathered together. Each time
+that he made his appearance in the little room, wearing an exhausted
+air, and dropping with apparent fatigue on the bench, he launched into
+fresh variations of his usual reports, while Florent duly took notes of
+what he said, and relied on him to realise his many promises. And soon
+in Florent's pockets the plot assumed life. The notes were looked upon
+as realities, as indisputable facts, upon which the entire plan of the
+rising was constructed. All that now remained to be done was to wait
+for a favourable opportunity, and Logre asserted with passionate
+gesticulations that the whole thing would go on wheels.
+
+Florent was at last perfectly happy. His feet no longer seemed to tread
+the ground; he was borne aloft by his burning desire to pass sentence on
+all the wickedness he had seen committed. He had all the credulity of a
+little child, all the confidence of a hero. If Logre had told him that
+the Genius of Liberty perched on the Colonne de Juillet[*] would have
+come down and set itself at their head, he would hardly have expressed
+any surprise. In the evenings, at Monsieur Lebigre's, he showed great
+enthusiasm and spoke effusively of the approaching battle, as though it
+were a festival to which all good and honest folks would be invited. But
+although Gavard in his delight began to play with his revolver, Charvet
+got more snappish than ever, and sniggered and shrugged his shoulders.
+His rival's assumption of the leadership angered him extremely; indeed,
+quite disgusted him with politics. One evening when, arriving early,
+he happened to find himself alone with Logre and Lebigre, he frankly
+unbosomed himself.
+
+     [*] The column erected on the Place de la Bastille in memory
+     of the Revolution of July 1830, by which Charles X was
+     dethroned.--Translator.
+
+"Why," said he, "that fellow Florent hasn't an idea about politics,
+and would have done far better to seek a berth as writing master in a
+ladies' school! It would be nothing short of a misfortune if he were to
+succeed, for, with his visionary social sentimentalities, he would crush
+us down beneath his confounded working men! It's all that, you know,
+which ruins the party. We don't need any more tearful sentimentalists,
+humanitarian poets, people who kiss and slobber over each other for the
+merest scratch. But he won't succeed! He'll just get locked up, and that
+will be the end of it."
+
+Logre and the wine dealer made no remark, but allowed Charvet to talk on
+without interruption.
+
+"And he'd have been locked up long ago," he continued, "if he were
+anything as dangerous as he fancies he is. The airs he puts on just
+because he's been to Cayenne are quite sickening. But I'm sure that the
+police knew of his return the very first day he set foot in Paris, and
+if they haven't interfered with him it's simply because they hold him in
+contempt."
+
+At this Logre gave a slight start.
+
+"They've been dogging me for the last fifteen years," resumed the
+Hebertist, with a touch of pride, "but you don't hear me proclaiming it
+from the house-tops. However, he won't catch me taking part in his riot.
+I'm not going to let myself be nabbed like a mere fool. I dare say he's
+already got half a dozen spies at his heels, who will take him by the
+scruff of the neck whenever the authorities give the word."
+
+"Oh, dear, no! What an idea!" exclaimed Monsieur Lebigre, who usually
+observed complete silence. He was rather pale, and looked at Logre, who
+was gently rubbing his hump against the partition.
+
+"That's mere imagination," murmured the hunchback.
+
+"Very well; call it imagination, if you like," replied the tutor; "but
+I know how these things are arranged. At all events, I don't mean to
+let the 'coppers' nab me this time. You others, of course, will please
+yourselves, but if you take my advice--and you especially, Monsieur
+Lebigre--you'll take care not to let your establishment be compromised,
+or the authorities will close it."
+
+At this Logre could not restrain a smile. On several subsequent
+occasions Charvet plied him and Lebigre with similar arguments, as
+though he wished to detach them from Florent's project by frightening
+them; and he was much surprised at the calmness and confidence which
+they both continued to manifest. For his own part, he still came pretty
+regularly in the evening with Clemence. The tall brunette was no longer
+a clerk at the fish auctions--Monsieur Manoury had discharged her.
+
+"Those salesmen are all scoundrels!" Logre growled, when he heard of her
+dismissal.
+
+Thereupon Clemence, who, lolling back against the partition, was rolling
+a cigarette between her long, slim fingers, replied in a sharp voice:
+"Oh, it's fair fighting! We don't hold the same political views, you
+know. That fellow Manoury, who's making no end of money, would lick the
+Emperor's boots. For my part, if I were an auctioneer, I wouldn't keep
+him in my service for an hour."
+
+The truth was that she had been indulging in some clumsy pleasantry,
+amusing herself one day by inscribing in the sale-book, alongside of the
+dabs and skate and mackerel sold by auction, the names of some of the
+best-known ladies and gentlemen of the Court. This bestowal of piscine
+names upon high dignitaries, these entries of the sale of duchesses
+and baronesses at thirty sous apiece, had caused Monsieur Manoury much
+alarm. Gavard was still laughing over it.
+
+"Well, never mind!" said he, patting Clemence's arm; "you are every inch
+a man, you are!"
+
+Clemence had discovered a new method of mixing her grog. She began by
+filling her glass with hot water; and after adding some sugar she poured
+the rum drop by drop upon the slice of lemon floating on the surface,
+in such wise that it did not mix with the water. Then she lighted it and
+with a grave expression watched it blaze, slowly smoking her cigarette
+while the flame of the alcohol cast a greenish tinge over her face.
+"Grog," however, was an expensive luxury in which she could not afford
+to indulge after she had lost her place. Charvet told her, with a
+strained laugh, that she was no longer a millionaire. She supported
+herself by giving French lessons, at a very early hour in the morning,
+to a young lady residing in the Rue de Miromesnil, who was perfecting
+her education in secrecy, unknown even to her maid. And so now Clemence
+merely ordered a glass of beer in the evenings, but this she drank, it
+must be admitted, with the most philosophical composure.
+
+The evenings in the little sanctum were now far less noisy than they had
+been. Charvet would suddenly lapse into silence, pale with suppressed
+rage, when the others deserted him to listen to his rival. The thought
+that he had been the king of the place, had ruled the whole party with
+despotic power before Florent's appearance there, gnawed at his heart,
+and he felt all the regretful pangs of a dethroned monarch. If he
+still came to the meetings, it was only because he could not resist the
+attraction of the little room where he had spent so many happy hours in
+tyrannising over Gavard and Robine. In those days even Logre's hump had
+been his property, as well as Alexandre's fleshy arms and Lacaille's
+gloomy face. He had done what he liked with them, stuffed his opinions
+down their throats, belaboured their shoulders with his sceptre. But
+now he endured much bitterness of spirit; and ended by quite ceasing
+to speak, simply shrugging his shoulders and whistling disdainfully,
+without condescending to combat the absurdities vented in his presence.
+What exasperated him more than anything else was the gradual way in
+which he had been ousted from his position of predominance without
+being conscious of it. He could not see that Florent was in any way his
+superior, and after hearing the latter speak for hours, in his gentle
+and somewhat sad voice, he often remarked: "Why, the fellow's a parson!
+He only wants a cassock!"
+
+The others, however, to all appearance eagerly absorbed whatever the
+inspector said. When Charvet saw Florent's clothes hanging from every
+peg, he pretended not to know where he could put his hat so that it
+would not be soiled. He swept away the papers that lay about the little
+room, declaring that there was no longer any comfort for anyone in
+the place since that "gentleman" had taken possession of it. He even
+complained to the landlord, and asked if the room belonged to a single
+customer or to the whole company. This invasion of his realm was indeed
+the last straw. Men were brutes, and he conceived an unspeakable scorn
+for humanity when he saw Logre and Monsieur Lebigre fixing their eyes on
+Florent with rapt attention. Gavard with his revolver irritated him, and
+Robine, who sat silent behind his glass of beer, seemed to him to be the
+only sensible person in the company, and one who doubtless judged
+people by their real value, and was not led away by mere words. As
+for Alexandre and Lacaille, they confirmed him in his belief that
+"the people" were mere fools, and would require at least ten years of
+revolutionary dictatorship to learn how to conduct themselves.
+
+Logre, however, declared that the sections would soon be completely
+organised; and Florent began to assign the different parts that each
+would have to play. One evening, after a final discussion in which he
+again got worsted, Charvet rose up, took his hat, and exclaimed: "Well,
+I'll wish you all good night. You can get your skulls cracked if it
+amuses you; but I would have you understand that I won't take any part
+in the business. I have never abetted anybody's ambition."
+
+Clemence, who had also risen and was putting on her shawl, coldly added:
+"The plan's absurd."
+
+Then, as Robine sat watching their departure with a gentle glance,
+Charvet asked him if he were not coming with them; but Robine, having
+still some beer left in his glass, contented himself with shaking hands.
+Charvet and Clemence never returned again; and Lacaille one day informed
+the company that they now frequented a beer-house in the Rue Serpente.
+He had seen them through the window, gesticulating with great energy, in
+the midst of an attentive group of very young men.
+
+Florent was never able to enlist Claude amongst his supporters. He
+had once entertained the idea of gaining him over to his own political
+views, of making a disciple of him, an assistant in his revolutionary
+task; and in order to initiate him he had taken him one evening to
+Monsieur Lebigre's. Claude, however, spent the whole time in making
+a sketch of Robine, in his hat and chestnut cloak, and with his beard
+resting on the knob of his walking-stick.
+
+"Really, you know," he said to Florent, as they came away, "all that you
+have been saying inside there doesn't interest me in the least. It may
+be very clever, but, for my own part, I see nothing in it. Still, you've
+got a splendid fellow there, that blessed Robine. He's as deep as a
+well. I'll come with you again some other time, but it won't be for
+politics. I shall make sketches of Logre and Gavard, so as to put them
+with Robine in a picture which I was thinking about while you were
+discussing the question of--what do you call it? eh? Oh, the question
+of the two Chambers. Just fancy, now, a picture of Gavard and Logre and
+Robine talking politics, entrenched behind their glasses of beer! It
+would be the success of the Salon, my dear fellow, an overwhelming
+success, a genuine modern picture!"
+
+Florent was grieved by the artist's political scepticism; so he took him
+up to his bedroom, and kept him on the narrow balcony in front of the
+bluish mass of the markets, till two o'clock in the morning, lecturing
+him, and telling him that he was no man to show himself so indifferent
+to the happiness of his country.
+
+"Well, you're perhaps right," replied Claude, shaking his head; "I'm an
+egotist. I can't even say that I paint for the good of my country; for,
+in the first place, my sketches frighten everybody, and then, when I'm
+busy painting, I think about nothing but the pleasure I take in it. When
+I'm painting, it is as though I were tickling myself; it makes me laugh
+all over my body. Well, I can't help it, you know; it's my nature to
+be like that; and you can't expect me to go and drown myself in
+consequence. Besides, France can get on very well without me, as my
+aunt Lisa says. And--may I be quite frank with you?--if I like you it's
+because you seem to me to follow politics just as I follow painting. You
+titillate yourself, my good friend."
+
+Then, as Florent protested, he continued:
+
+"Yes, yes; you are an artist in your own way; you dream of politics,
+and I'll wager you spend hours here at night gazing at the stars and
+imagining they are the voting-papers of infinity. And then you titillate
+yourself with your ideas of truth and justice; and this is so evidently
+the case that those ideas of yours cause just as much alarm to
+commonplace middle-class folks as my sketches do. Between ourselves,
+now, do you imagine that if you were Robine I should take any pleasure
+in your friendship? Ah, no, my friend, you are a great poet!"
+
+Then he began to joke on the subject, saying that politics caused him no
+trouble, and that he had got accustomed to hear people discussing them
+in beer shops and studios. This led him to speak of a cafe in the
+Rue Vauvilliers; the cafe on the ground-floor of the house where La
+Sarriette lodged. This smoky place, with its torn, velvet-cushioned
+seats, and marble table-tops discoloured by the drippings from
+coffee-cups, was the chief resort of the young people of the markets.
+Monsieur Jules reigned there over a company of porters, apprentices,
+and gentlemen in white blouses and velvet caps. Two curling "Newgate
+knockers" were glued against his temples; and to keep his neck white he
+had it scraped with a razor every Saturday at a hair-dresser's in the
+Rue des Deux Ecus. At the cafe he gave the tone to his associates,
+especially when he played billiards with studied airs and graces,
+showing off his figure to the best advantage. After the game the company
+would begin to chat. They were a very reactionary set, taking a delight
+in the doings of "society." For his part, Monsieur Jules read the
+lighter boulevardian newspapers, and knew the performers at the smaller
+theatres, talked familiarly of the celebrities of the day, and could
+always tell whether the piece first performed the previous evening had
+been a success or a failure. He had a weakness, however, for politics.
+His ideal man was Morny, as he curtly called him. He read the reports of
+the discussions of the Corps Legislatif, and laughed with glee over the
+slightest words that fell from Morny's lips. Ah, Morny was the man to
+sit upon your rascally republicans! And he would assert that only the
+scum detested the Emperor, for his Majesty desired that all respectable
+people should have a good time of it.
+
+"I've been to the cafe occasionally," Claude said to Florent. "The young
+men there are vastly amusing, with their clay pipes and their talk about
+the Court balls! To hear them chatter you might almost fancy they were
+invited to the Tuileries. La Sarriette's young man was making great fun
+of Gavard the other evening. He called him uncle. When La Sarriette came
+downstairs to look for him she was obliged to pay his bill. It cost her
+six francs, for he had lost at billiards, and the drinks they had played
+for were owing. And now, good night, my friend, and pleasant dreams. If
+ever you become a Minister, I'll give you some hints on the beautifying
+of Paris."
+
+Florent was obliged to relinquish the hope of making a docile disciple
+of Claude. This was a source of grief to him, for, blinded though he
+was by his fanatical ardour, he at last grew conscious of the
+ever-increasing hostility which surrounded him. Even at the Mehudins' he
+now met with a colder reception: the old woman would laugh slyly; Muche
+no longer obeyed him, and the beautiful Norman cast glances of hasty
+impatience at him, unable as she was to overcome his coldness. At the
+Quenus', too, he had lost Auguste's friendship. The assistant no longer
+came to see him in his room on the way to bed, being greatly alarmed
+by the reports which he heard concerning this man with whom he had
+previously shut himself up till midnight. Augustine had made her lover
+swear that he would never again be guilty of such imprudence; however,
+it was Lisa who turned the young man into Florent's determined enemy by
+begging him and Augustine to defer their marriage till her cousin should
+vacate the little bedroom at the top of the house, as she did not want
+to give that poky dressing-room on the first floor to the new shop
+girl whom she would have to engage. From that time forward Auguste was
+anxious that the "convict" should be arrested. He had found such a
+pork shop as he had long dreamed of, not at Plaisance certainly, but at
+Montrouge, a little farther away. And now trade had much improved, and
+Augustine, with her silly, overgrown girl's laugh, said that she was
+quite ready. So every night, whenever some slight noise awoke him,
+August was thrilled with delight as he imagined that the police were at
+last arresting Florent.
+
+Nothing was said at the Quenu-Gradelles' about all the rumours which
+circulated. There was a tacit understanding amongst the staff of the
+pork shop to keep silent respecting them in the presence of Quenu. The
+latter, somewhat saddened by the falling-out between his brother and his
+wife, sought consolation in stringing his sausages and salting his pork.
+Sometimes he would come and stand on his door-step, with his red face
+glowing brightly above his white apron, which his increasing corpulence
+stretched quite taut, and never did he suspect all the gossip which his
+appearance set on foot in the markets. Some of the women pitied him, and
+thought that he was losing flesh, though he was, indeed, stouter than
+ever; while others, on the contrary, reproached him for not having grown
+thin with shame at having such a brother as Florent. He, however, like
+one of those betrayed husbands who are always the last to know what
+has befallen them, continued in happy ignorance, displaying a
+light-heartedness which was quite affecting. He would stop some
+neighbour's wife on the footway to ask her if she found his brawn or
+truffled boar's head to her liking, and she would at once assume a
+sympathetic expression, and speak in a condoling way, as though all the
+pork on his premises had got jaundice.
+
+"What do they all mean by looking at me with such a funereal air?" he
+asked Lisa one day. "Do you think I'm looking ill?"
+
+Lisa, well aware that he was terribly afraid of illness, and groaned
+and made a dreadful disturbance if he suffered the slightest ailment,
+reassured him on this point, telling him that he was as blooming as
+a rose. The fine pork shop, however, was becoming gloomy; the mirrors
+seemed to pale, the marbles grew frigidly white, and the cooked meats on
+the counter stagnated in yellow fat or lakes of cloudy jelly. One day,
+even, Claude came into the shop to tell his aunt that the display in
+the window looked quite "in the dumps." This was really the truth. The
+Strasburg tongues on their beds of blue paper-shavings had a melancholy
+whiteness of hue, like the tongues of invalids; and the whilom chubby
+hams seemed to be wasting away beneath their mournful green top-knots.
+Inside the shop, too, when customers asked for a black-pudding or ten
+sous' worth of bacon, or half a pound of lard, they spoke in subdued,
+sorrowful voices, as though they were in the bed-chamber of a dying man.
+There were always two or three lachrymose women in front of the chilled
+heating-pan. Beautiful Lisa meantime discharged the duties of chief
+mourner with silent dignity. Her white apron fell more primly than ever
+over her black dress. Her hands, scrupulously clean and closely girded
+at the wrists by long white sleevelets, her face with its becoming air
+of sadness, plainly told all the neighbourhood, all the inquisitive
+gossips who streamed into the shop from morning to night, that they, the
+Quenu-Gradelles, were suffering from unmerited misfortune, but that she
+knew the cause of it, and would triumph over it at last. And sometimes
+she stooped to look at the two gold-fish, who also seemed ill at ease
+as they swam languidly around the aquarium in the window, and her glance
+seemed to promise them better days in the future.
+
+Beautiful Lisa now only allowed herself one indulgence. She fearlessly
+patted Marjolin's satiny chin. The young man had just come out of the
+hospital. His skull had healed, and he looked as fat and merry as ever;
+but even the little intelligence he had possessed had left him, he was
+now quite an idiot. The gash in his skull must have reached his brain,
+for he had become a mere animal. The mind of a child of five dwelt in
+his sturdy frame. He laughed and stammered, he could no longer pronounce
+his words properly, and he was as submissively obedient as a sheep.
+Cadine took entire possession of him again; surprised, at first, at the
+alteration in him, and then quite delighted at having this big fellow to
+do exactly as she liked with. He was her doll, her toy, her slave in
+all respects but one: she could not prevent him from going off to Madame
+Quenu's every now and then. She thumped him, but he did not seem to feel
+her blows; as soon as she had slung her basket round her neck, and set
+off to sell her violets in the Rue du Pont Neuf and the Rue de Turbigo,
+he went to prowl about in front of the pork shop.
+
+"Come in!" Lisa cried to him.
+
+She generally gave him some gherkins, of which he was extremely fond;
+and he ate them, laughing in a childish way, whilst he stood in front of
+the counter. The sight of the handsome mistress of the shop filled him
+with rapture; he often clapped his hands with joy and began to jump
+about and vent little cries of pleasure, like a child delighted at
+something shown to it. On the first few occasions when he came to see
+her after leaving the hospital Lisa had feared that he might remember
+what had happened.
+
+"Does your head still hurt you?" she asked him.
+
+But he swayed about and burst into a merry laugh as he answered no; and
+then Lisa gently inquired: "You had a fall, hadn't you?"
+
+"Yes, a fall, fall, fall," he sang, in a happy voice, tapping his skull
+the while.
+
+Then, as though he were in a sort of ecstasy, he continued in lingering
+notes, as he gazed at Lisa, "Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!" This
+quite touched Madame Quenu. She had prevailed upon Gavard to keep him
+in his service. It was on the occasions when he so humbly vented his
+admiration that she caressed his chin, and told him that he was a good
+lad. He smiled with childish satisfaction, at times closing his eyes
+like some domestic pet fondled by its mistress; and Lisa thought to
+herself that she was making him some compensation for the blow with
+which she had felled him in the cellar of the poultry market.
+
+However, the Quenus' establishment still remained under a cloud. Florent
+sometimes ventured to show himself, and shook hands with his brother,
+while Lisa observed a frigid silence. He even dined with them sometimes
+on Sundays, at long intervals, and Quenu then made great efforts at
+gaiety, but could not succeed in imparting any cheerfulness to the meal.
+He ate badly, and ended by feeling altogether put out. One evening,
+after one of these icy family gatherings, he said to his wife with tears
+in his eyes:
+
+"What can be the matter with me? Is it true that I'm not ill? Don't you
+really see anything wrong in my appearance? I feel just as though I'd
+got a heavy weight somewhere inside me. And I'm so sad and depressed,
+too, without in the least knowing why. What can it be, do you think?"
+
+"Oh, a little attack of indigestion, I dare say," replied Lisa.
+
+"No, no; it's been going on too long for that; I feel quite crushed
+down. Yet the business is going on all right; I've no great worries, and
+I am leading just the same steady life as ever. But you, too, my dear,
+don't look well; you seem melancholy. If there isn't a change for the
+better soon, I shall send for the doctor."
+
+Lisa looked at him with a grave expression.
+
+"There's no need of a doctor," she said, "things will soon be all right
+again. There's something unhealthy in the atmosphere just now. All the
+neighbourhood is unwell." Then, as if yielding to an impulse of anxious
+affection, she added: "Don't worry yourself, my dear. I can't have you
+falling ill; that would be the crowning blow."
+
+As a rule she sent him back to the kitchen, knowing that the noise of
+the choppers, the tuneful simmering of the fat, and the bubbling of the
+pans had a cheering effect upon him. In this way, too, she kept him at
+a distance from the indiscreet chatter of Mademoiselle Saget, who now
+spent whole mornings in the shop. The old maid seemed bent on arousing
+Lisa's alarm, and thus driving her to some extreme step. She began by
+trying to obtain her confidence.
+
+"What a lot of mischievous folks there are about!" she exclaimed; "folks
+who would be much better employed in minding their own business. If you
+only knew, my dear Madame Quenu--but no, really, I should never dare to
+repeat such things to you."
+
+And, as Madame Quenu replied that she was quite indifferent to gossip,
+and that it had no effect upon her, the old maid whispered into her ear
+across the counter: "Well, people say, you know, that Monsieur Florent
+isn't your cousin at all."
+
+Then she gradually allowed Lisa to see that she knew the whole story; by
+way of proving that she had her quite at her mercy. When Lisa confessed
+the truth, equally as a matter of diplomacy, in order that she might
+have the assistance of some one who would keep her well posted in all
+the gossip of the neighbourhood, the old maid swore that for her own
+part she would be as mute as a fish, and deny the truth of the reports
+about Florent, even if she were to be led to the stake for it. And
+afterwards this drama brought her intense enjoyment; every morning she
+came to the shop with some fresh piece of disturbing news.
+
+"You must be careful," she whispered one day; "I have just heard two
+women in the tripe market talking about you know what. I can't interrupt
+people and tell them they are lying, you know. It would look so strange.
+But the story's got about, and it's spreading farther every day. It
+can't be stopped now, I fear; the truth will have to come out."
+
+A few days later she returned to the assault in all earnest. She made
+her appearance looking quite scared, and waited impatiently till there
+was no one in the shop, when she burst out in her sibilant voice:
+
+"Do you know what people are saying now? Well, they say that all those
+men who meet at Monsieur Lebigre's have got guns, and are going to
+break out again as they did in '48. It's quite distressing to see such
+a worthy man as Monsieur Gavard--rich, too, and so respectable--leaguing
+himself with such scoundrels! I was very anxious to let you know, on
+account of your brother-in-law."
+
+"Oh, it's mere nonsense, I'm sure; it can't be serious," rejoined Lisa,
+just to incite the old maid to tell her more.
+
+"Not serious, indeed! Why, when one passes along the Rue Pirouette in
+the evening one can hear them screaming out in the most dreadful way.
+Oh! they make no mystery of it all. You know yourself how they tried to
+corrupt your husband. And the cartridges which I have seen them making
+from my own window, are they mere nonsense? Well, well, I'm only telling
+you this for your own good."
+
+"Oh! I'm sure of that, and I'm very much obliged to you," replied Lisa;
+"but people do invent such stories, you know."
+
+"Ah, but this is no invention, unfortunately. The whole neighbourhood is
+talking of it. It is said, too, that if the police discover the matter
+there will be a great many people compromised--Monsieur Gavard, for
+instance."
+
+Madame Quenu shrugged her shoulders as though to say that Monsieur
+Gavard was an old fool, and that it would do him good to be locked up.
+
+"Well, I merely mention Monsieur Gavard as I might mention any of the
+others, your brother-in-law, for instance," resumed the old maid with a
+wily glance. "Your brother-in-law is the leader, it seems. That's very
+annoying for you, and I'm very sorry indeed; for if the police were to
+make a descent here they might march Monsieur Quenu off as well. Two
+brothers, you know, they're like two fingers of the same hand."
+
+Beautiful Lisa protested against this, but she turned very pale, for
+Mademoiselle Saget's last thrust had touched a vulnerable point. From
+that day forward the old maid was ever bringing her stories of innocent
+people who had been thrown into prison for extending hospitality to
+criminal scoundrels. In the evening, when La Saget went to get her
+black-currant syrup at the wine dealer's, she prepared her budget for
+the next morning. Rose was but little given to gossiping, and the old
+main reckoned chiefly on her own eyes and ears. She had been struck by
+Monsieur Lebigre's extremely kind and obliging manner towards Florent,
+his eagerness to keep him at his establishment, all the polite
+civilities, for which the little money which the other spent in the
+house could never recoup him. And this conduct of Monsieur Lebigre's
+surprised her the more as she was aware of the position in which the two
+men stood in respect to the beautiful Norman.
+
+"It looks as though Lebigre were fattening him up for sale," she
+reflected. "Whom can he want to sell him to, I wonder?"
+
+One evening when she was in the bar she saw Logre fling himself on the
+bench in the sanctum, and heard him speak of his perambulations through
+the faubourgs, with the remark that he was dead beat. She cast a hasty
+glance at his feet, and saw that there was not a speck of dust on his
+boots. Then she smiled quietly, and went off with her black-currant
+syrup, her lips closely compressed.
+
+She used to complete her budget of information on getting back to her
+window. It was very high up, commanding a view of all the neighbouring
+houses, and proved a source of endless enjoyment to her. She was
+constantly installed at it, as though it were an observatory from which
+she kept watch upon everything that went on in the neighbourhood. She
+was quite familiar with all the rooms opposite her, both on the right
+and the left, even to the smallest details of their furniture. She could
+have described, without the least omission, the habits of their tenants,
+have related if the latter's homes were happy or the contrary, have told
+when and how they washed themselves, what they had for dinner, and
+who it was that came to see them. Then she obtained a side view of the
+markets, and not a woman could walk along the Rue Rambuteau without
+being seen by her; and she could have correctly stated whence the woman
+had come and whither she was going, what she had got in her basket,
+and, in short, every detail about her, her husband, her clothes, her
+children, and her means. "That's Madame Loret, over there; she's giving
+her son a fine education; that's Madame Hutin, a poor little woman who's
+dreadfully neglected by her husband; that's Mademoiselle Cecile,
+the butcher's daughter, a girl that no one will marry because
+she's scrofulous." In this way she could have continued jerking out
+biographical scraps for days together, deriving extraordinary amusement
+from the most trivial, uninteresting incidents. However, as soon as
+eight o'clock struck, she only had eyes for the frosted "cabinet" window
+on which appeared the black shadows of the coterie of politicians. She
+discovered the secession of Charvet and Clemence by missing their bony
+silhouettes from the milky transparency. Not an incident occurred in
+that room but she sooner or later learnt it by some sudden motion of
+those silent arms and heads. She acquired great skill in interpretation,
+and could divine the meaning of protruding noses, spreading fingers,
+gaping mouths, and shrugging shoulders; and in this way she followed
+the progress of the conspiracy step by step, in such wise that she could
+have told day by day how matters stood. One evening the terrible outcome
+of it all was revealed to her. She saw the shadow of Gavard's revolver,
+a huge silhouette with pointed muzzle showing very blackly against the
+glimmering window. It kept appearing and disappearing so rapidly that it
+seemed as though the room was full of revolvers. Those were the firearms
+of which Mademoiselle Saget had spoken to Madame Quenu. On another
+evening she was much puzzled by the sight of endless lengths of some
+material or other, and came to the conclusion that the men must be
+manufacturing cartridges. The next morning, however, she made her
+appearance in the wine shop by eleven o'clock, on the pretext of asking
+Rose if she could let her have a candle, and, glancing furtively into
+the little sanctum, she espied a heap of red material lying on the
+table. This greatly alarmed her, and her next budget of news was one of
+decisive gravity.
+
+"I don't want to alarm you, Madame Quenu," she said, "but matters are
+really looking very serious. Upon my word, I'm quite alarmed. You must
+on no account repeat what I am going to confide to you. They would
+murder me if they knew I had told you."
+
+Then, when Lisa had sworn to say nothing that might compromise her, she
+told her about the red material.
+
+"I can't think what it can be. There was a great heap of it. It looked
+just like rags soaked in blood. Logre, the hunchback, you know, put one
+of the pieces over his shoulder. He looked like a headsman. You may be
+sure this is some fresh trickery or other."
+
+Lisa made no reply, but seemed deep in thought whilst with lowered eyes,
+she handled a fork and mechanically arranged some piece of salt pork on
+a dish.
+
+"If I were you," resumed Mademoiselle Saget softly, "I shouldn't be easy
+in mind; I should want to know the meaning of it all. Why shouldn't you
+go upstairs and examine your brother-in-law's bedroom?"
+
+At this Lisa gave a slight start, let the fork drop, and glanced
+uneasily at the old maid, believing that she had discovered her
+intentions. But the other continued: "You would certainly be justified
+in doing so. There's no knowing into what danger your brother-in-law may
+lead you, if you don't put a check on him. They were talking about you
+yesterday at Madame Taboureau's. Ah! you have a most devoted friend in
+her. Madame Taboureau said that you were much too easy-going, and that
+if she were you she would have put an end to all this long ago."
+
+"Madame Taboureau said that?" murmured Lisa thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes, indeed she did; and Madame Taboureau is a woman whose advice is
+worth listening to. Try to find out the meaning of all those red bands;
+and if you do, you'll tell me, won't you?"
+
+Lisa, however, was no longer listening to her. She was gazing
+abstractedly at the edible snails and Gervais cheeses between the
+festoons of sausages in the window. She seemed absorbed in a mental
+conflict, which brought two little furrows to her brow. The old maid,
+however, poked her nose over the dishes on the counter.
+
+"Ah, some slices of saveloy!" she muttered, as though she were
+speaking to herself. "They'll get very dry cut up like that. And that
+black-pudding's broken, I see--a fork's been stuck into it, I expect. It
+might be taken away--it's soiling the dish."
+
+Lisa, still absent-minded, gave her the black-pudding and slices of
+saveloy. "You may take them," she said, "if you would care for them."
+
+The black bag swallowed them up. Mademoiselle Saget was so accustomed
+to receiving presents that she had actually ceased to return thanks for
+them. Every morning she carried away all the scraps of the pork shop.
+And now she went off with the intention of obtaining her dessert from La
+Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur, by gossiping to them about Gavard.
+
+When Lisa was alone again she installed herself on the bench, behind the
+counter, as though she thought she would be able to come to a sounder
+decision if she were comfortably seated. For the last week she had
+been very anxious. Florent had asked Quenu for five hundred francs one
+evening, in the easy, matter-of-course way of a man who had money lying
+to his credit at the pork shop. Quenu referred him to his wife. This
+was distasteful to Florent, who felt somewhat uneasy on applying to
+beautiful Lisa. But she immediately went up to her bedroom, brought
+the money down and gave it to him, without saying a word, or making the
+least inquiry as to what he intended to do with it. She merely remarked
+that she had made a note of the payment on the paper containing the
+particulars of Florent's share of the inheritance. Three days later he
+took a thousand francs.
+
+"It was scarcely worth while trying to make himself out so
+disinterested," Lisa said to Quenu that night, as they went to bed. "I
+did quite right, you see, in keeping the account. By the way, I haven't
+noted down the thousand francs I gave him to-day."
+
+She sat down at the secretaire, and glanced over the page of figures.
+Then she added: "I did well to leave a blank space. I'll put down what
+I pay him on the margin. You'll see, now, he'll fritter it all away by
+degrees. That's what I've been expecting for a long time past."
+
+Quenu said nothing, but went to bed feeling very much put out. Every
+time that his wife opened the secretaire the drawer gave out a mournful
+creak which pierced his heart. He even thought of remonstrating with
+his brother, and trying to prevent him from ruining himself with the
+Mehudins; but when the time came, he did not dare to do it. Two days
+later Florent asked for another fifteen hundred francs. Logre had said
+one evening that things would ripen much faster if they could only get
+some money. The next day he was enchanted to find these words of his,
+uttered quite at random, result in the receipt of a little pile of
+gold, which he promptly pocketed, sniggering as he did so, and his hunch
+fairly shaking with delight. From that time forward money was constantly
+being needed: one section wished to hire a room where they could meet,
+while another was compelled to provide for various needy patriots. Then
+there were arms and ammunition to be purchased, men to be enlisted, and
+private police expenses. Florent would have paid for anything. He
+had bethought himself of Uncle Gradelle's treasure, and recalled La
+Normande's advice. So he made repeated calls upon Lisa's secretaire,
+being merely kept in check by the vague fear with which his
+sister-in-law's grave face inspired him. Never, thought he, could
+he have spent his money in a holier cause. Logre now manifested
+the greatest enthusiasm, and wore the most wonderful rose-coloured
+neckerchiefs and the shiniest of varnished boots, the sight of which
+made Lacaille glower blackly.
+
+"That makes three thousand francs in seven days," Lisa remarked to
+Quenu. "What do you think of that? A pretty state of affairs, isn't
+it? If he goes on at this rate his fifty thousand francs will last him
+barely four months. And yet it took old Gradelle forty years to put his
+fortune together!"
+
+"It's all your own fault!" cried Quenu. "There was no occasion for you
+to say anything to him about the money."
+
+Lisa gave her husband a severe glance. "It is his own," she said; "and
+he is entitled to take it all. It's not the giving him the money that
+vexes me, but the knowledge that he must make a bad use of it. I tell
+you again, as I have been telling you for a long time past, all this
+must come to an end."
+
+"Do whatever you like; I won't prevent you," at last exclaimed the pork
+butcher, who was tortured by his cupidity.
+
+He still loved his brother; but the thought of fifty thousand francs
+squandered in four months was agony to him. As for his wife, after all
+Mademoiselle Saget's chattering she guessed what became of the money.
+The old maid having ventured to refer to the inheritance, Lisa had taken
+advantage of the opportunity to let the neighbourhood know that Florent
+was drawing his share, and spending it after his own fashion.
+
+It was on the following day that the story of the strips of red material
+impelled Lisa to take definite actin. For a few moments she remained
+struggling with herself whilst gazing at the depressed appearance of the
+shop. The sides of pork hung all around in a sullen fashion, and Mouton,
+seated beside a bowl of fat, displayed the ruffled coat and dim eyes of
+a cat who no longer digests his meals in peace. Thereupon Lisa called to
+Augustine and told her to attend to the counter, and she herself went up
+to Florent's room.
+
+When she entered it, she received quite a shock. The bed, hitherto so
+spotless, was quite ensanguined by a bundle of long red scarves dangling
+down to the floor. On the mantelpiece, between the gilt cardboard boxes
+and the old pomatum-pots, were several red armlets and clusters of red
+cockades, looking like pools of blood. And hanging from every nail and
+peg against the faded grey wallpaper were pieces of bunting, square
+flags--yellow, blue, green, and black--in which Lisa recognised the
+distinguishing banners of the twenty sections. The childish simplicity
+of the room seemed quite scared by all this revolutionary decoration.
+The aspect of guileless stupidity which the shop girl had left behind
+her, the white innocence of the curtains and furniture, now glared
+as with the reflection of a fire; while the photograph of Auguste
+and Augustine looked white with terror. Lisa walked round the room,
+examining the flags, the armlets, and the scarves, without touching any
+of them, as though she feared that the dreadful things might burn her.
+She was reflecting that she had not been mistaken, that it was indeed on
+these and similar things that Florent's money had been spent. And to her
+this seemed an utter abomination, an incredibility which set her whole
+being surging with indignation. To think that her money, that money
+which had been so honestly earned, was being squandered to organise and
+defray the expenses of an insurrection!
+
+She stood there, gazing at the expanded blossoms of the pomegranate on
+the balcony--blossoms which seemed to her like an additional supply of
+crimson cockades--and listening to the sharp notes of the chaffinch,
+which resembled the echo of a distant fusillade. And then it struck her
+that the insurrection might break out the next day, or perhaps that very
+evening. She fancied she could see the banners streaming in the air and
+the scarves advancing in line, while a sudden roll of drums broke on her
+ear. Then she hastily went downstairs again, without even glancing
+at the papers which were lying on the table. She stopped on the first
+floor, went into her own room, and dressed herself.
+
+In this critical emergency Lisa arranged her hair with scrupulous care
+and perfect calmness. She was quite resolute; not a quiver of hesitation
+disturbed her; but a sterner expression than usual had come into her
+eyes. As she fastened her black silk dress, straining the waistband with
+all the strength of her fingers, she recalled Abbe Roustan's words; and
+she questioned herself, and her conscience answered that she was going
+to fulfil a duty. By the time she drew her broidered shawl round her
+broad shoulders, she felt that she was about to perform a deed of high
+morality. She put on a pair of dark mauve gloves, secured a thick
+veil to her bonnet; and before leaving the room she double-locked the
+secretaire, with a hopeful expression on her face which seemed to say
+that that much worried piece of furniture would at last be able to sleep
+in peace again.
+
+Quenu was exhibiting his white paunch at the shop door when his wife
+came down. He was surprised to see her going out in full dress at ten
+o'clock in the morning. "Hallo! Where are you off to?" he asked.
+
+She pretended that she was going out with Madame Taboureau, and added
+that she would call at the Gaite Theatre to buy some tickets. Quenu
+hurried after her to tell her to secure some front seats, so that they
+might be able to see well. Then, as he returned to the shop, Lisa made
+her way to the cab-stand opposite St. Eustache, got into a cab, pulled
+down the blinds, and told the driver to go to the Gaite Theatre. She
+felt afraid of being followed. When she had booked two seats, however,
+she directed the cabman to drive her to the Palais de Justice. There,
+in front of the gate, she discharged him, and then quietly made her way
+through the halls and corridors to the Prefecture of Police.
+
+She soon lost herself in a noisy crowd of police officers and gentlemen
+in long frock-coats, but at last gave a man half a franc to guide her to
+the Prefect's rooms. She found, however, that the Prefect only received
+such persons as came with letters of audience; and she was shown into a
+small apartment, furnished after the style of a boarding-house parlour.
+A fat, bald-headed official, dressed in black from head to foot,
+received her there with sullen coldness. What was her business? he
+inquired. Thereupon she raised her veil, gave her name, and told her
+story, clearly and distinctly, without a pause. The bald man listened
+with a weary air.
+
+"You are this man's sister-in-law, are you not?" he inquired, when she
+had finished.
+
+"Yes," Lisa candidly replied. "We are honest, straight-forward people,
+and I am anxious that my husband should not be compromised."
+
+The official shrugged his shoulders, as though to say that the whole
+affair was a great nuisance.
+
+"Do you know," he said impatiently, "that I have been pestered with this
+business for more than a year past? Denunciation after denunciation has
+been sent to me, and I am being continually goaded and pressed to take
+action. You will understand that if I haven't done so as yet, it is
+because I prefer to wait. We have good reasons for our conduct in the
+matter. Stay, now, here are the papers relating to it. I'll let you see
+them."
+
+He laid before her an immense collection of papers in a blue wrapper.
+Lisa turned them over. They were like detached chapters of the story she
+had just been relating. The commissaires of police at Havre, Rouen, and
+Vernon notified Florent's arrival within their respective jurisdictions.
+Then came a report which announced that he had taken up his residence
+with the Quenu-Gradelles. Next followed his appointment at the markets,
+an account of his mode of life, the spending of his evenings at Monsieur
+Lebigre's; not a detail was deficient. Lisa, quite astounded as she
+was, noticed that the reports were in duplicate, so that they must have
+emanated from two different sources. And at last she came upon a pile of
+letters, anonymous letters of every shape, and in every description of
+handwriting. They brought her amazement to a climax. In one letter she
+recognised the villainous hand of Mademoiselle Saget, denouncing the
+people who met in the little sanctum at Lebigre's. On a large piece of
+greasy paper she identified the heavy pot-hooks of Madame Lecoeur;
+and there was also a sheet of cream-laid note-paper, ornamented with a
+yellow pansy, and covered with the scrawls of La Sarriette and Monsieur
+Jules. These two letters warned the Government to beware of Gavard.
+Farther on Lisa recognised the coarse style of old Madame Mehudin, who
+in four pages of almost indecipherable scribble repeated all the wild
+stories about Florent that circulated in the markets. However, what
+startled her more than anything else was the discovery of a bill-head
+of her own establishment, with the inscription _Quenu-Gradelle, Pork
+Butcher_, on its face, whilst on the back of it Auguste had penned
+a denunciation of the man whom he looked upon as an obstacle to his
+marriage.
+
+The official had acted upon a secret idea in placing these papers before
+her. "You don't recognise any of these handwritings, do you?" he asked.
+
+"No," she stammered, rising from her seat, quite oppressed by what she
+had just learned; and she hastily pulled down her veil again to conceal
+the blush of confusion which was rising to her cheeks. Her silk dress
+rustled, and her dark gloves disappeared beneath her heavy shawl.
+
+"You see, madame," said the bald man with a faint smile, "your
+information comes a little late. But I promise you that your visit shall
+not be forgotten. And tell your husband not to stir. It is possible that
+something may happen soon that----"
+
+He did not complete his sentence, but, half rising from his armchair,
+made a slight bow to Lisa. It was a dismissal, and she took her leave.
+In the ante-room she caught sight of Logre and Monsieur Lebigre, who
+hastily turned their faces away; but she was more disturbed than they
+were. She went her way through the halls and along the corridors,
+feeling as if she were in the clutches of this system of police which,
+it now seemed to her, saw and knew everything. At last she came out upon
+the Place Dauphine. When she reached the Quai de l'Horloge she slackened
+her steps, and felt refreshed by the cool breeze blowing from the Seine.
+
+She now had a keen perception of the utter uselessness of what she had
+done. Her husband was in no danger whatever; and this thought,
+whilst relieving her, left her a somewhat remorseful feeling. She
+was exasperated with Auguste and the women who had put her in such a
+ridiculous position. She walked on yet more slowly, watching the Seine
+as it flowed past. Barges, black with coal-dust, were floating down the
+greenish water; and all along the bank anglers were casting their lines.
+After all, it was not she who had betrayed Florent. This reflection
+suddenly occurred to her and astonished her. Would she have been guilty
+of a wicked action, then, if she had been his betrayer? She was quite
+perplexed; surprised at the possibility of her conscience having
+deceived her. Those anonymous letters seemed extremely base. She herself
+had gone openly to the authorities, given her name, and saved innocent
+people from being compromised. Then at the sudden thought of old
+Gradelle's fortune she again examined herself, and felt ready to throw
+the money into the river if such a course should be necessary to
+remove the blight which had fallen on the pork shop. No, she was not
+avaricious, she was sure she wasn't; it was no thought of money that
+had prompted her in what she had just done. As she crossed the Pont au
+Change she grew quite calm again, recovering all her superb equanimity.
+On the whole, it was much better, she felt, that others should have
+anticipated her at the Prefecture. She would not have to deceive Quenu,
+and she would sleep with an easier conscience.
+
+"Have you booked the seats?" Quenu asked her when she returned home.
+
+He wanted to see the tickets, and made Lisa explain to him the exact
+position the seats occupied in the dress-circle. Lisa had imagined
+that the police would make a descent upon the house immediately after
+receiving her information, and her proposal to go to the theatre had
+only been a wily scheme for getting Quenu out of the way while the
+officers were arresting Florent. She had contemplated taking him for
+an outing in the afternoon--one of those little jaunts which they
+occasionally allowed themselves. They would then drive in an open cab to
+the Bois de Boulogne, dine at a restaurant, and amuse themselves for an
+hour or two at some cafe concern. But there was no need to go out now,
+she thought; so she spent the rest of the day behind her counter, with
+a rosy glow on her face, and seeming brighter and gayer, as though she
+were recovering from some indisposition.
+
+"You see, I told you it was fresh air you wanted!" exclaimed Quenu.
+"Your walk this morning has brightened you up wonderfully!"
+
+"No, indeed," she said after a pause, again assuming her look of
+severity; "the streets of Paris are not at all healthy places."
+
+In the evening they went to the Gaite to see the performance of "La
+Grace de Dieu." Quenu, in a frock-coat and drab gloves, with his hair
+carefully pomatumed and combed, was occupied most of the time in hunting
+for the names of the performers in the programme. Lisa looked superb
+in her low dress as she rested her hands in their tight-fitting white
+gloves on the crimson velvet balustrade. They were both of them deeply
+affected by the misfortunes of Marie. The commander, they thought, was
+certainly a desperate villain; while Pierrot made them laugh from the
+first moment of his appearance on the stage. But at last Madame Quenu
+cried. The departure of the child, the prayer in the maiden's chamber,
+the return of the poor mad creature, moistened her eyes with gentle
+tears, which she brushed away with her handkerchief.
+
+However, the pleasure which the evening afforded her turned into a
+feeling of triumph when she caught sight of La Normande and her mother
+sitting in the upper gallery. She thereupon puffed herself out more than
+ever, sent Quenu off to the refreshment bar for a box of caramels, and
+began to play with her fan, a mother-of-pearl fan, elaborately gilt.
+The fish-girl was quite crushed; and bent her head down to listen to
+her mother, who was whispering to her. When the performance was over
+and beautiful Lisa and the beautiful Norman met in the vestibule they
+exchanged a vague smile.
+
+Florent had dined early at Monsieur Lebigre's that day. He was expecting
+Logre, who had promised to introduce to him a retired sergeant, a
+capable man, with whom they were to discuss the plan of attack upon the
+Palais Bourbon and the Hotel de Ville. The night closed in, and the
+fine rain, which had begun to fall in the afternoon, shrouded the vast
+markets in a leaden gloom. They loomed darkly against the copper-tinted
+sky, while wisps of murky cloud skimmed by almost on a level with the
+roofs, looking as though they were caught and torn by the points of the
+lightning-conductors. Florent felt depressed by the sight of the muddy
+streets, and the streaming yellowish rain which seemed to sweep the
+twilight away and extinguish it in the mire. He watched the crowds of
+people who had taken refuge on the foot-pavements of the covered ways,
+the umbrellas flitting past in the downpour, and the cabs that dashed
+with increased clatter and speed along the wellnigh deserted roads.
+Presently there was a rift in the clouds; and a red glow arose in the
+west. Then a whole army of street-sweepers came into sight at the end of
+the Rue Montmartre, driving a lake of liquid mud before them with their
+brooms.
+
+Logre did not turn up with the sergeant; Gavard had gone to dine with
+some friends at Batignolles, and so Florent was reduced to spending the
+evening alone with Robine. He had all the talking to himself, and ended
+by feeling very low-spirited. His companion merely wagged his beard, and
+stretched out his hand every quarter of an hour to raise his glass of
+beer to his lips. At last Florent grew so bored that he went off to
+bed. Robine, however, though left to himself, still lingered there,
+contemplating his glass with an expression of deep thought. Rose and the
+waiter, who had hoped to shut up early, as the coterie of politicians
+was absent, had to wait a long half hour before he at last made up his
+mind to leave.
+
+When Florent got to his room, he felt afraid to go to bed. He was
+suffering from one of those nervous attacks which sometimes plunged him
+into horrible nightmares until dawn. On the previous day he had been to
+Clamart to attend the funeral of Monsieur Verlaque, who had died after
+terrible sufferings; and he still felt sad at the recollection of the
+narrow coffin which he had seen lowered into the earth. Nor could he
+banish from his mind the image of Madame Verlaque, who, with a tearful
+voice, though there was not a tear in her eyes, kept following him and
+speaking to him about the coffin, which was not paid for, and of the
+cost of the funeral, which she was quite at a loss about, as she had
+not a copper in the place, for the druggist, on hearing of her husband's
+death on the previous day, had insisted upon his bill being paid. So
+Florent had been obliged to advance the money for the coffin and other
+funeral expenses, and had even given the gratuities to the mutes.
+Just as he was going away, Madame Verlaque looked at him with such a
+heartbroken expression that he left her twenty francs.
+
+And now Monsieur Verlaque's death worried him very much. It affected
+his situation in the markets. He might lose his berth, or perhaps
+be formally appointed inspector. In either case he foresaw vexatious
+complications which might arouse the suspicions of the police. He would
+have been delighted if the insurrection could have broken out the very
+next day, so that he might at once have tossed the laced cap of his
+inspectorship into the streets. With his mind full of harassing thoughts
+like these, he stepped out upon the balcony, as though soliciting of the
+warm night some whiff of air to cool his fevered brow. The rain had
+laid the wind, and a stormy heat still reigned beneath the deep blue,
+cloudless heavens. The markets, washed by the downpour, spread out below
+him, similar in hue to the sky, and, like the sky, studded with the
+yellow stars of their gas lamps.
+
+Leaning on the iron balustrade, Florent recollected that sooner or later
+he would certainly be punished for having accepted the inspectorship. It
+seemed to lie like a stain on his life. He had become an official of the
+Prefecture, forswearing himself, serving the Empire in spite of all
+the oaths he had taken in his exile. His anxiety to please Lisa, the
+charitable purpose to which he had devoted the salary he received, the
+just and scrupulous manner in which he had always struggled to carry
+out his duties, no longer seemed to him valid excuses for his base
+abandonment of principle. If he had suffered in the midst of all that
+sleek fatness, he had deserved to suffer. And before him arose a
+vision of the evil year which he had just spent, his persecution by the
+fish-wives, the sickening sensations he had felt on close, damp days,
+the continuous indigestion which had afflicted his delicate stomach, and
+the latent hostility which was gathering strength against him. All these
+things he now accepted as chastisement. That dull rumbling of hostility
+and spite, the cause of which he could not divine, must forebode some
+coming catastrophe before whose approach he already stooped, with the
+shame of one who knows there is a transgression that he must expiate.
+Then he felt furious with himself as he thought of the popular rising he
+was preparing; and reflected that he was no longer unsullied enough to
+achieve success.
+
+In how many dreams he had indulged in that lofty little room, with his
+eyes wandering over the spreading roofs of the market pavilions! They
+usually appeared to him like grey seas that spoke to him of far-off
+countries. On moonless nights they would darken and turn into stagnant
+lakes of black and pestilential water. But on bright nights they became
+shimmering fountains of light, the moonbeams streaming over both tiers
+like water, gliding along the huge plates of zinc, and flowing over the
+edges of the vast superposed basins. Then frosty weather seemed to turn
+these roofs into rigid ice, like the Norwegian bays over which skaters
+skim; while the warm June nights lulled them into deep sleep. One
+December night, on opening his window, he had seen them white with snow,
+so lustrously white that they lighted up the coppery sky. Unsullied by
+a single footstep, they then stretched out like the lonely plains of the
+Far North, where never a sledge intrudes. Their silence was beautiful,
+their soft peacefulness suggestive of innocence.
+
+And at each fresh aspect of the ever-changing panorama before him,
+Florent yielded to dreams which were now sweet, now full of bitter pain.
+The snow calmed him; the vast sheet of whiteness seemed to him like a
+veil of purity thrown over the filth of the markets. The bright, clear
+nights, the shimmering moonbeams, carried him away into the fairy-land
+of story-books. It was only the dark, black nights, the burning nights
+of June, when he beheld, as it were, a miasmatic marsh, the stagnant
+water of a dead and accursed sea, that filled him with gloom and grief;
+and then ever the same dreadful visions haunted his brain.
+
+The markets were always there. He could never open the window and rest
+his elbows on the balustrade without having them before him, filling
+the horizon. He left the pavilions in the evening only to behold their
+endless roofs as he went to bed. They shut him off from the rest of
+Paris, ceaselessly intruded their huge bulk upon him, entered into every
+hour of his life. That night again horrible fancies came to him, fancies
+aggravated by the vague forebodings of evil which distressed him. The
+rain of the afternoon had filled the markets with malodorous dampness,
+and as they wallowed there in the centre of the city, like some drunken
+man lying, after his last bottle, under the table, they cast all their
+foul breath into his face. He seemed to see a thick vapour rising up
+from each pavilion. In the distance the meat and tripe markets reeked
+with the sickening steam of blood; nearer in, the vegetable and fruit
+pavilions diffused the odour of pungent cabbages, rotten apples, and
+decaying leaves; the butter and cheese exhaled a poisonous stench; from
+the fish market came a sharp, fresh gust; while from the ventilator in
+the tower of the poultry pavilion just below him, he could see a warm
+steam issuing, a fetid current rising in coils like the sooty smoke from
+a factory chimney. And all these exhalations coalesced above the roofs,
+drifted towards the neighbouring houses, and spread themselves out in
+a heavy cloud which stretched over the whole of Paris. It was as though
+the markets were bursting within their tight belt of iron, were beating
+the slumber of the gorged city with the stertorous fumes of their
+midnight indigestion.
+
+However, on the footway down below Florent presently heard a sound of
+voices, the laughter of happy folks. Then the door of the passage was
+closed noisily. It was Quenu and Lisa coming home from the theatre.
+Stupefied and intoxicated, as it were, by the atmosphere he was
+breathing, Florent thereupon left the balcony, his nerves still
+painfully excited by the thought of the tempest which he could feel
+gathering round his head. The source of his misery was yonder, in
+those markets, heated by the day's excesses. He closed the window with
+violence, and left them wallowing in the darkness, naked and perspiring
+beneath the stars.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A week later, Florent thought that he would at last be able to proceed
+to action. A sufficiently serious outburst of public dissatisfaction
+furnished an opportunity for launching his insurrectionary forces
+upon Paris. The Corps Legislatif, whose members had lately shown great
+variance of opinion respecting certain grants to the Imperial family,
+was now discussing a bill for the imposition of a very unpopular tax, at
+which the lower orders had already begun to growl. The Ministry, fearing
+a defeat, was straining every nerve. It was probable, thought Florent,
+that no better pretext for a rising would for a long time present
+itself.
+
+One morning, at daybreak, he went to reconnoitre the neighbourhood of
+the Palais Bourbon. He forgot all about his duties as inspector, and
+lingered there, studying the approaches of the palace, till eight
+o'clock, without ever thinking that his absence would revolutionise the
+fish market. He perambulated all the surrounding streets, the Rue de
+Lille, the Rue de l'Universite, the Rue de Bourgogne, the Rue Saint
+Dominique, and even extended his examination to the Esplanade des
+Invalides, stopping at certain crossways, and measuring distances as he
+walked along. Then, on coming back to the Quai d'Orsay, he sat down
+on the parapet, and determined that the attack should be made
+simultaneously from all sides. The contingents from the Gros-Caillou
+district should arrive by way of the Champ de Mars; the sections from
+the north of Paris should come down by the Madeleine; while those from
+the west and the south would follow the quays, or make their way in
+small detachments through the then narrow streets of the Faubourg Saint
+Germain. However, the other side of the river, the Champs Elysees, with
+their open avenues, caused him some uneasiness; for he foresaw that
+cannon would be stationed there to sweep the quays. He thereupon
+modified several details of his plan, and marked down in a
+memorandum-book the different positions which the several sections
+should occupy during the combat. The chief attack, he concluded, must
+certainly be made from the Rue de Bourgogne and the Rue de l'Universite,
+while a diversion might be effected on the side of the river.
+
+Whilst he thus pondered over his plans the eight o'clock sun, warming
+the nape of his neck, shone gaily on the broad footways, and gilded
+the columns of the great structure in front of him. In imagination he
+already saw the contemplated battle; clusters of men clinging round
+those columns, the gates burst open, the peristyle invaded; and then
+scraggy arms suddenly appearing high aloft and planting a banner there.
+
+At last he slowly went his way homewards again with his gaze fixed upon
+the ground. But all at once a cooing sound made him look up, and he saw
+that he was passing through the garden of the Tuileries. A number of
+wood-pigeons, bridling their necks, were strutting over a lawn near by.
+Florent leant for a moment against the tub of an orange-tree, and looked
+at the grass and the pigeons steeped in sunshine. Right ahead under the
+chestnut-trees all was black. The garden was wrapped in a warm silence,
+broken only by the distant rumbling which came from behind the railings
+of the Rue de Rivoli. The scent of all the greenery affected Florent,
+reminding him of Madame Francois. However, a little girl ran past,
+trundling a hoop, and alarmed the pigeons. They flew off, and settled in
+a row on the arm of a marble statue of an antique wrestler standing
+in the middle of the lawn, and once more, but with less vivacity, they
+began to coo and bridle their necks.
+
+As Florent was returning to the markets by way of the Rue Vauvilliers,
+he heard Claude Lantier calling to him. The artist was going down into
+the basement of the poultry pavilion. "Come with me!" he cried. "I'm
+looking for that brute Marjolin."
+
+Florent followed, glad to forget his thoughts and to defer his return
+to the fish market for a little longer. Claude told him that his friend
+Marjolin now had nothing further to wish for: he had become an utter
+animal. Claude entertained an idea of making him pose on all-fours in
+future. Whenever he lost his temper over some disappointing sketch he
+came to spend whole hours in the idiot's company, never speaking, but
+striving to catch his expression when he laughed.
+
+"He'll be feeding his pigeons, I dare say," he said; "but unfortunately
+I don't know whereabouts Monsieur Gavard's storeroom is."
+
+They groped about the cellar. In the middle of it some water was
+trickling from a couple of taps in the dim gloom. The storerooms here
+are reserved for pigeons exclusively, and all along the trellising they
+heard faint cooings, like the hushed notes of birds nestling under the
+leaves when daylight is departing. Claude began to laugh as he heard it.
+
+"It sounds as though all the lovers in Paris were embracing each other
+inside here, doesn't it?" he exclaimed to his companion.
+
+However, they could not find a single storeroom open, and were beginning
+to think that Marjolin could not be in the cellar, when a sound of
+loud, smacking kisses made them suddenly halt before a door which stood
+slightly ajar. Claude pulled it open and beheld Marjolin, whom Cadine
+was kissing, whilst he, a mere dummy, offered his face without feeling
+the slightest thrill at the touch of her lips.
+
+"Oh, so this is your little game, is it?" said Claude with a laugh.
+
+"Oh," replied Cadine, quite unabashed, "he likes being kissed, because
+he feels afraid now in the dim light. You do feel frightened, don't
+you?"
+
+Like the idiot he was, Marjolin stroked his face with his hands as
+though trying to find the kisses which the girl had just printed there.
+And he was beginning to stammer out that he was afraid, when Cadine
+continued: "And, besides, I came to help him; I've been feeding the
+pigeons."
+
+Florent looked at the poor creatures. All along the shelves were rows of
+lidless boxes, in which pigeons, showing their motley plumage, crowded
+closely on their stiffened legs. Every now and then a tremor ran along
+the moving mass; and then the birds settled down again, and nothing was
+heard but their confused, subdued notes. Cadine had a saucepan near her;
+she filled her mouth with the water and tares which it contained, and
+then, taking up the pigeons one by one, shot the food down their throats
+with amazing rapidity. The poor creatures struggled and nearly choked,
+and finally fell down in the boxes with swimming eyes, intoxicated, as
+it were, by all the food which they were thus forced to swallow.[*]
+
+     [*] This is the customary mode of fattening pigeons at the
+     Paris markets. The work is usually done by men who make a
+     specialty of it, and are called _gaveurs_.--Translator.
+
+"Poor creatures!" exclaimed Claude.
+
+"Oh, so much the worse for them," said Cadine, who had now finished.
+"They are much nicer eating when they've been well fed. In a couple of
+hours or so all those over yonder will be given a dose of salt water.
+That makes their flesh white and tender. Then two hours afterwards
+they'll be killed. If you would like to see the killing, there are some
+here which are quite ready. Marjolin will settle their account for them
+in a jiffy."
+
+Marjolin carried away a box containing some fifty pigeons, and Claude
+and Florent followed him. Squatting upon the ground near one of the
+water-taps, he placed the box by his side. Then he laid a framework of
+slender wooden bars on the top of a kind of zinc trough, and forthwith
+began to kill the pigeons. His knife flashed rapidly in his fingers,
+as he seized the birds by the wings, stunned them by a blow on the head
+from the knife-handle, and then thrust the point of the blade into their
+throats. They quivered for an instant, and ruffled their feathers as
+Marjolin laid them in a row, with their heads between the wooden bars
+above the zinc trough, into which their blood fell drop by drop. He
+repeated each different movement with the regularity of clockwork, the
+blows from the knife-handle falling with a monotonous tick-tack as he
+broke the birds' skulls, and his hand working backwards and forwards
+like a pendulum as he took up the living pigeons on one side and laid
+them down dead on the other. Soon, moreover, he worked with increasing
+rapidity, gloating over the massacre with glistening eyes, squatting
+there like a huge delighted bull-dog enjoying the sight of slaughtered
+vermin. "Tick-tack! Tick-tack!" whilst his tongue clucked as an
+accompaniment to the rhythmical movements of his knife. The pigeons hung
+down like wisps of silken stuff.
+
+"Ah, you enjoy that, don't you, you great stupid?" exclaimed Cadine.
+"How comical those pigeons look when they bury their heads in their
+shoulders to hide their necks! They're horrid things, you know, and
+would give one nasty bites if they got the chance." Then she laughed
+more loudly at Marjolin's increasing, feverish haste; and added: "I've
+killed them sometimes myself, but I can't get on as quickly as he does.
+One day he killed a hundred in ten minutes."
+
+The wooden frame was nearly full; the blood could be heard falling into
+the zinc trough; and as Claude happened to turn round he saw Florent
+looking so pale that he hurriedly led him away. When they got
+above-ground again he made him sit down on a step.
+
+"Why, what's the matter with you?" he exclaimed, tapping him on the
+shoulder. "You're fainting away like a woman!"
+
+"It's the smell of the cellar," murmured Florent, feeling a little
+ashamed of himself.
+
+The truth was, however, that those pigeons, which were forced to swallow
+tares and salt water, and then had their skulls broken and their throats
+slit, had reminded him of the wood-pigeons of the Tuileries gardens,
+strutting over the green turf, with their satiny plumage flashing
+iridescently in the sunlight. He again heard them cooing on the arm
+of the marble wrestler amidst the hushed silence of the garden, while
+children trundled their hoops in the deep gloom of the chestnuts. And
+then, on seeing that big fair-haired animal massacring his boxful of
+birds, stunning them with the handle of his knife and driving its point
+into their throats, in the depths of that foul-smelling cellar, he had
+felt sick and faint, his legs had almost given way beneath him, while
+his eyelids quivered tremulously.
+
+"Well, you'd never do for a soldier!" Claude said to him when he
+recovered from his faintness. "Those who sent you to Cayenne must have
+been very simple-minded folks to fear such a man as you! Why, my good
+fellow, if ever you do put yourself at the head of a rising, you won't
+dare to fire a shot. You'll be too much afraid of killing somebody."
+
+Florent got up without making any reply. He had become very gloomy, his
+face was furrowed by deep wrinkles; and he walked off, leaving Claude to
+go back to the cellar alone. As he made his way towards the fish market
+his thoughts returned to his plan of attack, to the levies of armed men
+who were to invade the Palais Bourbon. Cannon would roar from the Champs
+Elysees; the gates would be burst open; blood would stain the steps, and
+men's brains would bespatter the pillars. A vision of the fight passed
+rapidly before him; and he beheld himself in the midst of it, deadly
+pale, and hiding his face in his hands, not daring to look around him.
+
+As he was crossing the Rue du Pont Neuf he fancied he espied Auguste's
+pale face peering round the corner of the fruit pavilion. The assistant
+seemed to be watching for someone, and his eyes were starting from his
+head with an expression of intense excitement. Suddenly, however, he
+vanished and hastened back to the pork shop.
+
+"What's the matter with him?" thought Florent. "Is he frightened of me,
+I wonder?"
+
+Some very serious occurrences had taken place that morning at the
+Quenu-Gradelles'. Soon after daybreak, Auguste, breathless with
+excitement, had awakened his mistress to tell her that the police
+had come to arrest Monsieur Florent. And he added, with stammering
+incoherence, that the latter had gone out, and that he must have done so
+with the intention of escaping. Lisa, careless of appearances, at once
+hurried up to her brother-in-law's room in her dressing-wrapper, and
+took possession of La Normande's photograph, after glancing round to
+see if there was anything lying about that might compromise herself and
+Quenu. As she was making her way downstairs again, she met the police
+agents on the first floor. The commissary requested her to accompany
+them to Florent's room, where, after speaking to her for a moment in a
+low tone, he installed himself with his men, bidding her open the shop
+as usual so as to avoid giving the alarm to anyone. The trap was set.
+
+Lisa's only worry in the matter was the terrible blow that the arrest
+would prove to poor Quenu. She was much afraid that if he learned that
+the police were in the house, he would spoil everything by his tears; so
+she made Auguste swear to observe the most rigid silence on the subject.
+Then she went back to her room, put on her stays, and concocted some
+story for the benefit of Quenu, who was still drowsy. Half an hour later
+she was standing at the door of the shop with all her usual neatness
+of appearance, her hair smooth and glossy, and her face glowing rosily.
+Auguste was quietly setting out the window. Quenu came for a moment on
+to the footway, yawning slightly, and ridding himself of all sleepiness
+in the fresh morning air. There was nothing to indicate the drama that
+was in preparation upstairs.
+
+The commissary himself, however, gave the alarm to the neighbourhood by
+paying a domiciliary visit to the Mehudins' abode in the Rue Pirouette.
+He was in possession of the most precise information. In the anonymous
+letters which had been sent to the Prefecture, all sorts of statements
+were made respecting Florent's alleged intrigue with the beautiful
+Norman. Perhaps, thought the commissary, he had now taken refuge with
+her; and so, accompanied by two of his men, he proceeded to knock at the
+door in the name of the law. The Mehudins had only just got up. The old
+woman opened the door in a fury; but suddenly calmed down and began
+to smile when she learned the business on hand. She seated herself and
+fastened her clothes, while declaring to the officers: "We are honest
+folks here, and have nothing to be afraid of. You can search wherever
+you like."
+
+However, as La Normande delayed to open the door of her room, the
+commissary told his men to break it open. The young woman was scarcely
+clad when the others entered, and this unceremonious invasion, which she
+could not understand, fairly exasperated her. She flushed crimson from
+anger rather than from shame, and seemed as though she were about to
+fly at the officers. The commissary, at the sight, stepped forward to
+protect his men, repeating in his cold voice: "In the name of the law!
+In the name of the law!"
+
+Thereupon La Normande threw herself upon a chair, and burst into a wild
+fit of hysterical sobbing at finding herself so powerless. She was quite
+at a loss to understand what these men wanted with her. The commissary,
+however, had noticed how scantily she was clad, and taking a shawl from
+a peg, he flung it over her. Still she did not wrap it round her, but
+only sobbed the more bitterly as she watched the men roughly searching
+the apartment.
+
+"But what have I done?" she at last stammered out. "What are you looking
+for here?"
+
+Thereupon the commissary pronounced the name of Florent; and La
+Normande, catching sight of the old woman, who was standing at the door,
+cried out: "Oh, the wretch! This is her doing!" and she rushed at her
+mother.
+
+She would have struck her if she had reached her; but the police agents
+held her back, and forcibly wrapped her in the shawl. Meanwhile, she
+struggled violently, and exclaimed in a choking voice:
+
+"What do you take me for? That Florent has never been in this room, I
+tell you. There was nothing at all between us. People are always trying
+to injure me in the neighbourhood; but just let anyone come here and
+say anything before my face, and then you'll see! You'll lock me up
+afterwards, I dare say, but I don't mind that! Florent, indeed! What a
+lie! What nonsense!"
+
+This flood of words seemed to calm her; and her anger now turned
+against Florent, who was the cause of all the trouble. Addressing the
+commissary, she sought to justify herself.
+
+"I did not know his real character, sir," she said. "He had such a mild
+manner that he deceived us all. I was unwilling to believe all I heard,
+because I know people are so malicious. He only came here to give
+lessons to my little boy, and went away directly they were over. I gave
+him a meal here now and again, that's true and sometimes made him a
+present of a fine fish. That's all. But this will be a warning to me,
+and you won't catch me showing the same kindness to anyone again."
+
+"But hasn't he given you any of his papers to take care of?" asked the
+commissary.
+
+"Oh no, indeed! I swear it. I'd give them up to you at once if he had.
+I've had quite enough of this, I can tell you! It's no joke to see you
+tossing all my things about and ferreting everywhere in this way. Oh!
+you may look; there's nothing."
+
+The officers, who examined every article of furniture, now wished to
+enter the little closet where Muche slept. The child had been awakened
+by the noise, and for the last few moments he had been crying bitterly,
+as though he imagined that he was going to be murdered.
+
+"This is my boy's room," said La Normande, opening the door.
+
+Muche, quite naked, ran up and threw his arms round his mother's neck.
+She pacified him, and laid him down in her own bed. The officers came
+out of the little room again almost immediately, and the commissary
+had just made up his mind to retire, when the child, still in tears,
+whispered in his mother's ear: "They'll take my copy-books. Don't let
+them have my copy-books."
+
+"Oh, yes; that's true," cried La Normande; "there are some copy-books.
+Wait a moment, gentlemen, and I'll give them to you. I want you to see
+that I'm not hiding anything from you. Then, you'll find some of his
+writing inside these. You're quite at liberty to hang him as far as I'm
+concerned; you won't find me trying to cut him down."
+
+Thereupon she handed Muche's books and the copies set by Florent to the
+commissary. But at this the boy sprang angrily out of bed, and began to
+scratch and bite his mother, who put him back again with a box on the
+ears. Then he began to bellow.
+
+In the midst of the uproar, Mademoiselle Saget appeared on the
+threshold, craning her neck forward. Finding all the doors open, she had
+come in to offer her services to old Madame Mehudin. She spied about and
+listened, and expressed extreme pity for these poor women, who had
+no one to defend them. The commissary, however, had begun to read
+the copies with a grave air. The frequent repetition of such words as
+"tyrannically," "liberticide," "unconstitutional," and "revolutionary"
+made him frown; and on reading the sentence, "When the hour strikes, the
+guilty shall fall," he tapped his fingers on the paper and said: "This
+is very serious, very serious indeed."
+
+Thereupon he gave the books to one of his men, and went off. Claire,
+who had hitherto not shown herself, now opened her door, and watched
+the police officers go down the stairs. And afterwards she came into
+her sister's bedroom, which she had not entered for a year. Mademoiselle
+Saget appeared to be on the best of terms with La Normande, and was
+hanging over her in a caressing way, bringing the shawl forward to
+cover her the better, and listening to her angry indignation with an
+expression of the deepest sympathy.
+
+"You wretched coward!" exclaimed Claire, planting herself in front of
+her sister.
+
+La Normande sprang up, quivering with anger, and let the shawl fall to
+the floor.
+
+"Ah, you've been playing the spy, have you?" she screamed. "Dare to
+repeat what you've just said!"
+
+"You wretched coward!" repeated Claire, in still more insulting tones
+than before.
+
+Thereupon La Normande struck Claire with all her force; and in return
+Claire, turning terribly pale, sprang upon her sister and dug her nails
+into her neck. They struggled together for a moment or two, tearing
+at each other's hair and trying to choke one another. Claire, fragile
+though she was, pushed La Normande backward with such tremendous
+violence that they both fell against the wardrobe, smashing the mirror
+on its front. Muche was roaring, and old Madame Mehudin called to
+Mademoiselle Saget to come and help her separate the sisters. Claire,
+however, shook herself free.
+
+"Coward! Coward!" she cried; "I'll go and tell the poor fellow that it
+is you who have betrayed him."
+
+Her mother, however, blocked the doorway, and would not let her pass,
+while La Normande seized her from behind, and then, Mademoiselle Saget
+coming to the assistance of the other two, the three of them dragged
+Claire into her bedroom and locked the door upon her, in spite of all
+her frantic resistance. In her rage she tried to kick the door down, and
+smashed everything in the room. Soon afterwards, however, nothing could
+be heard except a furious scratching, the sound of metal scarping at the
+plaster. The girl was trying to loosen the door hinges with the points
+of her scissors.
+
+"She would have murdered me if she had had a knife," said La Normande,
+looking about for her clothes, in order to dress herself. "She'll be
+doing something dreadful, you'll see, one of these days, with that
+jealousy of hers! We mustn't let her get out on any account: she'd bring
+the whole neighbourhood down upon us!"
+
+Mademoiselle Saget went off in all haste. She reached the corner of the
+Rue Pirouette just as the commissary of police was re-entering the side
+passage of the Quenu-Gradelles' house. She grasped the situation at
+once, and entered the shop with such glistening eyes that Lisa enjoined
+silence by a gesture which called her attention to the presence of
+Quenu, who was hanging up some pieces of salt pork. As soon as he had
+returned to the kitchen, the old maid in a low voice described the
+scenes that had just taken place at the Mehudins'. Lisa, as she bent
+over the counter, with her hand resting on a dish of larded veal,
+listened to her with the happy face of one who triumphs. Then, as a
+customer entered the shop, and asked for a couple of pig's trotters,
+Lisa wrapped them up, and handed them over with a thoughtful air.
+
+"For my own part, I bear La Normande no ill-will," she said to
+Mademoiselle Saget, when they were alone again. "I used to be very
+fond of her, and have always been sorry that other people made mischief
+between us. The proof that I've no animosity against her is here in this
+photograph, which I saved from falling into the hands of the police, and
+which I'm quite ready to give her back if she will come and ask me for
+it herself."
+
+She took the photograph out of her pocket as she spoke. Mademoiselle
+Saget scrutinised it and sniggered as she read the inscription, "Louise,
+to her dear friend Florent."
+
+"I'm not sure you'll be acting wisely," she said in her cutting voice.
+"You'd do better to keep it."
+
+"No, no," replied Lisa; "I'm anxious for all this silly nonsense to
+come to an end. To-day is the day of reconciliation. We've had enough
+unpleasantness, and the neighbourhood's now going to be quiet and
+peaceful again."
+
+"Well, well, shall I go and tell La Normande that you are expecting
+her?" asked the old maid.
+
+"Yes; I shall be very glad if you will."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget then made her way back to the Rue Pirouette, and
+greatly frightened the fish-girl by telling her that she had just seen
+her photograph in Lisa's pocket. She could not, however, at once prevail
+upon her to comply with her rival's terms. La Normande propounded
+conditions of her own. She would go, but Madame Quenu must come to the
+door of the shop to receive her. Thus the old maid was obliged to make
+another couple of journeys between the two rivals before their meeting
+could be satisfactorily arranged. At last, however, to her great
+delight, she succeeded in negotiating the peace which was destined to
+cause so much talk and excitement. As she passed Claire's door for the
+last time she still heard the sound of the scissors scraping away at the
+plaster.
+
+When she had at last carried a definite reply to Madame Quenu,
+Mademoiselle Saget hurried off to find Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette;
+and all three of them took up their position on the footway at the
+corner of the fish market, just in front of the pork shop. Here they
+would be certain to have a good view of every detail of the meeting.
+They felt extremely impatient, and while pretending to chat together
+kept an anxious look-out in the direction of the Rue Pirouette, along
+which La Normande must come. The news of the reconciliation was already
+travelling through the markets, and while some saleswomen stood up
+behind their stalls trying to get a view of what was taking place,
+others, still more inquisitive, actually left their places and took up a
+position in the covered way. Every eye in the markets was directed
+upon the pork shop; the whole neighbourhood was on the tip-toe of
+expectation.
+
+It was a very solemn affair. When La Normande at last turned the corner
+of the Rue Pirouette the excitement was so great that the women held
+their breath.
+
+"She has got her diamonds on," murmured La Sarriette.
+
+"Just look how she stalks along," added Madame Lecoeur; "the stuck-up
+creature!"
+
+The beautiful Norman was, indeed, advancing with the mien of a queen who
+condescends to make peace. She had made a most careful toilet, frizzing
+her hair and turning up a corner of her apron to display her cashmere
+skirt. She had even put on a new and rich lace bow. Conscious that the
+whole market was staring at her, she assumed a still haughtier air as
+she approached the pork shop. When she reached the door she stopped.
+
+"Now it's beautiful Lisa's turn," remarked Mademoiselle Saget. "Mind you
+pay attention."
+
+Beautiful Lisa smilingly quitted her counter. She crossed the shop-floor
+at a leisurely pace, and came and offered her hand to the beautiful
+Norman. She also was smartly dressed, with her dazzling linen and
+scrupulous neatness. A murmur ran through the crowd of fish-wives, all
+their heads gathered close together, and animated chatter ensued. The
+two women had gone inside the shop, and the _crepines_ in the window
+prevented them from being clearly seen. However, they seemed to be
+conversing affectionately, addressing pretty compliments to one another.
+
+"See!" suddenly exclaimed Mademoiselle Saget, "the beautiful Norman's
+buying something! What is it she's buying? It's a chitterling, I
+believe! Ah! Look! look! You didn't see it, did you? Well, beautiful
+Lisa just gave her the photograph; she slipped it into her hand with the
+chitterling."
+
+Fresh salutations were then seen to pass between the two women; and
+the beautiful Lisa, exceeding even the courtesies which had been agreed
+upon, accompanied the beautiful Norman to the footway. There they stood
+laughing together, exhibiting themselves to the neighbourhood like
+a couple of good friends. The markets were quite delighted; and the
+saleswomen returned to their stalls, declaring that everything had
+passed off extremely well.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget, however, detained Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette.
+The drama was not over yet. All three kept their eyes fixed on the house
+opposite with such keen curiosity that they seemed trying to penetrate
+the very walls. To pass the time away they once more began to talk of
+the beautiful Norman.
+
+"She's without a lover now," remarked Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"Oh! she's got Monsieur Lebigre," replied La Sarriette, with a laugh.
+
+"But surely Monsieur Lebigre won't have anything more to say to her."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget shrugged her shoulders. "Ah, you don't know him," she
+said. "He won't care a straw about all this business. He knows what he's
+about, and La Normande is rich. They'll come together in a couple of
+months, you'll see. Old Madame Mehudin's been scheming to bring about
+their marriage for a long time past."
+
+"Well, anyway," retorted the butter dealer, "the commissary found
+Florent at her lodgings."
+
+"No, no, indeed; I'm sure I never told you that. The long spindle-shanks
+had gone way," replied the old maid. She paused to take a breath; then
+resumed in an indignant tone, "What distressed me most was to hear of
+all the abominable things that the villain had taught little Muche.
+You'd really never believe it. There was a whole bundle of papers."
+
+"What sort of abominable things?" asked La Sarriette with interest.
+
+"Oh, all kinds of filth. The commissary said there was quite sufficient
+there to hang him. The fellow's a perfect monster! To go and demoralise
+a child! Why, it's almost past believing! Little Muche is certainly a
+scamp, but that's no reason why he should be given over to the 'Reds,'
+is it?"
+
+"Certainly not," assented the two others.
+
+"However, all these mysterious goings-on will come to an end now. You
+remember my telling you once that there was some strange goings-on at
+the Quenus'? Well, you see, I was right in my conclusions, wasn't
+I? Thank God, however, the neighbourhood will now be able to breathe
+easily. It was high time strong steps were taken, for things had got to
+such a pitch that one actually felt afraid of being murdered in broad
+daylight. There was no pleasure in life. All the dreadful stories and
+reports one heard were enough to worry one to death. And it was all
+owing to that man, that dreadful Florent. Now beautiful Lisa and the
+beautiful Norman have sensibly made friends again. It was their duty to
+do so for the sake of the peace and quietness of us all. Everything will
+go on satisfactorily now, you'll find. Ah! there's poor Monsieur Quenu
+laughing yonder!"
+
+Quenu had again come on to the footway, and was joking with Madame
+Taboureau's little servant. He seemed quite gay and skittish that
+morning. He took hold of the little servant's hands, and squeezed her
+fingers so tightly, in the exuberance of his spirits, that he made her
+cry out. Lisa had the greatest trouble to get him to go back into the
+kitchen. She was impatiently pacing about the shop, fearing lest Florent
+should make his appearance; and she called to her husband to come away,
+dreading a meeting between him and his brother.
+
+"She's getting quite vexed," said Mademoiselle Saget. "Poor Monsieur
+Quenu, you see, knows nothing at all about what's taking place. Just
+look at him there, laughing like a child! Madame Taboureau, you know,
+said that she should have nothing more to do with the Quenus if they
+persisted in bringing themselves into discredit by keeping that Florent
+with them."
+
+"Well, now, I suppose, they will stick to the fortune," remarked Madame
+Lecoeur.
+
+"Oh, no, indeed, my dear. The other one has had his share already."
+
+"Really? How do you know that?"
+
+"Oh, it's clear enough, that is!" replied the old maid after a momentary
+hesitation, but without giving any proof of her assertions. "He's had
+even more than his share. The Quenus will be several thousand francs out
+of pocket. Money flies, you know, when a man has such vices as he has. I
+dare say you don't know that there was another woman mixed up in it all.
+Yes, indeed, old Madame Verlaque, the wife of the former inspector; you
+know the sallow-faced thing well enough."
+
+The others protested that it surely wasn't possible. Why, Madame
+Verlaque was positively hideous!
+
+"What! do you think me a liar?" cried Mademoiselle Saget, with angry
+indignation. "Why, her letters to him have been found, a whole pile of
+letters, in which she asks for money, ten and twenty francs at a time.
+There's no doubt at all about it. I'm quite certain in my own mind that
+they killed the husband between them."
+
+La Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur were convinced; but they were beginning
+to get very impatient. They had been waiting on the footway for more
+than an hour, and feared that somebody might be robbing their stalls
+during their long absence. So Mademoiselle Saget began to give them some
+further interesting information to keep them from going off. Florent
+could not have taken to flight, said she; he was certain to return, and
+it would be very interesting to see him arrested. Then she went on to
+describe the trap that had been laid for him, while Madame Lecoeur
+and La Sarriette continued scrutinising the house from top to bottom,
+keeping watch upon every opening, and at each moment expecting to see
+the hats of the detectives appear at one of the doors or windows.
+
+"Who would ever imagine, now, that the place was full of police?"
+observed the butter dealer.
+
+"Oh! they're in the garret at the top," said the old maid. "They've left
+the window open, you see, just as they found it. Look! I think I can see
+one of them hiding behind the pomegranate on the balcony."
+
+The others excitedly craned out their necks, but could see nothing.
+
+"Ah, no, it's only a shadow," continued Mademoiselle Saget. "The little
+curtains even are perfectly still. The detectives must be sitting down
+in the room, and keeping quiet."
+
+Just at that moment the women caught sight of Gavard coming out of the
+fish market with a thoughtful air. They looked at him with glistening
+eyes, without speaking. They had drawn close to one another, and stood
+there rigid in their drooping skirts. The poultry dealer came up to
+them.
+
+"Have you seen Florent go by?" he asked.
+
+They replied that they had not.
+
+"I want to speak to him at once," continued Gavard. "He isn't in the
+fish market. He must have gone up to his room. But you would have seen
+him, though, if he had."
+
+The women had turned rather pale. They still kept looking at each other
+with a knowing expression, their lips twitching slightly every now and
+then. "We have only been here some five minutes, said Madame Lecoeur
+unblushingly, as her brother-in-law still stood hesitating.
+
+"Well, then, I'll go upstairs and see. I'll risk the five flights,"
+rejoined Gavard with a laugh.
+
+La Sarriette stepped forward as though she wished to detain him, but her
+aunt took hold of her arm and drew her back.
+
+"Let him alone, you big simpleton!" she whispered. "It's the best thing
+that can happen to him. It'll teach him to treat us with respect in
+future."
+
+"He won't say again that I ate tainted meat," muttered Mademoiselle
+Saget in a low tone.
+
+They said nothing more. La Sarriette was very red; but the two others
+still remained quite yellow. But they now averted their heads, feeling
+confused by each other's looks, and at a loss what to do with their
+hands, which they buried beneath their aprons. Presently their eyes
+instinctively came back to the house, penetrating the walls, as it were,
+following Gavard in his progress up the stairs. When they imagined that
+he had entered Florent's room they again exchanged furtive glances. La
+Sarriette laughed nervously. All at once they fancied they could see the
+window curtains moving, and this led them to believe that a struggle was
+taking place. But the house-front remained as tranquil as ever in the
+sunshine; and another quarter of an hour of unbroken quietness passed
+away, during which the three women's nervous excitement became more
+and more intense. They were beginning to feel quite faint when a man
+hurriedly came out of the passage and ran off to get a cab. Five minutes
+later Gavard appeared, followed by two police officers. Lisa, who had
+stepped out on to the footway on observing the cab, hastily hurried back
+into the shop.
+
+Gavard was very pale. The police had searched him upstairs, and had
+discovered the revolver and cartridge case in his possession. Judging
+by the commissary's stern expression on hearing his name, the poultry
+dealer deemed himself lost. This was a terrible ending to his plotting
+that had never entered into his calculations. The Tuileries would never
+forgive him! His legs gave way beneath him as though the firing party
+was already awaiting him outside. When he got into the street, however,
+his vanity lent him sufficient strength to walk erect; and he even
+managed to force a smile, as he knew the market people were looking at
+him. They should see him die bravely, he resolved.
+
+However, La Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur rushed up to him and anxiously
+inquired what was the matter; and the butter dealer began to cry, while
+La Sarriette embraced her uncle, manifesting the deepest emotion. As
+Gavard held her clasped in his arms, he slipped a key into her hand, and
+whispered in her ear: "Take everything, and burn the papers."
+
+Then he got into the cab with the same mien as he would have ascended
+the scaffold. As the vehicle disappeared round the corner of the Rue
+Pierre Lescot, Madame Lecoeur observed La Sarriette trying to hide the
+key in her pocket.
+
+"It's of no use you trying that little game on me, my dear," she
+exclaimed, clenching her teeth; "I saw him slip it into your hand.
+As true as there's a God in Heaven, I'll go to the gaol and tell him
+everything, if you don't treat me properly."
+
+"Of course I shall treat you properly, aunt, dear," replied La
+Sarriette, with an embarrassed smile.
+
+"Very well, then, let us go to his rooms at once. It's of no use to give
+the police time to poke their dirty hands in the cupboards."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget, who had been listening with gleaming eyes, followed
+them, running along in the rear as quickly as her short legs could
+carry her. She had no thought, now, of waiting for Florent. From the Rue
+Rambuteau to the Rue de la Cossonnerie she manifested the most humble
+obsequiousness, and volunteered to explain matters to Madame Leonce, the
+doorkeeper.
+
+"We'll see, we'll see," the butter dealer curtly replied.
+
+However, on reaching the house a preliminary parley--as Mademoiselle
+Saget had opined--proved to be necessary. Madame Leonce refused to allow
+the women to go up to her tenant's room. She put on an expression
+of severe austerity, and seemed greatly shocked by the sight of La
+Sarriette's loosely fastened fichu. However, after the old maid had
+whispered a few words to her and she was shown the key, she gave way.
+When they got upstairs she surrendered the rooms and furniture to the
+others article by article, apparently as heartbroken as if she had been
+compelled to show a party of burglars the place where her own money was
+secreted.
+
+"There, take everything and have done with it!" she cried at last,
+throwing herself into an arm-chair.
+
+La Sarriette was already eagerly trying the key in the locks of
+different closets. Madame Lecoeur, all suspicion, pressed her so closely
+that she exclaimed: "Really, aunt, you get in my way. Do leave my arms
+free, at any rate."
+
+At last they succeeded in opening a wardrobe opposite the window,
+between the fireplace and the bed. And then all four women broke into
+exclamations. On the middle shelf lay some ten thousand francs in
+gold, methodically arranged in little piles. Gavard, who had prudently
+deposited the bulk of his fortune in the hands of a notary, had kept
+this sum by him for the purposes of the coming outbreak. He had been
+wont to say with great solemnity that his contribution to the revolution
+was quite ready. The fact was that he had sold out certain stock, and
+every night took an intense delight in contemplating those ten thousand
+francs, gloating over them, and finding something quite roysterous and
+insurrectional in their appearance. Sometimes when he was in bed he
+dreamed that a fight was going on in the wardrobe; he could hear
+guns being fired there, paving-stones being torn up and piled into
+barricades, and voices shouting in clamorous triumph; and he said to
+himself that it was his money fighting against the Government.
+
+La Sarriette, however, had stretched out her hands with a cry of
+delight.
+
+"Paws off, little one!" exclaimed Madame Lecoeur in a hoarse voice.
+
+As she stood there in the reflection of the gold, she looked yellower
+than ever--her face discoloured by biliousness, her eyes glowing
+feverishly from the liver complaint which was secretly undermining her.
+Behind her Mademoiselle Saget on tip-toe was gazing ecstatically into
+the wardrobe, and Madame Leonce had now risen from her seat, and was
+growling sulkily.
+
+"My uncle said I was to take everything," declared the girl.
+
+"And am I to have nothing, then; I who have done so much for him?" cried
+the doorkeeper.
+
+Madame Lecoeur was almost choking with excitement. She pushed the others
+away, and clung hold of the wardrobe, screaming: "It all belongs to
+me! I am his nearest relative. You are a pack of thieves, you are! I'd
+rather throw it all out of the window than see you have it!"
+
+Then silence fell, and they all four stood glowering at each other.
+The kerchief that La Sarriette wore over her breast was now altogether
+unfastened, and she displayed her bosom heaving with warm life, her
+moist red lips, her rosy nostrils. Madame Lecoeur grew still more sour
+as she saw how lovely the girl looked in the excitement of her longing
+desire.
+
+"Well," she said in a lower tone, "we won't fight about it. You are his
+niece, and I'll divide the money with you. We will each take a pile in
+turn."
+
+Thereupon they pushed the other two aside. The butter dealer took
+the first pile, which at once disappeared within her skirts. Then La
+Sarriette took a pile. They kept a close watch upon one another, ready
+to fight at the slightest attempt at cheating. Their fingers were thrust
+forward in turn, the hideous knotted fingers of the aunt and the white
+fingers of the niece, soft and supple as silk. Slowly they filled their
+pockets. When there was only one pile left, La Sarriette objected to
+her aunt taking it, as she had commenced; and she suddenly divided
+it between Mademoiselle Saget and Madame Leonce, who had watched them
+pocket the gold with feverish impatience.
+
+"Much obliged to you!" snarled the doorkeeper. "Fifty francs for having
+coddled him up with tisane and broth! The old deceiver told me he had no
+relatives!"
+
+Before locking the wardrobe up again, Madame Lecoeur searched it
+thoroughly from top to bottom. It contained all the political works
+which were forbidden admission into the country, the pamphlets printed
+at Brussels, the scandalous histories of the Bonapartes, and the foreign
+caricatures ridiculing the Emperor. One of Gavard's greatest
+delights was to shut himself up with a friend, and show him all these
+compromising things.
+
+"He told me that I was to burn all the papers," said La Sarriette.
+
+"Oh, nonsense! we've no fire, and it would take up too long. The police
+will soon be here! We must get out of this!"
+
+They all four hastened off; but they had not reached the bottom of the
+stairs before the police met them, and made Madame Leonce return with
+them upstairs. The three others, making themselves as small as possible,
+hurriedly escaped into the street. They walked away in single file at a
+brisk pace; the aunt and niece considerably incommoded by the weight of
+their drooping pockets. Mademoiselle Saget had kept her fifty francs in
+her closed fist, and remained deep in thought, brooding over a plan for
+extracting something more from the heavy pockets in front of her.
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed, as they reached the corner of the fish market,
+"we've got here at a lucky moment. There's Florent yonder, just going to
+walk into the trap."
+
+Florent, indeed, was just then returning to the markets after his
+prolonged perambulation. He went into his office to change his coat,
+and then set about his daily duties, seeing that the marble slabs were
+properly washed, and slowly strolling along the alleys. He fancied that
+the fish-wives looked at him in a somewhat strange manner; they chuckled
+too, and smiled significantly as he passed them. Some new vexation, he
+thought, was in store for him. For some time past those huge, terrible
+women had not allowed him a day's peace. However, as he passed the
+Mehudins' stall he was very much surprised to hear the old woman address
+him in a honeyed tone: "There's just been a gentleman inquiring for you,
+Monsieur Florent; a middle-aged gentleman. He's gone to wait for you in
+your room."
+
+As the old fish-wife, who was squatting, all of a heap, on her chair,
+spoke these words, she felt such a delicious thrill of satisfied
+vengeance that her huge body fairly quivered. Florent, still doubtful,
+glanced at the beautiful Norman; but the young woman, now completely
+reconciled with her mother, turned on her tap and slapped her fish,
+pretending not to hear what was being said.
+
+"You are quite sure?" said Florent to Mother Mehudin.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed. Isn't that so, Louise?" said the old woman in a
+shriller voice.
+
+Florent concluded that it must be some one who wanted to see him about
+the great business, and he resolved to go up to his room. He was just
+about to leave the pavilion, when, happening to turn round, he observed
+the beautiful Norman watching him with a grave expression on her face.
+Then he passed in front of the three gossips.
+
+"Do you notice that there's no one in the pork shop?" remarked
+Mademoiselle Saget. "Beautiful Lisa's not the woman to compromise
+herself."
+
+The shop was, indeed, quite empty. The front of the house was still
+bright with sunshine; the building looked like some honest, prosperous
+pile guilelessly warming itself in the morning rays. Up above, the
+pomegranate on the balcony was in full bloom. As Florent crossed the
+roadway he gave a friendly nod to Logre and Monsieur Lebigre, who
+appeared to be enjoying the fresh air on the doorstep of the latter's
+establishment. They returned his greeting with a smile. Florent was then
+about to enter the side-passage, when he fancied he saw Auguste's pale
+face hastily vanishing from its dark and narrow depths. Thereupon he
+turned back and glanced into the shop to make sure that the middle-aged
+gentleman was not waiting for him there. But he saw no one but Mouton,
+who sat on a block displaying his double chin and bristling whiskers,
+and gazed at him defiantly with his great yellow eyes. And when he had
+at last made up his mind to enter the passage, Lisa's face appeared
+behind the little curtain of a glazed door at the back of the shop.
+
+A hush had fallen over the fish market. All the huge paunches and bosoms
+held their breath, waiting till Florent should disappear from sight.
+Then there was an uproarious outbreak; and the bosoms heaved wildly
+and the paunches nearly burst with malicious delight. The joke had
+succeeded. Nothing could be more comical. As old Mother Mehudin vented
+her merriment she shook and quivered like a wine-skin that is being
+emptied. Her story of the middle-aged gentleman went the round of the
+market, and the fish-wives found it extremely amusing. At last the long
+spindle-shanks was collared, and they would no longer always have his
+miserable face and gaol-bird's expression before their eyes. They
+all wished him a pleasant journey, and trusted that they might get a
+handsome fellow for their next inspector. And in their delight they
+rushed about from one stall to another, and felt inclined to dance
+round their marble slabs like a lot of holiday-making schoolgirls.
+The beautiful Norman, however, watched this outbreak of joy in a rigid
+attitude, not daring to move for fear she should burst into tears;
+and she kept her hands pressed upon a big skate to cool her feverish
+excitement.
+
+"You see how those Mehudins turn their backs upon him now that he's come
+to grief," said Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"Well, and they're quite right too," replied Mademoiselle Saget.
+"Besides, matters are settled now, my dear, and we're to have no more
+disputes. You've every reason to be satisfied; leave the others to act
+as they please."
+
+"It's only the old woman who is laughing," La Sarriette remarked; "La
+Normande looks anything but happy."
+
+Meantime, upstairs in his bedroom, Florent allowed himself to be taken
+as unresistingly as a sheep. The police officers sprang roughly
+upon him, expecting, no doubt, that they would meet with a desperate
+resistance. He quietly begged them to leave go of him; and then sat
+down on a chair while they packed up his papers, and the red scarves,
+armlets, and banners. He did not seem at all surprised at this ending;
+indeed, it was something of a relief to him, though he would not frankly
+confess it. But he suffered acutely at thought of the bitter hatred
+which had sent him into that room; he recalled Auguste's pale face and
+the sniggering looks of the fish-wives; he bethought himself of old
+Madame Mehudin's words, La Normande's silence, and the empty shop
+downstairs. The markets were leagued against him, he reflected; the
+whole neighbourhood had conspired to hand him over to the police. The
+mud of those greasy streets had risen up all around to overwhelm him!
+
+And amidst all the round faces which flitted before his mind's eye there
+suddenly appeared that of Quenu, and a spasm of mortal agony contracted
+his heart.
+
+"Come, get along downstairs!" exclaimed one of the officers, roughly.
+
+Florent rose and proceeded to go downstairs. When he reached the second
+floor he asked to be allowed to return; he had forgotten something, he
+said. But the officers refused to let him go back, and began to hustle
+him forward. Then he besought them to let him return to his room again,
+and even offered them the money he had in his pocket. Two of them at
+last consented to return with him, threatening to blow his brains out
+should he attempt to play them any trick; and they drew their revolvers
+out of their pockets as they spoke. However, on reaching his room once
+more Florent simply went straight to the chaffinch's cage, took the
+bird out of it, kissed it between its wings, and set it at liberty.
+He watched it fly away through the open window, into the sunshine, and
+alight, as though giddy, on the roof of the fish market. Then it flew
+off again and disappeared over the markets in the direction of the
+Square des Innocents. For a moment longer Florent remained face to face
+with the sky, the free and open sky; and he thought of the wood-pigeons
+cooing in the garden of the Tuileries, and of those other pigeons down
+in the market cellars with their throats slit by Marjolin's knife. Then
+he felt quite broken, and turned and followed the officers, who were
+putting their revolvers back into their pockets as they shrugged their
+shoulders.
+
+On reaching the bottom of the stairs, Florent stopped before the door
+which led into the kitchen. The commissary, who was waiting for him
+there, seemed almost touched by his gentle submissiveness, and asked
+him: "Would you like to say good-bye to your brother?"
+
+For a moment Florent hesitated. He looked at the door. A tremendous
+noise of cleavers and pans came from the kitchen. Lisa, with the
+design of keeping her husband occupied, had persuaded him to make the
+black-puddings in the morning instead of in the evening, as was his
+wont. The onions were simmering on the fire, and over all the noisy
+uproar Florent could hear Quenu's joyous voice exclaiming, "Ah, dash it
+all, the pudding will be excellent, that it will! Auguste, hand me the
+fat!"
+
+Florent thanked the commissary, but refused his offer. He was afraid
+to return any more into that warm kitchen, reeking with the odour of
+boiling onions, and so he went on past the door, happy in the thought
+that his brother knew nothing of what had happened to him, and hastening
+his steps as if to spare the establishment all further worry. However,
+on emerging into the open sunshine of the street he felt a touch of
+shame, and got into the cab with bent back and ashen face. He was
+conscious that the fish market was gazing at him in triumph; it seemed
+to him, indeed, as though the whole neighbourhood had gathered there to
+rejoice at his fall.
+
+"What a villainous expression he's got!" said Mademoiselle Saget.
+
+"Yes, indeed, he looks just like a thief caught with his hand in
+somebody's till," added Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"I once saw a man guillotined who looked exactly like he does," asserted
+La Sarriette, showing her white teeth.
+
+They stepped forward, lengthened their necks, and tried to see into the
+cab. Just as it was starting, however, the old maid tugged sharply at
+the skirts of her companions, and pointed to Claire, who was coming
+round the corner of the Rue Pirouette, looking like a mad creature,
+with her hair loose and her nails bleeding. She had at last succeeded
+in opening her door. When she discovered that she was too late, and
+that Florent was being taken off, she darted after the cab, but checked
+herself almost immediately with a gesture of impotent rage, and shook
+her fists at the receding wheels. Then, with her face quite crimson
+beneath the fine plaster dust with which she was covered, she ran back
+again towards the Rue Pirouette.
+
+"Had he promised to marry her, eh?" exclaimed La Sarriette, laughing.
+"The silly fool must be quite cracked."
+
+Little by little the neighbourhood calmed down, though throughout the
+day groups of people constantly assembled and discussed the events of
+the morning. The pork shop was the object of much inquisitive curiosity.
+Lisa avoided appearing there, and left the counter in charge of
+Augustine. In the afternoon she felt bound to tell Quenu of what had
+happened, for fear the news might cause him too great a shock should
+he hear it from some gossiping neighbour. She waited till she was alone
+with him in the kitchen, knowing that there he was always most cheerful,
+and would weep less than if he were anywhere else. Moreover, she
+communicated her tidings with all sorts of motherly precautions.
+Nevertheless, as soon as he knew the truth he fell on the
+chopping-block, and began to cry like a calf.
+
+"Now, now, my poor dear, don't give way like that; you'll make yourself
+quite ill," exclaimed Lisa, taking him in her arms.
+
+His tears were inundating his white apron, the whole of his massive,
+torpid form quivered with grief. He seemed to be sinking, melting away.
+When he was at last able to speak, he stammered: "Oh, you don't know how
+good he was to me when we lived together in the Rue Royer-Collard! He
+did everything. He swept the room and cooked the meals. He loved me as
+though I were his own child; and after his day's work he used to come
+back splashed with mud, and so tired that he could scarcely move, while
+I stayed warm and comfortable in the house, and had nothing to do but
+eat. And now they're going to shoot him!"
+
+At this Lisa protested, saying that he would certainly not be shot. But
+Quenu only shook his head.
+
+"I haven't loved him half as much as I ought to have done," he
+continued. "I can see that very well now. I had a wicked heart, and I
+hesitated about giving him his half of the money."
+
+"Why, I offered it to him a dozen times and more!" Lisa interrupted.
+"I'm sure we've nothing to reproach ourselves with."
+
+"Oh, yes, I know that you are everything that is good, and that you
+would have given him every copper. But I hesitated, I didn't like to
+part with it; and now it will be a sorrow to me for the rest of my life.
+I shall always think that if I'd shared the fortune with him he wouldn't
+have gone wrong a second time. Oh, yes; it's my fault! It is I who have
+driven him to this."
+
+Then Lisa, expostulating still more gently, assured him that he had
+nothing to blame himself for, and even expressed some pity for Florent.
+But he was really very culpable, she said, and if he had had more money
+he would probably have perpetrated greater follies. Gradually she gave
+her husband to understand that it was impossible matters could have had
+any other termination, and that now everything would go on much better.
+Quenu was still weeping, wiping his cheeks with his apron, trying to
+suppress his sobs to listen to her, and then breaking into a wilder
+fit of tears than before. His fingers had mechanically sought a heap
+of sausage-meat lying on the block, and he was digging holes in it, and
+roughly kneading it together.
+
+"And how unwell you were feeling, you know," Lisa continued. "It was all
+because our life had got so shifted out of its usual course. I was very
+anxious, though I didn't tell you so, at seeing you getting so low."
+
+"Yes, wasn't I?" he murmured, ceasing to sob for a moment.
+
+"And the business has been quite under a cloud this year. It was as
+though a spell had been cast on it. Come, now, don't take on so; you'll
+see that everything will look up again now. You must take care of
+yourself, you know, for my sake and your daughter's. You have duties to
+us as well as to others, remember."
+
+Quenu was now kneading the sausage-meat more gently. Another burst
+of emotion was thrilling him, but it was a softer emotion, which was
+already bringing a vague smile to his grief-stricken face. Lisa felt
+that she had convinced him, and she turned and called to Pauline, who
+was playing in the shop, and sat her on Quenu's knee.
+
+"Tell your father, Pauline, that he ought not to give way like this. Ask
+him nicely not to go on distressing us so."
+
+The child did as she was told, and their fat, sleek forms united in a
+general embrace. They all three looked at one another, already feeling
+cured of that twelve months' depression from which they had but just
+emerged. Their big, round faces smiled, and Lisa softly repeated, "And
+after all, my dear, there are only we three, you know, only we three."
+
+Two months later Florent was again sentenced to transportation. The
+affair caused a great stir. The newspapers published all possible
+details, and gave portraits of the accused, sketches of the banners and
+scarves, and plans of the places where the conspirators had met. For a
+fortnight nothing but the great plot of the central markets was talked
+of in Paris. The police kept on launching more and more alarming
+reports, and it was at last even declared that the whole of the
+Montmartre Quarter was undermined. The excitement in the Corps
+Legislatif was so intense that the members of the Centre and the Right
+forgot their temporary disagreement over the Imperial Grant Bill, and
+became reconciled. And then by an overwhelming majority they voted the
+unpopular tax, of which even the lower classes, in the panic which was
+sweeping over the city, dared no longer complain.
+
+The trial lasted a week. Florent was very much surprised at the number
+of accomplices with which he found himself credited. Out of the twenty
+and more who were placed in the dock with him, he knew only some six
+or seven. After the sentence of the court had been read, he fancied
+he could see Robine's innocent-looking hat and back going off quietly
+through the crowd. Logre was acquitted, as was also Lacaille; Alexandre
+was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for his child-like complicity
+in the conspiracy; while as for Gavard, he, like Florent, was condemned
+to transportation. This was a heavy blow, which quite crushed him amidst
+the final enjoyment that he derived from those lengthy proceedings in
+which he had managed to make himself so conspicuous. He was paying
+very dearly for the way in which he had vented the spirit of perpetual
+opposition peculiar to the Paris shopkeeping classes. Two big tears
+coursed down his scared face--the face of a white-haired child.
+
+And then one morning in August, amidst the busy awakening of the
+markets, Claude Lantier, sauntering about in the thick of the arriving
+vegetables, with his waist tightly girded by his red sash, came to grasp
+Madame Francois's hand close by Saint Eustache. She was sitting on her
+carrots and turnips, and her long face looked very sad. The artist, too,
+was gloomy, notwithstanding the bright sun which was already softening
+the deep-green velvet of the mountains of cabbages.
+
+"Well, it's all over now," he said. "They are sending him back again.
+He's already on his way to Brest, I believe."
+
+Madame Francois made a gesture of mute grief. Then she gently waved her
+hand around, and murmured in a low voice; "Ah, it is all Paris's doing,
+this villainous Paris!"
+
+"No, no, not quite that; but I know whose doing it is, the contemptible
+creatures!" exclaimed Claude, clenching his fists. "Do you know, Madame
+Francois, there was nothing too ridiculous for those fellows in the
+court to say! Why, they even went ferreting in a child's copy-books!
+That great idiot of a Public Prosecutor made a tremendous fuss over
+them, and ranted about the respect due to children, and the wickedness
+of demagogical education! It makes me quite sick to think of it all!"
+
+A shudder of disgust shook him, and then, burying himself more deeply
+in his discoloured cloak, he resumed: "To think of it! A man who was
+as gentle as a girl! Why, I saw him turn quite faint at seeing a pigeon
+killed! I couldn't help smiling with pity when I saw him between two
+gendarmes. Ah, well, we shall never see him again! He won't come back
+this time."
+
+"He ought to have listened to me," said Madame Francois, after a pause,
+"and have come to live at Nanterre with my fowls and rabbits. I was
+very fond of him, you see, for I could tell that he was a good-hearted
+fellow. Ah, we might have been so happy together! It's a sad pity. Well,
+we must bear it as best we can, Monsieur Claude. Come and see me one of
+these days. I'll have an omelet ready for you."
+
+Her eyes were dim with tears; but all at once she sprang up like a brave
+woman who bears her sorrows with fortitude.
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed, "here's old Mother Chantemesse coming to buy some
+turnips of me. The fat old lady's as sprightly as ever!"
+
+Claude went off, and strolled about the footways. The dawn had risen in
+the white sheaf of light at the end of the Rue Rambuteau; and the sun,
+now level with the house-tops, was diffusing rosy rays which already
+fell in warm patches on the pavements. Claude was conscious of a
+gay awakening in the huge resonant markets--indeed, all over the
+neighbourhood--crowded with piles of food. It was like the joy that
+comes after cure, the mirth of folks who are at last relieved of a heavy
+weight which has been pulling them down. He saw La Sarriette displaying
+a gold chain and singing amidst her plums and strawberries, while she
+playfully pulled the moustaches of Monsieur Jules, who was arrayed in a
+velvet jacket. He also caught sight of Madame Lecoeur and Mademoiselle
+Saget passing along one of the covered ways, and looking less sallow
+than usual--indeed, almost rosy--as they laughed like bosom friends
+over some amusing story. In the fish market, old Madame Mehudin, who
+had returned to her stall, was slapping her fish, abusing customers, and
+snubbing the new inspector, a presumptuous young man whom she had sworn
+to spank; while Claire, seemingly more languid and indolent than ever,
+extended her hands, blue from immersion in the water of her tanks, to
+gather together a great heap of edible snails, shimmering with silvery
+slime. In the tripe market Auguste and Augustine, with the foolish
+expression of newly-married people, had just been purchasing some
+pigs' trotters, and were starting off in a trap for their pork shop at
+Montrouge. Then, as it was now eight o'clock and already quite warm,
+Claude, on again coming to the Rue Rambuteau, perceived Muche and
+Pauline playing at horses. Muche was crawling along on all-fours, while
+Pauline sat on his back, and clung to his hair to keep herself from
+falling. However, a moving shadow which fell from the eaves of the
+market roof made Claude look up; and he then espied Cadine and Marjolin
+aloft, kissing and warming themselves in the sunshine, parading their
+loves before the whole neighbourhood like a pair of light-hearted
+animals.
+
+Claude shook his fist at them. All this joyousness down below and on
+high exasperated him. He reviled the Fat; the Fat, he declared, had
+conquered the Thin. All around him he could see none but the Fat
+protruding their paunches, bursting with robust health, and greeting
+with delight another day of gorging and digestion. And a last blow was
+dealt to him by the spectacle which he perceived on either hand as he
+halted opposite the Rue Pirouette.
+
+On his right, the beautiful Norman, or the beautiful Madame Lebigre, as
+she was now called, stood at the door of her shop. Her husband had at
+length been granted the privilege of adding a State tobacco agency[*] to
+his wine shop, a long-cherished dream of his which he had finally
+been able to realise through the great services he had rendered to the
+authorities. And to Claude the beautiful Madame Lebigre looked superb,
+with her silk dress and her frizzed hair, quite ready to take her seat
+behind her counter, whither all the gentlemen in the neighbourhood
+flocked to buy their cigars and packets of tobacco. She had become
+quite distinguished, quite the lady. The shop behind her had been newly
+painted, with borders of twining vine-branches showing against a soft
+background; the zinc-plated wine-counter gleamed brightly, and in the
+tall mirror the flasks of liqueurs set brighter flashes of colour than
+ever. And the mistress of all these things stood smiling radiantly at
+the bright sunshine.
+
+     [*] Most readers will remember that the tobacco trade is a
+     State monopoly in France. The retail tobacconists are merely
+     Government agents.--Translator.
+
+Then, on Claude's left, the beautiful Lisa blocked up the doorway of
+her shop as she stood on the threshold. Never before had her linen shone
+with such dazzling whiteness; never had her serene face and rosy cheeks
+appeared in a more lustrous setting of glossy locks. She displayed the
+deep calmness of repletion, a massive tranquillity unruffled even by a
+smile. She was a picture of absolute quietude, of perfect felicity, not
+only cloudless but lifeless, the simple felicity of basking in the warm
+atmosphere. Her tightly stretched bodice seemed to be still digesting
+the happiness of yesterday; while her dimpled hands, hidden in the folds
+of her apron, did not even trouble to grasp at the happiness of to-day,
+certain as they were that it would come of itself. And the shop-window
+at her side seemed to display the same felicity. It had recovered from
+its former blight; the tongues lolled out, red and healthy; the hams
+had regained their old chubbiness of form; the festoons of sausages no
+longer wore that mournful air which had so greatly distressed Quenu.
+Hearty laughter, accompanied by a jubilant clattering of pans, sounded
+from the kitchen in the rear. The whole place again reeked with fat
+health. The flitches of bacon and the sides of pork that hung against
+the marble showed roundly like paunches, triumphant paunches, whilst
+Lisa, with her imposing breadth of shoulders and dignity of mien, bade
+the markets good morning with those big eyes of hers which so clearly
+bespoke a gross feeder.
+
+However, the two women bowed to each other. Beautiful Madame Lebigre and
+beautiful Madame Quenu exchanged a friendly salute.
+
+And then Claude, who had certainly forgotten to dine on the previous
+day, was thrilled with anger at seeing them standing there, looking so
+healthy and well-to-do with their buxom bosoms; and tightening his sash,
+he growled in a tone of irritation:
+
+"What blackguards respectable people are!"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fat and the Thin, by Emile Zola
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Fat and the Thin, by Emile Zola
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fat and the Thin, by Emile Zola
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Fat and the Thin
+
+Author: Emile Zola
+
+Translator: Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
+
+Release Date: April 22, 2006 [EBook #5744]
+Last Updated: September 5, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAT AND THE THIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dagny; John Bickers; David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE FAT AND THE THIN
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      (LE VENTRE DE PARIS) <br /> <br /> By Emile Zola
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Translated, With An Introduction, By Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                 Let me have men about me that are fat:
+                 Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o&rsquo; nights:
+                 Yond&rsquo; Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
+                 He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
+                 SHAKESPEARE: <i>Julius Caesar</i>, act i, sc. 2.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> <big><b>THE FAT AND THE THIN</b></big> </a>
+    </p>
+    <table summary="">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      INTRODUCTION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;THE FAT AND THE THIN,&rdquo; or, to use the French title, &ldquo;Le Ventre de Paris,&rdquo;
+       is a story of life in and around those vast Central Markets which form a
+      distinctive feature of modern Paris. Even the reader who has never crossed
+      the Channel must have heard of the Parisian <i>Halles</i>, for much has
+      been written about them, not only in English books on the French
+      metropolis, but also in English newspapers, magazines, and reviews; so
+      that few, I fancy, will commence the perusal of the present volume without
+      having, at all events, some knowledge of its subject matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Paris markets form such a world of their own, and teem at certain
+      hours of the day and night with such exuberance of life, that it was only
+      natural they should attract the attention of a novelist like M. Zola, who,
+      to use his own words, delights &ldquo;in any subject in which vast masses of
+      people can be shown in motion.&rdquo; Mr. Sherard tells us[*] that the idea of
+      &ldquo;Le Ventre de Paris&rdquo; first occurred to M. Zola in 1872, when he used
+      continually to take his friend Paul Alexis for a ramble through the
+      Halles. I have in my possession, however, an article written by M. Zola
+      some five or six years before that time, and in this one can already
+      detect the germ of the present work; just as the motif of another of M.
+      Zola&rsquo;s novels, &ldquo;La Joie de Vivre,&rdquo; can be traced to a short story written
+      for a Russian review.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [*] <i>Emile Zola: a Biographical and Critical Study</i>, by Robert
+      Harborough Sherard, pp. 103, 104. London, Chatto &amp; Windus, 1893.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Similar instances are frequently to be found in the writings of English as
+      well as French novelists, and are, of course, easily explained. A young
+      man unknown to fame, and unable to procure the publication of a long
+      novel, often contents himself with embodying some particular idea in a
+      short sketch or story, which finds its way into one or another periodical,
+      where it lies buried and forgotten by everybody&mdash;excepting its
+      author. Time goes by, however, the writer achieves some measure of
+      success, and one day it occurs to him to elaborate and perfect that old
+      idea of his, only a faint <i>apercu</i> of which, for lack of opportunity,
+      he had been able to give in the past. With a little research, no doubt, an
+      interesting essay might be written on these literary resuscitations; but
+      if one except certain novelists who are so deficient in ideas that they
+      continue writing and rewriting the same story throughout their lives, it
+      will, I think, be generally found that the revivals in question are due to
+      some such reason as that given above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It should be mentioned that the article of M. Zola&rsquo;s young days to which I
+      have referred is not one on market life in particular, but one on violets.
+      It contains, however, a vigorous, if brief, picture of the Halles in the
+      small hours of the morning, and is instinct with that realistic
+      descriptive power of which M. Zola has since given so many proofs. We hear
+      the rumbling and clattering of the market carts, we see the piles of red
+      meat, the baskets of silvery fish, the mountains of vegetables, green and
+      white; in a few paragraphs the whole market world passes in kaleidoscopic
+      fashion before our eyes by the pale, dancing light of the gas lamps and
+      the lanterns. Several years after the paper I speak of was published, when
+      M. Zola began to issue &ldquo;Le Ventre de Paris,&rdquo; M. Tournachon, better known
+      as Nadar, the aeronaut and photographer, rushed into print to proclaim
+      that the realistic novelist had simply pilfered his ideas from an account
+      of the Halles which he (Tournachon) had but lately written. M. Zola, as is
+      so often his wont, scorned to reply to this charge of plagiarism; but, had
+      he chosen, he could have promptly settled the matter by producing his own
+      forgotten article.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the risk of passing for a literary ghoul, I propose to exhume some
+      portion of the paper in question, as, so far as translation can avail, it
+      will show how M. Zola wrote and what he thought in 1867. After the
+      description of the markets to which I have alluded, there comes the
+      following passage:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was gazing at the preparations for the great daily orgy of Paris when I
+      espied a throng of people bustling suspiciously in a corner. A few
+      lanterns threw a yellow light upon this crowd. Children, women, and men
+      with outstretched hands were fumbling in dark piles which extended along
+      the footway. I thought that those piles must be remnants of meat sold for
+      a trifling price, and that all those wretched people were rushing upon
+      them to feed. I drew near, and discovered my mistake. The heaps were not
+      heaps of meat, but heaps of violets. All the flowery poesy of the streets
+      of Paris lay there, on that muddy pavement, amidst mountains of food. The
+      gardeners of the suburbs had brought their sweet-scented harvests to the
+      markets and were disposing of them to the hawkers. From the rough fingers
+      of their peasant growers the violets were passing to the dirty hands of
+      those who would cry them in the streets. At winter time it is between four
+      and six o&rsquo;clock in the morning that the flowers of Paris are thus sold at
+      the Halles. Whilst the city sleeps and its butchers are getting all ready
+      for its daily attack of indigestion, a trade in poetry is plied in dark,
+      dank corners. When the sun rises the bright red meat will be displayed in
+      trim, carefully dressed joints, and the violets, mounted on bits of osier,
+      will gleam softly within their elegant collars of green leaves. But when
+      they arrive, in the dark night, the bullocks, already ripped open,
+      discharge black blood, and the trodden flowers lie prone upon the
+      footways. . . . I noticed just in front of me one large bunch which had
+      slipped off a neighbouring mound and was almost bathing in the gutter. I
+      picked it up. Underneath, it was soiled with mud; the greasy, fetid sewer
+      water had left black stains upon the flowers. And then, gazing at these
+      exquisite daughters of our gardens and our woods, astray amidst all the
+      filth of the city, I began to ponder. On what woman&rsquo;s bosom would those
+      wretched flowerets open and bloom? Some hawker would dip them in a pail of
+      water, and of all the bitter odours of the Paris mud they would retain but
+      a slight pungency, which would remain mingled with their own sweet
+      perfume. The water would remove their stains, they would pale somewhat,
+      and become a joy both for the smell and for the sight. Nevertheless, in
+      the depths of each corolla there would still remain some particle of mud
+      suggestive of impurity. And I asked myself how much love and passion was
+      represented by all those heaps of flowers shivering in the bleak wind. To
+      how many loving ones, and how many indifferent ones, and how many
+      egotistical ones, would all those thousands and thousands of violets go!
+      In a few hours&rsquo; time they would be scattered to the four corners of Paris,
+      and for a paltry copper the passers-by would purchase a glimpse and a
+      whiff of springtide in the muddy streets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Imperfect as the rendering may be, I think that the above passage will
+      show that M. Zola was already possessed of a large amount of his
+      acknowledged realistic power at the early date I have mentioned. I should
+      also have liked to quote a rather amusing story of a priggish Philistine
+      who ate violets with oil and vinegar, strongly peppered, but
+      considerations of space forbid; so I will pass to another passage, which
+      is of more interest and importance. Both French and English critics have
+      often contended that although M. Zola is a married man, he knows very
+      little of women, as there has virtually never been any <i>feminine romance</i>
+      in his life. There are those who are aware of the contrary, but whose
+      tongues are stayed by considerations of delicacy and respect. Still, as
+      the passage I am now about to reproduce is signed and acknowledged as fact
+      by M. Zola himself, I see no harm in slightly raising the veil from a
+      long-past episode in the master&rsquo;s life:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light was rising, and as I stood there before that footway transformed
+      into a bed of flowers my strange night-fancies gave place to recollections
+      at once sweet and sad. I thought of my last excursion to
+      Fontenay-aux-Roses, with the loved one, the good fairy of my twentieth
+      year. Springtime was budding into birth, the tender foliage gleamed in the
+      pale April sunshine. The little pathway skirting the hill was bordered by
+      large fields of violets. As one passed along, a strong perfume seemed to
+      penetrate one and make one languid. <i>She</i> was leaning on my arm,
+      faint with love from the sweet odour of the flowers. A whiteness hovered
+      over the country-side, little insects buzzed in the sunshine, deep silence
+      fell from the heavens, and so low was the sound of our kisses that not a
+      bird in all the hedges showed sign of fear. At a turn of the path we
+      perceived some old bent women, who with dry, withered hands were hurriedly
+      gathering violets and throwing them into large baskets. She who was with
+      me glanced longingly at the flowers, and I called one of the women. &ldquo;You
+      want some violets?&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;How much? A pound?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      God of Heaven! She sold her flowers by the pound! We fled in deep
+      distress. It seemed as though the country-side had been transformed into a
+      huge grocer&rsquo;s shop. . . . Then we ascended to the woods of Verrieres, and
+      there, in the grass, under the soft, fresh foliage, we found some tiny
+      violets which seemed to be dreadfully afraid, and contrived to hide
+      themselves with all sorts of artful ruses. During two long hours I scoured
+      the grass and peered into every nook, and as soon as ever I found a fresh
+      violet I carried it to her. She bought it of me, and the price that I
+      exacted was a kiss. . . . And I thought of all those things, of all that
+      happiness, amidst the hubbub of the markets of Paris, before those poor
+      dead flowers whose graveyard the footway had become. I remembered my good
+      fairy, who is now dead and gone, and the little bouquet of dry violets
+      which I still preserve in a drawer. When I returned home I counted their
+      withered stems: there were twenty of them, and over my lips there passed
+      the gentle warmth of my loved one&rsquo;s twenty kisses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now from violets I must, with a brutality akin to that which M. Zola
+      himself displays in some of his transitions, pass to very different
+      things, for some time back a well-known English poet and essayist wrote of
+      the present work that it was redolent of pork, onions, and cheese. To one
+      of his sensitive temperament, with a muse strictly nourished on sugar and
+      water, such gross edibles as pork and cheese and onions were peculiarly
+      offensive. That humble plant the onion, employed to flavour wellnigh every
+      savoury dish, can assuredly need no defence; in most European countries,
+      too, cheese has long been known as the poor man&rsquo;s friend; whilst as for
+      pork, apart from all other considerations, I can claim for it a distinct
+      place in English literature. A greater essayist by far than the critic to
+      whom I am referring, a certain Mr. Charles Lamb, of the India House, has
+      left us an immortal page on the origin of roast pig and crackling. And,
+      when everything is considered, I should much like to know why novels
+      should be confined to the aspirations of the soul, and why they should not
+      also treat of the requirements of our physical nature? From the days of
+      antiquity we have all known what befell the members when, guided by the
+      brain, they were foolish enough to revolt against the stomach. The latter
+      plays a considerable part not only in each individual organism, but also
+      in the life of the world. Over and over again&mdash;I could adduce a score
+      of historical examples&mdash;it has thwarted the mightiest designs of the
+      human mind. We mortals are much addicted to talking of our minds and our
+      souls and treating our bodies as mere dross. But I hold&mdash;it is a
+      personal opinion&mdash;that in the vast majority of cases the former are
+      largely governed by the last. I conceive, therefore, that a novel which
+      takes our daily sustenance as one of its themes has the best of all <i>raisons
+      d&rsquo;etre</i>. A foreign writer of far more consequence and ability than
+      myself&mdash;Signor Edmondo de Amicis&mdash;has proclaimed the present
+      book to be &ldquo;one of the most original and happiest inventions of French
+      genius,&rdquo; and I am strongly inclined to share his opinion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It should be observed that the work does not merely treat of the
+      provisioning of a great city. That provisioning is its <i>scenario</i>;
+      but it also embraces a powerful allegory, the prose song of &ldquo;the eternal
+      battle between the lean of this world and the fat&mdash;a battle in which,
+      as the author shows, the latter always come off successful. It is, too, in
+      its way an allegory of the triumph of the fat bourgeois, who lives well
+      and beds softly, over the gaunt and Ishmael artist&mdash;an allegory which
+      M. Zola has more than once introduced into his pages, another notable
+      instance thereof being found in &lsquo;Germinal,&rsquo; with the fat, well-fed
+      Gregoires on the one hand, and the starving Maheus on the other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      From this quotation from Mr. Sherard&rsquo;s pages it will be gathered that M.
+      Zola had a distinct social aim in writing this book. Wellnigh the whole
+      social question may, indeed, be summed up in the words &ldquo;food and comfort&rdquo;;
+      and in a series of novels like &ldquo;Les Rougon-Macquart,&rdquo; dealing firstly with
+      different conditions and grades of society, and, secondly, with the
+      influence which the Second Empire exercised on France, the present volume
+      necessarily had its place marked out from the very first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Sherard has told us of all the labour which M. Zola expended on the
+      preparation of the work, of his multitudinous visits to the Paris markets,
+      his patient investigation of their organism, and his keen artistic
+      interest in their manifold phases of life. And bred as I was in Paris, a
+      partaker as I have been of her exultations and her woes they have always
+      had for me a strong attraction. My memory goes back to the earlier years
+      of their existence, and I can well remember many of the old surroundings
+      which have now disappeared. I can recollect the last vestiges of the
+      antique <i>piliers</i>, built by Francis I, facing the Rue de la
+      Tonnellerie. Paul Niquet&rsquo;s, with its &ldquo;bowel-twisting brandy&rdquo; and its crew
+      of drunken ragpickers, was certainly before my time; but I can readily
+      recall Baratte&rsquo;s and Bordier&rsquo;s and all the folly and prodigality which
+      raged there; I knew, too, several of the noted thieves&rsquo; haunts which took
+      the place of Niquet&rsquo;s, and which one was careful never to enter without
+      due precaution. And then, when the German armies were beleaguering Paris,
+      and two millions of people were shut off from the world, I often strolled
+      to the Halles to view their strangely altered aspect. The fish pavilion,
+      of which M. Zola has so much to say, was bare and deserted. The railway
+      drays, laden with the comestible treasures of the ocean, no longer
+      thundered through the covered ways. At the most one found an auction going
+      on in one or another corner, and a few Seine eels or gudgeons fetching
+      wellnigh their weight in gold. Then, in the butter and cheese pavilions,
+      one could only procure some nauseous melted fat, while in the meat
+      department horse and mule and donkey took the place of beef and veal and
+      mutton. Mule and donkey were very scarce, and commanded high prices, but
+      both were of better flavour than horse; mule, indeed, being quite a
+      delicacy. I also well remember a stall at which dog was sold, and, hunger
+      knowing no law, I once purchased, cooked, and ate a couple of canine
+      cutlets which cost me two francs apiece. The flesh was pinky and very
+      tender, yet I would not willingly make such a repast again. However, peace
+      and plenty at last came round once more, the Halles regained their
+      old-time aspect, and in the years which followed I more than once saw the
+      dawn rise slowly over the mounds of cabbages, carrots, leeks, and
+      pumpkins, even as M. Zola describes in the following pages. He has, I
+      think, depicted with remarkable accuracy and artistic skill the many
+      varying effects of colour that are produced as the climbing sun casts its
+      early beams on the giant larder and its masses of food&mdash;effects of
+      colour which, to quote a famous saying of the first Napoleon, show that
+      &ldquo;the markets of Paris are the Louvre of the people&rdquo; in more senses than
+      one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader will bear in mind that the period dealt with by the author in
+      this work is that of 1857-60, when the new Halles Centrales were yet
+      young, and indeed not altogether complete. Still, although many old
+      landmarks have long since been swept away, the picture of life in all
+      essential particulars remained the same. Prior to 1860 the limits of Paris
+      were the so-called <i>boulevards exterieurs</i>, from which a girdle of
+      suburbs, such as Montmartre, Belleville, Passy, and Montrouge, extended to
+      the fortifications; and the population of the city was then only 1,400,000
+      souls. Some of the figures which will be found scattered through M. Zola&rsquo;s
+      work must therefore be taken as applying entirely to the past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nowadays the amount of business transacted at the Halles has very largely
+      increased, in spite of the multiplication of district markets. Paris seems
+      to have an insatiable appetite, though, on the other hand, its cuisine is
+      fast becoming all simplicity. To my thinking, few more remarkable changes
+      have come over the Parisians of recent years than this change of diet. One
+      by one great restaurants, formerly renowned for particular dishes and
+      special wines, have been compelled through lack of custom to close their
+      doors; and this has not been caused so much by inability to defray the
+      cost of high feeding as by inability to indulge in it with impunity in a
+      physical sense. In fact, Paris has become a city of impaired digestions,
+      which nowadays seek the simplicity without the heaviness of the old
+      English cuisine; and, should things continue in their present course, I
+      fancy that Parisians anxious for high feeding will ultimately have to
+      cross over to our side of the Channel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These remarks, I trust, will not be considered out of place in an
+      introduction to a work which to no small extent treats of the appetite of
+      Paris. The reader will find that the characters portrayed by M. Zola are
+      all types of humble life, but I fail to see that their circumstances
+      should render them any the less interesting. A faithful portrait of a
+      shopkeeper, a workman, or a workgirl is artistically of far more value
+      than all the imaginary sketches of impossible dukes and good and wicked
+      baronets in which so many English novels abound. Several of M. Zola&rsquo;s
+      personages seem to me extremely lifelike&mdash;Gavard, indeed, is a <i>chef-d&rsquo;oeuvre</i>
+      of portraiture: I have known many men like him; and no one who lived in
+      Paris under the Empire can deny the accuracy with which the author has
+      delineated his hero Florent, the dreamy and hapless revolutionary caught
+      in the toils of others. In those days, too, there was many such a plot as
+      M. Zola describes, instigated by agents like Logre and Lebigre, and
+      allowed to mature till the eve of an election or some other important
+      event which rendered its exposure desirable for the purpose of influencing
+      public opinion. In fact, in all that relates to the so-called &ldquo;conspiracy
+      of the markets,&rdquo; M. Zola, whilst changing time and place to suit the
+      requirements of his story, has simply followed historical lines. As for
+      the Quenus, who play such prominent parts in the narrative, the husband is
+      a weakling with no soul above his stewpans, whilst his wife, the beautiful
+      Lisa, in reality wears the breeches and rules the roast. The manner in
+      which she cures Quenu of his political proclivities, though savouring of
+      persuasiveness rather than violence, is worthy of the immortal Mrs.
+      Caudle: Douglas Jerrold might have signed a certain lecture which she
+      administers to her astounded helpmate. Of Pauline, the Quenus&rsquo; daughter,
+      we see but little in the story, but she becomes the heroine of another of
+      M. Zola&rsquo;s novels, &ldquo;La Joie de Vivre,&rdquo; and instead of inheriting the
+      egotism of her parents, develops a passionate love and devotion for
+      others. In a like way Claude Lantier, Florent&rsquo;s artist friend and son of
+      Gervaise of the &ldquo;Assommoir,&rdquo; figures more particularly in &ldquo;L&rsquo;Oeuvre,&rdquo;
+       which tells how his painful struggle for fame resulted in madness and
+      suicide. With reference to the beautiful Norman and the other fishwives
+      and gossips scattered through the present volume, and those genuine types
+      of Parisian <i>gaminerie</i>, Muche, Marjolin, and Cadine, I may mention
+      that I have frequently chastened their language in deference to English
+      susceptibilities, so that the story, whilst retaining every essential
+      feature, contains nothing to which exception can reasonably be taken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      E. A. V. <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE FAT AND THE THIN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Amidst the deep silence and solitude prevailing in the avenue several
+      market gardeners&rsquo; carts were climbing the slope which led towards Paris,
+      and the fronts of the houses, asleep behind the dim lines of elms on
+      either side of the road, echoed back the rhythmical jolting of the wheels.
+      At the Neuilly bridge a cart full of cabbages and another full of peas had
+      joined the eight waggons of carrots and turnips coming down from Nanterre;
+      and the horses, left to themselves, had continued plodding along with
+      lowered heads, at a regular though lazy pace, which the ascent of the
+      slope now slackened. The sleeping waggoners, wrapped in woollen cloaks,
+      striped black and grey, and grasping the reins slackly in their closed
+      hands, were stretched at full length on their stomachs atop of the piles
+      of vegetables. Every now and then, a gas lamp, following some patch of
+      gloom, would light up the hobnails of a boot, the blue sleeve of a blouse,
+      or the peak of a cap peering out of the huge florescence of vegetables&mdash;red
+      bouquets of carrots, white bouquets of turnips, and the overflowing
+      greenery of peas and cabbages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And all along the road, and along the neighbouring roads, in front and
+      behind, the distant rumbling of vehicles told of the presence of similar
+      contingents of the great caravan which was travelling onward through the
+      gloom and deep slumber of that matutinal hour, lulling the dark city to
+      continued repose with its echoes of passing food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Francois&rsquo;s horse, Balthazar, an animal that was far too fat, led
+      the van. He was plodding on, half asleep and wagging his ears, when
+      suddenly, on reaching the Rue de Longchamp, he quivered with fear and came
+      to a dead stop. The horses behind, thus unexpectedly checked, ran their
+      heads against the backs of the carts in front of them, and the procession
+      halted amidst a clattering of bolts and chains and the oaths of the
+      awakened waggoners. Madame Francois, who sat in front of her vehicle, with
+      her back to a board which kept her vegetables in position, looked down;
+      but, in the dim light thrown to the left by a small square lantern, which
+      illuminated little beyond one of Balthazar&rsquo;s sheeny flanks, she could
+      distinguish nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, old woman, let&rsquo;s get on!&rdquo; cried one of the men, who had raised
+      himself to a kneeling position amongst his turnips; &ldquo;it&rsquo;s only some
+      drunken sot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Francois, however, had bent forward and on her right hand had
+      caught sight of a black mass, lying almost under the horse&rsquo;s hoofs, and
+      blocking the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wouldn&rsquo;t have us drive over a man, would you?&rdquo; said she, jumping to
+      the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was indeed a man lying at full length upon the road, with his arms
+      stretched out and his face in the dust. He seemed to be remarkably tall,
+      but as withered as a dry branch, and the wonder was that Balthazar had not
+      broken him in half with a blow from his hoof. Madame Francois thought that
+      he was dead; but on stooping and taking hold of one of his hands, she
+      found that it was quite warm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor fellow!&rdquo; she murmured softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The waggoners, however, were getting impatient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hurry up, there!&rdquo; said the man kneeling amongst the turnips, in a hoarse
+      voice. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s drunk till he can hold no more, the hog! Shove him into the
+      gutter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, the man on the road had opened his eyes. He looked at Madame
+      Francois with a startled air, but did not move. She herself now thought
+      that he must indeed be drunk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mustn&rsquo;t stop here,&rdquo; she said to him, &ldquo;or you&rsquo;ll get run over and
+      killed. Where were you going?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; replied the man in a faint voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, with an effort and an anxious expression, he added: &ldquo;I was going to
+      Paris; I fell down, and don&rsquo;t remember any more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Francois could now see him more distinctly, and he was truly a
+      pitiable object, with his ragged black coat and trousers, through the
+      rents in which you could espy his scraggy limbs. Underneath a black cloth
+      cap, which was drawn low over his brows, as though he were afraid of being
+      recognised, could be seen two large brown eyes, gleaming with peculiar
+      softness in his otherwise stern and harassed countenance. It seemed to
+      Madame Francois that he was in far too famished a condition to have got
+      drunk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what part of Paris were you going to?&rdquo; she continued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man did not reply immediately. This questioning seemed to distress
+      him. He appeared to be thinking the matter over, but at last said
+      hesitatingly, &ldquo;Over yonder, towards the markets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had now, with great difficulty, got to his feet again, and seemed
+      anxious to resume his journey. But Madame Francois noticed that he
+      tottered, and clung for support to one of the shafts of her waggon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you tired?&rdquo; she asked him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, very tired,&rdquo; he replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she suddenly assumed a grumpy tone, as though displeased, and, giving
+      him a push, exclaimed: &ldquo;Look sharp, then, and climb into my cart. You&rsquo;ve
+      made us lose a lot of time. I&rsquo;m going to the markets, and I&rsquo;ll turn you
+      out there with my vegetables.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as the man seemed inclined to refuse her offer, she pushed him up
+      with her stout arms, and bundled him down upon the turnips and carrots.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, now, don&rsquo;t give us any more trouble,&rdquo; she cried angrily. &ldquo;You are
+      quite enough to provoke one, my good fellow. Don&rsquo;t I tell you that I&rsquo;m
+      going to the markets? Sleep away up there. I&rsquo;ll wake you when we arrive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She herself then clambered into the cart again, and settled herself with
+      her back against the board, grasping the reins of Balthazar, who started
+      off drowsily, swaying his ears once more. The other waggons followed, and
+      the procession resumed its lazy march through the darkness, whilst the
+      rhythmical jolting of the wheels again awoke the echoes of the sleepy
+      house fronts, and the waggoners, wrapped in their cloaks, dozed off
+      afresh. The one who had called to Madame Francois growled out as he lay
+      down: &ldquo;As if we&rsquo;d nothing better to do than pick up every drunken sot we
+      come across! You&rsquo;re a scorcher, old woman!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The waggons rumbled on, and the horses picked their own way, with drooping
+      heads. The stranger whom Madame Francois had befriended was lying on his
+      stomach, with his long legs lost amongst the turnips which filled the back
+      part of the cart, whilst his face was buried amidst the spreading piles of
+      carrot bunches. With weary, extended arms he clutched hold of his
+      vegetable couch in fear of being thrown to the ground by one of the
+      waggon&rsquo;s jolts, and his eyes were fixed on the two long lines of gas lamps
+      which stretched away in front of him till they mingled with a swarm of
+      other lights in the distance atop of the slope. Far away on the horizon
+      floated a spreading, whitish vapour, showing where Paris slept amidst the
+      luminous haze of all those flamelets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I come from Nanterre, and my name&rsquo;s Madame Francois,&rdquo; said the market
+      gardener presently. &ldquo;Since my poor man died I go to the markets every
+      morning myself. It&rsquo;s a hard life, as you may guess. And who are you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name&rsquo;s Florent, I come from a distance,&rdquo; replied the stranger, with
+      embarrassment. &ldquo;Please excuse me, but I&rsquo;m really so tired that it is
+      painful to me to talk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was evidently unwilling to say anything more, and so Madame Francois
+      relapsed into silence, and allowed the reins to fall loosely on the back
+      of Balthazar, who went his way like an animal acquainted with every stone
+      of the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, with his eyes still fixed upon the far-spreading glare of Paris,
+      Florent was pondering over the story which he had refused to communicate
+      to Madame Francois. After making his escape from Cayenne, whither he had
+      been transported for his participation in the resistance to Louis
+      Napoleon&rsquo;s Coup d&rsquo;Etat, he had wandered about Dutch Guiana for a couple of
+      years, burning to return to France, yet dreading the Imperial police. At
+      last, however, he once more saw before him the beloved and mighty city
+      which he had so keenly regretted and so ardently longed for. He would hide
+      himself there, he told himself, and again lead the quiet, peaceable life
+      that he had lived years ago. The police would never be any the wiser; and
+      everyone would imagine, indeed, that he had died over yonder, across the
+      sea. Then he thought of his arrival at Havre, where he had landed with
+      only some fifteen francs tied up in a corner of his handkerchief. He had
+      been able to pay for a seat in the coach as far as Rouen, but from that
+      point he had been forced to continue his journey on foot, as he had
+      scarcely thirty sous left of his little store. At Vernon his last copper
+      had gone in bread. After that he had no clear recollection of anything. He
+      fancied that he could remember having slept for several hours in a ditch,
+      and having shown the papers with which he had provided himself to a
+      gendarme; however, he had only a very confused idea of what had happened.
+      He had left Vernon without any breakfast, seized every now and then with
+      hopeless despair and raging pangs which had driven him to munch the leaves
+      of the hedges as he tramped along. A prey to cramp and fright, his body
+      bent, his sight dimmed, and his feet sore, he had continued his weary
+      march, ever drawn onwards in a semi-unconscious state by a vision of
+      Paris, which, far, far away, beyond the horizon, seemed to be summoning
+      him and waiting for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he at length reached Courbevoie, the night was very dark. Paris,
+      looking like a patch of star-sprent sky that had fallen upon the black
+      earth, seemed to him to wear a forbidding aspect, as though angry at his
+      return. Then he felt very faint, and his legs almost gave way beneath him
+      as he descended the hill. As he crossed the Neuilly bridge he sustained
+      himself by clinging to the parapet, and bent over and looked at the Seine
+      rolling inky waves between its dense, massy banks. A red lamp on the water
+      seemed to be watching him with a sanguineous eye. And then he had to climb
+      the hill if he would reach Paris on its summit yonder. The hundreds of
+      leagues which he had already travelled were as nothing to it. That bit of
+      a road filled him with despair. He would never be able, he thought, to
+      reach yonder light crowned summit. The spacious avenue lay before him with
+      its silence and its darkness, its lines of tall trees and low houses, its
+      broad grey footwalks, speckled with the shadows of overhanging branches,
+      and parted occasionally by the gloomy gaps of side streets. The squat
+      yellow flames of the gas lamps, standing erect at regular intervals, alone
+      imparted a little life to the lonely wilderness. And Florent seemed to
+      make no progress; the avenue appeared to grow ever longer and longer, to
+      be carrying Paris away into the far depths of the night. At last he
+      fancied that the gas lamps, with their single eyes, were running off on
+      either hand, whisking the road away with them; and then, overcome by
+      vertigo, he stumbled and fell on the roadway like a log.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now he was lying at ease on his couch of greenery, which seemed to him
+      soft as a feather bed. He had slightly raised his head so as to keep his
+      eyes on the luminous haze which was spreading above the dark roofs which
+      he could divine on the horizon. He was nearing his goal, carried along
+      towards it, with nothing to do but to yield to the leisurely jolts of the
+      waggon; and, free from all further fatigue, he now only suffered from
+      hunger. Hunger, indeed, had once more awoke within him with frightful and
+      wellnigh intolerable pangs. His limbs seemed to have fallen asleep; he was
+      only conscious of the existence of his stomach, horribly cramped and
+      twisted as by a red-hot iron. The fresh odour of the vegetables, amongst
+      which he was lying, affected him so keenly that he almost fainted away. He
+      strained himself against that piled-up mass of food with all his remaining
+      strength, in order to compress his stomach and silence its groans. And the
+      nine other waggons behind him, with their mountains of cabbages and peas,
+      their piles of artichokes, lettuces, celery, and leeks, seemed to him to
+      be slowly overtaking him, as though to bury him whilst he was thus
+      tortured by hunger beneath an avalanche of food. Presently the procession
+      halted, and there was a sound of deep voices. They had reached the
+      barriers, and the municipal customs officers were examining the waggons. A
+      moment later Florent entered Paris, in a swoon, lying atop of the carrots,
+      with clenched teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hallow! You up there!&rdquo; Madame Francois called out sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And as the stranger made no attempt to move, she clambered up and shook
+      him. Florent rose to a sitting posture. He had slept and no longer felt
+      the pangs of hunger, but was dizzy and confused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll help me to unload, won&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; Madame Francois said to him, as she
+      made him get down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He helped her. A stout man with a felt hat on his head and a badge in the
+      top buttonhole of his coat was striking the ground with a stick and
+      grumbling loudly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, come, now, make haste! You must get on faster than that! Bring the
+      waggon a little more forward. How many yards&rsquo; standing have you? Four,
+      isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he gave a ticket to Madame Francois, who took some coppers out of a
+      little canvas bag and handed them to him; whereupon he went off to vent
+      his impatience and tap the ground with his stick a little further away.
+      Madame Francois took hold of Balthazar&rsquo;s bridle and backed him so as to
+      bring the wheels of the waggon close to the footway. Then, having marked
+      out her four yards with some wisps of straw, after removing the back of
+      the cart, she asked Florent to hand her the vegetables bunch by bunch. She
+      arranged them sort by sort on her standing, setting them out artistically,
+      the &ldquo;tops&rdquo; forming a band of greenery around each pile; and it was with
+      remarkable rapidity that she completed her show, which, in the gloom of
+      early morning, looked like some piece of symmetrically coloured tapestry.
+      When Florent had handed her a huge bunch of parsley, which he had found at
+      the bottom of the cart, she asked him for still another service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be very kind of you,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;if you would look after my
+      goods while I put the horse and cart up. I&rsquo;m only going a couple of yards,
+      to the Golden Compasses, in the Rue Montorgueil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent told her that she might make herself easy. He preferred to remain
+      still, for his hunger had revived since he had begun to move about. He sat
+      down and leaned against a heap of cabbages beside Madame Francois&rsquo;s stock.
+      He was all right there, he told himself, and would not go further afield,
+      but wait. His head felt empty, and he had no very clear notion as to where
+      he was. At the beginning of September it is quite dark in the early
+      morning. Around him lighted lanterns were flitting or standing stationary
+      in the depths of the gloom. He was sitting on one side of a broad street
+      which he did not recognise; it stretched far away into the blackness of
+      the night. He could make out nothing plainly, excepting the stock of which
+      he had been left in charge. All around him along the market footways rose
+      similar piles of goods. The middle of the roadway was blocked by huge grey
+      tumbrels, and from one end of the street to the other a sound of heavy
+      breathing passed, betokening the presence of horses which the eye could
+      not distinguish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shouts and calls, the noise of falling wood, or of iron chains slipping to
+      the ground, the heavy thud of loads of vegetables discharged from the
+      waggons, and the grating of wheels as the carts were backed against the
+      footways, filled the yet sonorous awakening, whose near approach could be
+      felt and heard in the throbbing gloom. Glancing over the pile of cabbages
+      behind him. Florent caught sight of a man wrapped like a parcel in his
+      cloak, and snoring away with his head upon some baskets of plums. Nearer
+      to him, on his left, he could distinguish a lad, some ten years old,
+      slumbering between two heaps of endive, with an angelic smile on his face.
+      And as yet there seemed to be nothing on that pavement that was really
+      awake except the lanterns waving from invisible arms, and flitting and
+      skipping over the sleep of the vegetables and human beings spread out
+      there in heaps pending the dawn. However, what surprised Florent was the
+      sight of some huge pavilions on either side of the street, pavilions with
+      lofty roofs that seemed to expand and soar out of sight amidst a swarm of
+      gleams. In his weakened state of mind he fancied he beheld a series of
+      enormous, symmetrically built palaces, light and airy as crystal, whose
+      fronts sparkled with countless streaks of light filtering through endless
+      Venetian shutters. Gleaming between the slender pillar shafts these narrow
+      golden bars seemed like ladders of light mounting to the gloomy line of
+      the lower roofs, and then soaring aloft till they reached the jumble of
+      higher ones, thus describing the open framework of immense square halls,
+      where in the yellow flare of the gas lights a multitude of vague, grey,
+      slumbering things was gathered together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last Florent turned his head to look about him, distressed at not
+      knowing where he was, and filled with vague uneasiness by the sight of
+      that huge and seemingly fragile vision. And now, as he raised his eyes, he
+      caught sight of the luminous dial and the grey massive pile of Saint
+      Eustache&rsquo;s Church. At this he was much astonished. He was close to Saint
+      Eustache, yet all was novel to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Madame Francois had come back again, and was engaged in a heated
+      discussion with a man who carried a sack over his shoulder and offered to
+      buy her carrots for a sou a bunch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really, now, you are unreasonable, Lacaille!&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;You know quite
+      well that you will sell them again to the Parisians at four and five sous
+      the bunch. Don&rsquo;t tell me that you won&rsquo;t! You may have them for two sous
+      the bunch, if you like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as the man went off, she continued: &ldquo;Upon my word, I believe some
+      people think that things grow of their own accord! Let him go and find
+      carrots at a sou the bunch elsewhere, tipsy scoundrel that he is! He&rsquo;ll
+      come back again presently, you&rsquo;ll see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These last remarks were addressed to Florent. And, seating herself by his
+      side, Madame Francois resumed: &ldquo;If you&rsquo;ve been a long time away from
+      Paris, you perhaps don&rsquo;t know the new markets. They haven&rsquo;t been built for
+      more than five years at the most. That pavilion you see there beside us is
+      the flower and fruit market. The fish and poultry markets are farther
+      away, and over there behind us come the vegetables and the butter and
+      cheese. There are six pavilions on this side, and on the other side,
+      across the road, there are four more, with the meat and the tripe stalls.
+      It&rsquo;s an enormous place, but it&rsquo;s horribly cold in the winter. They talk
+      about pulling down the houses near the corn market to make room for two
+      more pavilions. But perhaps you know all this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, indeed,&rdquo; replied Florent; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been abroad. And what&rsquo;s the name of
+      that big street in front of us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that&rsquo;s a new street. It&rsquo;s called the Rue du Pont Neuf. It leads from
+      the Seine through here to the Rue Montmartre and the Rue Montorgueil. You
+      would soon have recognized where you were if it had been daylight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Francois paused and rose, for she saw a woman heading down to
+      examine her turnips. &ldquo;Ah, is that you, Mother Chantemesse?&rdquo; she said in a
+      friendly way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent meanwhile glanced towards the Rue Montorgueil. It was there that a
+      body of police officers had arrested him on the night of December 4.[*] He
+      had been walking along the Boulevard Montmartre at about two o&rsquo;clock,
+      quietly making his way through the crowd, and smiling at the number of
+      soldiers that the Elysee had sent into the streets to awe the people, when
+      the military suddenly began making a clean sweep of the thoroughfare,
+      shooting folks down at close range during a quarter of an hour. Jostled
+      and knocked to the ground, Florent fell at the corner of the Rue Vivienne
+      and knew nothing further of what happened, for the panic-stricken crowd,
+      in their wild terror of being shot, trampled over his body. Presently,
+      hearing everything quiet, he made an attempt to rise; but across him there
+      lay a young woman in a pink bonnet, whose shawl had slipped aside,
+      allowing her chemisette, pleated in little tucks, to be seen. Two bullets
+      had pierced the upper part of her bosom; and when Florent gently removed
+      the poor creature to free his legs, two streamlets of blood oozed from her
+      wounds on to his hands. Then he sprang up with a sudden bound, and rushed
+      madly away, hatless and with his hands still wet with blood. Until evening
+      he wandered about the streets, with his head swimming, ever seeing the
+      young woman lying across his legs with her pale face, her blue staring
+      eyes, her distorted lips, and her expression of astonishment at thus
+      meeting death so suddenly. He was a shy, timid fellow. Albeit thirty years
+      old he had never dared to stare women in the face; and now, for the rest
+      of his life, he was to have that one fixed in his heart and memory. He
+      felt as though he had lost some loved one of his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [*] 1851. Two days after the Coup d&rsquo;Etat.&mdash;Translator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening, without knowing how he had got there, still dazed and
+      horrified as he was by the terrible scenes of the afternoon, he had found
+      himself at a wine shop in the Rue Montorgueil, where several men were
+      drinking and talking of throwing up barricades. He went away with them,
+      helped them to tear up a few paving-stones, and seated himself on the
+      barricade, weary with his long wandering through the streets, and
+      reflecting that he would fight when the soldiers came up. However, he had
+      not even a knife with him, and was still bareheaded. Towards eleven
+      o&rsquo;clock he dozed off, and in his sleep could see the two holes in the dead
+      woman&rsquo;s white chemisette glaring at him like eyes reddened by tears and
+      blood. When he awoke he found himself in the grasp of four police
+      officers, who were pummelling him with their fists. The men who had built
+      the barricade had fled. The police officers treated him with still greater
+      violence, and indeed almost strangled him when they noticed that his hands
+      were stained with blood. It was the blood of the young woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent raised his eyes to the luminous dial of Saint Eustache with his
+      mind so full of these recollections that he did not notice the position of
+      the pointers. It was, however, nearly four o&rsquo;clock. The markets were as
+      yet wrapped in sleep. Madame Francois was still talking to old Madame
+      Chantemesse, both standing and arguing about the price of turnips, and
+      Florent now called to mind how narrowly he had escaped being shot over
+      yonder by the wall of Saint Eustache. A detachment of gendarmes had just
+      blown out the brains of five unhappy fellows caught at a barricade in the
+      Rue Greneta. The five corpses were lying on the footway, at a spot where
+      he thought he could now distinguish a heap of rosy radishes. He himself
+      had escaped being shot merely because the policemen only carried swords.
+      They took him to a neighbouring police station and gave the officer in
+      charge a scrap of paper, on which were these words written in pencil:
+      &ldquo;Taken with blood-stained hands. Very dangerous.&rdquo; Then he had been dragged
+      from station to station till the morning came. The scrap of paper
+      accompanied him wherever he went. He was manacled and guarded as though he
+      were a raving madman. At the station in the Rue de la Lingerie some tipsy
+      soldiers wanted to shoot him; and they had already lighted a lantern with
+      that object when the order arrived for the prisoners to be taken to the
+      depot of the Prefecture of Police. Two days afterwards he found himself in
+      a casemate of the fort of Bicetre. Ever since then he had been suffering
+      from hunger. He had felt hungry in the casemate, and the pangs of hunger
+      had never since left him. A hundred men were pent in the depths of that
+      cellar-like dungeon, where, scarce able to breathe, they devoured the few
+      mouthfuls of bread that were thrown to them, like so many captive wild
+      beasts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Florent was brought before an investigating magistrate, without
+      anyone to defend him, and without any evidence being adduced, he was
+      accused of belonging to a secret society; and when he swore that this was
+      untrue, the magistrate produced the scrap of paper from amongst the
+      documents before him: &ldquo;Taken with blood-stained hands. Very dangerous.&rdquo;
+       That was quite sufficient. He was condemned to transportation. Six weeks
+      afterwards, one January night, a gaoler awoke him and locked him up in a
+      courtyard with more than four hundred other prisoners. An hour later this
+      first detachment started for the pontoons and exile, handcuffed and
+      guarded by a double file of gendarmes with loaded muskets. They crossed
+      the Austerlitz bridge, followed the line of the boulevards, and so reached
+      the terminus of the Western Railway line. It was a joyous carnival night.
+      The windows of the restaurants on the boulevards glittered with lights. At
+      the top of the Rue Vivienne, just at the spot where he ever saw the young
+      woman lying dead&mdash;that unknown young woman whose image he always bore
+      with him&mdash;he now beheld a large carriage in which a party of masked
+      women, with bare shoulders and laughing voices, were venting their
+      impatience at being detained, and expressing their horror of that endless
+      procession of convicts. The whole of the way from Paris to Havre the
+      prisoners never received a mouthful of bread or a drink of water. The
+      officials had forgotten to give them their rations before starting, and it
+      was not till thirty-six hours afterwards, when they had been stowed away
+      in the hold of the frigate <i>Canada</i>, that they at last broke their
+      fast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No, Florent had never again been free from hunger. He recalled all the
+      past to mind, but could not recollect a single hour of satiety. He had
+      become dry and withered; his stomach seemed to have shrunk; his skin clung
+      to his bones. And now that he was back in Paris once more, he found it fat
+      and sleek and flourishing, teeming with food in the midst of the darkness.
+      He had returned to it on a couch of vegetables; he lingered in its midst
+      encompassed by unknown masses of food which still and ever increased and
+      disquieted him. Had that happy carnival night continued throughout those
+      seven years, then? Once again he saw the glittering windows on the
+      boulevards, the laughing women, the luxurious, greedy city which he had
+      quitted on that far-away January night; and it seemed to him that
+      everything had expanded and increased in harmony with those huge markets,
+      whose gigantic breathing, still heavy from the indigestion of the previous
+      day, he now began to hear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Mother Chantemesse had by this time made up her mind to buy a dozen
+      bunches of turnips. She put them in her apron, which she held closely
+      pressed to her person, thus making herself look yet more corpulent than
+      she was; and for some time longer she lingered there, still gossiping in a
+      drawling voice. When at last she went away, Madame Francois again sat down
+      by the side of Florent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor old Mother Chantemesse!&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;she must be at least
+      seventy-two. I can remember her buying turnips of my father when I was a
+      mere chit. And she hasn&rsquo;t a relation in the world; no one but a young
+      hussy whom she picked up I don&rsquo;t know where and who does nothing but bring
+      her trouble. Still, she manages to live, selling things by the ha&rsquo;p&rsquo;orth
+      and clearing her couple of francs profit a day. For my own part, I&rsquo;m sure
+      that I could never spend my days on the foot-pavement in this horrid
+      Paris! And she hasn&rsquo;t even any relations here!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have some relations in Paris, I suppose?&rdquo; she asked presently, seeing
+      that Florent seemed disinclined to talk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent did not appear to hear her. A feeling of distrust came back to
+      him. His head was teeming with old stories of the police, stories of spies
+      prowling about at every street corner, and of women selling the secrets
+      which they managed to worm out of the unhappy fellows they deluded. Madame
+      Francois was sitting close beside him and certainly looked perfectly
+      straightforward and honest, with her big calm face, above which was bound
+      a black and yellow handkerchief. She seemed about five and thirty years of
+      age, and was somewhat stoutly built, with a certain hardy beauty due to
+      her life in the fresh air. A pair of black eyes, which beamed with kindly
+      tenderness, softened the more masculine characteristics of her person. She
+      certainly was inquisitive, but her curiosity was probably well meant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve a nephew in Paris,&rdquo; she continued, without seeming at all offended
+      by Florent&rsquo;s silence. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s turned out badly though, and has enlisted.
+      It&rsquo;s a pleasant thing to have somewhere to go to and stay at, isn&rsquo;t it? I
+      dare say there&rsquo;s a big surprise in store for your relations when they see
+      you. But it&rsquo;s always a pleasure to welcome one of one&rsquo;s own people back
+      again, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She kept her eyes fixed upon him while she spoke, doubtless
+      compassionating his extreme scragginess; fancying, too, that there was a
+      &ldquo;gentleman&rdquo; inside those old black rags, and so not daring to slip a piece
+      of silver into his hand. At last, however, she timidly murmured: &ldquo;All the
+      same, if you should happen just at present to be in want of anything&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Florent checked her with uneasy pride. He told her that he had
+      everything he required, and had a place to go to. She seemed quite pleased
+      to hear this, and, as though to tranquillise herself concerning him,
+      repeated several times: &ldquo;Well, well, in that case you&rsquo;ve only got to wait
+      till daylight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A large bell at the corner of the fruit market, just over Florent&rsquo;s head,
+      now began to ring. The slow regular peals seemed to gradually dissipate
+      the slumber that yet lingered all around. Carts were still arriving, and
+      the shouts of the waggoners, the cracking of their whips, and the grinding
+      of the paving-stones beneath the iron-bound wheels and the horses&rsquo; shoes
+      sounded with an increasing din. The carts could now only advance by a
+      series of spasmodic jolts, and stretched in a long line, one behind the
+      other, till they were lost to sight in the distant darkness, whence a
+      confused roar ascended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unloading was in progress all along the Rue du Pont Neuf, the vehicles
+      being drawn up close to the edge of the footways, while their teams stood
+      motionless in close order as at a horse fair. Florent felt interested in
+      one enormous tumbrel which was piled up with magnificent cabbages, and had
+      only been backed to the kerb with the greatest difficulty. Its load
+      towered above the lofty gas lamp whose bright light fell full upon the
+      broad leaves which looked like pieces of dark green velvet, scalloped and
+      goffered. A young peasant girl, some sixteen years old, in a blue linen
+      jacket and cap, had climbed on to the tumbrel, where, buried in the
+      cabbages to her shoulders, she took them one by one and threw them to
+      somebody concealed in the shade below. Every now and then the girl would
+      slip and vanish, overwhelmed by an avalanche of the vegetables, but her
+      rosy nose soon reappeared amidst the teeming greenery, and she broke into
+      a laugh while the cabbages again flew down between Florent and the gas
+      lamp. He counted them mechanically as they fell. When the cart was emptied
+      he felt worried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The piles of vegetables on the pavement now extended to the verge of the
+      roadway. Between the heaps, the market gardeners left narrow paths to
+      enable people to pass along. The whole of the wide footway was covered
+      from end to end with dark mounds. As yet, in the sudden dancing gleams of
+      light from the lanterns, you only just espied the luxuriant fulness of the
+      bundles of artichokes, the delicate green of the lettuces, the rosy coral
+      of the carrots, and dull ivory of the turnips. And these gleams of rich
+      colour flitted along the heaps, according as the lanterns came and went.
+      The footway was now becoming populated: a crowd of people had awakened,
+      and was moving hither and thither amidst the vegetables, stopping at
+      times, and chattering and shouting. In the distance a loud voice could be
+      heard crying, &ldquo;Endive! who&rsquo;s got endive?&rdquo; The gates of the pavilion
+      devoted to the sale of ordinary vegetables had just been opened; and the
+      retail dealers who had stalls there, with white caps on their heads,
+      fichus knotted over their black jackets, and skirts pinned up to keep them
+      from getting soiled, now began to secure their stock for the day,
+      depositing their purchases in some huge porters&rsquo; baskets placed upon the
+      ground. Between the roadway and the pavilion these baskets were to be seen
+      coming and going on all sides, knocking against the crowded heads of the
+      bystanders, who resented the pushing with coarse expressions, whilst all
+      around was a clamour of voices growing hoarse by prolonged wrangling over
+      a sou or two. Florent was astonished by the calmness of the female market
+      gardeners, with bandanas and bronzed faces, displayed amidst all this
+      garrulous bargaining of the markets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Behind him, on the footway of the Rue Rambuteau, fruit was being sold.
+      Hampers and low baskets covered with canvas or straw stood there in long
+      lines, a strong odour of over-ripe mirabelle plums was wafted hither and
+      thither. At last a subdued and gentle voice, which he had heard for some
+      time past, induced him to turn his head, and he saw a charming darksome
+      little woman sitting on the ground and bargaining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come now, Marcel,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;you&rsquo;ll take a hundred sous, won&rsquo;t you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man to whom she was speaking was closely wrapped in his cloak and made
+      no reply; however, after a silence of five minutes or more, the young
+      woman returned to the charge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come now, Marcel; a hundred sous for that basket there, and four francs
+      for the other one; that&rsquo;ll make nine francs altogether.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came another interval.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, tell me what you will take.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ten francs. You know that well enough already; I told you so before. But
+      what have you done with your Jules this morning, La Sarriette?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young woman began to laugh as she took a handful of small change out
+      of her pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; she replied, &ldquo;Jules is still in bed. He says that men were not
+      intended to work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She paid for the two baskets, and carried them into the fruit pavilion,
+      which had just been opened. The market buildings still retained their
+      gloom-wrapped aspect of airy fragility, streaked with the thousand lines
+      of light that gleamed from the venetian shutters. People were beginning to
+      pass along the broad covered streets intersecting the pavilions, but the
+      more distant buildings still remained deserted amidst the increasing buzz
+      of life on the footways. By Saint Eustache the bakers and wine sellers
+      were taking down their shutters, and the ruddy shops, with their gas
+      lights flaring, showed like gaps of fire in the gloom in which the grey
+      house-fronts were yet steeped. Florent noticed a baker&rsquo;s shop on the
+      left-hand side of the Rue Montorgueil, replete and golden with its last
+      baking, and fancied he could scent the pleasant smell of the hot bread. It
+      was now half past four.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Francois by this time had disposed of nearly all her stock. She had
+      only a few bunches of carrots left when Lacaille once more made his
+      appearance with his sack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;will you take a sou now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knew I should see you again,&rdquo; the good woman quietly answered. &ldquo;You&rsquo;d
+      better take all I have left. There are seventeen bunches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That makes seventeen sous.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; thirty-four.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At last they agreed to fix the price at twenty-five sous. Madame Francois
+      was anxious to be off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;d been keeping his eye upon me all the time,&rdquo; she said to Florent,
+      when Lacaille had gone off with the carrots in his sack. &ldquo;That old rogue
+      runs things down all over the markets, and he often waits till the last
+      peal of the bell before spending four sous in purchase. Oh, these Paris
+      folk! They&rsquo;ll wrangle and argue for an hour to save half a sou, and then
+      go off and empty their purses at the wine shop.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whenever Madame Francois talked of Paris she always spoke in a tone of
+      disdain, and referred to the city as though it were some ridiculous,
+      contemptible, far-away place, in which she only condescended to set foot
+      at nighttime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There!&rdquo; she continued, sitting down again, beside Florent, on some
+      vegetables belonging to a neighbour, &ldquo;I can get away now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent bent his head. He had just committed a theft. When Lacaille went
+      off he had caught sight of a carrot lying on the ground, and having picked
+      it up he was holding it tightly in his right hand. Behind him were some
+      bundles of celery and bunches of parsley were diffusing pungent odours
+      which painfully affected him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;m off now!&rdquo; said Madame Francois.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, she felt interested in this stranger, and could divine that he
+      was suffering there on that foot-pavement, from which he had never
+      stirred. She made him fresh offers of assistance, but he again refused
+      them, with a still more bitter show of pride. He even got up and remained
+      standing to prove that he was quite strong again. Then, as Madame Francois
+      turned her head away, he put the carrot to his mouth. But he had to remove
+      it for a moment, in spite of the terrible longing which he felt to dig his
+      teeth into it; for Madame Francois turned round again and looking him full
+      in the face, began to question him with her good-natured womanly
+      curiosity. Florent, to avoid speaking, merely answered by nods and shakes
+      of the head. Then, slowly and gently, he began to eat the carrot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The worthy woman was at last on the point of going off, when a powerful
+      voice exclaimed close beside her, &ldquo;Good morning, Madame Francois.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The speaker was a slim young man, with big bones and a big head. His face
+      was bearded, and he had a very delicate nose and narrow sparkling eyes. He
+      wore on his head a rusty, battered, black felt hat, and was buttoned up in
+      an immense overcoat, which had once been of a soft chestnut hue, but which
+      rain had discoloured and streaked with long greenish stains. Somewhat
+      bent, and quivering with a nervous restlessness which was doubtless
+      habitual with him, he stood there in a pair of heavy laced shoes, and the
+      shortness of his trousers allowed a glimpse of his coarse blue hose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good morning, Monsieur Claude,&rdquo; the market gardener replied cheerfully.
+      &ldquo;I expected you, you know, last Monday, and, as you didn&rsquo;t come, I&rsquo;ve
+      taken care of your canvas for you. I&rsquo;ve hung it up on a nail in my room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are really very kind, Madame Francois. I&rsquo;ll go to finish that study
+      of mine one of these days. I wasn&rsquo;t able to go on Monday. Has your big
+      plum tree still got all its leaves?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, indeed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wanted to know, because I mean to put it in a corner of the picture. It
+      will come in nicely by the side of the fowl house. I have been thinking
+      about it all the week. What lovely vegetables are in the market this
+      morning! I came down very early, expecting a fine sunrise effect upon all
+      these heaps of cabbages.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With a wave of the arm he indicated the footway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, I must be off now,&rdquo; said Madame Francois. &ldquo;Good-bye for the
+      present. We shall meet again soon, I hope, Monsieur Claude.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However, as she turned to go, she introduced Florent to the young artist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This gentleman, it seems, has just come from a distance,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;He
+      feels quite lost in your scampish Paris. I dare say you might be of
+      service to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she at last took her departure, feeling pleased at having left the
+      two men together. Claude looked at Florent with a feeling of interest.
+      That tall, slight, wavy figure seemed to him original. Madame Francois&rsquo;s
+      hasty presentation was in his eyes quite sufficient, and he addressed
+      Florent with the easy familiarity of a lounger accustomed to all sorts of
+      chance encounters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll accompany you,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;which way are you going?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent felt ill at ease; he was not wont to unbosom himself so readily.
+      However, ever since his arrival in Paris, a question had been trembling on
+      his lips, and now he ventured to ask it, with the evident fear of
+      receiving an unfavourable reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the Rue Pirouette still in existence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes,&rdquo; answered the artist. &ldquo;A very curious corner of old Paris is the
+      Rue Pirouette. It twists and turns like a dancing girl, and the houses
+      bulge out like pot-bellied gluttons. I&rsquo;ve made an etching of it that isn&rsquo;t
+      half bad. I&rsquo;ll show it to you when you come to see me. Is it to the Rue
+      Pirouette that you want to go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent, who felt easier and more cheerful now that he knew the street
+      still existed, declared that he did not want to go there; in fact, he did
+      not want to go anywhere in particular. All his distrust awoke into fresh
+      life at Claude&rsquo;s insistence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! never mind,&rdquo; said the artist, &ldquo;let&rsquo;s go to the Rue Pirouette all the
+      same. It has such a fine colour at night time. Come along; it&rsquo;s only a
+      couple of yards away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent felt constrained to follow him, and the two men walked off, side
+      by side, stepping over the hampers and vegetables like a couple of old
+      friends. On the footway of the Rue Rambuteau there were some immense heaps
+      of cauliflowers, symmetrically piled up like so many cannonballs. The
+      soft-white flowers spread out like huge roses in the midst of their thick
+      green leaves, and the piles had something of the appearance of bridal
+      bouquets ranged in a row in colossal flower stands. Claude stopped in
+      front of them, venting cries of admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, on turning into the Rue Pirouette, which was just opposite, he
+      pointed out each house to his companion, and explained his views
+      concerning it. There was only a single gas lamp, burning in a corner. The
+      buildings, which had settled down and swollen, threw their pent-houses
+      forward in such wise as to justify Claude&rsquo;s allusion to pot-bellied
+      gluttons, whilst their gables receded, and on either side they clung to
+      their neighbours for support. Three or four, however, standing in gloomy
+      recesses, appeared to be on the point of toppling forward. The solitary
+      gas lamp illumined one which was snowy with a fresh coat of whitewash,
+      suggesting some flabby broken-down old dowager, powdered and bedaubed in
+      the hope of appearing young. Then the others stretched away into the
+      darkness, bruised, dented, and cracked, greeny with the fall of water from
+      their roofs, and displaying such an extraordinary variety of attitudes and
+      tints that Claude could not refrain from laughing as he contemplated them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent, however, came to stand at the corner of the rue de Mondetour, in
+      front of the last house but one on the left. Here the three floors, each
+      with two shutterless windows, having little white curtains closely drawn,
+      seemed wrapped in sleep; but, up above, a light could be seen flitting
+      behind the curtains of a tiny gable casement. However, the sight of the
+      shop beneath the pent-house seemed to fill Florent with the deepest
+      emotion. It was kept by a dealer in cooked vegetables, and was just being
+      opened. At its far end some metal pans were glittering, while on several
+      earthen ones in the window there was a display of cooked spinach and
+      endive, reduced to a paste and arranged in conical mounds from which
+      customers were served with shovel-like carvers of white metal, only the
+      handles of which were visible. This sight seemed to rivet Florent to the
+      ground with surprise. He evidently could not recognize the place. He read
+      the name of the shopkeeper, Godeboeuf, which was painted on a red sign
+      board up above, and remained quite overcome by consternation. His arms
+      dangling beside him, he began to examine the cooked spinach, with the
+      despairing air of one on whom some supreme misfortune falls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, the gable casement was now opened, and a little old woman leaned
+      out of it, and looked first at the sky and then at the markets in the
+      distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Mademoiselle Saget is an early riser,&rdquo; exclaimed Claude, who had just
+      raised his head. And, turning to his companion, he added: &ldquo;I once had an
+      aunt living in that house. It&rsquo;s a regular hive of tittle-tattle! Ah, the
+      Mehudins are stirring now, I see. There&rsquo;s a light on the second floor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent would have liked to question his companion, but the latter&rsquo;s long
+      discoloured overcoat give him a disquieting appearance. So without a word
+      Florent followed him, whilst he went on talking about the Mehudins. These
+      Mehudins were fish-girls, it seemed; the older one was a magnificent
+      creature, while the younger one, who sold fresh-water fish, reminded
+      Claude of one of Murillo&rsquo;s virgins, whenever he saw her standing with her
+      fair face amidst her carps and eels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this Claude went on to remark with asperity that Murillo painted like
+      an ignoramus. But all at once he stopped short in the middle of the
+      street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come!&rdquo; he exclaimed, &ldquo;tell me where it is that you want to go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to go anywhere just at present,&rdquo; replied Florent in
+      confusion. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s go wherever you like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as they were leaving the Rue Pirouette, some one called to Claude
+      from a wine shop at the corner of the street. The young man went in,
+      dragging Florent with him. The shutters had been taken down on one side
+      only, and the gas was still burning in the sleepy atmosphere of the shop.
+      A forgotten napkin and some cards that had been used in the previous
+      evening&rsquo;s play were still lying on the tables; and the fresh breeze that
+      streamed in through the open doorway freshened the close, warm vinous air.
+      The landlord, Monsieur Lebigre, was serving his customers. He wore a
+      sleeved waistcoat, and his fat regular features, fringed by an untidy
+      beard, were still pale with sleep. Standing in front of the counter,
+      groups of men, with heavy, tired eyes, were drinking, coughing, and
+      spitting, whilst trying to rouse themselves by the aid of white wine and
+      brandy. Amongst them Florent recognised Lacaille, whose sack now
+      overflowed with various sorts of vegetables. He was taking his third dram
+      with a friend, who was telling him a long story about the purchase of a
+      hamper of potatoes.[*] When he had emptied his glass, he went to chat with
+      Monsieur Lebigre in a little glazed compartment at the end of the room,
+      where the gas had not yet been lighted.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] At the Paris central markets potatoes are sold by the
+     hamper, not by the sack as in England.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will you take?&rdquo; Claude asked of Florent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had on entering grasped the hand of the person who had called out to
+      him. This was a market porter,[*] a well-built young man of two and twenty
+      at the most. His cheeks and chin were clean-shaven, but he wore a small
+      moustache, and looked a sprightly, strapping fellow with his broad-brimmed
+      hat covered with chalk, and his wool-worked neck-piece, the straps falling
+      from which tightened his short blue blouse. Claude, who called him
+      Alexandre, patted his arms, and asked him when they were going to
+      Charentonneau again. Then they talked about a grand excursion they had
+      made together in a boat on the Marne, when they had eaten a rabbit for
+      supper in the evening.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] <i>Fort</i> is the French term, literally &ldquo;a strong man,&rdquo; as
+     every market porter needs to be.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what will you take?&rdquo; Claude again asked Florent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter looked at the counter in great embarrassment. At one end of it
+      some stoneware pots, encircled with brass bands and containing punch and
+      hot wine, were standing over the short blue flames of a gas stove. Florent
+      at last confessed that a glass of something warm would be welcome.
+      Monsieur Lebigre thereupon served them with three glasses of punch. In a
+      basket near the pots were some smoking hot rolls which had only just
+      arrived. However, as neither of the others took one, Florent likewise
+      refrained, and drank his punch. He felt it slipping down into his empty
+      stomach, like a steam of molten lead. It was Alexandre who paid for the
+      &ldquo;shout.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a fine fellow, that Alexandre!&rdquo; said Claude, when he and Florent
+      found themselves alone again on the footway of the Rue Rambuteau. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a
+      very amusing companion to take into the country. He&rsquo;s fond of showing his
+      strength. And then he&rsquo;s so magnificently built! I have seen him stripped.
+      Ah, if I could only get him to pose for me in the nude out in the open
+      air! Well, we&rsquo;ll go and take a turn through the markets now, if you like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent followed, yielding entirely to his new friend&rsquo;s guidance. A bright
+      glow at the far end of the Rue Rambuteau announced the break of day. The
+      far-spreading voice of the markets was become more sonorous, and every now
+      and then the peals of a bell ringing in some distant pavilion mingled with
+      the swelling, rising clamour. Claude and Florent entered one of the
+      covered streets between the fish and poultry pavilions. Florent raised his
+      eyes and looked at the lofty vault overhead, the inner timbers of which
+      glistened amidst a black lacework of iron supports. As he turned into the
+      great central thoroughfare he pictured himself in some strange town, with
+      its various districts and suburbs, promenades and streets, squares and
+      cross-roads, all suddenly placed under shelter on a rainy day by the whim
+      of some gigantic power. The deep gloom brooding in the hollows of the
+      roofs multiplied, as it were, the forest of pillars, and infinitely
+      increased the number of the delicate ribs, railed galleries, and
+      transparent shutters. And over the phantom city and far away into the
+      depths of the shade, a teeming, flowering vegetation of luxuriant
+      metal-work, with spindle-shaped stems and twining knotted branches,
+      covered the vast expanse as with the foliage of some ancient forest.
+      Several departments of the markets still slumbered behind their closed
+      iron gates. The butter and poultry pavilions displayed rows of little
+      trellised stalls and long alleys, which lines of gas lights showed to be
+      deserted. The fish market, however, had just been opened, and women were
+      flitting to and fro amongst the white slabs littered with shadowy hampers
+      and cloths. Among the vegetables and fruit and flowers the noise and
+      bustle were gradually increasing. The whole place was by degree waking up,
+      from the popular quarter where the cabbages are piled at four o&rsquo;clock in
+      the morning, to the lazy and wealthy district which only hangs up its
+      pullets and pheasants when the hands of the clock point to eight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great covered alleys were now teeming with life. All along the
+      footways on both sides of the road there were still many market gardeners,
+      with other small growers from the environs of Paris, who displayed baskets
+      containing their &ldquo;gatherings&rdquo; of the previous evening&mdash;bundles of
+      vegetables and clusters of fruit. Whilst the crowd incessantly paced
+      hither and thither, vehicles barred the road; and Florent, in order to
+      pass them, had to press against some dingy sacks, like coal-sacks in
+      appearance, and so numerous and heavy that the axle-trees of the vans bent
+      beneath them. They were quite damp, and exhaled a fresh odour of seaweed.
+      From a rent low down in the side of one of them a black stream of big
+      mussels was trickling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent and Claude had now to pause at every step. The fish was arriving
+      and one after another the drays of the railway companies drove up laden
+      with wooden cages full of the hampers and baskets that had come by train
+      from the sea coast. And to get out of the way of the fish drays, which
+      became more and more numerous and disquieting, the artist and Florent
+      rushed amongst the wheels of the drays laden with butter and eggs and
+      cheese, huge yellow vehicles bearing coloured lanterns, and drawn by four
+      horses. The market porters carried the cases of eggs, and baskets of
+      cheese and butter, into the auction pavilion, where clerks were making
+      entries in note books by the light of the gas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude was quite charmed with all this uproar, and forgot everything to
+      gaze at some effect of light, some group of blouses, or the picturesque
+      unloading of a cart. At last they extricated themselves from the crowd,
+      and as they continued on their way along the main artery they presently
+      found themselves amidst an exquisite perfume which seemed to be following
+      them. They were in the cut-flower market. All over the footways, to the
+      right and left, women were seated in front of large rectangular baskets
+      full of bunches of roses, violets, dahlias, and marguerites. At times the
+      clumps darkened and looked like splotches of blood, at others they
+      brightened into silvery greys of the softest tones. A lighted candle,
+      standing near one basket, set amidst the general blackness quite a melody
+      of colour&mdash;the bright variegations of marguerites, the blood-red
+      crimson of dahlias, the bluey purple of violets, and the warm flesh tints
+      of roses. And nothing could have been sweeter or more suggestive of
+      springtide than this soft breath of perfume encountered on the footway, on
+      emerging from the sharp odours of the fish market and the pestilential
+      smell of the butter and the cheese.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude and Florent turned round and strolled about, loitering among the
+      flowers. They halted with some curiosity before several women who were
+      selling bunches of fern and bundles of vine-leaves, neatly tied up in
+      packets of five and twenty. Then they turned down another covered alley,
+      which was almost deserted, and where their footsteps echoed as though they
+      had been walking through a church. Here they found a little cart, scarcely
+      larger than a wheelbarrow, to which was harnessed a diminutive donkey,
+      who, no doubt, felt bored, for at sight of them he began braying with such
+      prolonged and sonorous force that the vast roofing of the markets fairly
+      trembled. Then the horses began to neigh in reply, there was a sound of
+      pawing and tramping, a distant uproar, which swelled, rolled along, then
+      died away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, in the Rue Berger in front of them, Claude and Florent perceived
+      a number of bare, frontless, salesmen&rsquo;s shops, where, by the light of
+      flaring gas jets, they could distinguish piles of hampers and fruit,
+      enclosed by three dirty walls which were covered with addition sums in
+      pencil. And the two wanderers were still standing there, contemplating
+      this scene, when they noticed a well-dressed woman huddled up in a cab
+      which looked quite lost and forlorn in the block of carts as it stealthily
+      made its way onwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s Cinderella coming back without her slippers,&rdquo; remarked Claude
+      with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They began chatting together as they went back towards the markets. Claude
+      whistled as he strolled along with his hands in his pockets, and
+      expatiated on his love for this mountain of food which rises every morning
+      in the very centre of Paris. He prowled about the footways night after
+      night, dreaming of colossal still-life subjects, paintings of an
+      extraordinary character. He had even started on one, having his friend
+      Marjolin and that jade Cadine to pose for him; but it was hard work to
+      paint those confounded vegetables and fruit and fish and meat&mdash;they
+      were all so beautiful! Florent listened to the artist&rsquo;s enthusiastic talk
+      with a void and hunger-aching stomach. It did not seem to occur to Claude
+      that all those things were intended to be eaten. Their charm for him lay
+      in their colour. Suddenly, however, he ceased speaking and, with a gesture
+      that was habitual to him, tightened the long red sash which he wore under
+      his green-stained coat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then with a sly expression he resumed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides, I breakfast here, through my eyes, at any rate, and that&rsquo;s
+      better than getting nothing at all. Sometimes, when I&rsquo;ve forgotten to dine
+      on the previous day, I treat myself to a perfect fit of indigestion in the
+      morning by watching the carts arrive here laden with all sorts of good
+      things. On such mornings as those I love my vegetables more than ever. Ah!
+      the exasperating part, the rank injustice of it all, is that those
+      rascally Philistines really eat these things!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he went on to tell Florent of a supper to which a friend had treated
+      him at Baratte&rsquo;s on a day of affluence. They had partaken of oysters,
+      fish, and game. But Baratte&rsquo;s had sadly fallen, and all the carnival life
+      of the old Marche des Innocents was now buried. In place thereof they had
+      those huge central markets, that colossus of ironwork, that new and
+      wonderful town. Fools might say what they liked; it was the embodiment of
+      the spirit of the times. Florent, however, could not at first make out
+      whether he was condemning the picturesqueness of Baratte&rsquo;s or its good
+      cheer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Claude next began to inveigh against romanticism. He preferred his
+      piles of vegetables, he said, to the rags of the middle ages; and he ended
+      by reproaching himself with guilty weakness in making an etching of the
+      Rue Pirouette. All those grimy old places ought to be levelled to the
+      ground, he declared, and modern houses ought to be built in their stead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There!&rdquo; he exclaimed, coming to a halt, &ldquo;look at the corner of the
+      footway yonder! Isn&rsquo;t that a picture readymade, ever so much more human
+      and natural than all their confounded consumptive daubs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Along the covered way women were now selling hot soup and coffee. At one
+      corner of the foot-pavement a large circle of customers clustered round a
+      vendor of cabbage soup. The bright tin caldron, full of broth, was
+      steaming over a little low stove, through the holes of which came the pale
+      glow of the embers. From a napkin-lined basket the woman took some thin
+      slices of bread and dropped them into yellow cups; then with a ladle she
+      filled the cups with liquor. Around her were saleswomen neatly dressed,
+      market gardeners in blouses, porters with coats soiled by the loads they
+      had carried, poor ragged vagabonds&mdash;in fact, all the early hungry
+      ones of the markets, eating, and scalding their mouths, and drawing back
+      their chins to avoid soiling them with the drippings from their spoons.
+      The delighted artist blinked, and sought a point of view so as to get a
+      good ensemble of the picture. That cabbage soup, however, exhaled a very
+      strong odour. Florent, for his part, turned his head away, distressed by
+      the sight of the full cups which the customers emptied in silence,
+      glancing around them the while like suspicious animals. As the woman began
+      serving a fresh customer, Claude himself was affected by the odorous steam
+      of the soup, which was wafted full in his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He again tightened his sash, half amused and half annoyed. Then resuming
+      his walk, and alluding to the punch paid for by Alexandre, he said to
+      Florent in a low voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very odd, but have you ever noticed that although a man can always
+      find somebody to treat him to something to drink, he can never find a soul
+      who will stand him anything to eat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dawn was now rising. The houses on the Boulevard de Sebastopol at the
+      end of the Rue de la Cossonnerie were still black; but above the sharp
+      line of their slate roofs a patch of pale blue sky, circumscribed by the
+      arch-pieces of the covered way, showed like a gleaming half-moon. Claude,
+      who had been bending over some grated openings on a level with the ground,
+      through which a glimpse could be obtained of deep cellars where gas lights
+      glimmered, now glanced up into the air between the lofty pillars, as
+      though scanning the dark roofs which fringed the clear sky. Then he halted
+      again, with his eyes fixed on one of the light iron ladders which connect
+      the superposed market roofs and give access from one to the other. Florent
+      asked him what he was seeking there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking for that scamp of a Marjolin,&rdquo; replied the artist. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s sure
+      to be in some guttering up there, unless, indeed, he&rsquo;s been spending the
+      night in the poultry cellars. I want him to give me a sitting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he went on to relate how a market saleswoman had found his friend
+      Marjolin one morning in a pile of cabbages, and how Marjolin had grown up
+      in all liberty on the surrounding footways. When an attempt had been made
+      to send him to school he had fallen ill, and it had been necessary to
+      bring him back to the markets. He knew every nook and corner of them, and
+      loved them with a filial affection, leading the agile life of a squirrel
+      in that forest of ironwork. He and Cadine, the hussy whom Mother
+      Chantemesse had picked up one night in the old Market of the Innocents,
+      made a pretty couple&mdash;he, a splendid foolish fellow, as glowing as a
+      Rubens, with a ruddy down on his skin which attracted the sunlight; and
+      she, slight and sly, with a comical phiz under her tangle of black curly
+      hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst talking Claude quickened his steps, and soon brought his companion
+      back to Saint Eustache again. Florent, whose legs were once more giving
+      way, dropped upon a bench near the omnibus office. The morning air was
+      freshening. At the far end of the Rue Rambuteau rosy gleams were streaking
+      the milky sky, which higher up was slashed by broad grey rifts. Such was
+      the sweet balsamic scent of this dawn, that Florent for a moment fancied
+      himself in the open country, on the brow of a hill. But behind the bench
+      Claude pointed out to him the many aromatic herbs and bulbs on sale. All
+      along the footway skirting the tripe market there were, so to say, fields
+      of thyme and lavender, garlic and shallots; and round the young
+      plane-trees on the pavement the vendors had twined long branches of
+      laurel, forming trophies of greenery. The strong scent of the laurel
+      leaves prevailed over every other odour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At present the luminous dial of Saint Eustache was paling as a night-light
+      does when surprised by the dawn. The gas jets in the wine shops in the
+      neighbouring streets went out one by one, like stars extinguished by the
+      brightness. And Florent gazed at the vast markets now gradually emerging
+      from the gloom, from the dreamland in which he had beheld them, stretching
+      out their ranges of open palaces. Greenish-grey in hue, they looked more
+      solid now, and even more colossal with their prodigious masting of columns
+      upholding an endless expanse of roofs. They rose up in geometrically
+      shaped masses; and when all the inner lights had been extinguished and the
+      square uniform buildings were steeped in the rising dawn, they seemed
+      typical of some gigantic modern machine, some engine, some caldron for the
+      supply of a whole people, some colossal belly, bolted and riveted, built
+      up of wood and glass and iron, and endowed with all the elegance and power
+      of some mechanical motive appliance working there with flaring furnaces,
+      and wild, bewildering revolutions of wheels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude, however, had enthusiastically sprung on to the bench, and stood
+      upon it. He compelled his companion to admire the effect of the dawn
+      rising over the vegetables. There was a perfect sea of these extending
+      between the two clusters of pavilions from Saint Eustache to the Rue des
+      Halles. And in the two open spaces at either end the flood of greenery
+      rose to even greater height, and quite submerged the pavements. The dawn
+      appeared slowly, softly grey in hue, and spreading a light water-colour
+      tint over everything. These surging piles akin to hurrying waves, this
+      river of verdure rushing along the roadway like an autumn torrent, assumed
+      delicate shadowy tints&mdash;tender violet, blush-rose, and greeny yellow,
+      all the soft, light hues which at sunrise make the sky look like a canopy
+      of shot silk. And by degrees, as the fires of dawn rose higher and higher
+      at the far end of the Rue Rambuteau, the mass of vegetation grew brighter
+      and brighter, emerging more and more distinctly from the bluey gloom that
+      clung to the ground. Salad herbs, cabbage-lettuce, endive, and succory,
+      with rich soil still clinging to their roots, exposed their swelling
+      hearts; bundles of spinach, bundles of sorrel, clusters of artichokes,
+      piles of peas and beans, mounds of cos-lettuce, tied round with straws,
+      sounded every note in the whole gamut of greenery, from the sheeny
+      lacquer-like green of the pods to the deep-toned green of the foliage; a
+      continuous gamut with ascending and descending scales which died away in
+      the variegated tones of the heads of celery and bundles of leeks. But the
+      highest and most sonorous notes still came from the patches of bright
+      carrots and snowy turnips, strewn in prodigious quantities all along the
+      markets and lighting them up with the medley of their two colours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the crossway in the Rue des Halles cabbages were piled up in mountains;
+      there were white ones, hard and compact as metal balls, curly savoys,
+      whose great leaves made them look like basins of green bronze, and red
+      cabbages, which the dawn seemed to transform into superb masses of bloom
+      with the hue of wine-lees, splotched with dark purple and carmine. At the
+      other side of the markets, at the crossway near Saint Eustache, the end of
+      the Rue Rambuteau was blocked by a barricade of orange-hued pumpkins,
+      sprawling with swelling bellies in two superposed rows. And here and there
+      gleamed the glistening ruddy brown of a hamper of onions, the blood-red
+      crimson of a heap of tomatoes, the quiet yellow of a display of marrows,
+      and the sombre violet of the fruit of the eggplant; while numerous fat
+      black radishes still left patches of gloom amidst the quivering brilliance
+      of the general awakening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude clapped his hands at the sight. He declared that those &ldquo;blackguard
+      vegetables&rdquo; were wild, mad, sublime! He stoutly maintained that they were
+      not yet dead, but, gathered in the previous evening, waited for the
+      morning sun to bid him good-bye from the flag-stones of the market. He
+      could observe their vitality, he declared, see their leaves stir and open
+      as though their roots were yet firmly and warmly embedded in well-manured
+      soil. And here, in the markets, he added, he heard the death-rattle of all
+      the kitchen gardens of the environs of Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A crowd of white caps, loose black jackets, and blue blouses was swarming
+      in the narrow paths between the various piles. The big baskets of the
+      market porters passed along slowly, above the heads of the throng. Retail
+      dealers, costermongers, and greengrocers were making their purchases in
+      haste. Corporals and nuns clustered round the mountains of cabbages, and
+      college cooks prowled about inquisitively, on the look-out for good
+      bargains. The unloading was still going on; heavy tumbrels, discharging
+      their contents as though these were so many paving-stones, added more and
+      more waves to the sea of greenery which was now beating against the
+      opposite footways. And from the far end of the Rue du Pont Neuf fresh rows
+      of carts were still and ever arriving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a fine sight it is!&rdquo; exclaimed Claude in an ecstasy of enthusiasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent was suffering keenly. He fancied that all this was some
+      supernatural temptation, and, unwilling to look at the markets any longer,
+      turned towards Saint Eustache, a side view of which he obtained from the
+      spot where he now stood. With its roses, and broad arched windows, its
+      bell-turret, and roofs of slate, it looked as though painted in sepia
+      against the blue of the sky. He fixed his eyes at last on the sombre
+      depths of the Rue Montorgueil, where fragments of gaudy sign boards showed
+      conspicuously, and on the corner of the Rue Montmartre, where there were
+      balconies gleaming with letters of gold. And when he again glanced at the
+      cross-roads, his gaze was solicited by other sign boards, on which such
+      inscriptions as &ldquo;Druggist and Chemist,&rdquo; &ldquo;Flour and Grain&rdquo; appeared in big
+      red and black capital letters upon faded backgrounds. Near these corners,
+      houses with narrow windows were now awakening, setting amidst the newness
+      and airiness of the Rue du Pont Neuf a few of the yellow ancient facades
+      of olden Paris. Standing at the empty windows of the great drapery shop at
+      the corner of the Rue Rambuteau a number of spruce-looking counter-jumpers
+      in their shirt sleeves, with snowy-white wristbands and tight-fitting
+      pantaloons, were &ldquo;dressing&rdquo; their goods. Farther away, in the windows of
+      the severe looking, barrack-like Guillot establishment, biscuits in gilt
+      wrappers and fancy cakes on glass stands were tastefully set out. All the
+      shops were now open; and workmen in white blouses, with tools under their
+      arms, were hurrying along the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude had not yet got down from the bench. He was standing on tiptoe in
+      order to see the farther down the streets. Suddenly, in the midst of the
+      crowd which he overlooked, he caught sight of a fair head with long wavy
+      locks, followed by a little black one covered with curly tumbled hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hallo, Marjolin! Hallo, Cadine!&rdquo; he shouted; and then, as his voice was
+      drowned by the general uproar, he jumped to the ground and started off.
+      But all at once, recollecting that he had left Florent behind him, he
+      hastily came back. &ldquo;I live at the end of the Impasse des Bourdonnais,&rdquo; he
+      said rapidly. &ldquo;My name&rsquo;s written in chalk on the door, Claude Lantier.
+      Come and see the etching of the Rue Pirouette.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he vanished. He was quite ignorant of Florent&rsquo;s name, and, after
+      favouring him with his views on art, parted from him as he had met him, at
+      the roadside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent was now alone, and at first this pleased him. Ever since Madame
+      Francoise had picked him up in the Avenue de Neuilly he had been coming
+      and going in a state of pain fraught somnolence which had quite prevented
+      him from forming any definite ideas of his surroundings. Now at last he
+      was at liberty to do what he liked, and he tried to shake himself free
+      from that intolerable vision of teeming food by which he was pursued. But
+      his head still felt empty and dizzy, and all that he could find within him
+      was a kind of vague fear. The day was now growing quite bright, and he
+      could be distinctly seen. He looked down at his wretched shabby coat and
+      trousers. He buttoned the first, dusted the latter, and strove to make a
+      bit of a toilet, fearing lest those black rags of his should proclaim
+      aloud whence he had come. He was seated in the middle of the bench, by the
+      side of some wandering vagabonds who had settled themselves there while
+      waiting for the sunrise. The neighbourhood of the markets is a favourite
+      spot with vagrants in the small hours of the morning. However, two
+      constables, still in night uniform, with cloaks and <i>kepis</i>, paced up
+      and down the footway side by side, their hands resting behind their backs;
+      and every time they passed the bench they glanced at the game which they
+      scented there. Florent felt sure that they recognised him, and were
+      consulting together about arresting him. At this thought his anguish of
+      mind became extreme. He felt a wild desire to get up and run away; but he
+      did not dare to do so, and was quite at a loss as to how he might take
+      himself off. The repeated glances of the constables, their cold,
+      deliberate scrutiny caused him the keenest torture. At length he rose from
+      the bench, making a great effort to restrain himself from rushing off as
+      quickly as his long legs could carry him; and succeeded in walking quietly
+      away, though his shoulders quivered in the fear he felt of suddenly
+      feeling the rough hands of the constables clutching at his collar from
+      behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had now only one thought, one desire, which was to get away from the
+      markets as quickly as possible. He would wait and make his investigations
+      later on, when the footways should be clear. The three streets which met
+      here&mdash;the Rue Montmartre, Rue Montorgueil, and Rue Turbigo&mdash;filled
+      him with uneasiness. They were blocked by vehicles of all kinds, and their
+      footways were crowded with vegetables. Florent went straight along as far
+      as the Rue Pierre Lescot, but there the cress and the potato markets
+      seemed to him insuperable obstacles. So he resolved to take the Rue
+      Rambuteau. On reaching the Boulevard de Sebastopol, however, he came
+      across such a block of vans and carts and waggonettes that he turned back
+      and proceeded along the Rue Saint Denis. Then he got amongst the
+      vegetables once more. Retail dealers had just set up their stalls, formed
+      of planks resting on tall hampers; and the deluge of cabbages and carrots
+      and turnips began all over again. The markets were overflowing. Florent
+      tried to make his escape from this pursuing flood which ever overtook him
+      in his flight. He tried the Rue de la Cossonnerie, the Rue Berger, the
+      Square des Innocents, the Rue de la Ferronnerie, and the Rue des Halles.
+      And at last he came to a standstill, quite discouraged and scared at
+      finding himself unable to escape from the infernal circle of vegetables,
+      which now seemed to dance around him, twining clinging verdure about his
+      legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The everlasting stream of carts and horses stretched away as far as the
+      Rue de Rivoli and the Place de l&rsquo;Hotel de Ville. Huge vans were carrying
+      away supplies for all the greengrocers and fruiterers of an entire
+      district; <i>chars-a-bancs</i> were starting for the suburbs with
+      straining, groaning sides. In the Rue de Pont Neuf Florent got completely
+      bewildered. He stumbled upon a crowd of hand-carts, in which numerous
+      costermongers were arranging their purchases. Amongst them he recognised
+      Lacaille, who went off along the Rue Saint Honore, pushing a barrow of
+      carrots and cauliflowers before him. Florent followed him, in the hope
+      that he would guide him out of the mob. The pavement was now quite
+      slippery, although the weather was dry, and the litter of artichoke
+      stalks, turnip tops, and leaves of all kinds made walking somewhat
+      dangerous. Florent stumbled at almost every step. He lost sight of
+      Lacaille in the Rue Vauvilliers, and on approaching the corn market he
+      again found the streets barricaded with vehicles. Then he made no further
+      attempt to struggle; he was once more in the clutch of the markets, and
+      their stream of life bore him back. Slowly retracing his steps, he
+      presently found himself by Saint Eustache again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now heard the loud continuous rumbling of the waggons that were setting
+      out from the markets. Paris was doling out the daily food of its two
+      million inhabitants. These markets were like some huge central organ
+      beating with giant force, and sending the blood of life through every vein
+      of the city. The uproar was akin to that of colossal jaws&mdash;a mighty
+      sound to which each phase of the provisioning contributed, from the
+      whip-cracking of the larger retail dealers as they started off for the
+      district markets to the dragging pit-a-pat of the old shoes worn by the
+      poor women who hawked their lettuces in baskets from door to door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent turned into a covered way on the left, intersecting the group of
+      four pavilions whose deep silent gloom he had remarked during the night.
+      He hoped that he might there find a refuge, discover some corner in which
+      he could hide himself. But these pavilions were now as busy, as lively as
+      the others. Florent walked on to the end of the street. Drays were driving
+      up at a quick trot, crowding the market with cages full of live poultry,
+      and square hampers in which dead birds were stowed in deep layers. On the
+      other side of the way were other drays from which porters were removing
+      freshly killed calves, wrapped in canvas, and laid at full length in
+      baskets, whence only the four bleeding stumps of their legs protruded.
+      There were also whole sheep, and sides and quarters of beef. Butchers in
+      long white aprons marked the meat with a stamp, carried it off, weighted
+      it, and hung it up on hooks in the auction room. Florent, with his face
+      close to the grating, stood gazing at the rows of hanging carcasses, at
+      the ruddy sheep and oxen and paler calves, all streaked with yellow fat
+      and sinews, and with bellies yawning open. Then he passed along the
+      sidewalk where the tripe market was held, amidst the pallid calves&rsquo; feet
+      and heads, the rolled tripe neatly packed in boxes, the brains delicately
+      set out in flat baskets, the sanguineous livers, and purplish kidneys. He
+      checked his steps in front of some long two-wheeled carts, covered with
+      round awnings, and containing sides of pork hung on each side of the
+      vehicle over a bed of straw. Seen from the back end, the interiors of the
+      carts looked like recesses of some tabernacle, like some taper-lighted
+      chapel, such was the glow of all the bare flesh they contained. And on the
+      beds of straw were lines of tin cans, full of the blood that had trickled
+      from the pigs. Thereupon Florent was attacked by a sort of rage. The
+      insipid odour of the meat, the pungent smell of the tripe exasperated him.
+      He made his way out of the covered road, preferring to return once more to
+      the footwalk of the Rue de Pont Neuf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was enduring perfect agony. The shiver of early morning came upon him;
+      his teeth chattered, and he was afraid of falling to the ground and
+      finding himself unable to rise again. He looked about, but could see no
+      vacant place on any bench. Had he found one he would have dropped asleep
+      there, even at the risk of being awakened by the police. Then, as
+      giddiness nearly blinded him, he leaned for support against a tree, with
+      his eyes closed and his ears ringing. The raw carrot, which he had
+      swallowed almost without chewing, was torturing his stomach, and the glass
+      of punch which he had drunk seemed to have intoxicated him. He was indeed
+      intoxicated with misery, weariness, and hunger. Again he felt a burning
+      fire in the pit of the stomach, to which he every now and then carried his
+      hands, as though he were trying to stop up a hole through which all his
+      life was oozing away. As he stood there he fancied that the foot-pavement
+      rocked beneath him; and thinking that he might perhaps lessen his
+      sufferings by walking, he went straight on through the vegetables again.
+      He lost himself among them. He went along a narrow footway, turned down
+      another, was forced to retrace his steps, bungled in doing so, and once
+      more found himself amidst piles of greenery. Some heaps were so high that
+      people seemed to be walking between walls of bundles and bunches. Only
+      their heads slightly overtopped these ramparts, and passed along showing
+      whitely or blackly according to the colour of their hats or caps; whilst
+      the huge swinging baskets, carried aloft on a level with the greenery,
+      looked like osier boats floating on a stagnant, mossy lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent stumbled against a thousand obstacles&mdash;against porters taking
+      up their burdens, and saleswomen disputing in rough tones. He slipped over
+      the thick bed of waste leaves and stumps which covered the footway, and
+      was almost suffocated by the powerful odour of crushed verdure. At last he
+      halted in a sort of confused stupor, and surrendered to the pushing of
+      some and the insults of others; and then he became a mere waif, a piece of
+      wreckage tossed about on the surface of that surging sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was fast losing all self-respect, and would willingly have begged. The
+      recollection of his foolish pride during the night exasperated him. If he
+      had accepted Madame Francois&rsquo;s charity, if he had not felt such idiotic
+      fear of Claude, he would not now have been stranded there groaning in the
+      midst of these cabbages. And he was especially angry with himself for not
+      having questioned the artist when they were in the Rue Pirouette. Now,
+      alas! he was alone and deserted, liable to die in the streets like a
+      homeless dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the last time he raised his eyes and looked at the markets. At present
+      they were glittering in the sun. A broad ray was pouring through the
+      covered road from the far end, cleaving the massy pavilions with an arcade
+      of light, whilst fiery beams rained down upon the far expanse of roofs.
+      The huge iron framework grew less distinct, assumed a bluey hue, became
+      nothing but a shadowy silhouette outlined against the flaming flare of the
+      sunrise. But up above a pane of glass took fire, drops of light trickled
+      down the broad sloping zinc plates to the gutterings; and then, below, a
+      tumultuous city appeared amidst a haze of dancing golden dust. The general
+      awakening had spread, from the first start of the market gardeners snoring
+      in their cloaks, to the brisk rolling of the food-laden railway drays. And
+      the whole city was opening its iron gates, the footways were humming, the
+      pavilions roaring with life. Shouts and cries of all kinds rent the air;
+      it was as though the strain, which Florent had heard gathering force in
+      the gloom ever since four in the morning, had now attained its fullest
+      volume. To the right and left, on all sides indeed, the sharp cries
+      accompanying the auction sales sounded shrilly like flutes amidst the
+      sonorous bass roar of the crowd. It was the fish, the butter, the poultry,
+      and the meat being sold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pealing of bells passed through the air, imparting a quiver to the
+      buzzing of the opening markets. Around Florent the sun was setting the
+      vegetables aflame. He no longer perceived any of those soft water-colour
+      tints which had predominated in the pale light of early morning. The
+      swelling hearts of the lettuces were now gleaming brightly, the scales of
+      greenery showed forth with wondrous vigour, the carrots glowed blood-red,
+      the turnips shone as if incandescent in the triumphant radiance of the
+      sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On Florent&rsquo;s left some waggons were discharging fresh loads of cabbages.
+      He turned his eyes, and away in the distance saw carts yet streaming out
+      of the Rue Turbigo. The tide was still and ever rising. He had felt it
+      about his ankles, then on a level with his stomach, and now it was
+      threatening to drown him altogether. Blinded and submerged, his ears
+      buzzing, his stomach overpowered by all that he had seen, he asked for
+      mercy; and wild grief took possession of him at the thought of dying there
+      of starvation in the very heart of glutted Paris, amidst the effulgent
+      awakening of her markets. Big hot tears started from his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walking on, he had now reached one of the larger alleys. Two women, one
+      short and old, the other tall and withered, passed him, talking together
+      as they made their way towards the pavilions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you&rsquo;ve come to do your marketing, Mademoiselle Saget?&rdquo; said the tall
+      withered woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, yes, Madame Lecoeur, if you can give it such a name as marketing.
+      I&rsquo;m a lone woman, you know, and live on next to nothing. I should have
+      liked a small cauliflower, but everything is so dear. How is butter
+      selling to-day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At thirty-four sous. I have some which is first rate. Will you come and
+      look at it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I don&rsquo;t know if I shall want any to-day; I&rsquo;ve still a little lard
+      left.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Making a supreme effort, Florent followed these two women. He recollected
+      having heard Claude name the old one&mdash;Mademoiselle Saget&mdash;when
+      they were in the Rue Pirouette; and he made up his mind to question her
+      when she should have parted from her tall withered acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how&rsquo;s your niece?&rdquo; Mademoiselle Saget now asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, La Sarriette does as she likes,&rdquo; Madame Lecoeur replied in a bitter
+      tone. &ldquo;She&rsquo;s chosen to set up for herself and her affairs no longer
+      concern me. When her lovers have beggared her, she needn&rsquo;t come to me for
+      any bread.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you were so good to her, too! She ought to do well this year; fruit
+      is yielding big profits. And your brother-in-law, how is he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, he&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Lecoeur bit her lips, and seemed disinclined to say anything more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still the same as ever, I suppose?&rdquo; continued Mademoiselle Saget. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a
+      very worthy man. Still, I once heard it said that he spent his money in
+      such a way that&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But does anyone know how he spends his money?&rdquo; interrupted Madame
+      Lecoeur, with much asperity. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a miserly niggard, a scurvy fellow,
+      that&rsquo;s what I say! Do you know, mademoiselle, he&rsquo;d see me die of
+      starvation rather than lend me five francs! He knows quite well that
+      there&rsquo;s nothing to be made out of butter this season, any more than out of
+      cheese and eggs; whereas he can sell as much poultry as ever he chooses.
+      But not once, I assure you, not once has he offered to help me. I am too
+      proud, as you know, to accept any assistance from him; still it would have
+      pleased me to have had it offered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, by the way, there he is, your brother-in-law!&rdquo; suddenly exclaimed
+      Mademoiselle Saget, lowering her voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two women turned and gazed at a man who was crossing the road to enter
+      the covered way close by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in a hurry,&rdquo; murmured Madame Lecoeur. &ldquo;I left my stall without anyone
+      to look after it; and, besides, I don&rsquo;t want to speak to him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Florent also had mechanically turned round and glanced at the
+      individual referred to. This was a short, squarely-built man, with a
+      cheery look and grey, close-cut brush-like hair. Under each arm he was
+      carrying a fat goose, whose head hung down and flapped against his legs.
+      And then all at once Florent made a gesture of delight. Forgetting his
+      fatigue, he ran after the man, and, overtaking him, tapped him on the
+      shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gavard!&rdquo; he exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other raised his head and stared with surprise at Florent&rsquo;s tall black
+      figure, which he did not at first recognise. Then all at once: &ldquo;What! is
+      it you?&rdquo; he cried, as if overcome with amazement. &ldquo;Is it really you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He all but let his geese fall, and seemed unable to master his surprise.
+      On catching sight, however, of his sister-in-law and Mademoiselle Saget,
+      who were watching the meeting at a distance, he began to walk on again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come along; don&rsquo;t let us stop here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are too many eyes
+      and tongues about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were in the covered way they began to chat. Florent related how
+      he had gone to the Rue Pirouette, at which Gavard seemed much amused and
+      laughed heartily. Then he told Florent that his brother Quenu had moved
+      from that street and had reopened his pork shop close by, in the Rue
+      Rambuteau, just in front of the markets. And afterwards he was again
+      highly amused to hear that Florent had been wandering about all that
+      morning with Claude Lantier, an odd kind of fish, who, strangely enough,
+      said he, was Madame Quenu&rsquo;s nephew. Thus chatting, Gavard was on the point
+      of taking Florent straight to the pork shop, but, on hearing that he had
+      returned to France with false papers, he suddenly assumed all sorts of
+      solemn and mysterious airs, and insisted upon walking some fifteen paces
+      in front of him, to avoid attracting attention. After passing through the
+      poultry pavilion, where he hung his geese up in his stall, he began to
+      cross the Rue Rambuteau, still followed by Florent; and then, halting in
+      the middle of the road, he glanced significantly towards a large and
+      well-appointed pork shop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun was obliquely enfilading the Rue Rambuteau, lighting up the fronts
+      of the houses, in the midst of which the Rue Pirouette formed a dark gap.
+      At the other end the great pile of Saint Eustache glittered brightly in
+      the sunlight like some huge reliquary. And right through the crowd, from
+      the distant crossway, an army of street-sweepers was advancing in file
+      down the road, the brooms swishing rhythmically, while scavengers provided
+      with forks pitched the collected refuse into tumbrels, which at intervals
+      of a score of paces halted with a noise like the chattering of broken
+      pots. However, all Florent&rsquo;s attention was concentrated on the pork shop,
+      open and radiant in the rising sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It stood very near the corner of the Rue Pirouette and provided quite a
+      feast for the eyes. Its aspect was bright and smiling, touches of
+      brilliant colour showing conspicuously amidst all the snowy marble. The
+      sign board, on which the name of QUENU-GRADELLE glittered in fat gilt
+      letters encircled by leaves and branches painted on a soft-hued
+      background, was protected by a sheet of glass. On two panels, one on each
+      side of the shop-front, and both, like the board above, covered with
+      glass, were paintings representing various chubby little cupids playing
+      amidst boars&rsquo; heads, pork chops and strings of sausages; and these latter
+      still-life subjects, embellished with scrolls and bows, had been painted
+      in such soft tones that the uncooked pork which they represented had the
+      pinkiness of raspberry jam. Within this pleasing framework arose the
+      window display, arranged upon a bed of fine blue-paper shavings. Here and
+      there fern-leaves, tastefully disposed, changed the plates which they
+      encircled into bouquets fringed with foliage. There was a wealth of rich,
+      luscious, melting things. Down below, quite close to the window, jars of
+      preserved sausage-meat were interspersed with pots of mustard. Above these
+      were some small, plump, boned hams. Golden with their dressings of toasted
+      bread-crumbs, and adorned at the knuckles with green rosettes. Next came
+      the larger dishes, some containing preserved Strasburg tongues, enclosed
+      in bladders coloured a bright red and varnished, so that they looked quite
+      sanguineous beside the pale sausages and trotters; then there were
+      black-puddings coiled like harmless snakes, healthy looking chitterlings
+      piled up two by two; Lyons sausages in little silver copes that made them
+      look like choristers; hot pies, with little banner-like tickets stuck in
+      them; big hams, and great glazed joints of veal and pork, whose jelly was
+      as limpid as sugar-candy. In the rear were other dishes and earthen pans
+      in which meat, minced and sliced, slumbered beneath lakes of melted fat.
+      And betwixt the various plates and dishes, jars and bottle of sauce,
+      cullis, stock and preserved truffles, pans of <i>foie gras</i> and boxes
+      of sardines and tunny-fish were strewn over the bed of paper shavings. A
+      box of creamy cheeses, and one of edible snails, the apertures of whose
+      shells were dressed with butter and parsley, had been placed carelessly at
+      either corner. Finally, from a bar overhead strings of sausages and
+      saveloys of various sizes hung down symmetrically like cords and tassels;
+      while in the rear fragments of intestinal membranes showed like lacework,
+      like some <i>guipure</i> of white flesh. And on the highest tier in this
+      sanctuary of gluttony, amidst the membranes and between two bouquets of
+      purple gladioli, the window stand was crowned by a small square aquarium,
+      ornamented with rock-work, and containing a couple of gold-fish, which
+      were continually swimming round it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent&rsquo;s whole body thrilled at the sight. Then he perceived a woman
+      standing in the sunlight at the door of the shop. With her prosperous,
+      happy look in the midst of all those inviting things she added to the
+      cherry aspect of the place. She was a fine woman and quite blocked the
+      doorway. Still, she was not over stout, but simply buxom, with the full
+      ripeness of her thirty years. She had only just risen, yet her glossy hair
+      was already brushed smooth and arranged in little flat bands over her
+      temples, giving her an appearance of extreme neatness. She had the fine
+      skin, the pinky-white complexion common to those whose life is spent in an
+      atmosphere of raw meat and fat. There was a touch of gravity about her
+      demeanour, her movements were calm and slow; what mirth or pleasure she
+      felt she expressed by her eyes, her lips retaining all their seriousness.
+      A collar of starched linen encircled her neck, white sleevelets reached to
+      her elbows, and a white apron fell even over the tips of her shoes, so
+      that you saw but little of her black cashmere dress, which clung tightly
+      to her well-rounded shoulders and swelling bosom. The sun rays poured
+      hotly upon all the whiteness she displayed. However, although her
+      bluish-black hair, her rosy face, and bright sleeves and apron were
+      steeped in the glow of light, she never once blinked, but enjoyed her
+      morning bath of sunshine with blissful tranquillity, her soft eyes smiling
+      the while at the flow and riot of the markets. She had the appearance of a
+      very worthy woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is your brother&rsquo;s wife, your sister-in-law, Lisa,&rdquo; Gavard said to
+      Florent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had saluted her with a slight inclination of the head. Then he darted
+      along the house passage, continuing to take the most minute precautions,
+      and unwilling to let Florent enter the premises through the shop, though
+      there was no one there. It was evident that he felt great pleasure in
+      dabbling in what he considered to be a compromising business.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait here,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;while I go to see whether your brother is alone.
+      You can come in when I clap my hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon he opened a door at the end of the passage. But as soon as
+      Florent heard his brother&rsquo;s voice behind it, he sprang inside at a bound.
+      Quenu, who was much attached to him, threw his arms round his neck, and
+      they kissed each other like children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! dash it all! Is it really you, my dear fellow?&rdquo; stammered the pork
+      butcher. &ldquo;I never expected to see you again. I felt sure you were dead!
+      Why, only yesterday I was saying to Lisa, &lsquo;That poor fellow, Florent!&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However, he stopped short, and popping his head into the shop, called out,
+      &ldquo;Lisa! Lisa!&rdquo; Then turning towards a little girl who had crept into a
+      corner, he added, &ldquo;Pauline, go and find your mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little one did not stir, however. She was an extremely fine child,
+      five years of age, with a plump chubby face, bearing a strong resemblance
+      to that of the pork butcher&rsquo;s wife. In her arms she was holding a huge
+      yellow cat, which had cheerfully surrendered itself to her embrace, with
+      its legs dangling downwards; and she now squeezed it tightly with her
+      little arms, as if she were afraid that yonder shabby-looking gentleman
+      might rob her of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa, however, leisurely made her appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is my brother Florent!&rdquo; exclaimed Quenu.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa addressed him as &ldquo;Monsieur,&rdquo; and gave him a kindly welcome. She
+      scanned him quietly from head to foot, without evincing any disagreeable
+      surprise. Merely a faint pout appeared for a moment on her lips. Then,
+      standing by, she began to smile at her husband&rsquo;s demonstrations of
+      affection. Quenu, however, at last recovered his calmness, and noticing
+      Florent&rsquo;s fleshless, poverty-stricken appearance, exclaimed: &ldquo;Ah, my poor
+      fellow, you haven&rsquo;t improved in your looks since you were over yonder. For
+      my part, I&rsquo;ve grown fat; but what would you have!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had indeed grown fat, too fat for his thirty years. He seemed to be
+      bursting through his shirt and apron, through all the snowy-white linen in
+      which he was swathed like a huge doll. With advancing years his
+      clean-shaven face had become elongated, assuming a faint resemblance to
+      the snout of one of those pigs amidst whose flesh his hands worked and
+      lived the whole day through. Florent scarcely recognised him. He had now
+      seated himself, and his glance turned from his brother to handsome Lisa
+      and little Pauline. They were all brimful of health, squarely built,
+      sleek, in prime condition; and in their turn they looked at Florent with
+      the uneasy astonishment which corpulent people feel at the sight of a
+      scraggy person. The very cat, whose skin was distended by fat, dilated its
+      yellow eyes and scrutinised him with an air of distrust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll wait till we have breakfast, won&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; asked Quenu. &ldquo;We have it
+      early, at ten o&rsquo;clock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A penetrating odour of cookery pervaded the place; and Florent looked back
+      upon the terrible night which he had just spent, his arrival amongst the
+      vegetables, his agony in the midst of the markets, the endless avalanches
+      of food from which he had just escaped. And then in a low tone and with a
+      gentle smile he responded:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; I&rsquo;m really very hungry, you see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Florent had just begun to study law in Paris when his mother died. She
+      lived at Le Vigan, in the department of the Gard, and had taken for her
+      second husband one Quenu, a native of Yvetot in Normandy, whom some
+      sub-prefect had transplanted to the south and then forgotten there. He had
+      remained in employment at the sub-prefecture, finding the country
+      charming, the wine good, and the women very amiable. Three years after his
+      marriage he had been carried off by a bad attack of indigestion, leaving
+      as sole legacy to his wife a sturdy boy who resembled him. It was only
+      with very great difficulty that the widow could pay the college fees of
+      Florent, her elder son, the issue of her first marriage. He was a very
+      gentle youth, devoted to his studies, and constantly won the chief prizes
+      at school. It was upon him that his mother lavished all her affection and
+      based all her hopes. Perhaps, in bestowing so much love on this slim pale
+      youth, she was giving evidence of her preference for her first husband, a
+      tender-hearted, caressing Provencal, who had loved her devotedly. Quenu,
+      whose good humour and amiability had at first attracted her, had perhaps
+      displayed too much self-satisfaction, and shown too plainly that he looked
+      upon himself as the main source of happiness. At all events she formed the
+      opinion that her younger son&mdash;and in southern families younger sons
+      are still often sacrificed&mdash;would never do any good; so she contented
+      herself with sending him to a school kept by a neighbouring old maid,
+      where the lad learned nothing but how to idle his time away. The two
+      brothers grew up far apart from each other, as though they were strangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Florent arrived at Le Vigan his mother was already buried. She had
+      insisted upon having her illness concealed from him till the very last
+      moment, for fear of disturbing his studies. Thus he found little Quenu,
+      who was then twelve years old, sitting and sobbing alone on a table in the
+      middle of the kitchen. A furniture dealer, a neighbour, gave him
+      particulars of his mother&rsquo;s last hours. She had reached the end of her
+      resources, had killed herself by the hard work which she had undertaken to
+      earn sufficient money that her elder son might continue his legal studies.
+      To her modest trade in ribbons, the profits of which were but small, she
+      had been obliged to add other occupations, which kept her up very late at
+      night. Her one idea of seeing Florent established as an advocate, holding
+      a good position in the town, had gradually caused her to become hard and
+      miserly, without pity for either herself or others. Little Quenu was
+      allowed to wander about in ragged breeches, and in blouses from which the
+      sleeves were falling away. He never dared to serve himself at table, but
+      waited till he received his allowance of bread from his mother&rsquo;s hands.
+      She gave herself equally thin slices, and it was to the effects of this
+      regimen that she had succumbed, in deep despair at having failed to
+      accomplish her self-allotted task.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This story made a most painful impression upon Florent&rsquo;s tender nature,
+      and his sobs wellnigh choked him. He took his little half brother in his
+      arms, held him to his breast, and kissed him as though to restore to him
+      the love of which he had unwittingly deprived him. Then he looked at the
+      lad&rsquo;s gaping shoes, torn sleeves, and dirty hands, at all the manifest
+      signs of wretchedness and neglect. And he told him that he would take him
+      away, and that they would both live happily together. The next day, when
+      he began to inquire into affairs, he felt afraid that he would not be able
+      to keep sufficient money to pay for the journey back to Paris. However, he
+      was determined to leave Le Vigan at any cost. He was fortunately able to
+      sell the little ribbon business, and this enabled him to discharge his
+      mother&rsquo;s debts, for despite her strictness in money matters she had
+      gradually run up bills. Then, as there was nothing left, his mother&rsquo;s
+      neighbour, the furniture dealer, offered him five hundred francs for her
+      chattels and stock of linen. It was a very good bargain for the dealer,
+      but the young man thanked him with tears in his eyes. He bought his
+      brother some new clothes, and took him away that same evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On his return to Paris he gave up all thought of continuing to attend the
+      Law School, and postponed every ambitious project. He obtained a few
+      pupils, and established himself with little Quenu in the Rue Royer
+      Collard, at the corner of the Rue Saint Jacques, in a big room which he
+      furnished with two iron bedsteads, a wardrobe, a table, and four chairs.
+      He now had a child to look after, and this assumed paternity was very
+      pleasing to him. During the earlier days he attempted to give the lad some
+      lessons when he returned home in the evening, but Quenu was an unwilling
+      pupil. He was dull of understanding, and refused to learn, bursting into
+      tears and regretfully recalling the time when his mother had allowed him
+      to run wild in the streets. Florent thereupon stopped his lessons in
+      despair, and to console the lad promised him a holiday of indefinite
+      length. As an excuse for his own weakness he repeated that he had not
+      brought his brother to Paris to distress him. To see him grow up in
+      happiness became his chief desire. He quite worshipped the boy, was
+      charmed with his merry laughter, and felt infinite joy in seeing him about
+      him, healthy and vigorous, and without a care. Florent for his part
+      remained very slim and lean in his threadbare coat, and his face began to
+      turn yellow amidst all the drudgery and worry of teaching; but Quenu grew
+      up plump and merry, a little dense, indeed, and scarce able to read or
+      write, but endowed with high spirits which nothing could ruffle, and which
+      filled the big gloomy room in the Rue Royer Collard with gaiety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Years, meantime, passed by. Florent, who had inherited all his mother&rsquo;s
+      spirit of devotion, kept Quenu at home as though he were a big, idle girl.
+      He did not even suffer him to perform any petty domestic duties, but
+      always went to buy the provisions himself, and attended to the cooking and
+      other necessary matters. This kept him, he said, from indulging in his own
+      bad thoughts. He was given to gloominess, and fancied that he was disposed
+      to evil. When he returned home in the evening, splashed with mud, and his
+      head bowed by the annoyances to which other people&rsquo;s children had
+      subjected him, his heart melted beneath the embrace of the sturdy lad whom
+      he found spinning his top on the tiled flooring of the big room. Quenu
+      laughed at his brother&rsquo;s clumsiness in making omelettes, and at the
+      serious fashion in which he prepared the soup-beef and vegetables. When
+      the lamp was extinguished, and Florent lay in bed, he sometimes gave way
+      to feelings of sadness. He longed to resume his legal studies, and strove
+      to map out his duties in such wise as to secure time to follow the
+      programme of the faculty. He succeeded in doing this, and was then
+      perfectly happy. But a slight attack of fever, which confined him to his
+      room for a week, made such a hole in his purse, and caused him so much
+      alarm, that he abandoned all idea of completing his studies. The boy was
+      now getting a big fellow, and Florent took a post as teacher in a school
+      in the Rue de l&rsquo;Estrapade, at a salary of eighteen hundred francs per
+      annum. This seemed like a fortune to him. By dint of economy he hoped to
+      be able to amass a sum of money which would set Quenu going in the world.
+      When the lad reached his eighteenth year Florent still treated him as
+      though he were a daughter for whom a dowry must be provided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, during his brother&rsquo;s brief illness Quenu himself had made certain
+      reflections. One morning he proclaimed his desire to work, saying that he
+      was now old enough to earn his own living. Florent was deeply touched at
+      this. Just opposite, on the other side of the street, lived a working
+      watchmaker whom Quenu, through the curtainless window, could see leaning
+      over a little table, manipulating all sorts of delicate things, and
+      patiently gazing at them through a magnifying glass all day long. The lad
+      was much attracted by the sight, and declared that he had a taste for
+      watchmaking. At the end of a fortnight, however, he became restless, and
+      began to cry like a child of ten, complaining that the work was too
+      complicated, and that he would never be able to understand all the silly
+      little things that enter into the construction of a watch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His next whim was to be a locksmith; but this calling he found too
+      fatiguing. In a couple of years he tried more than ten different trades.
+      Florent opined that he acted rightly, that it was wrong to take up a
+      calling one did not like. However, Quenu&rsquo;s fine eagerness to work for his
+      living strained the resources of the little establishment very seriously.
+      Since he had begun flitting from one workshop to another there had been a
+      constant succession of fresh expenses; money had gone in new clothes, in
+      meals taken away from home, and in the payment of footings among fellow
+      workmen. Florent&rsquo;s salary of eighteen hundred francs was no longer
+      sufficient, and he was obliged to take a couple of pupils in the evenings.
+      For eight years he had continued to wear the same old coat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, the two brothers had made a friend. One side of the house in
+      which they lived overlooked the Rue Saint Jacques, where there was a large
+      poultry-roasting establishment[*] kept by a worthy man called Gavard,
+      whose wife was dying from consumption amidst an atmosphere redolent of
+      plump fowls. When Florent returned home too late to cook a scrap of meat,
+      he was in the habit of laying out a dozen sous or so on a small portion of
+      turkey or goose at this shop. Such days were feast days. Gavard in time
+      grew interested in this tall, scraggy customer, learned his history, and
+      invited Quenu into his shop. Before long the young fellow was constantly
+      to be found there. As soon as his brother left the house he came
+      downstairs and installed himself at the rear of the roasting shop, quite
+      enraptured with the four huge spits which turned with a gentle sound in
+      front of the tall bright flames.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] These rotisseries, now all but extinct, were at one time
+     a particular feature of the Parisian provision trade. I can
+     myself recollect several akin to the one described by M.
+     Zola. I suspect that they largely owed their origin to the
+     form and dimensions of the ordinary Parisian kitchen stove,
+     which did not enable people to roast poultry at home in a
+     convenient way. In the old French cuisine, moreover, roast
+     joints of meat were virtually unknown; roasting was almost
+     entirely confined to chickens, geese, turkeys, pheasants,
+     etc.; and among the middle classes people largely bought
+     their poultry already cooked of the <i>rotisseur</i>, or else
+     confided it to him for the purpose of roasting, in the same
+     way as our poorer classes still send their joints to the
+     baker&rsquo;s. Roasting was also long looked upon in France as a
+     very delicate art. Brillat-Savarin, in his famous
+     <i>Physiologie du Gout</i>, lays down the dictum that &ldquo;A man may
+     become a cook, but is born a <i>rotisseur</i>.&rdquo;&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The broad copper bands of the fireplace glistened brightly, the poultry
+      steamed, the fat bubbled melodiously in the dripping-pan, and the spits
+      seemed to talk amongst themselves and to address kindly words to Quenu,
+      who, with a long ladle, devoutly basted the golden breasts of the fat
+      geese and turkeys. He would stay there for hours, quite crimson in the
+      dancing glow of the flames, and laughing vaguely, with a somewhat stupid
+      expression, at the birds roasting in front of him. Indeed, he did not
+      awake from this kind of trance until the geese and turkeys were unspitted.
+      They were placed on dishes, the spits emerged from their carcasses smoking
+      hot, and a rich gravy flowed from either end and filled the shop with a
+      penetrating odour. Then the lad, who, standing up, had eagerly followed
+      every phase of the dishing, would clap his hands and begin to talk to the
+      birds, telling them that they were very nice, and would be eaten up, and
+      that the cats would have nothing but their bones. And he would give a
+      start of delight whenever Gavard handed him a slice of bread, which he
+      forthwith put into the dripping-pan that it might soak and toast there for
+      half an hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in this shop, no doubt, that Quenu&rsquo;s love of cookery took its
+      birth. Later on, when he had tried all sorts of crafts, he returned, as
+      though driven by fate, to the spits and the poultry and the savoury gravy
+      which induces one to lick one&rsquo;s fingers. At first he was afraid of vexing
+      his brother, who was a small eater and spoke of good fare with the disdain
+      of a man who is ignorant of it; but afterwards, on seeing that Florent
+      listened to him when he explained the preparation of some very elaborate
+      dish, he confessed his desires and presently found a situation at a large
+      restaurant. From that time forward the life of the two brothers was
+      settled. They continued to live in the room in the Rue Royer Collard,
+      whither they returned every evening; the one glowing and radiant from his
+      hot fire, the other with the depressed countenance of a shabby,
+      impecunious teacher. Florent still wore his old black coat, as he sat
+      absorbed in correcting his pupils&rsquo; exercises; while Quenu, to put himself
+      more at ease, donned his white apron, cap, and jacket, and, flitting about
+      in front of the stove, amused himself by baking some dainty in the oven.
+      Sometimes they smiled at seeing themselves thus attired, the one all in
+      black, the other all in white. These different garbs, one bright and the
+      other sombre, seemed to make the big room half gay and half mournful.
+      Never, however, was there so much harmony in a household marked by such
+      dissimilarity. Though the elder brother grew thinner and thinner, consumed
+      by the ardent temperament which he had inherited from his Provencal
+      father, and the younger one waxed fatter and fatter like a true son of
+      Normandy, they loved each other in the brotherhood they derived from their
+      mother&mdash;a mother who had been all devotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had a relation in Paris, a brother of their mother&rsquo;s, one Gradelle,
+      who was in business as a pork butcher in the Rue Pirouette, near the
+      central markets. He was a fat, hard-hearted, miserly fellow, and received
+      his nephews as though they were starving paupers the first time they paid
+      him a visit. They seldom went to see him afterwards. On his nameday Quenu
+      would take him a bunch of flowers, and receive a half-franc piece in
+      return for it. Florent&rsquo;s proud and sensitive nature suffered keenly when
+      Gradelle scrutinised his shabby clothes with the anxious, suspicious
+      glance of a miser apprehending a request for a dinner, or the loan of a
+      five-franc piece. One day, however, it occurred to Florent in all
+      artlessness to ask his uncle to change a hundred-franc note for him, and
+      after this the pork butcher showed less alarm at sight of the lads, as he
+      called them. Still, their friendship got no further than these infrequent
+      visits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These years were like a long, sweet, sad dream to Florent. As they passed
+      he tasted to the full all the bitter joys of self-sacrifice. At home, in
+      the big room, life was all love and tenderness; but out in the world,
+      amidst the humiliations inflicted on him by his pupils, and the rough
+      jostling of the streets, he felt himself yielding to wicked thoughts. His
+      slain ambitions embittered him. It was long before he could bring himself
+      to bow to his fate, and accept with equanimity the painful lot of a poor,
+      plain, commonplace man. At last, to guard against the temptations of
+      wickedness, he plunged into ideal goodness, and sought refuge in a
+      self-created sphere of absolute truth and justice. It was then that he
+      became a republican, entering into the republican idea even as
+      heart-broken girls enter a convent. And not finding a republic where
+      sufficient peace and kindliness prevailed to lull his troubles to sleep,
+      he created one for himself. He took no pleasure in books. All the
+      blackened paper amidst which he lived spoke of evil-smelling class-rooms,
+      of pellets of paper chewed by unruly schoolboys, of long, profitless hours
+      of torture. Besides, books only suggested to him a spirit of mutiny and
+      pride, whereas it was of peace and oblivion that he felt most need. To
+      lull and soothe himself with the ideal imaginings, to dream that he was
+      perfectly happy, and that all the world would likewise become so, to erect
+      in his brain the republican city in which he would fain have lived, such
+      now became his recreation, the task, again and again renewed, of all his
+      leisure hours. He no longer read any books beyond those which his duties
+      compelled him to peruse; he preferred to tramp along the Rue Saint Jacques
+      as far as the outer boulevards, occasionally going yet a greater distance
+      and returning by the Barriere d&rsquo;Italie; and all along the road, with his
+      eyes on the Quartier Mouffetard spread out at his feet, he would devise
+      reforms of great moral and humanitarian scope, such as he thought would
+      change that city of suffering into an abode of bliss. During the turmoil
+      of February 1848, when Paris was stained with blood he became quite
+      heartbroken, and rushed from one to another of the public clubs demanding
+      that the blood which had been shed should find atonement in &ldquo;the fraternal
+      embrace of all republicans throughout the world.&rdquo; He became one of those
+      enthusiastic orators who preached revolution as a new religion, full of
+      gentleness and salvation. The terrible days of December 1851, the days of
+      the Coup d&rsquo;Etat, were required to wean him from his doctrines of universal
+      love. He was then without arms; allowed himself to be captured like a
+      sheep, and was treated as though he were a wolf. He awoke from his sermon
+      on universal brotherhood to find himself starving on the cold stones of a
+      casemate at Bicetre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu, when two and twenty, was distressed with anguish when his brother
+      did not return home. On the following day he went to seek his corpse at
+      the cemetery of Montmartre, where the bodies of those shot down on the
+      boulevards had been laid out in a line and covered with straw, from
+      beneath which only their ghastly heads projected. However, Quenu&rsquo;s courage
+      failed him, he was blinded by his tears, and had to pass twice along the
+      line of corpses before acquiring the certainty that Florent&rsquo;s was not
+      among them. At last, at the end of a long and wretched week, he learned at
+      the Prefecture of Police that his brother was a prisoner. He was not
+      allowed to see him, and when he pressed the matter the police threatened
+      to arrest him also. Then he hastened off to his uncle Gradelle, whom he
+      looked upon as a person of importance, hoping that he might be able to
+      enlist his influence in Florent&rsquo;s behalf. But Gradelle waxed wrathful,
+      declared that Florent deserved his fate, that he ought to have known
+      better than to have mixed himself up with those rascally republicans. And
+      he even added that Florent was destined to turn out badly, that it was
+      written on his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu wept copiously and remained there, almost choked by his sobs. His
+      uncle, a little ashamed of his harshness, and feeling that he ought to do
+      something for him, offered to receive him into his house. He wanted an
+      assistant, and knew that his nephew was a good cook. Quenu was so much
+      alarmed by the mere thought of going back to live alone in the big room in
+      the Rue Royer Collard, that then and there he accepted Gradelle&rsquo;s offer.
+      That same night he slept in his uncle&rsquo;s house, in a dark hole of a garret
+      just under the room, where there was scarcely space for him to lie at full
+      length. However, he was less wretched there than he would have been
+      opposite his brother&rsquo;s empty couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He succeeded at length in obtaining permission to see Florent; but on his
+      return from Bicetre he was obliged to take to his bed. For nearly three
+      weeks he lay fever-stricken, in a stupefied, comatose state. Gradelle
+      meantime called down all sorts of maledictions on his republican nephew;
+      and one morning, when he heard of Florent&rsquo;s departure for Cayenne, he went
+      upstairs, tapped Quenu on the hands, awoke him, and bluntly told him the
+      news, thereby bringing about such a reaction that on the following day the
+      young man was up and about again. His grief wore itself out, and his soft
+      flabby flesh seemed to absorb his tears. A month later he laughed again,
+      and then grew vexed and unhappy with himself for having been merry; but
+      his natural light-heartedness soon gained the mastery, and he laughed
+      afresh in unconscious happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now learned his uncle&rsquo;s business, from which he derived even more
+      enjoyment than from cookery. Gradelle told him, however, that he must not
+      neglect his pots and pans, that it was rare to find a pork butcher who was
+      also a good cook, and that he had been lucky in serving in a restaurant
+      before coming to the shop. Gradelle, moreover, made full use of his
+      nephew&rsquo;s acquirements, employed him to cook the dinners sent out to
+      certain customers, and placed all the broiling, and the preparation of
+      pork chops garnished with gherkins in his special charge. As the young man
+      was of real service to him, he grew fond of him after his own fashion, and
+      would nip his plump arms when he was in a good humour. Gradelle had sold
+      the scanty furniture of the room in the Rue Royer Collard and retained
+      possession of the proceeds&mdash;some forty francs or so&mdash;in order,
+      said he, to prevent the foolish lad, Quenu, from making ducks and drakes
+      of the cash. After a time, however, he allowed his nephew six francs a
+      month a pocket-money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu now became quite happy, in spite of the emptiness of his purse and
+      the harshness with which he was occasionally treated. He liked to have
+      life doled out to him; Florent had treated him too much like an indolent
+      girl. Moreover, he had made a friend at his uncle&rsquo;s. Gradelle, when his
+      wife died, had been obliged to engage a girl to attend to the shop, and
+      had taken care to choose a healthy and attractive one, knowing that a
+      good-looking girl would set off his viands and help to tempt custom.
+      Amongst his acquaintances was a widow, living in the Rue Cuvier, near the
+      Jardin des Plantes, whose deceased husband had been postmaster at
+      Plassans, the seat of a sub-prefecture in the south of France. This lady,
+      who lived in a very modest fashion on a small annuity, had brought with
+      her from Plassans a plump, pretty child, whom she treated as her own
+      daughter. Lisa, as the young one was called, attended upon her with much
+      placidity and serenity of disposition. Somewhat seriously inclined, she
+      looked quite beautiful when she smiled. Indeed, her great charm came from
+      the exquisite manner in which she allowed this infrequent smile of hers to
+      escape her. Her eyes then became most caressing, and her habitual gravity
+      imparted inestimable value to these sudden, seductive flashes. The old
+      lady had often said that one of Lisa&rsquo;s smiles would suffice to lure her to
+      perdition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the widow died she left all her savings, amounting to some ten
+      thousand francs, to her adopted daughter. For a week Lisa lived alone in
+      the Rue Cuvier; it was there that Gradelle came in search of her. He had
+      become acquainted with her by often seeing her with her mistress when the
+      latter called on him in the Rue Pirouette; and at the funeral she had
+      struck him as having grown so handsome and sturdy that he had followed the
+      hearse all the way to the cemetery, though he had not intended to do so.
+      As the coffin was being lowered into the grave, he reflected what a
+      splendid girl she would be for the counter of a pork butcher&rsquo;s shop. He
+      thought the matter over, and finally resolved to offer her thirty francs a
+      month, with board and lodging. When he made this proposal, Lisa asked for
+      twenty-four hours to consider it. Then she arrived one morning with a
+      little bundle of clothes, and her ten thousand francs concealed in the
+      bosom of her dress. A month later the whole place belonged to her; she
+      enslaved Gradelle, Quenu, and even the smallest kitchen-boy. For his part,
+      Quenu would have cut off his fingers to please her. When she happened to
+      smile, he remained rooted to the floor, laughing with delight as he gazed
+      at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa was the eldest daughter of the Macquarts of Plassans, and her father
+      was still alive.[*] But she said that he was abroad, and never wrote to
+      him. Sometimes she just dropped a hint that her mother, now deceased, had
+      been a hard worker, and that she took after her. She worked, indeed, very
+      assiduously. However, she sometimes added that the worthy woman had slaved
+      herself to death in striving to support her family. Then she would speak
+      of the respective duties of husband and wife in such a practical though
+      modest fashion as to enchant Quenu. He assured her that he fully shared
+      her ideas. These were that everyone, man or woman, ought to work for his
+      or her living, that everyone was charged with the duty of achieving
+      personal happiness, that great harm was done by encouraging habits of
+      idleness, and that the presence of so much misery in the world was greatly
+      due to sloth. This theory of hers was a sweeping condemnation of
+      drunkenness, of all the legendary loafing ways of her father Macquart.
+      But, though she did not know it, there was much of Macquart&rsquo;s nature in
+      herself. She was merely a steady, sensible Macquart with a logical desire
+      for comfort, having grasped the truth of the proverb that as you make your
+      bed so you lie on it. To sleep in blissful warmth there is no better plan
+      than to prepare oneself a soft and downy couch; and to the preparation of
+      such a couch she gave all her time and all her thoughts. When no more than
+      six years old she had consented to remain quietly on her chair the whole
+      day through on condition that she should be rewarded with a cake in the
+      evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [*] See M. Zola&rsquo;s novel, <i>The Fortune of the Rougons</i>.&mdash;Translator
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Gradelle&rsquo;s establishment Lisa went on leading the calm, methodical life
+      which her exquisite smiles illumined. She had not accepted the pork
+      butcher&rsquo;s offer at random. She reckoned upon finding a guardian in him;
+      with the keen scent of those who are born lucky she perhaps foresaw that
+      the gloomy shop in the Rue Pirouette would bring her the comfortable
+      future she dreamed of&mdash;a life of healthy enjoyment, and work without
+      fatigue, each hour of which would bring its own reward. She attended to
+      her counter with the quiet earnestness with which she had waited upon the
+      postmaster&rsquo;s widow; and the cleanliness of her aprons soon became
+      proverbial in the neighbourhood. Uncle Gradelle was so charmed with this
+      pretty girl that sometimes, as he was stringing his sausages, he would say
+      to Quenu: &ldquo;Upon my word, if I weren&rsquo;t turned sixty, I think I should be
+      foolish enough to marry her. A wife like she&rsquo;d make is worth her weight in
+      gold to a shopkeeper, my lad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu himself was growing still fonder of her, though he laughed merrily
+      one day when a neighbour accused him of being in love with Lisa. He was
+      not worried with love-sickness. The two were very good friends, however.
+      In the evening they went up to their bedrooms together. Lisa slept in a
+      little chamber adjoining the dark hole which the young man occupied. She
+      had made this room of hers quite bright by hanging it with muslin
+      curtains. The pair would stand together for a moment on the landing,
+      holding their candles in their hands, and chatting as they unlocked their
+      doors. Then, as they closed them, they said in friendly tones:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good night, Mademoiselle Lisa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good night, Monsieur Quenu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Quenu undressed himself he listened to Lisa making her own
+      preparations. The partition between the two rooms was very thin. &ldquo;There,
+      she is drawing her curtains now,&rdquo; he would say to himself; &ldquo;what can she
+      be doing, I wonder, in front of her chest of drawers? Ah! she&rsquo;s sitting
+      down now and taking off her shoes. Now she&rsquo;s blown her candle out. Well,
+      good night. I must get to sleep&rdquo;; and at times, when he heard her bed
+      creak as she got into it, he would say to himself with a smile, &ldquo;Dash it
+      all! Mademoiselle Lisa is no feather.&rdquo; This idea seemed to amuse him, and
+      presently he would fall asleep thinking about the hams and salt pork that
+      he had to prepare the next morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This state of affairs went on for a year without causing Lisa a single
+      blush or Quenu a moment&rsquo;s embarrassment. When the girl came into the
+      kitchen in the morning at the busiest moment of the day&rsquo;s work, they
+      grasped hands over the dishes of sausage-meat. Sometimes she helped him,
+      holding the skins with her plump fingers while he filled them with meat
+      and fat. Sometimes, too, with the tips of their tongues they just tasted
+      the raw sausage-meat, to see if it was properly seasoned. She was able to
+      give Quenu some useful hints, for she knew of many favourite southern
+      recipes, with which he experimented with much success. He was often aware
+      that she was standing behind his shoulder, prying into the pans. If he
+      wanted a spoon or a dish, she would hand it to him. The heat of the fire
+      would bring their blood to their skins; still, nothing in the world would
+      have induced the young man to cease stirring the fatty <i>bouillis</i>
+      which were thickening over the fire while the girl stood gravely by him,
+      discussing the amount of boiling that was necessary. In the afternoon,
+      when the shop lacked customers, they quietly chatted together for hours at
+      a time. Lisa sat behind the counter, leaning back, and knitting in an
+      easy, regular fashion; while Quenu installed himself on a big oak block,
+      dangling his legs and tapping his heels against the wood. They got on
+      wonderfully well together, discussing all sorts of subjects, generally
+      cookery, and then Uncle Gradelle and the neighbours. Lisa also amused the
+      young man with stories, just as though he were a child. She knew some very
+      pretty ones&mdash;some miraculous legends, full of lambs and little
+      angels, which she narrated in a piping voice, with all her wonted
+      seriousness. If a customer happened to come in, she saved herself the
+      trouble of moving by asking Quenu to get the required pot of lard or box
+      of snails. And at eleven o&rsquo;clock they went slowly up to bed as on the
+      previous night. As they closed their doors, they calmly repeated the
+      words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good night, Mademoiselle Lisa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good night, Monsieur Quenu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning Uncle Gradelle was struck dead by apoplexy while preparing a
+      galantine. He fell forward, with his face against the chopping-block. Lisa
+      did not lose her self-possession. She remarked that the dead man could not
+      be left lying in the middle of the kitchen, and had the body removed into
+      a little back room where Gradelle had slept. Then she arranged with the
+      assistants what should be said. It must be given out that the master had
+      died in his bed; otherwise the whole district would be disgusted, and the
+      shop would lose its customers. Quenu helped to carry the dead man away,
+      feeling quite confused, and astonished at being unable to shed any tears.
+      Presently, however, he and Lisa cried together. Quenu and his brother
+      Florent were the sole heirs. The gossips of the neighbourhood credited old
+      Gradelle with the possession of a considerable fortune. However, not a
+      single crown could be discovered. Lisa seemed very restless and uneasy.
+      Quenu noticed how pensive she became, how she kept on looking around her
+      from morning till night, as though she had lost something. At last she
+      decided to have a thorough cleaning of the premises, declaring that people
+      were beginning to talk, that the story of the old man&rsquo;s death had got
+      about, and that it was necessary they should make a great show of
+      cleanliness. One afternoon, after remaining in the cellar for a couple of
+      hours, whither she herself had gone to wash the salting-tubs, she came up
+      again, carrying something in her apron. Quenu was just then cutting up a
+      pig&rsquo;s fry. She waited till he had finished, talking awhile in an easy,
+      indifferent fashion. But there was an unusual glitter in her eyes, and she
+      smiled her most charming smile as she told him that she wanted to speak to
+      him. She led the way upstairs with seeming difficulty, impeded by what she
+      had in her apron, which was strained almost to bursting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the time she reached the third floor she found herself short of breath,
+      and for a moment was obliged to lean against the balustrade. Quenu, much
+      astonished, followed her into her bedroom without saying a word. It was
+      the first time she had ever invited him to enter it. She closed the door,
+      and letting go the corners of her apron, which her stiffened fingers could
+      no longer hold up, she allowed a stream of gold and silver coins to flow
+      gently upon her bed. She had discovered Uncle Gradelle&rsquo;s treasure at the
+      bottom of a salting-tub. The heap of money made a deep impression in the
+      softy downy bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa and Quenu evinced a quiet delight. They sat down on the edge of the
+      bed, Lisa at the head and Quenu at the foot, on either side of the heap of
+      coins, and they counted the money out upon the counterpane, so as to avoid
+      making any noise. There were forty thousand francs in gold, and three
+      thousand francs in silver, whilst in a tin box they found bank notes to
+      the value of forty-two thousand francs. It took them two hours to count up
+      the treasure. Quenu&rsquo;s hands trembled slightly, and it was Lisa who did
+      most of the work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They arranged the gold on the pillow in little heaps, leaving the silver
+      in the hollow depression of the counterpane. When they had ascertained the
+      total amount&mdash;eighty-five thousand francs, to them an enormous sum&mdash;they
+      began to chat. And their conversation naturally turned upon their future,
+      and they spoke of their marriage, although there had never been any
+      previous mention of love between them. But this heap of money seemed to
+      loosen their tongues. They had gradually seated themselves further back on
+      the bed, leaning against the wall, beneath the white muslin curtains; and
+      as they talked together, their hands, playing with the heap of silver
+      between them, met, and remained linked amidst the pile of five-franc
+      pieces. Twilight surprised them still sitting together. Then, for the
+      first time, Lisa blushed at finding the young man by her side. For a few
+      moments, indeed, although not a thought of evil had come to them, they
+      felt much embarrassed. Then Lisa went to get her own ten thousand francs.
+      Quenu wanted her to put them with his uncle&rsquo;s savings. He mixed the two
+      sums together, saying with a laugh that the money must be married also.
+      Then it was agreed that Lisa should keep the hoard in her chest of
+      drawers. When she had locked it up they both quietly went downstairs. They
+      were now practically husband and wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wedding took place during the following month. The neighbours
+      considered the match a very natural one, and in every way suitable. They
+      had vaguely heard the story of the treasure, and Lisa&rsquo;s honesty was the
+      subject of endless eulogy. After all, said the gossips, she might well
+      have kept the money herself, and not have spoken a word to Quenu about it;
+      if she had spoken, it was out of pure honesty, for no one had seen her
+      find the hoard. She well deserved, they added, that Quenu should make her
+      his wife. That Quenu, by the way, was a lucky fellow; he wasn&rsquo;t a beauty
+      himself, yet he had secured a beautiful wife, who had disinterred a
+      fortune for him. Some even went so far as to whisper that Lisa was a
+      simpleton for having acted as she had done; but the young woman only
+      smiled when people speaking to her vaguely alluded to all these things.
+      She and her husband lived on as previously, in happy placidity and quiet
+      affection. She still assisted him as before, their hands still met amidst
+      the sausage-meat, she still glanced over his shoulder into the pots and
+      pans, and still nothing but the great fire in the kitchen brought the
+      blood to their cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Lisa was a woman of practical common sense, and speedily saw the
+      folly of allowing eighty-five thousand francs to lie idle in a chest of
+      drawers. Quenu would have willingly stowed them away again at the bottom
+      of the salting-tub until he had gained as much more, when they could have
+      retired from business and have gone to live at Suresnes, a suburb to which
+      both were partial. Lisa, however, had other ambitions. The Rue Pirouette
+      did not accord with her ideas of cleanliness, her craving for fresh air,
+      light, and healthy life. The shop where Uncle Gradelle had accumulated his
+      fortune, sou by sou, was a long, dark place, one of those suspicious
+      looking pork butchers&rsquo; shops of the old quarters of the city, where the
+      well-worn flagstones retain a strong odour of meat in spite of constant
+      washings. Now the young woman longed for one of those bright modern shops,
+      ornamented like a drawing-room, and fringing the footway of some broad
+      street with windows of crystalline transparence. She was not actuated by
+      any petty ambition to play the fine lady behind a stylish counter, but
+      clearly realised that commerce in its latest development needed elegant
+      surroundings. Quenu showed much alarm the first time his wife suggested
+      that they ought to move and spend some of their money in decorating a new
+      shop. However, Lisa only shrugged her shoulders and smiled at finding him
+      so timorous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening, when night was falling and the shop had grown dark, Quenu and
+      Lisa overheard a woman of the neighbourhood talking to a friend outside
+      their door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, indeed! I&rsquo;ve given up dealing with them,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t buy a
+      bit of black-pudding from them now on any account. They had a dead man in
+      their kitchen, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu wept with vexation. The story of Gradelle&rsquo;s death in the kitchen was
+      clearly getting about; and his nephew began to blush before his customers
+      when he saw them sniffing his wares too closely. So, of his own accord, he
+      spoke to his wife of her proposal to take a new shop. Lisa, without saying
+      anything, had already been looking out for other premises, and had found
+      some, admirably situated, only a few yards away, in the Rue Rambuteau. The
+      immediate neighbourhood of the central markets, which were being opened
+      just opposite, would triple their business, and make their shop known all
+      over Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu allowed himself to be drawn into a lavish expenditure of money; he
+      laid out over thirty thousand francs in marble, glass, and gilding. Lisa
+      spent hours with the workmen, giving her views about the slightest
+      details. When she was at last installed behind the counter, customers
+      arrived in a perfect procession, merely for the sake of examining the
+      shop. The inside walls were lined from top to bottom with white marble.
+      The ceiling was covered with a huge square mirror, framed by a broad
+      gilded cornice, richly ornamented, whilst from the centre hung a crystal
+      chandelier with four branches. And behind the counter, and on the left,
+      and at the far end of the shop were other mirrors, fitted between the
+      marble panels and looking like doors opening into an infinite series of
+      brightly lighted halls, where all sorts of appetising edibles were
+      displayed. The huge counter on the right hand was considered a very fine
+      piece of work. At intervals along the front were lozenge-shaped panels of
+      pinky marble. The flooring was of tiles, alternately white and pink, with
+      a deep red fretting as border. The whole neighbourhood was proud of the
+      shop, and no one again thought of referring to the kitchen in the Rue
+      Pirouette, where a man had died. For quite a month women stopped short on
+      the footway to look at Lisa between the saveloys and bladders in the
+      window. Her white and pink flesh excited as much admiration as the
+      marbles. She seemed to be the soul, the living light, the healthy, sturdy
+      idol of the pork trade; and thenceforth one and all baptised her &ldquo;Lisa the
+      beauty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To the right of the shop was the dining-room, a neat looking apartment
+      containing a sideboard, a table, and several cane-seated chairs of light
+      oak. The matting on the floor, the wallpaper of a soft yellow tint, the
+      oil-cloth table-cover, coloured to imitate oak, gave the room a somewhat
+      cold appearance, which was relieved only by the glitter of a brass hanging
+      lamp, suspended from the ceiling, and spreading its big shade of
+      transparent porcelain over the table. One of the dining-room doors opened
+      into the huge square kitchen, at the end of which was a small paved
+      courtyard, serving for the storage of lumber&mdash;tubs, barrels and pans,
+      and all kinds of utensils not in use. To the left of the water-tap,
+      alongside the gutter which carried off the greasy water, stood pots of
+      faded flowers, removed from the shop window, and slowly dying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Business was excellent. Quenu, who had been much alarmed by the initial
+      outlay, now regarded his wife with something like respect, and told his
+      friends that she had &ldquo;a wonderful head.&rdquo; At the end of five years they had
+      nearly eighty thousand francs invested in the State funds. Lisa would say
+      that they were not ambitious, that they had no desire to pile up money too
+      quickly, or else she would have enabled her husband to gain hundreds and
+      thousands of francs by prompting him to embark in the wholesale pig trade.
+      But they were still young, and had plenty of time before them; besides,
+      they didn&rsquo;t care about a rough, scrambling business, but preferred to work
+      at their ease, and enjoy life, instead of wearing themselves out with
+      endless anxieties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For instance,&rdquo; Lisa would add in her expansive moments, &ldquo;I have, you
+      know, a cousin in Paris. I never see him, as the two families have fallen
+      out. He has taken the name of Saccard,[*] on account of certain matters
+      which he wants to be forgotten. Well, this cousin of mine, I&rsquo;m told, makes
+      millions and millions of francs; but he gets no enjoyment out of life.
+      He&rsquo;s always in a state of feverish excitement, always rushing hither and
+      thither, up to his neck in all sorts of worrying business. Well, it&rsquo;s
+      impossible, isn&rsquo;t it, for such a man to eat his dinner peaceably in the
+      evening? We, at any rate, can take our meals comfortably, and make sure of
+      what we eat, and we are not harassed by worries as he is. The only reason
+      why people should care for money is that money&rsquo;s wanted for one to live.
+      People like comfort; that&rsquo;s natural. But as for making money simply for
+      the sake of making it, and giving yourself far more trouble and anxiety to
+      gain it than you can ever get pleasure from it when it&rsquo;s gained, why, as
+      for me, I&rsquo;d rather sit still and cross my arms. And besides, I should like
+      to see all those millions of my cousin&rsquo;s. I can&rsquo;t say that I altogether
+      believe in them. I caught sight of him the other day in his carriage. He
+      was quite yellow, and looked ever so sly. A man who&rsquo;s making money doesn&rsquo;t
+      have that kind of expression. But it&rsquo;s his business, and not mine. For our
+      part, we prefer to make merely a hundred sous at a time, and to get a
+      hundred sous&rsquo; worth of enjoyment out of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      [*] See M. Zola&rsquo;s novel, <i>Money</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The household was undoubtedly thriving. A daughter had been born to the
+      young couple during their first year of wedlock, and all three of them
+      looked blooming. The business went on prosperously, without any laborious
+      fatigue, just as Lisa desired. She had carefully kept free of any possible
+      source of trouble or anxiety, and the days went by in an atmosphere of
+      peaceful, unctuous prosperity. Their home was a nook of sensible happiness&mdash;a
+      comfortable manger, so to speak, where father, mother, and daughter could
+      grow sleek and fat. It was only Quenu who occasionally felt sad, through
+      thinking of his brother Florent. Up to the year 1856 he had received
+      letters from him at long intervals. Then no more came, and he had learned
+      from a newspaper that three convicts having attempted to escape from the
+      Ile du Diable, had been drowned before they were able to reach the
+      mainland. He had made inquiries at the Prefecture of Police, but had not
+      learnt anything definite; it seemed probable that his brother was dead.
+      However, he did not lose all hope, though months passed without any
+      tidings. Florent, in the meantime, was wandering about Dutch Guiana, and
+      refrained from writing home as he was ever in hope of being able to return
+      to France. Quenu at last began to mourn for him as one mourns for those
+      whom one has been unable to bid farewell. Lisa had never known Florent,
+      but she spoke very kindly whenever she saw her husband give way to his
+      sorrow; and she evinced no impatience when for the hundredth time or so he
+      began to relate stories of his early days, of his life in the big room in
+      the Rue Royer Collard, the thirty-six trades which he had taken up one
+      after another, and the dainties which he had cooked at the stove, dressed
+      all in white, while Florent was dressed all in black. To such talk as
+      this, indeed, she listened placidly, with a complacency which never
+      wearied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was into the midst of all this happiness, ripening after careful
+      culture, that Florent dropped one September morning just as Lisa was
+      taking her matutinal bath of sunshine, and Quenu, with his eyes still
+      heavy with sleep, was lazily applying his fingers to the congealed fat
+      left in the pans from the previous evening. Florent&rsquo;s arrival caused a
+      great commotion. Gavard advised them to conceal the &ldquo;outlaw,&rdquo; as he
+      somewhat pompously called Florent. Lisa, who looked pale, and more serious
+      than was her wont, at last took him to the fifth floor, where she gave him
+      the room belonging to the girl who assisted her in the shop. Quenu had cut
+      some slices of bread and ham, but Florent was scarcely able to eat. He was
+      overcome by dizziness and nausea, and went to bed, where he remained for
+      five days in a state of delirium, the outcome of an attack of brain-fever,
+      which fortunately received energetic treatment. When he recovered
+      consciousness he perceived Lisa sitting by his bedside, silently stirring
+      some cooling drink in a cup. As he tried to thank her, she told him that
+      he must keep perfectly quiet, and that they could talk together later on.
+      At the end of another three days Florent was on his feet again. Then one
+      morning Quenu went up to tell him that Lisa awaited them in her room on
+      the first floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu and his wife there occupied a suite of three rooms and a
+      dressing-room. You first passed through an antechamber, containing nothing
+      but chairs, and then a small sitting-room, whose furniture, shrouded in
+      white covers, slumbered in the gloom cast by the Venetian shutters, which
+      were always kept closed so as to prevent the light blue of the upholstery
+      from fading. Then came the bedroom, the only one of the three which was
+      really used. It was very comfortably furnished in mahogany. The bed, bulky
+      and drowsy of aspect in the depths of the damp alcove, was really
+      wonderful, with its four mattresses, its four pillows, its layers of
+      blankets, and its corpulent <i>edredon</i>. It was evidently a bed
+      intended for slumber. A mirrored wardrobe, a washstand with drawers, a
+      small central table with a worked cover, and several chairs whose seats
+      were protected by squares of lace, gave the room an aspect of plain but
+      substantial middle-class luxury. On the left-hand wall, on either side of
+      the mantelpiece, which was ornamented with some landscape-painted vases
+      mounted on bronze stands, and a gilt timepiece on which a figure of
+      Gutenberg, also gilt, stood in an attitude of deep thought, hung portraits
+      in oils of Quenu and Lisa, in ornate oval frames. Quenu had a smiling
+      face, while Lisa wore an air of grave propriety; and both were dressed in
+      black and depicted in flattering fashion, their features idealised, their
+      skins wondrously smooth, their complexions soft and pinky. A carpet, in
+      the Wilton style, with a complicated pattern of roses mingling with stars,
+      concealed the flooring; while in front of the bed was a fluffy mat, made
+      out of long pieces of curly wool, a work of patience at which Lisa herself
+      had toiled while seated behind her counter. But the most striking object
+      of all in the midst of this array of new furniture was a great square,
+      thick-set secretaire, which had been re-polished in vain, for the cracks
+      and notches in the marble top and the scratches on the old mahogany front,
+      quite black with age, still showed plainly. Lisa had desired to retain
+      this piece of furniture, however, as Uncle Gradelle had used it for more
+      than forty years. It would bring them good luck, she said. It&rsquo;s metal
+      fastenings were truly something terrible, it&rsquo;s lock was like that of a
+      prison gate, and it was so heavy that it could scarcely be moved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Florent and Quenu entered the room they found Lisa seated at the
+      lowered desk of the secretaire, writing and putting down figures in a big,
+      round, and very legible hand. She signed to them not to disturb her, and
+      the two men sat down. Florent looked round the room, and notably at the
+      two portraits, the bed and the timepiece, with an air of surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There!&rdquo; at last exclaimed Lisa, after having carefully verified a whole
+      page of calculations. &ldquo;Listen to me now; we have an account to render to
+      you, my dear Florent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the first time that she had so addressed him. However, taking up
+      the page of figures, she continued: &ldquo;Your Uncle Gradelle died without
+      leaving a will. Consequently you and your brother are his sole heirs. We
+      now have to hand your share over to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I do not ask you for anything!&rdquo; exclaimed Florent, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wish for
+      anything!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu had apparently been in ignorance of his wife&rsquo;s intentions. He turned
+      rather pale and looked at her with an expression of displeasure. Of
+      course, he certainly loved his brother dearly; but there was no occasion
+      to hurl his uncle&rsquo;s money at him in this way. There would have been plenty
+      of time to go into the matter later on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know very well, my dear Florent,&rdquo; continued Lisa, &ldquo;that you did not
+      come back with the intention of claiming from us what belongs to you; but
+      business is business, you know, and we had better get things settled at
+      once. Your uncle&rsquo;s savings amounted to eighty-five thousand francs. I have
+      therefore put down forty-two thousand five hundred to your credit. See!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She showed him the figures on the sheet of paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is unfortunately not so easy to value the shop, plant, stock-in-trade,
+      and goodwill. I have only been able to put down approximate amounts, but I
+      don&rsquo;t think I have underestimated anything. Well, the total valuation
+      which I have made comes to fifteen thousand three hundred and ten francs;
+      your half of which is seven thousand six hundred and fifty-five francs, so
+      that your share amounts, in all, to fifty thousand one hundred and
+      fifty-five francs. Please verify it for yourself, will you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had called out the figures in a clear, distinct voice, and she now
+      handed the paper to Florent, who was obliged to take it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the old man&rsquo;s business was certainly never worth fifteen thousand
+      francs!&rdquo; cried Quenu. &ldquo;Why, I wouldn&rsquo;t have given ten thousand for it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had ended by getting quite angry with his wife. Really, it was absurd
+      to carry honesty to such a point as that! Had Florent said one word about
+      the business? No, indeed, he had declared that he didn&rsquo;t wish for
+      anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The business was worth fifteen thousand three hundred and ten francs,&rdquo;
+       Lisa re-asserted, calmly. &ldquo;You will agree with me, my dear Florent, that
+      it is quite unnecessary to bring a lawyer into our affairs. It is for us
+      to arrange the division between ourselves, since you have now turned up
+      again. I naturally thought of this as soon as you arrived; and, while you
+      were in bed with the fever, I did my best to draw up this little
+      inventory. It contains, as you see, a fairly complete statement of
+      everything. I have been through our old books, and have called up my
+      memory to help me. Read it aloud, and I will give you any additional
+      information you may want.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent ended by smiling. He was touched by this easy and, as it were,
+      natural display of probity. Placing the sheet of figures on the young
+      woman&rsquo;s knee, he took hold of her hand and said, &ldquo;I am very glad, my dear
+      Lisa, to hear that you are prosperous, but I will not take your money. The
+      heritage belongs to you and my brother, who took care of my uncle up to
+      the last. I don&rsquo;t require anything, and I don&rsquo;t intend to hamper you in
+      carrying on your business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa insisted, and even showed some vexation, while Quenu gnawed his
+      thumbs in silence to restrain himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; resumed Florent with a laugh, &ldquo;if Uncle Gradelle could hear you, I
+      think he&rsquo;d come back and take the money away again. I was never a
+      favourite of his, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, no,&rdquo; muttered Quenu, no longer able to keep still, &ldquo;he certainly
+      wasn&rsquo;t over fond of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa, however, still pressed the matter. She did not like to have money in
+      her secretaire that did not belong to her; it would worry her, said she;
+      the thought of it would disturb her peace. Thereupon Florent, still in a
+      joking way, proposed to invest his share in the business. Moreover, said
+      he, he did not intend to refuse their help; he would, no doubt, be unable
+      to find employment all at once; and then, too, he would need a complete
+      outfit, for he was scarcely presentable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; cried Quenu, &ldquo;you will board and lodge with us, and we will
+      buy you all that you want. That&rsquo;s understood. You know very well that we
+      are not likely to leave you in the streets, I hope!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He was quite moved now, and even felt a trifle ashamed of the alarm he had
+      experienced at the thought of having to hand over a large amount of money
+      all at once. He began to joke, and told his brother that he would
+      undertake to fatten him. Florent gently shook his hand; while Lisa folded
+      up the sheet of figures and put it away in a drawer of the secretaire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are wrong,&rdquo; she said by way of conclusion. &ldquo;I have done what I was
+      bound to do. Now it shall be as you wish. But, for my part, I should never
+      have had a moment&rsquo;s peace if I had not put things before you. Bad thoughts
+      would quite upset me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They then began to speak of another matter. It would be necessary to give
+      some reason for Florent&rsquo;s presence, and at the same time avoid exciting
+      the suspicion of the police. He told them that in order to return to
+      France he had availed himself of the papers of a poor fellow who had died
+      in his arms at Surinam from yellow fever. By a singular coincidence this
+      young fellow&rsquo;s Christian name was Florent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent Laquerriere, to give him his name in full, had left but one
+      relation in Paris, a female cousin, and had been informed of her death
+      while in America. Nothing could therefore be easier than for Quenu&rsquo;s half
+      brother to pass himself off as the man who had died at Surinam. Lisa
+      offered to take upon herself the part of the female cousin. They then
+      agreed to relate that their cousin Florent had returned from abroad, where
+      he had failed in his attempts to make a fortune, and that they, the
+      Quenu-Gradelles, as they were called in the neighbourhood, had received
+      him into their house until he could find suitable employment. When this
+      was all settled, Quenu insisted upon his brother making a thorough
+      inspection of the rooms, and would not spare him the examination of a
+      single stool. Whilst they were in the bare looking chamber containing
+      nothing but chairs, Lisa pushed open a door, and showing Florent a small
+      dressing room, told him that the shop girl should sleep in it, so that he
+      could retain the bedroom on the fifth floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening Florent was arrayed in new clothes from head to foot. He
+      had insisted upon again having a black coat and black trousers, much
+      against the advice of Quenu, upon whom black had a depressing effect. No
+      further attempts were made to conceal his presence in the house, and Lisa
+      told the story which had been planned to everyone who cared to hear it.
+      Henceforth Florent spent almost all his time on the premises, lingering on
+      a chair in the kitchen or leaning against the marble-work in the shop. At
+      meal times Quenu plied him with food, and evinced considerable vexation
+      when he proved such a small eater and left half the contents of his
+      liberally filled plate untouched. Lisa had resumed her old life, evincing
+      a kindly tolerance of her brother-in-law&rsquo;s presence, even in the morning,
+      when he somewhat interfered with the work. Then she would momentarily
+      forget him, and on suddenly perceiving his black form in front of her give
+      a slight start of surprise, followed, however, by one of her sweet smiles,
+      lest he might feel at all hurt. This skinny man&rsquo;s disinterestedness had
+      impressed her, and she regarded him with a feeling akin to respect,
+      mingled with vague fear. Florent had for his part only felt that there was
+      great affection around him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When bedtime came he went upstairs, a little wearied by his lazy day, with
+      the two young men whom Quenu employed as assistants, and who slept in
+      attics adjoining his own. Leon, the apprentice, was barely fifteen years
+      of age. He was a slight, gentle looking lad, addicted to stealing stray
+      slices of ham and bits of sausages. These he would conceal under his
+      pillow, eating them during the night without any bread. Several times at
+      about one o&rsquo;clock in the morning Florent almost fancied that Leon was
+      giving a supper-party; for he heard low whispering followed by a sound of
+      munching jaws and rustling paper. And then a rippling girlish laugh would
+      break faintly on the deep silence of the sleeping house like the soft
+      trilling of a flageolet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other assistant, Auguste Landois, came from Troyes. Bloated with
+      unhealthy fat, he had too large a head, and was already bald, although
+      only twenty-eight years of age. As he went upstairs with Florent on the
+      first evening, he told him his story in a confused, garrulous way. He had
+      at first come to Paris merely for the purpose of perfecting himself in the
+      business, intending to return to Troyes, where his cousin, Augustine
+      Landois, was waiting for him, and there setting up for himself as a pork
+      butcher. He and she had had the game godfather and bore virtually the same
+      Christian name. However, he had grown ambitious; and now hoped to
+      establish himself in business in Paris by the aid of the money left him by
+      his mother, which he had deposited with a notary before leaving Champagne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Auguste had got so far in his narrative when the fifth floor was reached;
+      however, he still detained Florent, in order to sound the praises of
+      Madame Quenu, who had consented to send for Augustine Landois to replace
+      an assistant who had turned out badly. He himself was now thoroughly
+      acquainted with his part of the business, and his cousin was perfecting
+      herself in shop management. In a year or eighteen months they would be
+      married, and then they would set up on their own account in some populous
+      corner of Paris, at Plaisance most likely. They were in no great hurry, he
+      added, for the bacon trade was very bad that year. Then he proceeded to
+      tell Florent that he and his cousin had been photographed together at the
+      fair of St. Ouen, and he entered the attic to have another look at the
+      photograph, which Augustine had left on the mantelpiece, in her desire
+      that Madame Quenu&rsquo;s cousin should have a pretty room. Auguste lingered
+      there for a moment, looking quite livid in the dim yellow light of his
+      candle, and casting his eyes around the little chamber which was still
+      full of memorials of the young girl. Next, stepping up to the bed, he
+      asked Florent if it was comfortable. His cousin slept below now, said he,
+      and would be better there in the winter, for the attics were very cold.
+      Then at last he went off, leaving Florent alone with the bed, and standing
+      in front of the photograph. As shown on the latter Auguste looked like a
+      sort of pale Quenu, and Augustine like an immature Lisa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent, although on friendly terms with the assistants, petted by his
+      brother, and cordially treated by Lisa, presently began to feel very
+      bored. He had tried, but without success, to obtain some pupils; moreover,
+      he purposely avoided the students&rsquo; quarter for fear of being recognised.
+      Lisa gently suggested to him that he had better try to obtain a situation
+      in some commercial house, where he could take charge of the correspondence
+      and keep the books. She returned to this subject again and again, and at
+      last offered to find a berth for him herself. She was gradually becoming
+      impatient at finding him so often in her way, idle, and not knowing what
+      to do with himself. At first this impatience was merely due to the dislike
+      she felt of people who do nothing but cross their arms and eat, and she
+      had no thought of reproaching him for consuming her substance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For my own part,&rdquo; she would say to him, &ldquo;I could never spend the whole
+      day in dreamy lounging. You can&rsquo;t have any appetite for your meals. You
+      ought to tire yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard, also, was seeking a situation for Florent, but in a very
+      extraordinary and most mysterious fashion. He would have liked to find
+      some employment of a dramatic character, or in which there should be a
+      touch of bitter irony, as was suitable for an outlaw. Gavard was a man who
+      was always in opposition. He had just completed his fiftieth year, and he
+      boasted that he had already passed judgment on four Governments. He still
+      contemptuously shrugged his shoulders at the thought of Charles X, the
+      priests and nobles and other attendant rabble, whom he had helped to sweep
+      away. Louis Philippe, with his bourgeois following, had been an imbecile,
+      and he could tell how the citizen-king had hoarded his coppers in a
+      woollen stocking. As for the Republic of &lsquo;48, that had been a mere farce,
+      the working classes had deceived him; however, he no longer acknowledged
+      that he had applauded the Coup d&rsquo;Etat, for he now looked upon Napoleon III
+      as his personal enemy, a scoundrel who shut himself up with Morny and
+      others to indulge in gluttonous orgies. He was never weary of holding
+      forth upon this subject. Lowering his voice a little, he would declare
+      that women were brought to the Tuileries in closed carriages every
+      evening, and that he, who was speaking, had one night heard the echoes of
+      the orgies while crossing the Place du Carrousel. It was Gavard&rsquo;s religion
+      to make himself as disagreeable as possible to any existing Government. He
+      would seek to spite it in all sorts of ways, and laugh in secret for
+      several months at the pranks he played. To begin with, he voted for
+      candidates who would worry the Ministers at the Corps Legislatif. Then, if
+      he could rob the revenue, or baffle the police, and bring about a row of
+      some kind or other, he strove to give the affair as much of an
+      insurrectionary character as possible. He told a great many lies, too; set
+      himself up as being a very dangerous man; talked as though &ldquo;the satellites
+      of the Tuileries&rdquo; were well acquainted with him and trembled at the sight
+      of him; and asserted that one half of them must be guillotined, and the
+      other half transported, the next time there was &ldquo;a flare-up.&rdquo; His violent
+      political creed found food in boastful, bragging talk of this sort; he
+      displayed all the partiality for a lark and a rumpus which prompts a
+      Parisian shopkeeper to take down his shutters on a day of
+      barricade-fighting to get a good view of the corpses of the slain. When
+      Florent returned from Cayenne, Gavard opined that he had got hold of a
+      splendid chance for some abominable trick, and bestowed much thought upon
+      the question of how he might best vent his spleen on the Emperor and
+      Ministers and everyone in office, down to the very lowest police
+      constable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard&rsquo;s manners with Florent were altogether those of a man tasting some
+      forbidden pleasure. He contemplated him with blinking eyes, lowered his
+      voice even when making the most trifling remark, and grasped his hand with
+      all sorts of masonic flummery. He had at last lighted upon something in
+      the way of an adventure; he had a friend who was really compromised, and
+      could, without falsehood speak of the dangers he incurred. He undoubtedly
+      experienced a secret alarm at the sight of this man who had returned from
+      transportation, and whose fleshlessness testified to the long sufferings
+      he had endured; however, this touch of alarm was delightful, for it
+      increased his notion of his own importance, and convinced him that he was
+      really doing something wonderful in treating a dangerous character as a
+      friend. Florent became a sort of sacred being in his eyes: he swore by him
+      alone, and had recourse to his name whenever arguments failed him and he
+      wanted to crush the Government once and for all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard had lost his wife in the Rue Saint Jacques some months after the
+      Coup d&rsquo;Etat; however, he had kept on his roasting shop till 1856. At that
+      time it was reported that he had made large sums of money by going into
+      partnership with a neighbouring grocer who had obtained a contract for
+      supplying dried vegetables to the Crimean expeditionary corps. The truth
+      was, however, that, having sold his shop, he lived on his income for a
+      year without doing anything. He himself did not care to talk about the
+      real origin of his fortune, for to have revealed it would have prevented
+      him from plainly expressing his opinion of the Crimean War, which he
+      referred to as a mere adventurous expedition, &ldquo;undertaken simply to
+      consolidate the throne and to fill certain persons&rsquo; pockets.&rdquo; At the end
+      of a year he had grown utterly weary of life in his bachelor quarters. As
+      he was in the habit of visiting the Quenu-Gradelles almost daily, he
+      determined to take up his residence nearer to them, and came to live in
+      the Rue de la Cossonnerie. The neighbouring markets, with their noisy
+      uproar and endless chatter, quite fascinated him; and he decided to hire a
+      stall in the poultry pavilion, just for the purpose of amusing himself and
+      occupying his idle hours with all the gossip. Thenceforth he lived amidst
+      ceaseless tittle-tattle, acquainted with every little scandal in the
+      neighbourhood, his head buzzing with the incessant yelping around him. He
+      blissfully tasted a thousand titillating delights, having at last found
+      his true element, and bathing in it, with the voluptuous pleasure of a
+      carp swimming in the sunshine. Florent would sometimes go to see him at
+      his stall. The afternoons were still very warm. All along the narrow
+      alleys sat women plucking poultry. Rays of light streamed in between the
+      awnings, and in the warm atmosphere, in the golden dust of the sunbeams,
+      feathers fluttered hither and thither like dancing snowflakes. A trail of
+      coaxing calls and offers followed Florent as he passed along. &ldquo;Can I sell
+      you a fine duck, monsieur?&rdquo; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve some very fine fat chickens here,
+      monsieur; come and see!&rdquo; &ldquo;Monsieur! monsieur, do just buy this pair of
+      pigeons!&rdquo; Deafened and embarrassed he freed himself from the women, who
+      still went on plucking as they fought for possession of him; and the fine
+      down flew about and wellnigh choked him, like hot smoke reeking with the
+      strong odour of the poultry. At last, in the middle of the alley, near the
+      water-taps, he found Gavard ranting away in his shirt-sleeves, in front of
+      his stall, with his arms crossed over the bib of his blue apron. He
+      reigned there, in a gracious, condescending way, over a group of ten or
+      twelve women. He was the only male dealer in that part of the market. He
+      was so fond of wagging his tongue that he had quarrelled with five or six
+      girls whom he had successively engaged to attend to his stall, and had now
+      made up his mind to sell his goods himself, naively explaining that the
+      silly women spent the whole blessed day in gossiping, and that it was
+      beyond his power to manage them. As someone, however, was still necessary
+      to supply his place whenever he absented himself he took in Marjolin, who
+      was prowling about, after attempting in turn all the petty market
+      callings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent sometimes remained for an hour with Gavard, amazed by his
+      ceaseless flow of chatter, and his calm serenity and assurance amid the
+      crowd of petticoats. He would interrupt one woman, pick a quarrel with
+      another ten stalls away, snatch a customer from a third, and make as much
+      noise himself as his hundred and odd garrulous neighbours, whose incessant
+      clamour kept the iron plates of the pavilion vibrating sonorously like so
+      many gongs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The poultry dealer&rsquo;s only relations were a sister-in-law and a niece. When
+      his wife died, her eldest sister, Madame Lecoeur, who had become a widow
+      about a year previously, had mourned for her in an exaggerated fashion,
+      and gone almost every evening to tender consolation to the bereaved
+      husband. She had doubtless cherished the hope that she might win his
+      affection and fill the yet warm place of the deceased. Gavard, however,
+      abominated lean women; and would, indeed, only stroke such cats and dogs
+      as were very fat; so that Madame Lecoeur, who was long and withered,
+      failed in her designs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With her feelings greatly hurt, furious at the ex-roaster&rsquo;s five-franc
+      pieces eluding her grasp, she nurtured great spite against him. He became
+      the enemy to whom she devoted all her time. When she saw him set up in the
+      markets only a few yards away from the pavilion where she herself sold
+      butter and eggs and cheese, she accused him of doing so simply for the
+      sake of annoying her and bringing her bad luck. From that moment she began
+      to lament, and turned so yellow and melancholy that she indeed ended by
+      losing her customers and getting into difficulties. She had for a long
+      time kept with her the daughter of one of her sisters, a peasant woman who
+      had sent her the child and then taken no further trouble about it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This child grew up in the markets. Her surname was Sarriet, and so she
+      soon became generally known as La Sarriette. At sixteen years of age she
+      had developed into such a charming sly-looking puss that gentlemen came to
+      buy cheeses at her aunt&rsquo;s stall simply for the purpose of ogling her. She
+      did not care for the gentlemen, however; with her dark hair, pale face,
+      and eyes glistening like live embers, her sympathies were with the lower
+      ranks of the people. At last she chose as her lover a young man from
+      Menilmontant who was employed by her aunt as a porter. At twenty she set
+      up in business as a fruit dealer with the help of some funds procured no
+      one knew how; and thenceforth Monsieur Jules, as her lover was called,
+      displayed spotless hands, a clean blouse, and a velvet cap; and only came
+      down to the market in the afternoon, in his slippers. They lived together
+      on the third storey of a large house in the Rue Vauvilliers, on the ground
+      floor of which was a disreputable cafe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Lecoeur&rsquo;s acerbity of temper was brought to a pitch by what she
+      called La Sarriette&rsquo;s ingratitude, and she spoke of the girl in the most
+      violent and abusive language. They broke off all intercourse, the aunt
+      fairly exasperated, and the niece and Monsieur Jules concocting stories
+      about the aunt, which the young man would repeat to the other dealers in
+      the butter pavilion. Gavard found La Sarriette very entertaining, and
+      treated her with great indulgence. Whenever they met he would
+      good-naturedly pat her cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One afternoon, whilst Florent was sitting in his brother&rsquo;s shop, tired out
+      with the fruitless pilgrimages he had made during the morning in search of
+      work, Marjolin made his appearance there. This big lad, who had the
+      massiveness and gentleness of a Fleming, was a protege of Lisa&rsquo;s. She
+      would say that there was no evil in him; that he was indeed a little bit
+      stupid, but as strong as a horse, and particularly interesting from the
+      fact that nobody knew anything of his parentage. It was she who had got
+      Gavard to employ him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa was sitting behind the counter, feeling annoyed by the sight of
+      Florent&rsquo;s muddy boots which were soiling the pink and white tiles of the
+      flooring. Twice already had she risen to scatter sawdust about the shop.
+      However, she smiled at Marjolin as he entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monsieur Gavard,&rdquo; began the young man, &ldquo;has sent me to ask&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But all at once he stopped and glanced round; then in a lower voice he
+      resumed: &ldquo;He told me to wait till there was no one with you, and then to
+      repeat these words, which he made me learn by heart: &lsquo;Ask them if there is
+      no danger, and if I can come and talk to them of the matter they know
+      about.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell Monsieur Gavard that we are expecting him,&rdquo; replied Lisa, who was
+      quite accustomed to the poultry dealer&rsquo;s mysterious ways.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marjolin, however, did not go away; but remained in ecstasy before the
+      handsome mistress of the shop, contemplating her with an expression of
+      fawning humility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Touched, as it were, by this mute adoration, Lisa spoke to him again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you comfortable with Monsieur Gavard?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not an unkind
+      man, and you ought to try to please him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Madame Lisa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you don&rsquo;t behave as you should, you know. Only yesterday I saw you
+      clambering about the roofs of the market again; and, besides, you are
+      constantly with a lot of disreputable lads and lasses. You ought to
+      remember that you are a man now, and begin to think of the future.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Madame Lisa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Lisa had to get up to wait upon a lady who came in and wanted a
+      pound of pork chops. She left the counter and went to the block at the far
+      end of the shop. Here, with a long, slender knife, she cut three chops in
+      a loin of pork; and then, raising a small cleaver with her strong hand,
+      dealt three sharp blows which separated the chops from the loin. At each
+      blow she dealt, her black merino dress rose slightly behind her, and the
+      ribs of her stays showed beneath her tightly stretched bodice. She slowly
+      took up the chops and weighed them with an air of gravity, her eyes
+      gleaming and her lips tightly closed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the lady had gone, and Lisa perceived Marjolin still full of delight
+      at having seen her deal those three clean, forcible blows with the
+      cleaver, she at once called out to him, &ldquo;What! haven&rsquo;t you gone yet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He thereupon turned to go, but she detained him for a moment longer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, don&rsquo;t let me see you again with that hussy Cadine,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Oh,
+      it&rsquo;s no use to deny it! I saw you together this morning in the tripe
+      market, watching men breaking the sheep&rsquo;s heads. I can&rsquo;t understand what
+      attraction a good-looking young fellow like you can find in such a
+      slipshod slattern as Cadine. Now then, go and tell Monsieur Gavard that he
+      had better come at once, while there&rsquo;s no one about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marjolin thereupon went off in confusion, without saying a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handsome Lisa remained standing behind her counter, with her head turned
+      slightly in the direction of her markets, and Florent gazed at her in
+      silence, surprised to see her looking so beautiful. He had never looked at
+      her properly before; indeed, he did not know the right way to look at a
+      woman. He now saw her rising above the viands on the counter. In front of
+      her was an array of white china dishes, containing long Arles and Lyons
+      sausages, slices of which had already been cut off, with tongues and
+      pieces of boiled pork; then a pig&rsquo;s head in a mass of jelly; an open pot
+      of preserved sausage-meat, and a large box of sardines disclosing a pool
+      of oil. On the right and left, upon wooden platters, were mounds of French
+      and Italian brawn, a common French ham, of a pinky hue, and a Yorkshire
+      ham, whose deep red lean showed beneath a broad band of fat. There were
+      other dishes too, round ones and oval ones, containing spiced tongue,
+      truffled galantine, and a boar&rsquo;s head stuffed with pistachio nuts; while
+      close to her, in reach of her hand, stood some yellow earthen pans
+      containing larded veal, <i>pate de foie gras</i>, and hare-pie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As there were no signs of Gavard&rsquo;s coming, she arranged some fore-end
+      bacon upon a little marble shelf at the end of the counter, put the jars
+      of lard and dripping back into their places, wiped the plates of each pair
+      of scales, and saw to the fire of the heater, which was getting low. Then
+      she turned her head again, and gazed in silence towards the markets. The
+      smell of all the viands ascended around her, she was enveloped, as it
+      were, by the aroma of truffles. She looked beautifully fresh that
+      afternoon. The whiteness of all the dishes was supplemented by that of her
+      sleevelets and apron, above which appeared her plump neck and rosy cheeks,
+      which recalled the soft tones of the hams and the pallor of all the
+      transparent fat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Florent continued to gaze at her he began to feel intimidated,
+      disquieted by her prim, sedate demeanour; and in lieu of openly looking at
+      her he ended by glancing surreptitiously in the mirrors around the shop,
+      in which her back and face and profile could be seen. The mirror on the
+      ceiling, too, reflected the top of her head, with its tightly rolled
+      chignon and the little bands lowered over her temples. There seemed,
+      indeed, to be a perfect crowd of Lisas, with broad shoulders, powerful
+      arms, and round, full bosoms. At last Florent checked his roving eyes, and
+      let them rest on a particularly pleasing side view of the young woman as
+      mirrored between two pieces of pork. From the hooks running along the
+      whole line of mirrors and marbles hung sides of pork and bands of larding
+      fat; and Lisa, with her massive neck, rounded hips, and swelling bosom
+      seen in profile, looked like some waxwork queen in the midst of the
+      dangling fat and meat. However, she bent forward and smiled in a friendly
+      way at the two gold-fish which were ever and ever swimming round the
+      aquarium in the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard entered the shop. With an air of great importance he went to fetch
+      Quenu from the kitchen. Then he seated himself upon a small marble-topped
+      table, while Florent remained on his chair and Lisa behind the counter;
+      Quenu meantime leaning his back against a side of pork. And thereupon
+      Gavard announced that he had at last found a situation for Florent. They
+      would be vastly amused when they heard what it was, and the Government
+      would be nicely caught.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all at once he stopped short, for a passing neighbour, Mademoiselle
+      Saget, having seen such a large party gossiping together at the
+      Quenu-Gradelles&rsquo;, had opened the door and entered the shop. Carrying her
+      everlasting black ribbonless straw hat, which appropriately cast a shadow
+      over her prying white face, she saluted the men with a slight bow and Lisa
+      with a sharp smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was an acquaintance of the family, and still lived in the house in the
+      Rue Pirouette where she had resided for the last forty years, probably on
+      a small private income; but of that she never spoke. She had, however, one
+      day talked of Cherbourg, mentioning that she had been born there. Nothing
+      further was ever known of her antecedents. All her conversation was about
+      other people; she could tell the whole story of their daily lives, even to
+      the number of things they sent to be washed each month; and she carried
+      her prying curiosity concerning her neighbours&rsquo; affairs so far as to
+      listen behind their doors and open their letters. Her tongue was feared
+      from the Rue Saint Denis to the Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and from the
+      Rue Saint Honore to the Rue Mauconseil. All day long she went ferreting
+      about with her empty bag, pretending that she was marketing, but in
+      reality buying nothing, as her sole purpose was to retail scandal and
+      gossip, and keep herself fully informed of every trifling incident that
+      happened. Indeed, she had turned her brain into an encyclopaedia brimful
+      of every possible particular concerning the people of the neighbourhood
+      and their homes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu had always accused her of having spread the story of his Uncle
+      Gradelle&rsquo;s death on the chopping-block, and had borne her a grudge ever
+      since. She was extremely well posted in the history of Uncle Gradelle and
+      the Quenus, and knew them, she would say, by heart. For the last
+      fortnight, however, Florent&rsquo;s arrival had greatly perplexed her, filled
+      her, indeed, with a perfect fever of curiosity. She became quite ill when
+      she discovered any unforeseen gap in her information. And yet she could
+      have sworn that she had seen that tall lanky fellow somewhere or other
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She remained standing in front of the counter, examining the dishes one
+      after another, and saying in a shrill voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hardly know what to have. When the afternoon comes I feel quite
+      famished for my dinner, and then, later on, I don&rsquo;t seem able to fancy
+      anything at all. Have you got a cutlet rolled in bread-crumbs left, Madame
+      Quenu?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Without waiting for a reply, she removed one of the covers of the heater.
+      It was that of the compartment reserved for the chitterlings, sausages,
+      and black-puddings. However, the chafing-dish was quite cold, and there
+      was nothing left but one stray forgotten sausage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look under the other cover, Mademoiselle Saget,&rdquo; said Lisa. &ldquo;I believe
+      there&rsquo;s a cutlet there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it doesn&rsquo;t tempt me,&rdquo; muttered the little old woman, poking her nose
+      under the other cover, however, all the same. &ldquo;I felt rather a fancy for
+      one, but I&rsquo;m afraid a cutlet would be rather too heavy in the evening. I&rsquo;d
+      rather have something, too, that I need not warm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While speaking she had turned towards Florent and looked at him; then she
+      looked at Gavard, who was beating a tattoo with his finger-tips on the
+      marble table. She smiled at them, as though inviting them to continue
+      their conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t a little piece of salt pork suit you?&rdquo; asked Lisa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A piece of salt pork? Yes, that might do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon she took up the fork with plated handle, which was lying at the
+      edge of the dish, and began to turn all the pieces of pork about, prodding
+      them, lightly tapping the bones to judge of their thickness, and minutely
+      scrutinising the shreds of pinky meat. And as she turned them over she
+      repeated, &ldquo;No, no; it doesn&rsquo;t tempt me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, have a sheep&rsquo;s tongue, or a bit of brawn, or a slice of
+      larded veal,&rdquo; suggested Lisa patiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget, however, shook her head. She remained there for a few
+      minutes longer, pulling dissatisfied faces over the different dishes;
+      then, seeing that the others were determined to remain silent, and that
+      she would not be able to learn anything, she took herself off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; I rather felt a fancy for a cutlet rolled in bread-crumbs,&rdquo; she said
+      as she left the shop, &ldquo;but the one you have left is too fat. I must come
+      another time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa bent forward to watch her through the sausage-skins hanging in the
+      shop-front, and saw her cross the road and enter the fruit market.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The old she-goat!&rdquo; growled Gavard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as they were now alone again, he began to tell them of the situation
+      he had found for Florent. A friend of his, he said, Monsieur Verlaque, one
+      of the fish market inspectors, was so ill that he was obliged to take a
+      rest; and that very morning the poor man had told him that he should be
+      very glad to find a substitute who would keep his berth open for him in
+      case he should recover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Verlaque, you know, won&rsquo;t last another six months,&rdquo; added Gavard, &ldquo;and
+      Florent will keep the place. It&rsquo;s a splendid idea, isn&rsquo;t it? And it will
+      be such a take-in for the police! The berth is under the Prefecture, you
+      know. What glorious fun to see Florent getting paid by the police, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He burst into a hearty laugh; the idea struck him as so extremely comical.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t take the place,&rdquo; Florent bluntly replied. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve sworn I&rsquo;ll never
+      accept anything from the Empire, and I would rather die of starvation than
+      serve under the Prefecture. It is quite out of the question, Gavard, quite
+      so!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard seemed somewhat put out on hearing this. Quenu had lowered his
+      head, while Lisa, turning round, looked keenly at Florent, her neck
+      swollen, her bosom straining her bodice almost to bursting point. She was
+      just going to open her mouth when La Sarriette entered the shop, and there
+      was another pause in the conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me!&rdquo; exclaimed La Sarriette with her soft laugh, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d almost
+      forgotten to get any bacon fat. Please, Madame Quenu, cut me a dozen thin
+      strips&mdash;very thin ones, you know; I want them for larding larks.
+      Jules has taken it into his head to eat some larks. Ah! how do you do,
+      uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She filled the whole shop with her dancing skirts and smiled brightly at
+      everyone. Her face looked fresh and creamy, and on one side her hair was
+      coming down, loosened by the wind which blew through the markets. Gavard
+      grasped her hands, while she with merry impudence resumed: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll bet that
+      you were talking about me just as I came in. Tell me what you were saying,
+      uncle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Lisa now called to her, &ldquo;Just look and tell me if this is thin
+      enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was cutting the strips of bacon fat with great care on a piece of
+      board in front of her. Then as she wrapped them up she inquired, &ldquo;Can I
+      give you anything else?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, yes,&rdquo; replied La Sarriette; &ldquo;since I&rsquo;m about it, I think I&rsquo;ll have
+      a pound of lard. I&rsquo;m awfully fond of fried potatoes; I can make a
+      breakfast off a penn&rsquo;orth of potatoes and a bunch of radishes. Yes, I&rsquo;ll
+      have a pound of lard, please, Madame Quenu.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa placed a sheet of stout paper in the pan of the scales. Then she took
+      the lard out of a jar under the shelves with a boxwood spatula, gently
+      adding small quantities to the fatty heap, which began to melt and run
+      slightly. When the plate of the scale fell, she took up the paper, folded
+      it, and rapidly twisted the ends with her finger-tips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That makes twenty-four sous,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;the bacon is six sous&mdash;thirty
+      sous altogether. There&rsquo;s nothing else you want, is there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said La Sarriette, &ldquo;nothing.&rdquo; She paid her money, still laughing and
+      showing her teeth, and staring the men in the face. Her grey skirt was all
+      awry, and her loosely fastened red neckerchief allowed a little of her
+      white bosom to appear. Before she went away she stepped up to Gavard
+      again, and pretending to threaten him exclaimed: &ldquo;So you won&rsquo;t tell me
+      what you were talking about as I came in? I could see you laughing from
+      the street. Oh, you sly fellow! Ah! I sha&rsquo;n&rsquo;t love you any longer!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she left the shop and ran across the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was Mademoiselle Saget who sent her here,&rdquo; remarked handsome Lisa
+      drily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then silence fell again for some moments. Gavard was dismayed at Florent&rsquo;s
+      reception of his proposal. Lisa was the first to speak. &ldquo;It was wrong of
+      you to refuse the post, Florent,&rdquo; she said in the most friendly tones.
+      &ldquo;You know how difficult it is to find any employment, and you are not in a
+      position to be over-exacting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have my reasons,&rdquo; Florent replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa shrugged her shoulders. &ldquo;Come now,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;you really can&rsquo;t be
+      serious, I&rsquo;m sure. I can understand that you are not in love with the
+      Government, but it would be too absurd to let your opinions prevent you
+      from earning your living. And, besides, my dear fellow, the Emperor isn&rsquo;t
+      at all a bad sort of man. You don&rsquo;t suppose, do you, that he knew you were
+      eating mouldy bread and tainted meat? He can&rsquo;t be everywhere, you know,
+      and you can see for yourself that he hasn&rsquo;t prevented us here from doing
+      pretty well. You are not at all just; indeed you are not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard, however, was getting very fidgety. He could not bear to hear
+      people speak well of the Emperor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Madame Quenu,&rdquo; he interrupted; &ldquo;you are going too far. It is a
+      scoundrelly system altogether.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, as for you,&rdquo; exclaimed Lisa vivaciously, &ldquo;you&rsquo;ll never rest until
+      you&rsquo;ve got yourself plundered and knocked on the head as the result of all
+      your wild talk. Don&rsquo;t let us discuss politics; you would only make me
+      angry. The question is Florent, isn&rsquo;t it? Well, for my part, I say that he
+      ought to accept this inspectorship. Don&rsquo;t you think so too, Quenu?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu, who had not yet said a word, was very much put out by his wife&rsquo;s
+      sudden appeal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good berth,&rdquo; he replied, without compromising himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, amidst another interval of awkward silence, Florent resumed: &ldquo;I beg
+      you, let us drop the subject. My mind is quite made up. I shall wait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will wait!&rdquo; cried Lisa, losing patience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two rosy fires had risen to her cheeks. As she stood there, erect, in her
+      white apron, with rounded, swelling hips, it was with difficulty that she
+      restrained herself from breaking out into bitter words. However, the
+      entrance of another person into the shop arrested her anger. The new
+      arrival was Madame Lecoeur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you let me have half a pound of mixed meats at fifty sous the pound?&rdquo;
+       she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She at first pretended not to notice her brother-in-law; but presently she
+      just nodded her head to him, without speaking. Then she scrutinised the
+      three men from head to foot, doubtless hoping to divine their secret by
+      the manner in which they waited for her to go. She could see that she was
+      putting them out, and the knowledge of this rendered her yet more sour and
+      angular, as she stood there in her limp skirts, with her long, spider-like
+      arms bent and her knotted fingers clasped beneath her apron. Then, as she
+      coughed slightly, Gavard, whom the silence embarrassed, inquired if she
+      had a cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She curtly answered in the negative. Her tightly stretched skin was of a
+      red-brick colour on those parts of her face where her bones protruded, and
+      the dull fire burning in her eyes and scorching their lids testified to
+      some liver complaint nurtured by the querulous jealousy of her
+      disposition. She turned round again towards the counter, and watched each
+      movement made by Lisa as she served her with the distrustful glance of one
+      who is convinced that an attempt will be made to defraud her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t give me any saveloy,&rdquo; she exclaimed; &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa had taken up a slender knife, and was cutting some thin slices of
+      sausage. She next passed on to the smoked ham and the common ham, cutting
+      delicate slices from each, and bending forward slightly as she did so,
+      with her eyes ever fixed on the knife. Her plump rosy hands, flitting
+      about the viands with light and gentle touches, seemed to have derived
+      suppleness from contact with all the fat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would like some larded veal, wouldn&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; she asked, bringing a
+      yellow pan towards her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Lecoeur seemed to be thinking the matter over at considerable
+      length; however, she at last said that she would have some. Lisa had now
+      begun to cut into the contents of the pans, from which she removed slices
+      of larded veal and hare <i>pate</i> on the tip of a broad-bladed knife.
+      And she deposited each successive slice on the middle of a sheet of paper
+      placed on the scales.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aren&rsquo;t you going to give me some of the boar&rsquo;s head with pistachio nuts?&rdquo;
+       asked Madame Lecoeur in her querulous voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa was obliged to add some of the boar&rsquo;s head. But the butter dealer was
+      getting exacting, and asked for two slices of galantine. She was very fond
+      of it. Lisa, who was already irritated, played impatiently with the
+      handles of the knives, and told her that the galantine was truffled, and
+      that she could only include it in an &ldquo;assortment&rdquo; at three francs the
+      pound. Madame Lecoeur, however, continued to pry into the dishes, trying
+      to find something else to ask for. When the &ldquo;assortment&rdquo; was weighed she
+      made Lisa add some jelly and gherkins to it. The block of jelly, shaped
+      like a Savoy cake, shook on its white china dish beneath the angry
+      violence of Lisa&rsquo;s hand; and as with her finger-tips she took a couple of
+      gherkins from a jar behind the heater, she made the vinegar spurt over the
+      sides.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Twenty-five sous, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo; Madame Lecoeur leisurely inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She fully perceived Lisa&rsquo;s covert irritation, and greatly enjoyed the
+      sight of it, producing her money as slowly as possible, as though, indeed,
+      her silver had got lost amongst the coppers in her pocket. And she glanced
+      askance at Gavard, relishing the embarrassed silence which her presence
+      was prolonging, and vowing that she would not go off, since they were
+      hiding some trickery or other from her. However, Lisa at last put the
+      parcel in her hands, and she was then obliged to make her departure. She
+      went away without saying a word, but darting a searching glance all round
+      the shop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was that Saget who sent her too!&rdquo; burst out Lisa, as soon as the old
+      woman was gone. &ldquo;Is the old wretch going to send the whole market here to
+      try to find out what we talk about? What a prying, malicious set they are!
+      Did anyone ever hear before of crumbed cutlets and &lsquo;assortments&rsquo; being
+      bought at five o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon? But then they&rsquo;d rack themselves
+      with indigestion rather than not find out! Upon my word, though, if La
+      Saget sends anyone else here, you&rsquo;ll see the reception she&rsquo;ll get. I would
+      bundle her out of the shop, even if she were my own sister!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The three men remained silent in presence of this explosion of anger.
+      Gavard had gone to lean over the brass rail of the window-front, where,
+      seemingly lost in thought, he began playing with one of the cut-glass
+      balusters detached from its wire fastening. Presently, however, he raised
+      his head. &ldquo;Well, for my part,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I looked upon it all as an
+      excellent joke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Looked upon what as a joke?&rdquo; asked Lisa, still quivering with
+      indignation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The inspectorship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She raised her hands, gave a last glance at Florent, and then sat down
+      upon the cushioned bench behind the counter and said nothing further.
+      Gavard, however, began to explain his views at length; the drift of his
+      argument being that it was the Government which would look foolish in the
+      matter, since Florent would be taking its money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear fellow,&rdquo; he said complacently, &ldquo;those scoundrels all but starved
+      you to death, didn&rsquo;t they? Well, you must make them feed you now. It&rsquo;s a
+      splendid idea; it caught my fancy at once!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent smiled, but still persisted in his refusal. Quenu, in the hope of
+      pleasing his wife, did his best to find some good arguments. Lisa,
+      however, appeared to pay no further attention to them. For the last moment
+      or two she had been looking attentively in the direction of the markets.
+      And all at once she sprang to her feet again, exclaiming, &ldquo;Ah! it is La
+      Normande that they are sending to play the spy on us now! Well, so much
+      the worse for La Normande; she shall pay for the others!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A tall female pushed the shop door open. It was the handsome fish-girl,
+      Louise Mehudin, generally known as La Normande. She was a bold-looking
+      beauty, with a delicate white skin, and was almost as plump as Lisa, but
+      there was more effrontery in her glance, and her bosom heaved with warmer
+      life. She came into the shop with a light swinging step, her gold chain
+      jingling on her apron, her bare hair arranged in the latest style, and a
+      bow at her throat, a lace bow, which made her one of the most
+      coquettish-looking queens of the markets. She brought a vague odour of
+      fish with her, and a herring-scale showed like a tiny patch of
+      mother-of-pearl near the little finger of one of her hands. She and Lisa
+      having lived in the same house in the Rue Pirouette, were intimate
+      friends, linked by a touch of rivalry which kept each of them busy with
+      thoughts of the other. In the neighbourhood people spoke of &ldquo;the beautiful
+      Norman,&rdquo; just as they spoke of &ldquo;beautiful Lisa.&rdquo; This brought them into
+      opposition and comparison, and compelled each of them to do her utmost to
+      sustain her reputation for beauty. Lisa from her counter could, by
+      stooping a little, perceive the fish-girl amidst her salmon and turbot in
+      the pavilion opposite; and each kept a watch on the other. Beautiful Lisa
+      laced herself more tightly in her stays; and the beautiful Norman replied
+      by placing additional rings on her fingers and additional bows on her
+      shoulders. When they met they were very bland and unctuous and profuse in
+      compliments; but all the while their eyes were furtively glancing from
+      under their lowered lids, in the hope of discovering some flaw. They made
+      a point of always dealing with each other, and professed great mutual
+      affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say,&rdquo; said La Normande, with her smiling air, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s to-morrow evening
+      that you make your black-puddings, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa maintained a cold demeanour. She seldom showed any anger; but when
+      she did it was tenacious, and slow to be appeased. &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she replied
+      drily, with the tips of her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so fond of black-puddings, you know, when they come straight out of
+      the pot,&rdquo; resumed La Normande. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll come and get some of you to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was conscious of her rival&rsquo;s unfriendly greeting. However, she glanced
+      at Florent, who seemed to interest her; and then, unwilling to go off
+      without having the last word, she was imprudent enough to add: &ldquo;I bought
+      some black-pudding of you the day before yesterday, you know, and it
+      wasn&rsquo;t quite sweet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not quite sweet!&rdquo; repeated Lisa, very pale, and her lips quivering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She might, perhaps, have once more restrained herself, for fear of La
+      Normande imagining that she was overcome by envious spite at the sight of
+      the lace bow; but the girl, not content with playing the spy, proceeded to
+      insult her, and that was beyond endurance. So, leaning forward, with her
+      hands clenched on the counter, she exclaimed, in a somewhat hoarse voice:
+      &ldquo;I say! when you sold me that pair of soles last week, did I come and tell
+      you, before everybody that they were stinking?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stinking! My soles stinking!&rdquo; cried the fish dealer, flushing scarlet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment they remained silent, choking with anger, but glaring
+      fiercely at each other over the array of dishes. All their honeyed
+      friendship had vanished; a word had sufficed to reveal what sharp teeth
+      there were behind their smiling lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;re a vulgar, low creature!&rdquo; cried the beautiful Norman. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll never
+      catch me setting foot in here again, I can tell you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get along with you, get along with you,&rdquo; exclaimed beautiful Lisa. &ldquo;I
+      know quite well whom I&rsquo;ve got to deal with!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fish-girl went off, hurling behind her a coarse expression which left
+      Lisa quivering. The whole scene had passed so quickly that the three men,
+      overcome with amazement, had not had time to interfere. Lisa soon
+      recovered herself, and was resuming the conversation, without making any
+      allusion to what had just occurred, when the shop girl, Augustine,
+      returned from an errand on which she had been sent. Lisa thereupon took
+      Gavard aside, and after telling him to say nothing for the present to
+      Monsieur Verlaque, promised that she would undertake to convince her
+      brother-in-law in a couple of days&rsquo; time at the utmost. Quenu then
+      returned to his kitchen, while Gavard took Florent off with him. And as
+      they were just going into Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s to drink a drop of vermouth
+      together he called his attention to three women standing in the covered
+      way between the fish and poultry pavilions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They&rsquo;re cackling together!&rdquo; he said with an envious air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The markets were growing empty, and Mademoiselle Saget, Madame Lecoeur,
+      and La Sarriette alone lingered on the edge of the footway. The old maid
+      was holding forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I told you before, Madame Lecoeur,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;they&rsquo;ve always got your
+      brother-in-law in their shop. You saw him there yourself just now, didn&rsquo;t
+      you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh yes, indeed! He was sitting on a table, and seemed quite at home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, for my part,&rdquo; interrupted La Sarriette, &ldquo;I heard nothing wrong; and
+      I can&rsquo;t understand why you&rsquo;re making such a fuss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget shrugged her shoulders. &ldquo;Ah, you&rsquo;re very innocent yet,
+      my dear,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t you see why the Quenus are always attracting
+      Monsieur Gavard to their place? Well, I&rsquo;ll wager that he&rsquo;ll leave all he
+      has to their little Pauline.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You believe that, do you?&rdquo; cried Madame Lecoeur, white with rage. Then,
+      in a mournful voice, as though she had just received some heavy blow, she
+      continued: &ldquo;I am alone in the world, and have no one to take my part; he
+      is quite at liberty to do as he pleases. His niece sides with him too&mdash;you
+      heard her just now. She has quite forgotten all that she cost me, and
+      wouldn&rsquo;t stir a hand to help me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, aunt,&rdquo; exclaimed La Sarriette, &ldquo;you are quite wrong there! It&rsquo;s
+      you who&rsquo;ve never had anything but unkind words for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They became reconciled on the spot, and kissed one another. The niece
+      promised that she would play no more pranks, and the aunt swore by all she
+      held most sacred that she looked upon La Sarriette as her own daughter.
+      Then Mademoiselle Saget advised them as to the steps they ought to take to
+      prevent Gavard from squandering his money. And they all agreed that the
+      Quenu-Gradelles were very disreputable folks, and required closely
+      watching.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what they&rsquo;re up to just now,&rdquo; said the old maid, &ldquo;but
+      there&rsquo;s something suspicious going on, I&rsquo;m sure. What&rsquo;s your opinion, now,
+      of that fellow Florent, that cousin of Madame Quenu&rsquo;s?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The three women drew more closely together, and lowered their voices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You remember,&rdquo; said Madame Lecoeur, &ldquo;that we saw him one morning with his
+      boots all split, and his clothes covered with dust, looking just like a
+      thief who&rsquo;s been up to some roguery. That fellow quite frightens me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, he&rsquo;s certainly very thin,&rdquo; said La Sarriette, &ldquo;but he isn&rsquo;t ugly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget was reflecting, and she expressed her thoughts aloud.
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been trying to find out something about him for the last fortnight,
+      but I can make nothing of it. Monsieur Gavard certainly knows him. I must
+      have met him myself somewhere before, but I can&rsquo;t remember where.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was still ransacking her memory when La Normande swept up to them like
+      a whirlwind. She had just left the pork shop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That big booby Lisa has got nice manners, I must say!&rdquo; she cried,
+      delighted to be able to relieve herself. &ldquo;Fancy her telling me that I sold
+      nothing but stinking fish! But I gave her as good as she deserved, I can
+      tell you! A nice den they keep, with their tainted pig meat which poisons
+      all their customers!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what had you been saying to her?&rdquo; asked the old maid, quite frisky
+      with excitement, and delighted to hear that the two women had quarrelled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I! I&rsquo;d said just nothing at all&mdash;no, not that! I just went into the
+      shop and told her very civilly that I&rsquo;d buy some black-pudding to-morrow
+      evening, and then she overwhelmed me with abuse. A dirty hypocrite she is,
+      with her saint-like airs! But she&rsquo;ll pay more dearly for this than she
+      fancies!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The three women felt that La Normande was not telling them the truth, but
+      this did not prevent them from taking her part with a rush of bad
+      language. They turned towards the Rue Rambuteau with insulting mien,
+      inventing all sorts of stories about the uncleanliness of the cookery at
+      the Quenu&rsquo;s shop, and making the most extraordinary accusations. If the
+      Quenus had been detected selling human flesh the women could not have
+      displayed more violent and threatening anger. The fish-girl was obliged to
+      tell her story three times over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what did the cousin say?&rdquo; asked Mademoiselle Saget, with wicked
+      intent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The cousin!&rdquo; repeated La Normande, in a shrill voice. &ldquo;Do you really
+      believe that he&rsquo;s a cousin? He&rsquo;s some lover or other, I&rsquo;ll wager, the
+      great booby!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The three others protested against this. Lisa&rsquo;s honourability was an
+      article of faith in the neighbourhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stuff and nonsense!&rdquo; retorted La Normande. &ldquo;You can never be sure about
+      those smug, sleek hypocrites.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget nodded her head as if to say that she was not very far
+      from sharing La Normande&rsquo;s opinion. And she softly added: &ldquo;Especially as
+      this cousin has sprung from no one knows where; for it&rsquo;s a very doubtful
+      sort of account that the Quenus give of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, he&rsquo;s the fat woman&rsquo;s sweetheart, I tell you!&rdquo; reaffirmed the
+      fish-girl; &ldquo;some scamp or vagabond picked up in the streets. It&rsquo;s easy
+      enough to see it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has given him a complete outfit,&rdquo; remarked Madame Lecoeur. &ldquo;He must
+      be costing her a pretty penny.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; muttered the old maid; &ldquo;perhaps you are right. I must really
+      get to know something about him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they all promised to keep one another thoroughly informed of whatever
+      might take place in the Quenu-Gradelle establishment. The butter dealer
+      pretended that she wished to open her brother-in-law&rsquo;s eyes as to the sort
+      of places he frequented. However, La Normande&rsquo;s anger had by this time
+      toned down, and, a good sort of girl at heart, she went off, weary of
+      having talked so much on the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure that La Normande said something or other insolent,&rdquo; remarked
+      Madame Lecoeur knowingly, when the fish-girl had left them. &ldquo;It is just
+      her way; and it scarcely becomes a creature like her to talk as she did of
+      Lisa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The three women looked at each other and smiled. Then, when Madame Lecoeur
+      also had gone off, La Sarriette remarked to Mademoiselle Saget: &ldquo;It is
+      foolish of my aunt to worry herself so much about all these affairs. It&rsquo;s
+      that which makes her so thin. Ah! she&rsquo;d have willingly taken Gavard for a
+      husband if she could only have got him. Yet she used to beat me if ever a
+      young man looked my way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget smiled once more. And when she found herself alone, and
+      went back towards the Rue Pirouette, she reflected that those three
+      cackling hussies were not worth a rope to hang them. She was, indeed, a
+      little afraid that she might have been seen with them, and the idea
+      somewhat troubled her, for she realised that it would be bad policy to
+      fall out with the Quenu-Gradelles, who, after all, were well-to-do folks
+      and much esteemed. So she went a little out of her way on purpose to call
+      at Taboureau the baker&rsquo;s in the Rue Turbigo&mdash;the finest baker&rsquo;s shop
+      in the whole neighbourhood. Madame Taboureau was not only an intimate
+      friend of Lisa&rsquo;s, but an accepted authority on every subject. When it was
+      remarked that &ldquo;Madame Taboureau had said this,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Madame Taboureau had
+      said that,&rdquo; there was no more to be urged. So the old maid, calling at the
+      baker&rsquo;s under pretence of inquiring at what time the oven would be hot, as
+      she wished to bring a dish of pears to be baked, took the opportunity to
+      eulogise Lisa, and lavish praise upon the sweetness and excellence of her
+      black-puddings. Then, well pleased at having prepared this moral alibi and
+      delighted at having done what she could to fan the flames of a quarrel
+      without involving herself in it, she briskly returned home, feeling much
+      easier in her mind, but still striving to recall where she had previously
+      seen Madame Quenu&rsquo;s so-called cousin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That same evening, after dinner, Florent went out and strolled for some
+      time in one of the covered ways of the markets. A fine mist was rising,
+      and a grey sadness, which the gas lights studded as with yellow tears,
+      hung over the deserted pavilions. For the first time Florent began to feel
+      that he was in the way, and to recognise the unmannerly fashion in which
+      he, thin and artless, had tumbled into this world of fat people; and he
+      frankly admitted to himself that his presence was disturbing the whole
+      neighbourhood, and that he was a source of discomfort to the Quenus&mdash;a
+      spurious cousin of far too compromising appearance. These reflections made
+      him very sad; not, indeed, that they had noticed the slightest harshness
+      on the part of his brother or Lisa: it was their very kindness, rather,
+      that was troubling him, and he accused himself of a lack of delicacy in
+      quartering himself upon them. He was beginning to doubt the propriety of
+      his conduct. The recollection of the conversation in the shop during the
+      afternoon caused him a vague disquietude. The odour of the viands on
+      Lisa&rsquo;s counter seemed to penetrate him; he felt himself gliding into
+      nerveless, satiated cowardice. Perhaps he had acted wrongly in refusing
+      the inspectorship offered him. This reflection gave birth to a stormy
+      struggle in his mind, and he was obliged to brace and shake himself before
+      he could recover his wonted rigidity of principles. However, a moist
+      breeze had risen, and was blowing along the covered way, and he regained
+      some degree of calmness and resolution on being obliged to button up his
+      coat. The wind seemingly swept from his clothes all the greasy odour of
+      the pork shop, which had made him feel so languid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was returning home when he met Claude Lantier. The artist, hidden in
+      the folds of his greenish overcoat, spoke in a hollow voice full of
+      suppressed anger. He was in a passion with painting, declared that it was
+      a dog&rsquo;s trade, and swore that he would not take up a brush again as long
+      as he lived. That very afternoon he had thrust his foot through a study
+      which he had been making of the head of that hussy Cadine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude was subject to these outbursts, the fruit of his inability to
+      execute the lasting, living works which he dreamed of. And at such times
+      life became an utter blank to him, and he wandered about the streets,
+      wrapped in the gloomiest thoughts, and waiting for the morning as for a
+      sort of resurrection. He used to say that he felt bright and cheerful in
+      the morning, and horribly miserable in the evening.[*] Each of his days
+      was a long effort ending in disappointment. Florent scarcely recognised in
+      him the careless night wanderer of the markets. They had already met again
+      at the pork shop, and Claude, who knew the fugitive&rsquo;s story, had grasped
+      his hand and told him that he was a sterling fellow. It was very seldom,
+      however, that the artist went to the Quenus&rsquo;.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] Claude Lantier&rsquo;s struggle for fame is fully described in
+     M. Zola&rsquo;s novel, <i>L&rsquo;Oeuvre</i> (&ldquo;His Masterpiece&rdquo;).
+     &mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you still at my aunt&rsquo;s?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t imagine how you manage to
+      exist amidst all that cookery. The places reeks with the smell of meat.
+      When I&rsquo;ve been there for an hour I feel as though I shouldn&rsquo;t want
+      anything to eat for another three days. I ought not to have gone there
+      this morning; it was that which made me make a mess of my work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, after he and Florent had taken a few steps in silence, he resumed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! the good people! They quite grieve me with their fine health. I had
+      thought of painting their portraits, but I&rsquo;ve never been able to succeed
+      with such round faces, in which there is never a bone. Ah! You wouldn&rsquo;t
+      find my aunt Lisa kicking her foot through her pans! I was an idiot to
+      have destroyed Cadine&rsquo;s head! Now that I come to think of it, it wasn&rsquo;t so
+      very bad, perhaps, after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they began to talk about Aunt Lisa. Claude said that his mother[*]
+      had not seen anything of her for a long time, and he hinted that the pork
+      butcher&rsquo;s wife was somewhat ashamed of her sister having married a common
+      working man; moreover, she wasn&rsquo;t at all fond of unfortunate folks.
+      Speaking of himself, he told Florent that a benevolent gentleman had sent
+      him to college, being very pleased with the donkeys and old women that he
+      had managed to draw when only eight years old; but the good soul had died,
+      leaving him an income of a thousand francs, which just saved him from
+      perishing of hunger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [*] Gervaise, the heroine of the <i>Assommoir</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the same, I would rather have been a working man,&rdquo; continued Claude.
+      &ldquo;Look at the carpenters, for instance. They are very happy folks, the
+      carpenters. They have a table to make, say; well, they make it, and then
+      go off to bed, happy at having finished the table, and perfectly satisfied
+      with themselves. Now I, on the other hand, scarcely get any sleep at
+      nights. All those confounded pictures which I can&rsquo;t finish go flying about
+      my brain. I never get anything finished and done with&mdash;never, never!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His voice almost broke into a sob. Then he attempted to laugh; and
+      afterwards began to swear and pour forth coarse expressions, with the cold
+      rage of one who, endowed with a delicate, sensitive mind, doubts his own
+      powers, and dreams of wallowing in the mire. He ended by squatting down
+      before one of the gratings which admit air into the cellars beneath the
+      markets&mdash;cellars where the gas is continually kept burning. And in
+      the depths below he pointed out Marjolin and Cadine tranquilly eating
+      their supper, whilst seated on one of the stone blocks used for killing
+      the poultry. The two young vagabonds had discovered a means of hiding
+      themselves and making themselves at home in the cellars after the doors
+      had been closed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a magnificent animal he is, eh!&rdquo; exclaimed Claude, with envious
+      admiration, speaking of Marjolin. &ldquo;He and Cadine are happy, at all events!
+      All they care for is eating and kissing. They haven&rsquo;t a care in the world.
+      Ah, you do quite right, after all, to remain at the pork shop; perhaps
+      you&rsquo;ll grow sleek and plump there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he suddenly went off. Florent climbed up to his garret, disturbed by
+      Claude&rsquo;s nervous restlessness, which revived his own uncertainty. On the
+      morrow, he avoided the pork shop all the morning, and went for a long walk
+      on the quays. When he returned to lunch, however, he was struck by Lisa&rsquo;s
+      kindliness. Without any undue insistence she again spoke to him about the
+      inspectorship, as of something which was well worth his consideration. As
+      he listened to her, with a full plate in front of him, he was affected, in
+      spite of himself, by the prim comfort of his surroundings. The matting
+      beneath his feet seemed very soft; the gleams of the brass hanging lamp,
+      the soft, yellow tint of the wallpaper, and the bright oak of the
+      furniture filled him with appreciation of a life spent in comfort, which
+      disturbed his notions of right and wrong. He still, however, had
+      sufficient strength to persist in his refusal, and repeated his reasons;
+      albeit conscious of the bad taste he was showing in thus ostentatiously
+      parading his animosity and obstinacy in such a place. Lisa showed no signs
+      of vexation; on the contrary, she smiled, and the sweetness of her smile
+      embarrassed Florent far more than her suppressed irritation of the
+      previous evening. At dinner the subject was not renewed; they talked
+      solely of the great winter saltings, which would keep the whole staff of
+      the establishment busily employed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evenings were growing cold, and as soon as they had dined they retired
+      into the kitchen, where it was very warm. The room was so large, too, that
+      several people could sit comfortably at the square central table, without
+      in any way impeding the work that was going on. Lighted by gas, the walls
+      were coated with white and blue tiles to a height of some five or six feet
+      from the floor. On the left was a great iron stove, in the three apertures
+      of which were set three large round pots, their bottoms black with soot.
+      At the end was a small range, which, fitted with an oven and a
+      smoking-place, served for the broiling; and up above, over the
+      skimming-spoons, ladles, and long-handled forks, were several numbered
+      drawers, containing rasped bread, both fine and coarse, toasted crumbs,
+      spices, cloves, nutmegs, and pepper. On the right, leaning heavily against
+      the wall, was the chopping-block, a huge mass of oak, slashed and scored
+      all over. Attached to it were several appliances, an injecting pump, a
+      forcing-machine, and a mechanical mincer, which, with their wheels and
+      cranks, imparted to the place an uncanny and mysterious aspect, suggesting
+      some kitchen of the infernal regions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, all round the walls upon shelves, and even under the tables, were
+      iron pots, earthenware pans, dishes, pails, various kinds of tin utensils,
+      a perfect battery of deep copper saucepans, and swelling funnels, racks of
+      knives and choppers, rows of larding-pins and needles&mdash;a perfect
+      world of greasy things. In spite of the extreme cleanliness, grease was
+      paramount; it oozed forth from between the blue and white tiles on the
+      wall, glistened on the red tiles of the flooring, gave a greyish glitter
+      to the stove, and polished the edges of the chopping-block with the
+      transparent sheen of varnished oak. And, indeed, amidst the ever-rising
+      steam, the continuous evaporation from the three big pots, in which pork
+      was boiling and melting, there was not a single nail from ceiling to floor
+      from which grease did not exude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Quenu-Gradelles prepared nearly all their stock themselves. All that
+      they procured from outside were the potted meats of celebrated firms, with
+      jars of pickles and preserves, sardines, cheese, and edible snails. They
+      consequently became very busy after September in filling the cellars which
+      had been emptied during the summer. They continued working even after the
+      shop had been closed for the night. Assisted by Auguste and Leon, Quenu
+      would stuff sausages-skins, prepare hams, melt down lard, and salt the
+      different sorts of bacon. There was a tremendous noise of cauldrons and
+      cleavers, and the odour of cooking spread through the whole house. All
+      this was quite independent of the daily business in fresh pork, <i>pate de
+      fois gras</i>, hare patty, galantine, saveloys and black-puddings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening, at about eleven o&rsquo;clock, Quenu, after placing a couple of
+      pots on the fire in order to melt down some lard, began to prepare the
+      black-puddings. Auguste assisted him. At one corner of the square table
+      Lisa and Augustine sat mending linen, whilst opposite to them, on the
+      other side, with his face turned towards the fireplace, was Florent. Leon
+      was mincing some sausage-meat on the oak block in a slow, rhythmical
+      fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Auguste first of all went out into the yard to fetch a couple of jug-like
+      cans full of pigs&rsquo; blood. It was he who stuck the animals in the slaughter
+      house. He himself would carry away the blood and interior portions of the
+      pigs, leaving the men who scalded the carcasses to bring them home
+      completely dressed in their carts. Quenu asserted that no assistant in all
+      Paris was Auguste&rsquo; equal as a pig-sticker. The truth was that Auguste was
+      a wonderfully keen judge of the quality of the blood; and the
+      black-pudding proved good every time that he said such would be the case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, will the black-pudding be good this time?&rdquo; asked Lisa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August put down the two cans and slowly answered: &ldquo;I believe so, Madame
+      Quenu; yes, I believe so. I tell it at first by the way the blood flows.
+      If it spurts out very gently when I pull out the knife, that&rsquo;s a bad sign,
+      and shows that the blood is poor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But doesn&rsquo;t that depend on how far the knife has been stuck in?&rdquo; asked
+      Quenu.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A smile came over Auguste&rsquo;s pale face. &ldquo;No,&rdquo; he replied; &ldquo;I always let
+      four digits of the blade go in; that&rsquo;s the right way to measure. But the
+      best sign of all is when the blood runs out and I beat it with my hand
+      when it pours into the pail; it ought to be of a good warmth, and creamy,
+      without being too thick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Augustine had put down her needle, and with her eyes raised was now gazing
+      at Auguste. On her ruddy face, crowned by wiry chestnut hair, there was an
+      expression of profound attention. Lisa and even little Pauline were also
+      listening with deep interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I beat it, and beat it, and beat it,&rdquo; continued the young man,
+      whisking his hand about as though he were whipping cream. &ldquo;And then, when
+      I take my hand out and look at it, it ought to be greased, as it were, by
+      the blood and equally coated all over. And if that&rsquo;s the case, anyone can
+      say without fear of mistake that the black-puddings will be good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He remained for a moment in an easy attitude, complacently holding his
+      hand in the air. This hand, which spent so much of its time in pails of
+      blood, had brightly gleaming nails, and looked very rosy above his white
+      sleeve. Quenu had nodded his head in approbation, and an interval of
+      silence followed. Leon was still mincing. Pauline, however, after
+      remaining thoughtful for a little while, mounted upon Florent&rsquo;s feet
+      again, and in her clear voice exclaimed: &ldquo;I say, cousin, tell me the story
+      of the gentleman who was eaten by the wild beasts!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was probably the mention of the pig&rsquo;s blood which had aroused in the
+      child&rsquo;s mind the recollection of &ldquo;the gentleman who had been eaten by the
+      wild beasts.&rdquo; Florent did not at first understand what she referred to,
+      and asked her what gentleman she meant. Lisa began to smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She wants you to tell her,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;the story of that unfortunate man&mdash;you
+      know whom I mean&mdash;which you told to Gavard one evening. She must have
+      heard you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this Florent grew very grave. The little girl got up, and taking the
+      big cat in her arms, placed it on his knees, saying that Mouton also would
+      like to hear the story. Mouton, however, leapt on to the table, where,
+      with rounded back, he remained contemplating the tall, scraggy individual
+      who for the last fortnight had apparently afforded him matter for deep
+      reflection. Pauline meantime began to grow impatient, stamping her feet
+      and insisting on hearing the story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, tell her what she wants,&rdquo; said Lisa, as the child persisted and
+      became quite unbearable; &ldquo;she&rsquo;ll leave us in peace then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent remained silent for a moment longer, with his eyes turned towards
+      the floor. Then slowly raising his head he let his gaze rest first on the
+      two women who were plying their needles, and next on Quenu and Auguste,
+      who were preparing the pot for the black-puddings. The gas was burning
+      quietly, the stove diffused a gentle warmth, and all the grease of the
+      kitchen glistened in an atmosphere of comfort such as attends good
+      digestion
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, taking little Pauline upon his knee, and smiling a sad smile,
+      Florent addressed himself to the child as follows[*]:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] Florent&rsquo;s narrative is not romance, but is based on the
+     statements of several of the innocent victims whom the third
+     Napoleon transported to Cayenne when wading through blood to
+     the power which he so misused.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once upon a time there was a poor man who was sent away, a long, long way
+      off, right across the sea. On the ship which carried him were four hundred
+      convicts, and he was thrown among them. He was forced to live for five
+      weeks amidst all those scoundrels, dressed like them in coarse canvas, and
+      feeding at their mess. Foul insects preyed on him, and terrible sweats
+      robbed him of all his strength. The kitchen, the bakehouse, and the
+      engine-room made the orlop deck so terribly hot that ten of the convicts
+      died from it. In the daytime they were sent up in batches of fifty to get
+      a little fresh air from the sea; and as the crew of the ship feared them,
+      a couple of cannons were pointed at the little bit of deck where they took
+      exercise. The poor fellow was very glad indeed when his turn to go up
+      came. His terrible perspiration then abated somewhat; still, he could not
+      eat, and felt very ill. During the night, when he was manacled again, and
+      the rolling of the ship in the rough sea kept knocking him against his
+      companions, he quite broke down, and began to cry, glad to be able to do
+      so without being seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pauline was listening with dilated eyes, and her little hands crossed
+      primly in front of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this isn&rsquo;t the story of the gentleman who was eaten by the wild
+      beasts,&rdquo; she interrupted. &ldquo;This is quite a different story; isn&rsquo;t it now,
+      cousin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a bit, and you&rsquo;ll see,&rdquo; replied Florent gently. &ldquo;I shall come to the
+      gentleman presently. I&rsquo;m telling you the whole story from the beginning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, thank you,&rdquo; murmured the child, with a delighted expression. However,
+      she remained thoughtful, evidently struggling with some great difficulty
+      to which she could find no explanation. At last she spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what had the poor man done,&rdquo; she asked, &ldquo;that he was sent away and
+      put in the ship?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa and Augustine smiled. They were quite charmed with the child&rsquo;s
+      intelligence; and Lisa, without giving the little one a direct reply, took
+      advantage of the opportunity to teach her a lesson by telling her that
+      naughty children were also sent away in boats like that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, then,&rdquo; remarked Pauline judiciously, &ldquo;perhaps it served my cousin&rsquo;s
+      poor man quite right if he cried all night long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa resumed her sewing, bending over her work. Quenu had not listened. He
+      had been cutting some little rounds of onion over a pot placed on the
+      fire; and almost at once the onions began to crackle, raising a clear
+      shrill chirrup like that of grasshoppers basking in the heat. They gave
+      out a pleasant odour too, and when Quenu plunged his great wooden spoon
+      into the pot the chirruping became yet louder, and the whole kitchen was
+      filled with the penetrating perfume of the onions. Auguste meantime was
+      preparing some bacon fat in a dish, and Leon&rsquo;s chopper fell faster and
+      faster, and every now and then scraped the block so as to gather together
+      the sausage-meat, now almost a paste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When they got across the sea,&rdquo; Florent continued, &ldquo;they took the man to
+      an island called the Devil&rsquo;s Island,[*] where he found himself amongst
+      others who had been carried away from their own country. They were all
+      very unhappy. At first they were kept to hard labour, just like convicts.
+      The gendarme who had charge of them counted them three times every day, so
+      as to be sure that none were missing. Later on, they were left free to do
+      as they liked, being merely locked up at night in a big wooden hut, where
+      they slept in hammocks stretched between two bars. At the end of the year
+      they went about barefooted, as their boots were quite worn out, and their
+      clothes had become so ragged that their flesh showed through them. They
+      had built themselves some huts with trunks of trees as a shelter against
+      the sun, which is terribly hot in those parts; but these huts did not
+      shield them against the mosquitoes, which covered them with pimples and
+      swellings during the night. Many of them died, and the others turned quite
+      yellow, so shrunken and wretched, with their long, unkempt beards, that
+      one could not behold them without pity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] The Ile du Diable. This spot was selected as the place
+     of detention of Captain Dreyfus, the French officer
+     convicted in 1894 of having divulged important military
+     documents to foreign powers.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Auguste, give me the fat,&rdquo; cried Quenu; and when the apprentice had
+      handed him the dish he let the pieces of bacon-fat slide gently into the
+      pot, and then stirred them with his spoon. A yet denser steam now rose
+      from the fireplace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did they give them to eat?&rdquo; asked little Pauline, who seemed deeply
+      interested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They gave them maggoty rice and foul meat,&rdquo; answered Florent, whose voice
+      grew lower as he spoke. &ldquo;The rice could scarcely be eaten. When the meat
+      was roasted and very well done it was just possible to swallow it; but if
+      it was boiled, it smelt so dreadfully that the men had nausea and stomach
+      ache.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather have lived upon dry bread,&rdquo; said the child, after thinking the
+      matter carefully over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leon, having finished the mincing, now placed the sausage-meat upon the
+      square table in a dish. Mouton, who had remained seated with his eyes
+      fixed upon Florent, as though filled with amazement by his story, was
+      obliged to retreat a few steps, which he did with a very bad grace. Then
+      he rolled himself up, with his nose close to the sausage-meat, and began
+      to purr.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa was unable to conceal her disgust and amazement. That foul rice, that
+      evil-smelling meat, seemed to her to be scarcely credible abominations,
+      which disgraced those who had eaten them as much as it did those who had
+      provided them; and her calm, handsome face and round neck quivered with
+      vague fear of the man who had lived upon such horrid food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, indeed, it was not a land of delights,&rdquo; Florent resumed, forgetting
+      all about little Pauline, and fixing his dreamy eyes upon the steaming
+      pot. &ldquo;Every day brought fresh annoyances&mdash;perpetual grinding tyranny,
+      the violation of every principle of justice, contempt for all human
+      charity, which exasperated the prisoners, and slowly consumed them with a
+      fever of sickly rancour. They lived like wild beasts, with the lash
+      ceaselessly raised over their backs. Those torturers would have liked to
+      kill the poor man&mdash;Oh, no; it can never be forgotten; it is
+      impossible! Such sufferings will some day claim vengeance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His voice had fallen, and the pieces of fat hissing merrily in the pot
+      drowned it with the sound of their boiling. Lisa, however, heard him, and
+      was frightened by the implacable expression which had suddenly come over
+      his face; and, recollecting the gentle look which he habitually wore, she
+      judged him to be a hypocrite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent&rsquo;s hollow voice had brought Pauline&rsquo;s interest and delight to the
+      highest pitch, and she fidgeted with pleasure on his knee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the man?&rdquo; she exclaimed. &ldquo;Go on about the man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent looked at her, and then appeared to remember, and smiled his sad
+      smile again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The man,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;was weary of remaining on the island, and had
+      but one thought&mdash;that of making his escape by crossing the sea and
+      reaching the mainland, whose white coast line could be seen on the horizon
+      in clear weather. But it was no easy matter to escape. It was necessary
+      that a raft should be built, and as several of the prisoners had already
+      made their escape, all the trees on the island had been felled to prevent
+      the others from obtaining timber. The island was, indeed, so bare and
+      naked, so scorched by the blazing sun, that life in it had become yet more
+      perilous and terrible. However, it occurred to the man and two of his
+      companions to employ the timbers of which their huts were built; and one
+      evening they put out to sea on some rotten beams, which they had fastened
+      together with dry branches. The wind carried them towards the coast. Just
+      as daylight was about to appear, the raft struck on a sandbank with such
+      violence that the beams were severed from their lashings and carried out
+      to sea. The three poor fellows were almost engulfed in the sand. Two of
+      them sank in it to their waists, while the third disappeared up to his
+      chin, and his companions were obliged to pull him out. At last they
+      reached a rock, so small that there was scarcely room for them to sit down
+      upon it. When the sun rose they could see the coast in front of them, a
+      bar of grey cliffs stretching all along the horizon. Two, who knew how to
+      swim, determined to reach those cliffs. They preferred to run the risk of
+      being drowned at once to that of slowly starving on the rock. But they
+      promised their companion that they would return for him when they had
+      reached land and had been able to procure a boat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, I know now!&rdquo; cried little Pauline, clapping her hands with glee.
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the story of the gentleman who was eaten by the crabs!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They succeeded in reaching the coast,&rdquo; continued Florent, &ldquo;but it was
+      quite deserted; and it was only at the end of four days that they were
+      able to get a boat. When they returned to the rock, they found their
+      companion lying on his back, dead, and half-eaten by crabs, which were
+      still swarming over what remained of his body.&rdquo;[*]
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] In deference to the easily shocked feelings of the
+     average English reader I have somewhat modified this
+     passage. In the original M. Zola fully describes the awful
+     appearance of the body.&mdash;Translator.
+A murmur of disgust escaped Lisa and Augustine, and a horrified grimace
+passed over the face of Leon, who was preparing the skins for the
+black-puddings. Quenu stopped in the midst of his work and looked
+at Auguste, who seemed to have turned faint. Only little Pauline
+was smiling. In imagination the others could picture those swarming,
+ravenous crabs crawling all over the kitchen, and mingling gruesome
+odours with the aroma of the bacon-fat and onions.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me the blood,&rdquo; cried Quenu, who had not been following the story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Auguste came up to him with the two cans, from which he slowly poured the
+      blood, while Quenu, as it fell, vigorously stirred the now thickening
+      contents of the pot. When the cans were emptied, Quenu reached up to one
+      of the drawers above the range, and took out some pinches of spice. Then
+      he added a plentiful seasoning of pepper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They left him there, didn&rsquo;t they,&rdquo; Lisa now asked of Florent, &ldquo;and
+      returned themselves in safety?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As they were going back,&rdquo; continued Florent, &ldquo;the wind changed, and they
+      were driven out into the open sea. A wave carried away one of their oars,
+      and the water swept so furiously into the boat that their whole time was
+      taken up in baling it out with their hands. They tossed about in this way
+      in sight of the coast, carried away by squalls and then brought back again
+      by the tide, without a mouthful of bread to eat, for their scanty stock of
+      provisions had been consumed. This went on for three days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three days!&rdquo; cried Lisa in stupefaction; &ldquo;three days without food!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, three days without food. When the east wind at last brought them to
+      shore, one of them was so weak that he lay on the beach the whole day. In
+      the evening he died. His companion had vainly attempted to get him to chew
+      some leaves which he gathered from the trees.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point Augustine broke into a slight laugh. Then, ashamed at having
+      done so and not wishing to be considered heartless, she stammered out in
+      confusion: &ldquo;Oh! I wasn&rsquo;t laughing at that. It was Mouton. Do just look at
+      Mouton, madame.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Lisa in her turn began to smile. Mouton, who had been lying all this
+      time with his nose close to the dish of sausage-meat, had probably begun
+      to feel distressed and disgusted by the presence of all this food, for he
+      had risen and was rapidly scratching the table with his paws as though he
+      wanted to bury the dish and its contents. At last, however, turning his
+      back to it and lying down on his side, he stretched himself out, half
+      closing his eyes and rubbing his head against the table with languid
+      pleasure. Then they all began to compliment Mouton. He never stole
+      anything, they said, and could be safely left with the meat. Pauline
+      related that he licked her fingers and washed her face after dinner
+      without trying to bite her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Lisa now came back to the question as to whether it were possible
+      to live for three days without food. In her opinion it was not. &ldquo;No,&rdquo; she
+      said, &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe it. No one ever goes three days without food. When
+      people talk of a person dying of hunger, it is a mere expression. They
+      always get something to eat, more or less. It is only the most abandoned
+      wretches, people who are utterly lost&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was doubtless going to add, &ldquo;vagrant rogues,&rdquo; but she stopped short
+      and looked at Florent. The scornful pout of her lips and the expression of
+      her bright eyes plainly signified that in her belief only villains made
+      such prolonged fasts. It seemed to her that a man able to remain without
+      food for three days must necessarily be a very dangerous character. For,
+      indeed, honest folks never placed themselves in such a position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent was now almost stifling. In front of him the stove, into which
+      Leon had just thrown several shovelfuls of coal, was snoring like a lay
+      clerk asleep in the sun; and the heat was very great. Auguste, who had
+      taken charge of the lard melting in the pots, was watching over it in a
+      state of perspiration, and Quenu wiped his brow with his sleeve whilst
+      waiting for the blood to mix. A drowsiness such as follows gross feeding,
+      an atmosphere heavy with indigestion, pervaded the kitchen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When the man had buried his comrade in the sand,&rdquo; Florent continued
+      slowly, &ldquo;he walked off alone straight in front of him. Dutch Guiana, in
+      which country he now was, is a land of forests intermingled with rivers
+      and swamps. The man walked on for more than a week without coming across a
+      single human dwelling-place. All around, death seemed to be lurking and
+      lying in wait for him. Though his stomach was racked by hunger, he often
+      did not dare to eat the bright-coloured fruits which hung from the trees;
+      he was afraid to touch the glittering berries, fearing lest they should be
+      poisonous. For whole days he did not see a patch of sky, but tramped on
+      beneath a canopy of branches, amidst a greenish gloom that swarmed with
+      horrible living creatures. Great birds flew over his head with a terrible
+      flapping of wings and sudden strange calls resembling death groans; apes
+      sprang, wild animals rushed through the thickets around him, bending the
+      saplings and bringing down a rain of leaves, as though a gale were
+      passing. But it was particularly the serpents that turned his blood cold
+      when, stepping upon a matting of moving, withered leaves, he caught sight
+      of their slim heads gliding amidst a horrid maze of roots. In certain
+      nooks, nooks of dank shadow, swarming colonies of reptiles&mdash;some
+      black, some yellow, some purple, some striped, some spotted, and some
+      resembling withered reeds&mdash;suddenly awakened into life and wriggled
+      away. At such times the man would stop and look about for a stone on which
+      he might take refuge from the soft yielding ground into which his feet
+      sank; and there he would remain for hours, terror-stricken on espying in
+      some open space near by a boa, who, with tail coiled and head erect,
+      swayed like the trunk of a big tree splotched with gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At night he used to sleep in the trees, alarmed by the slightest rustling
+      of the branches, and fancying that he could hear endless swarms of
+      serpents gliding through the gloom. He almost stifled beneath the
+      interminable expanse of foliage. The gloomy shade reeked with close,
+      oppressive heat, a clammy dankness and pestilential sweat, impregnated
+      with the coarse aroma of scented wood and malodorous flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And when at last, after a long weary tramp, the man made his way out of
+      the forest and beheld the sky again, he found himself confronted by wide
+      rivers which barred his way. He skirted their banks, keeping a watchful
+      eye on the grey backs of the alligators and the masses of drifting
+      vegetation, and then, when he came to a less suspicious-looking spot, he
+      swam across. And beyond the rivers the forests began again. At other times
+      there were vast prairie lands, leagues of thick vegetation, in which, at
+      distant intervals, small lakes gleamed bluely. The man then made a wide
+      detour, and sounded the ground beneath him before advancing, having but
+      narrowly escaped from being swallowed up and buried beneath one of those
+      smiling plains which he could hear cracking at each step he took. The
+      giant grass, nourished by all the collected humus, concealed pestiferous
+      marshes, depths of liquid mud; and amongst the expanses of verdure spread
+      over the glaucous immensity to the very horizon there were only narrow
+      stretches of firm ground with which the traveller must be acquainted if he
+      would avoid disappearing for ever. One night the man sank down as far as
+      his waist. At each effort he made to extricate himself the mud threatened
+      to rise to his mouth. Then he remained quite still for nearly a couple of
+      hours; and when the moon rose he was fortunately able to catch hold of a
+      branch of a tree above his head. By the time he reached a human dwelling
+      his hands and feet were bruised and bleeding, swollen with poisonous
+      stings. He presented such a pitiable, famished appearance that those who
+      saw him were afraid of him. They tossed him some food fifty yards away
+      from the house, and the master of it kept guard over his door with a
+      loaded gun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent stopped, his voice choked by emotion, and his eyes gazing blankly
+      before him. For some minutes he had seemed to be speaking to himself
+      alone. Little Pauline, who had grown drowsy, was lying in his arms with
+      her head thrown back, though striving to keep her wondering eyes open. And
+      Quenu, for his part, appeared to be getting impatient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, you stupid!&rdquo; he shouted to Leon, &ldquo;don&rsquo;t you know how to hold a skin
+      yet? What do you stand staring at me for? It&rsquo;s the skin you should look
+      at, not me! There, hold it like that, and don&rsquo;t move again!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With his right hand Leon was raising a long string of sausage-skin, at one
+      end of which a very wide funnel was inserted; while with his left hand he
+      coiled the black-pudding round a metal bowl as fast as Quenu filled the
+      funnel with big spoonfuls of the meat. The latter, black and steaming,
+      flowed through the funnel, gradually inflating the skin, which fell down
+      again, gorged to repletion and curving languidly. As Quenu had removed the
+      pot from the range both he and Leon stood out prominently, he broad
+      visaged, and the lad slender of profile, in the burning glow which cast
+      over their pale faces and white garments a flood of rosy light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa and Augustine watched the filling of the skin with great interest,
+      Lisa especially; and she in her turn found fault with Leon because he
+      nipped the skin too tightly with his fingers, which caused knots to form,
+      she said. When the skin was quite full, Quenu let it slip gently into a
+      pot of boiling water; and seemed quite easy in his mind again, for now
+      nothing remained but to leave it to boil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the man&mdash;go on about the man!&rdquo; murmured Pauline, opening her
+      eyes, and surprised at no longer hearing the narrative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent rocked her on his knee, and resumed his story in a slow, murmuring
+      voice, suggestive of that of a nurse singing an infant to sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The man,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;arrived at a large town. There he was at first taken
+      for an escaped convict, and was kept in prison for several months. Then he
+      was released, and turned his hand to all sorts of work. He kept accounts
+      and taught children to read, and at one time he was even employed as a
+      navvy in making an embankment. He was continually hoping to return to his
+      own country. He had saved the necessary amount of money when he was
+      attacked by yellow fever. Then, believing him to be dead, those about him
+      divided his clothes amongst themselves; so that when he at last recovered
+      he had not even a shirt left. He had to begin all over again. The man was
+      very weak, and was afraid he might have to remain where he was. But at
+      last he was able to get away, and he returned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His voice had sunk lower and lower, and now died away altogether in a
+      final quivering of his lips. The close of the story had lulled little
+      Pauline to sleep, and she was now slumbering with her head on Florent&rsquo;s
+      shoulder. He held her with one arm, and still gently rocked her on his
+      knee. No one seemed to pay any further attention to him, so he remained
+      still and quiet where he was, holding the sleeping child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now came the tug of war, as Quenu said. He had to remove the
+      black-puddings from the pot. In order to avoid breaking them or getting
+      them entangled, he coiled them round a thick wooden pin as he drew them
+      out, and then carried them into the yard and hung them on screens, where
+      they quickly dried. Leon helped him, holding up the drooping ends. And as
+      these reeking festoons of black-pudding crossed the kitchen they left
+      behind them a trail of odorous steam, which still further thickened the
+      dense atmosphere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Auguste, on his side, after giving a hasty glance at the lard moulds, now
+      took the covers off the two pots in which the fat was simmering, and each
+      bursting bubble discharged an acrid vapour into the kitchen. The greasy
+      haze had been gradually rising ever since the beginning of the evening,
+      and now it shrouded the gas and pervaded the whole room, streaming
+      everywhere, and veiling the ruddy whiteness of Quenu and his two
+      assistants. Lisa and Augustine had risen from their seats; and all were
+      panting as though they had eaten too much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Augustine carried the sleeping Pauline upstairs; and Quenu, who liked to
+      fasten up the kitchen himself, gave Auguste and Leon leave to go to bed,
+      saying that he would fetch the black-pudding himself. The younger
+      apprentice stole off with a very red face, having managed to secrete under
+      his shirt nearly a yard of the pudding, which must have almost scalded
+      him. Then the Quenus and Florent remained alone, in silence. Lisa stood
+      nibbling a little piece of the hot pudding, keeping her pretty lips well
+      apart all the while, for fear of burning them, and gradually the black
+      compound vanished in her rosy mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;La Normande was foolish in behaving so rudely; the
+      black-pudding&rsquo;s excellent to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However, there was a knock at the passage door, and Gavard, who stayed at
+      Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s every evening until midnight, came in. He had called
+      for a definite answer about the fish inspectorship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must understand,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that Monsieur Verlaque cannot wait any
+      longer; he is too ill. So Florent must make up his mind. I have promised
+      to give a positive answer early to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Florent accepts,&rdquo; Lisa quietly remarked, taking another nibble at
+      some black-pudding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent, who had remained in his chair, overcome by a strange feeling of
+      prostration, vainly endeavoured to rise and protest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, say nothing,&rdquo; continued Lisa; &ldquo;the matter is quite settled. You
+      have suffered quite enough already, my dear Florent. What you have just
+      been telling us is enough to make one shudder. It is time now for you to
+      settle down. You belong to a respectable family, you received a good
+      education, and it is really not fitting that you should go wandering about
+      the highways like a vagrant. At your age childishness is no longer
+      excusable. You have been foolish; well, all that will be forgotten and
+      forgiven. You will take your place again among those of your own class&mdash;the
+      class of respectable folks&mdash;and live in future like other people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent listened in astonishment, quite unable to say a word. Lisa was,
+      doubtless, right. She looked so healthy, so serene, that it was impossible
+      to imagine that she desired anything but what was proper. It was he, with
+      his fleshless body and dark, equivocal-looking countenance, who must be in
+      the wrong, and indulging in unrighteous dreams. He could, indeed, no
+      longer understand why he had hitherto resisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa, however, continued to talk to him with an abundant flow of words, as
+      though he were a little boy found in fault and threatened with the police.
+      She assumed, indeed, a most maternal manner, and plied him with the most
+      convincing reasons. And at last, as a final argument, she said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do it for us, Florent. We occupy a fair position in the neighbourhood
+      which obliges us to use a certain amount of circumspection; and, to tell
+      you the truth, between ourselves, I&rsquo;m afraid that people will begin to
+      talk. This inspectorship will set everything right; you will be somebody;
+      you will even be an honour to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her manner had become caressingly persuasive, and Florent was penetrated
+      by all the surrounding plenteousness, all the aroma filling the kitchen,
+      where he fed, as it were, on the nourishment floating in the atmosphere.
+      He sank into blissful meanness, born of all the copious feeding that went
+      on in the sphere of plenty in which he had been living during the last
+      fortnight. He felt, as it were, the titillation of forming fat which
+      spread slowly all over his body. He experienced the languid beatitude of
+      shopkeepers, whose chief concern is to fill their bellies. At this late
+      hour of night, in the warm atmosphere of the kitchen, all his acerbity and
+      determination melted away. That peaceable evening, with the odour of the
+      black-pudding and the lard, and the sight of plump little Pauline
+      slumbering on his knee, had so enervated him that he found himself wishing
+      for a succession of such evenings&mdash;endless ones which would make him
+      fat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, it was the sight of Mouton that chiefly decided him. Mouton was
+      sound asleep, with his stomach turned upwards, one of his paws resting on
+      his nose, and his tail twisted over this side, as though to keep him warm;
+      and he was slumbering with such an expression of feline happiness that
+      Florent, as he gazed at him, murmured: &ldquo;No, it would be too foolish! I
+      accept the berth. Say that I accept it, Gavard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Lisa finished eating her black-pudding, and wiped her fingers on the
+      edge of her apron. And next she got her brother-in-law&rsquo;s candle ready for
+      him, while Gavard and Quenu congratulated him on his decision. It was
+      always necessary for a man to settle down, said they; the breakneck freaks
+      of politics did not provide one with food. And, meantime, Lisa, standing
+      there with the lighted candle in her hand, looked at him with an
+      expression of satisfaction resting on her handsome face, placid like that
+      of some sacred cow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Three days later the necessary formalities were gone through, and without
+      demur the police authorities at the Prefecture accepted Florent on
+      Monsieur Verlaque&rsquo;s recommendation as his substitute. Gavard, by the way,
+      had made it a point to accompany them. When he again found himself alone
+      with Florent he kept nudging his ribs with his elbow as they walked along
+      together, and laughed, without saying anything, while winking his eyes in
+      a jeering way. He seemed to find something very ridiculous in the
+      appearance of the police officers whom they met on the Quai de l&rsquo;Horloge,
+      for, as he passed them, he slightly shrugged his shoulders and made the
+      grimace of a man seeking to restrain himself from laughing in people&rsquo;s
+      faces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the following morning Monsieur Verlaque began to initiate the new
+      inspector into the duties of his office. It had been arranged that during
+      the next few days he should make him acquainted with the turbulent sphere
+      which he would have to supervise. Poor Verlaque, as Gavard called him was
+      a pale little man, swathed in flannels, handkerchiefs, and mufflers.
+      Constantly coughing, he made his way through the cool, moist atmosphere,
+      and running waters of the fish market, on a pair of scraggy legs like
+      those of a sickly child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Florent made his appearance on the first morning, at seven o&rsquo;clock,
+      he felt quite distracted; his eyes were dazed, his head ached with all the
+      noise and riot. Retail dealers were already prowling about the auction
+      pavilion; clerks were arriving with their ledgers, and consigners&rsquo; agents,
+      with leather bags slung over their shoulders, sat on overturned chairs by
+      the salesmen&rsquo;s desks, waiting to receive their cash. Fish was being
+      unloaded and unpacked not only in the enclosure, but even on the footways.
+      All along the latter were piles of small baskets, an endless arrival of
+      cases and hampers, and sacks of mussels, from which streamlets of water
+      trickled. The auctioneers&rsquo; assistants, all looking very busy, sprang over
+      the heaps, tore away the straw at the tops of the baskets, emptied the
+      latter, and tossed them aside. They then speedily transferred their
+      contents in lots to huge wickerwork trays, arranging them with a turn of
+      the hand so that they might show to the best advantage. And when the large
+      tray-like baskets were all set out, Florent could almost fancy that a
+      whole shoal of fish had got stranded there, still quivering with life, and
+      gleaming with rosy nacre, scarlet coral, and milky pearl, all the soft,
+      pale, sheeny hues of the ocean.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The deep-lying forests of seaweed, in which the mysterious life of the
+      ocean slumbers, seemed at one haul of the nets to have yielded up all they
+      contained. There were cod, keeling, whiting, flounders, plaice, dabs, and
+      other sorts of common fish of a dingy grey with whitish splotches; there
+      were conger-eels, huge serpent-like creatures, with small black eyes and
+      muddy, bluish skins, so slimy that they still seemed to be gliding along,
+      yet alive. There were broad flat skate with pale undersides edged with a
+      soft red, and superb backs bumpy with vertebrae, and marbled down to the
+      tautly stretched ribs of their fins with splotches of cinnabar,
+      intersected by streaks of the tint of Florentine bronze&mdash;a dark
+      medley of colour suggestive of the hues of a toad or some poisonous
+      flower. Then, too, there were hideous dog-fish, with round heads,
+      widely-gaping mouths like those of Chinese idols, and short fins like
+      bats&rsquo; wings; fit monsters to keep yelping guard over the treasures of the
+      ocean grottoes. And next came the finer fish, displayed singly on the
+      osier trays; salmon that gleamed like chased silver, every scale seemingly
+      outlined by a graving-tool on a polished metal surface; mullet with larger
+      scales and coarser markings; large turbot and huge brill with firm flesh
+      white like curdled milk; tunny-fish, smooth and glossy, like bags of
+      blackish leather; and rounded bass, with widely gaping mouths which a soul
+      too large for the body seemed to have rent asunder as it forced its way
+      out amidst the stupefaction of death. And on all sides there were sole,
+      brown and grey, in pairs; sand-eels, slim and stiff, like shavings of
+      pewter; herrings, slightly twisted, with bleeding gills showing on their
+      silver-worked skins; fat dories tinged with just a suspicion of carmine;
+      burnished mackerel with green-streaked backs, and sides gleaming with
+      ever-changing iridescence; and rosy gurnets with white bellies, their head
+      towards the centre of the baskets and their tails radiating all around, so
+      that they simulated some strange florescence splotched with pearly white
+      and brilliant vermilion. There were rock mullet, too, with delicious
+      flesh, flushed with the pinky tinge peculiar to the Cyprinus family; boxes
+      of whiting with opaline reflections; and baskets of smelts&mdash;neat
+      little baskets, pretty as those used for strawberries, and exhaling a
+      strong scent of violets. And meantime the tiny black eyes of the shrimps
+      dotted as with beads of jet their soft-toned mass of pink and grey; and
+      spiny crawfish and lobsters striped with black, all still alive, raised a
+      grating sound as they tried to crawl along with their broken claws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent gave but indifferent attention to Monsieur Verlaque&rsquo;s
+      explanations. A flood of sunshine suddenly streamed through the lofty
+      glass roof of the covered way, lighting up all these precious colours,
+      toned and softened by the waves&mdash;the iridescent flesh-tints of the
+      shell-fish, the opal of the whiting, the pearly nacre of the mackerel, the
+      ruddy gold of the mullets, the plated skins of the herrings, and massive
+      silver of the salmon. It was as though the jewel-cases of some sea-nymph
+      had been emptied there&mdash;a mass of fantastical, undreamt-of ornaments,
+      a streaming and heaping of necklaces, monstrous bracelets, gigantic
+      brooches, barbaric gems and jewels, the use of which could not be divined.
+      On the backs of the skate and the dog-fish you saw, as it were, big dull
+      green and purple stones set in dark metal, while the slender forms of the
+      sand-eels and the tails and fins of the smelts displayed all the delicacy
+      of finely wrought silver-work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And meantime Florent&rsquo;s face was fanned by a fresh breeze, a sharp, salt
+      breeze redolent of the sea. It reminded him of the coasts of Guiana and
+      his voyages. He half fancied that he was gazing at some bay left dry by
+      the receding tide, with the seaweed steaming in the sun, the bare rocks
+      drying, and the beach smelling strongly of the brine. All around him the
+      fish in their perfect freshness exhaled a pleasant perfume, that slightly
+      sharp, irritating perfume which depraves the appetite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monsieur Verlaque coughed. The dampness was affecting him, and he wrapped
+      his muffler more closely about his neck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;we will pass on to the fresh water fish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was in a pavilion beside the fruit market, the last one, indeed, in
+      the direction of the Rue Rambuteau. On either side of the space reserved
+      for the auctions were large circular stone basins, divided into separate
+      compartments by iron gratings. Slender streams of water flowed from brass
+      jets shaped like swan&rsquo;s necks; and the compartments were filled with
+      swarming colonies of crawfish, black-backed carp ever on the move, and
+      mazy tangles of eels, incessantly knotting and unknotting themselves.
+      Again was Monsieur Verlaque attacked by an obstinate fit of coughing. The
+      moisture of the atmosphere was more insipid here than amongst the sea
+      water fish: there was a riverside scent, as of sun-warmed water slumbering
+      on a bed of sand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great number of crawfishes had arrived from Germany that morning in
+      cases and hampers, and the market was also crowded with river fish from
+      Holland and England. Several men were unpacking shiny carp from the Rhine,
+      lustrous with ruddy metallic hues, their scales resembling bronzed <i>cloisonne</i>
+      enamel; and others were busy with huge pike, the cruel iron-grey brigands
+      of the waters, who ravenously protruded their savage jaws; or with
+      magnificent dark-hued with verdigris. And amidst these suggestions of
+      copper, iron, and bronze, the gudgeon and perch, the trout, the bleak, and
+      the flat-fish taken in sweep-nets showed brightly white, the steel-blue
+      tints of their backs gradually toning down to the soft transparency of
+      their bellies. However, it was the fat snowy-white barbel that supplied
+      the liveliest brightness in this gigantic collection of still life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bags of young carp were being gently emptied into the basins. The fish
+      spun round, then remained motionless for a moment, and at last shot away
+      and disappeared. Little eels were turned out of their hampers in a mass,
+      and fell to the bottom of the compartments like tangled knots of snakes;
+      while the larger ones&mdash;those whose bodies were about as thick as a
+      child&rsquo;s arm&mdash;raised their heads and slipped of their own accord into
+      the water with the supple motion of serpents gliding into the concealment
+      of a thicket. And meantime the other fish, whose death agony had been
+      lasting all the morning as they lay on the soiled osiers of the
+      basket-trays, slowly expired amidst all the uproar of the auctions,
+      opening their mouths as though to inhale the moisture of the air, with
+      great silent gasps, renewed every few seconds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Monsieur Verlaque brought Florent back to the salt water fish. He
+      took him all over the place and gave him the minutest particulars about
+      everything. Round the nine salesmen&rsquo;s desks ranged along three sides of
+      the pavilion there was now a dense crowd of surging, swaying heads, above
+      which appeared the clerks, perched upon high chairs and making entries in
+      their ledgers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are all these clerks employed by the salesmen?&rdquo; asked Florent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By way of reply Monsieur Verlaque made a detour along the outside footway,
+      led him into the enclosure of one of the auctions, and then explained the
+      working of the various departments of the big yellow office, which smelt
+      strongly of fish and was stained all over by drippings and splashings from
+      the hampers. In a little glazed compartment up above, the collector of the
+      municipal dues took note of the prices realised by the different lots of
+      fish. Lower down, seated upon high chairs and with their wrists resting
+      upon little desks, were two female clerks, who kept account of the
+      business on behalf of the salesmen. At each end of the stone table in
+      front of the office was a crier who brought the basket-trays forward in
+      turn, and in a bawling voice announced what each lot consisted of; while
+      above him the female clerk, pen in hand, waited to register the price at
+      which the lots were knocked down. And outside the enclosure, shut up in
+      another little office of yellow wood, Monsieur Verlaque showed Florent the
+      cashier, a fat old woman, who was ranging coppers and five-franc pierces
+      in piles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a double control, you see,&rdquo; said Monsieur Verlaque; &ldquo;the control
+      of the Prefecture of the Seine and that of the Prefecture of Police. The
+      latter, which licenses the salesmen, claims to have the right of
+      supervision over them; and the municipality asserts its right to be
+      represented at the transactions as they are subject to taxation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He went on expatiating at length in his faint cold voice respecting the
+      rival claims of the two Prefectures. Florent, however, was paying but
+      little heed, his attention being concentrated on a female clerk sitting on
+      one of the high chairs just in front of him. She was a tall, dark woman of
+      thirty, with big black eyes and an easy calmness of manner, and she wrote
+      with outstretched fingers like a girl who had been taught the regulation
+      method of the art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Florent&rsquo;s attention was diverted by the yelping of the crier, who
+      was just offering a magnificent turbot for sale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve a bid of thirty francs! Thirty francs, now; thirty francs!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He repeated these words in all sorts of keys, running up and down a
+      strange scale of notes full of sudden changes. Humpbacked and with his
+      face twisted askew, and his hair rough and disorderly, he wore a great
+      blue apron with a bib; and with flaming eyes and outstretched arms he
+      cried vociferously: &ldquo;Thirty-one! thirty-two! thirty-three! Thirty-three
+      francs fifty centimes! thirty-three fifty!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he paused to take breath, turning the basket-tray and pushing it
+      farther upon the table. The fish-wives bent forward and gently touched the
+      turbot with their finger-tips. Then the crier began again with renewed
+      energy, hurling his figures towards the buyers with a wave of the hand and
+      catching the slightest indication of a fresh bid&mdash;the raising of a
+      finger, a twist of the eyebrows, a pouting of the lips, a wink, and all
+      with such rapidity and such a ceaseless jumble of words that Florent,
+      utterly unable to follow him, felt quite disconcerted when, in a sing-song
+      voice like that of a priest intoning the final words of a versicle, he
+      chanted: &ldquo;Forty-two! forty-two! The turbot goes for forty-two francs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the beautiful Norman who had made the last bid. Florent recognised
+      her as she stood in the line of fish-wives crowding against the iron rails
+      which surrounded the enclosure. The morning was fresh and sharp, and there
+      was a row of tippets above the display of big white aprons, covering the
+      prominent bosoms and stomachs and sturdy shoulders. With high-set chignon
+      set off with curls, and white and dainty skin, the beautiful Norman
+      flaunted her lace bow amidst tangled shocks of hair covered with dirty
+      kerchiefs, red noses eloquent of drink, sneering mouths, and battered
+      faces suggestive of old pots. And she also recognised Madame Quenu&rsquo;s
+      cousin, and was so surprised to see him there that she began gossiping to
+      her neighbours about him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The uproar of voices had become so great that Monsieur Verlaque renounced
+      all further attempt to explain matters to Florent. On the footway close
+      by, men were calling out the larger fish with prolonged shouts, which
+      sounded as though they came from gigantic speaking-trumpets; and there was
+      one individual who roared &ldquo;Mussels! Mussels!&rdquo; in such a hoarse, cracked,
+      clamorous voice that the very roofs of the market shook. Some sacks of
+      mussels were turned upside down, and their contents poured into hampers,
+      while others were emptied with shovels. And there was a ceaseless
+      procession of basket-trays containing skate, soles, mackerel, conger-eels,
+      and salmon, carried backwards and forwards amidst the ever-increasing
+      cackle and pushing of the fish-women as they crowded against the iron
+      rails which creaked with their pressure. The humpbacked crier, now fairly
+      on the job, waved his skinny arms in the air and protruded his jaws.
+      Presently, seemingly lashed into a state of frenzy by the flood of figures
+      that spurted from his lips, he sprang upon a stool, where, with his mouth
+      twisted spasmodically and his hair streaming behind him, he could force
+      nothing more than unintelligible hisses from his parched throat. And in
+      the meantime, up above, the collector of municipal dues, a little old man,
+      muffled in a collar of imitation astrachan, remained with nothing but his
+      nose showing under his black velvet skullcap. And the tall,
+      dark-complexioned female clerk, with eyes shining calmly in her face,
+      which had been slightly reddened by the cold, sat on her high wooden
+      chair, quietly writing, apparently unruffled by the continuous rattle
+      which came from the hunchback below her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That fellow Logre is wonderful,&rdquo; muttered Monsieur Verlaque with a smile.
+      &ldquo;He is the best crier in the markets. I believe he could make people buy
+      boot soles in the belief they were fish!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he and Florent went back into the pavilion. As they again passed the
+      spot where the fresh water fish was being sold by auction, and where the
+      bidding seemed much quieter, Monsieur Verlaque explained that French river
+      fishing was in a bad way.[*] The crier here, a fair, sorry-looking fellow,
+      who scarcely moved his arms, was disposing of some lots of eels and
+      crawfish in a monotonous voice, while the assistants fished fresh supplies
+      out of the stone basins with their short-handled nets.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] M. Zola refers, of course, to the earlier years of the
+     Second Empire. Under the present republican Government,
+     which has largely fostered fish culture, matters have
+     considerably improved.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      However, the crowd round the salesmen&rsquo;s desks was still increasing.
+      Monsieur Verlaque played his part as Florent&rsquo;s instructor in the most
+      conscientious manner, clearing the way by means of his elbows, and guiding
+      his successor through the busiest parts. The upper-class retail dealers
+      were there, quietly waiting for some of the finer fish, or loading the
+      porters with their purchases of turbot, tunny, and salmon. The
+      street-hawkers who had clubbed together to buy lots of herrings and small
+      flat-fish were dividing them on the pavement. There were also some people
+      of the smaller middle class, from distant parts of the city, who had come
+      down at four o&rsquo;clock in the morning to buy a really fresh fish, and had
+      ended by allowing some enormous lot, costing from forty to fifty francs,
+      to be knocked down to them, with the result that they would be obliged to
+      spend the whole day in getting their friends and acquaintances to take the
+      surplus off their hands. Every now and then some violent pushing would
+      force a gap through part of the crowd. A fish-wife, who had got tightly
+      jammed, freed herself, shaking her fists and pouring out a torrent of
+      abuse. Then a compact mass of people again collected, and Florent, almost
+      suffocated, declared that he had seen quite enough, and understood all
+      that was necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Monsieur Verlaque was helping him to extricate himself from the crowd,
+      they found themselves face to face with the handsome Norman. She remained
+      stock-still in front of them, and with her queenly air inquired:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, is it quite settled? You are going to desert us, Monsieur
+      Verlaque?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes,&rdquo; replied the little man; &ldquo;I am going to take a rest in the
+      country, at Clamart. The smell of the fish is bad for me, it seems. Here,
+      this is the gentleman who is going to take my place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So speaking he turned round to introduce Florent to her. The handsome
+      Norman almost choked; however, as Florent went off, he fancied he could
+      hear her whisper to her neighbours, with a laugh: &ldquo;Well, we shall have
+      some fine fun now, see if we don&rsquo;t!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The fish-wives had begun to set out their stalls. From all the taps at the
+      corners of the marble slabs water was gushing freely; and there was a
+      rustling sound all round, like the plashing of rain, a streaming of stiff
+      jets of water hissing and spurting. And then, from the lower side of the
+      sloping slabs, great drops fell with a softened murmur, splashing on the
+      flagstones where a mass of tiny streams flowed along here and there,
+      turning holes and depressions into miniature lakes, and afterwards gliding
+      in a thousand rills down the slope towards the Rue Rambuteau. A moist haze
+      ascended, a sort of rainy dust, bringing fresh whiffs of air to Florent&rsquo;s
+      face, whiffs of that salt, pungent sea breeze which he remembered so well;
+      while in such fish as was already laid out he once more beheld the rosy
+      nacres, gleaming corals, and milky pearls, all the rippling colour and
+      glaucous pallidity of the ocean world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That first morning left him much in doubt; indeed, he regretted that he
+      had yielded to Lisa&rsquo;s insistence. Ever since his escape from the greasy
+      drowsiness of the kitchen he had been accusing himself of base weakness
+      with such violence that tears had almost risen in his eyes. But he did not
+      dare to go back on his word. He was a little afraid of Lisa, and could see
+      the curl of her lips and the look of mute reproach upon her handsome face.
+      He felt that she was too serious a woman to be trifled with. However,
+      Gavard happily inspired him with a consoling thought. On the evening of
+      the day on which Monsieur Verlaque had conducted him through the auction
+      sales, Gavard took him aside and told him, with a good deal of hesitation,
+      that &ldquo;the poor devil&rdquo; was not at all well off. And after various remarks
+      about the scoundrelly Government which ground the life out of its servants
+      without allowing them even the means to die in comfort, he ended by
+      hinting that it would be charitable on Florent&rsquo;s part to surrender a part
+      of his salary to the old inspector. Florent welcomed the suggestion with
+      delight. It was only right, he considered, for he looked upon himself
+      simply as Monsieur Verlaque&rsquo;s temporary substitute; and besides, he
+      himself really required nothing, as he boarded and lodged with his
+      brother. Gavard added that he thought if Florent gave up fifty francs out
+      of the hundred and fifty which he would receive monthly, the arrangement
+      would be everything that could be desired; and, lowering his voice, he
+      added that it would not be for long, for the poor fellow was consumptive
+      to his very bones. Finally it was settled that Florent should see Monsieur
+      Verlaque&rsquo;s wife, and arrange matters with her, to avoid any possibility of
+      hurting the old man&rsquo;s feelings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thought of this kindly action afforded Florent great relief, and he
+      now accepted his duties with the object of doing good, thus continuing to
+      play the part which he had been fulfilling all his life. However, he made
+      the poultry dealer promise that he would not speak of the matter to
+      anyone; and as Gavard also felt a vague fear of Lisa, he kept the secret,
+      which was really very meritorious in him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the whole pork shop seemed happy. Handsome Lisa manifested the
+      greatest friendliness towards her brother-in-law. She took care that he
+      went to bed early, so as to be able to rise in good time; she kept his
+      breakfast hot for him; and she no longer felt ashamed at being seen
+      talking to him on the footway, now that he wore a laced cap. Quenu, quite
+      delighted by all these good signs, sat down to table in the evening
+      between his wife and brother with a lighter heart than ever. They often
+      lingered over dinner till nine o&rsquo;clock, leaving the shop in Augustine&rsquo;s
+      charge, and indulging in a leisurely digestion interspersed with gossip
+      about the neighbourhood, and the dogmatic opinions of Lisa on political
+      topics; Florent also had to relate how matters had gone in the fish market
+      that day. He gradually grew less frigid, and began to taste the happiness
+      of a well-regulated existence. There was a well-to-do comfort and trimness
+      about the light yellowish dining room which had a softening influence upon
+      him as soon as he crossed its threshold. Handsome Lisa&rsquo;s kindly attentions
+      wrapped him, as it were, in cotton-wool; and mutual esteem and concord
+      reigned paramount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard, however, considered the Quenu-Gradelles&rsquo; home to be too drowsy. He
+      forgave Lisa her weakness for the Emperor, because, he said, one ought
+      never to discuss politics with women, and beautiful Madame Quenu was,
+      after all, a very worthy person, who managed her business admirably.
+      Nevertheless, he much preferred to spend his evenings at Monsieur
+      Lebigre&rsquo;s, where he met a group of friends who shared his own opinions.
+      Thus when Florent was appointed to the inspectorship of the fish market,
+      Gavard began to lead him astray, taking him off for hours, and prompting
+      him to lead a bachelor&rsquo;s life now that he had obtained a berth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monsieur Lebigre was the proprietor of a very fine establishment, fitted
+      up in the modern luxurious style. Occupying the right-hand corner of the
+      Rue Pirouette, and looking on to the Rue Rambuteau, it formed, with its
+      four small Norwegian pines in green-painted tubs flanking the doorway, a
+      worthy pendant to the big pork shop of the Quenu-Gradelles. Through the
+      clear glass windows you could see the interior, which was decorated with
+      festoons of foliage, vine branches, and grapes, painted on a soft green
+      ground. The floor was tiled with large black and white squares. At the far
+      end was the yawning cellar entrance, above which rose a spiral staircase
+      hung with red drapery, and leading to the billiard-room on the first
+      floor. The counter or &ldquo;bar&rdquo; on the right looked especially rich, and
+      glittered like polished silver. Its zinc-work, hanging with a broad
+      bulging border over the sub-structure of white and red marble, edged it
+      with a rippling sheet of metal as if it were some high altar laden with
+      embroidery. At one end, over a gas stove, stood porcelain pots, decorated
+      with circles of brass, and containing punch and hot wine. At the other
+      extremity was a tall and richly sculptured marble fountain, from which a
+      fine stream of water, so steady and continuous that it looked as though it
+      were motionless, flowed into a basin. In the centre, edged on three sides
+      by the sloping zinc surface of the counter, was a second basin for rinsing
+      and cooling purposes, where quart bottles of draught wine, partially
+      empty, reared their greenish necks. Then on the counter, to the right and
+      left of this central basin, were batches of glasses symmetrically
+      arranged: little glasses for brandy, thick tumblers for draught wine, cup
+      glasses for brandied fruits, glasses for absinthe, glass mugs for beer,
+      and tall goblets, all turned upside down and reflecting the glitter of the
+      counter. On the left, moreover, was a metal urn, serving as a receptacle
+      for gratuities; whilst a similar one on the right bristled with a fan-like
+      arrangement of coffee spoons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monsieur Lebigre was generally to be found enthroned behind his counter
+      upon a seat covered with buttoned crimson leather. Within easy reach of
+      his hand were the liqueurs in cut-glass decanters protruding from the
+      compartments of a stand. His round back rested against a huge mirror which
+      completely filled the panel behind him; across it ran two glass shelves
+      supporting an array of jars and bottles. Upon one of them the glass jars
+      of preserved fruits, cherries, plums, and peaches, stood out darkly; while
+      on the other, between symmetrically arranged packets of finger biscuits,
+      were bright flasks of soft green and red and yellow glass, suggesting
+      strange mysterious liqueurs, or floral extracts of exquisite limpidity.
+      Standing on the glass shelf in the white glow of the mirror, these flasks,
+      flashing as if on fire, seemed to be suspended in the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To give his premises the appearance of a cafe, Monsieur Lebigre had placed
+      two small tables of bronzed iron and four chairs against the wall, in
+      front of the counter. A chandelier with five lights and frosted globes
+      hung down from the ceiling. On the left was a round gilt timepiece, above
+      a <i>tourniquet</i>[*] fixed to the wall. Then at the far end came the
+      private &ldquo;cabinet,&rdquo; a corner of the shop shut off by a partition glazed
+      with frosted glass of a small square pattern. In the daytime this little
+      room received a dim light from a window that looked on to the Rue
+      Pirouette; and in the evening, a gas jet burnt over the two tables painted
+      to resemble marble. It was there that Gavard and his political friends met
+      each evening after dinner. They looked upon themselves as being quite at
+      home there, and had prevailed on the landlord to reserve the place for
+      them. When Monsieur Lebigre had closed the door of the glazed partition,
+      they knew themselves to be so safely screened from intrusion that they
+      spoke quite unreservedly of the great &ldquo;sweep out&rdquo; which they were fond of
+      discussing. No unprivileged customer would have dared to enter.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] This is a kind of dial turning on a pivot, and usually
+     enclosed in a brass frame, from which radiate a few small
+     handles or spokes. Round the face of the dial&mdash;usually of
+     paper&mdash;are various numerals, and between the face and its
+     glass covering is a small marble or wooden ball. The
+     appliance is used in lieu of dice or coins when two or more
+     customers are &ldquo;tossing&rdquo; for drinks. Each in turn sends the
+     dial spinning round, and wins or loses according to the
+     numeral against which the ball rests when the dial stops. As
+     I can find no English name for the appliance, I have thought
+     it best to describe it.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On the first day that Gavard took Florent off he gave him some particulars
+      of Monsieur Lebigre. He was a good fellow, he said, who sometimes came to
+      drink his coffee with them; and, as he had said one day that he had fought
+      in &lsquo;48, no one felt the least constraint in his presence. He spoke but
+      little, and seemed rather thick-headed. As the gentlemen passed him on
+      their way to the private room they grasped his hand in silence across the
+      glasses and bottles. By his side on the crimson leather seat behind the
+      counter there was generally a fair little woman, whom he had engaged as
+      counter assistant in addition to the white-aproned waiter who attended to
+      the tables and the billiard-room. The young woman&rsquo;s name was Rose, and she
+      seemed a very gentle and submissive being. Gavard, with a wink of his eye,
+      told Florent that he fancied Lebigre had a weakness for her. It was she,
+      by the way, who waited upon the friends in the private room, coming and
+      going, with her happy, humble air, amidst the stormiest political
+      discussions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon the day on which the poultry dealer took Florent to Lebigre&rsquo;s to
+      present him to his friends, the only person whom the pair found in the
+      little room when they entered it was a man of some fifty years of age, of
+      a mild and thoughtful appearance. He wore a rather shabby-looking hat and
+      a long chestnut-coloured overcoat, and sat, with his chin resting on the
+      ivory knob of a thick cane, in front of a glass mug full of beer. His
+      mouth was so completely concealed by a vigorous growth of beard that his
+      face had a dumb, lipless appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How are you, Robine?&rdquo; exclaimed Gavard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Robine silently thrust out his hand, without making any reply, though his
+      eyes softened into a slight smile of welcome. Then he let his chin drop on
+      to the knob of his cane again, and looked at Florent over his beer.
+      Florent had made Gavard swear to keep his story a secret for fear of some
+      dangerous indiscretion; and he was not displeased to observe a touch of
+      distrust in the discreet demeanour of the gentleman with the heavy beard.
+      However, he was really mistaken in this, for Robine never talked more than
+      he did now. He was always the first to arrive, just as the clock struck
+      eight; and he always sat in the same corner, never letting go his hold of
+      his cane, and never taking off either his hat or his overcoat. No one had
+      ever seen him without his hat upon his head. He remained there listening
+      to the talk of the others till midnight, taking four hours to empty his
+      mug of beer, and gazing successively at the different speakers as though
+      he heard them with his eyes. When Florent afterwards questioned Gavard
+      about Robine, the poultry dealer spoke of the latter as though he held him
+      in high esteem. Robine, he asserted, was an extremely clever and able man,
+      and, though he was unable to say exactly where he had given proof of his
+      hostility to the established order of things, he declared that he was one
+      of the most dreaded of the Government&rsquo;s opponents. He lived in the Rue
+      Saint Denis, in rooms to which no one as a rule could gain admission. The
+      poultry dealer, however, asserted that he himself had once been in them.
+      The wax floors, he said, were protected by strips of green linen; and
+      there were covers over the furniture, and an alabaster timepiece with
+      columns. He had caught a glimpse of the back of a lady, who was just
+      disappearing through one doorway as he was entering by another, and had
+      taken her to be Madame Robine. She appeared to be an old lady of very
+      genteel appearance, with her hair arranged in corkscrew curls; but of this
+      he could not be quite certain. No one knew why they had taken up their
+      abode amidst all the uproar of a business neighbourhood; for the husband
+      did nothing at all, spending his days no one knew how and living on no one
+      knew what, though he made his appearance every evening as though he were
+      tired but delighted with some excursion into the highest regions of
+      politics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, have you read the speech from the throne?&rdquo; asked Gavard, taking up
+      a newspaper that was lying on the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Robine shrugged his shoulders. Just at that moment, however, the door of
+      the glazed partition clattered noisily, and a hunchback made his
+      appearance. Florent at once recognised the deformed crier of the fish
+      market, though his hands were now washed and he was neatly dressed, with
+      his neck encircled by a great red muffler, one end of which hung down over
+      his hump like the skirt of a Venetian cloak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, here&rsquo;s Logre!&rdquo; exclaimed the poultry dealer. &ldquo;Now we shall hear what
+      he thinks about the speech from the throne.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Logre, however, was apparently furious. To begin with he almost broke the
+      pegs off in hanging up his hat and muffler. Then he threw himself
+      violently into a chair, and brought his fist down on the table, while
+      tossing away the newspaper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think I read their fearful lies?&rdquo; he cried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he gave vent to the anger raging within him. &ldquo;Did ever anyone hear,&rdquo;
+       he cried, &ldquo;of masters making such fools of their people? For two whole
+      hours I&rsquo;ve been waiting for my pay! There were ten of us in the office
+      kicking our heels there. Then at last Monsieur Manoury arrived in a cab.
+      Where he had come from I don&rsquo;t know, and don&rsquo;t care, but I&rsquo;m quite sure it
+      wasn&rsquo;t any respectable place. Those salesmen are all a parcel of thieves
+      and libertines! And then, too, the hog actually gave me all my money in
+      small change!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Robine expressed his sympathy with Logre by the slight movement of his
+      eyelids. But suddenly the hunchback bethought him of a victim upon whom to
+      pour out his wrath. &ldquo;Rose! Rose!&rdquo; he cried, stretching his head out of the
+      little room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young woman quickly responded to the call, trembling all over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; shouted Logre, &ldquo;what do you stand staring at me like that for?
+      Much good that&rsquo;ll do! You saw me come in, didn&rsquo;t you? Why haven&rsquo;t you
+      brought me my glass of black coffee, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard ordered two similar glasses, and Rose made all haste to bring what
+      was required, while Logre glared sternly at the glasses and little sugar
+      trays as if studying them. When he had taken a drink he seemed to grow
+      somewhat calmer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s Charvet who must be getting bored,&rdquo; he said presently. &ldquo;He is
+      waiting outside on the pavement for Clemence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Charvet, however, now made his appearance, followed by Clemence. He was a
+      tall, scraggy young man, carefully shaved, with a skinny nose and thin
+      lips. He lived in the Rue Vavin, behind the Luxembourg, and called himself
+      a professor. In politics he was a disciple of Hebert.[*] He wore his hair
+      very long, and the collar and lapels of his threadbare frock-coat were
+      broadly turned back. Affecting the manner and speech of a member of the
+      National Convention, he would pour out such a flood of bitter words and
+      make such a haughty display of pedantic learning that he generally crushed
+      his adversaries. Gavard was afraid of him, though he would not confess it;
+      still, in Charvet&rsquo;s absence he would say that he really went too far.
+      Robine, for his part, expressed approval of everything with his eyes.
+      Logre sometimes opposed Charvet on the question of salaries; but the other
+      was really the autocrat of the coterie, having the greatest fund of
+      information and the most overbearing manner. For more than ten years he
+      and Clemence had lived together as man and wife, in accordance with a
+      previously arranged contract, the terms of which were strictly observed by
+      both parties to it. Florent looked at the young woman with some little
+      surprise, but at last he recollected where he had previously seen her.
+      This was at the fish auction. She was, indeed, none other than the tall
+      dark female clerk whom he had observed writing with outstretched fingers,
+      after the manner of one who had been carefully instructed in the art of
+      holding a pen.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] Hebert, as the reader will remember, was the furious
+     demagogue with the foul tongue and poisoned pen who edited
+     the <i>Pere Duchesne</i> at the time of the first French
+     Revolution. We had a revival of his politics and his journal
+     in Paris during the Commune of 1871.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Rose made her appearance at the heels of the two newcomers. Without saying
+      a word she placed a mug of beer before Charvet and a tray before Clemence,
+      who in a leisurely way began to compound a glass of &ldquo;grog,&rdquo; pouring some
+      hot water over a slice of lemon, which she crushed with her spoon, and
+      glancing carefully at the decanter as she poured out some rum, so as not
+      to add more of it than a small liqueur glass could contain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard now presented Florent to the company, but more especially to
+      Charvet. He introduced them to one another as professors, and very able
+      men, who would be sure to get on well together. But it was probable that
+      he had already been guilty of some indiscretion, for all the men at once
+      shook hands with a tight and somewhat masonic squeeze of each other&rsquo;s
+      fingers. Charvet, for his part, showed himself almost amiable; and whether
+      he and the others knew anything of Florent&rsquo;s antecedents, they at all
+      events indulged in no embarrassing allusions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did Manoury pay you in small change?&rdquo; Logre asked Clemence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She answered affirmatively, and produced a roll of francs and another of
+      two-franc pieces, and unwrapped them. Charvet watched her, and his eyes
+      followed the rolls as she replaced them in her pocket, after counting
+      their contents and satisfying herself that they were correct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have our accounts to settle,&rdquo; he said in a low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we&rsquo;ll settle up to-night,&rdquo; the young woman replied. &ldquo;But we are
+      about even, I should think. I&rsquo;ve breakfasted with you four times, haven&rsquo;t
+      I? But I lent you a hundred sous last week, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent, surprised at hearing this, discreetly turned his head away. Then
+      Clemence slipped the last roll of silver into her pocket, drank a little
+      of her grog, and, leaning against the glazed partition, quietly settled
+      herself down to listen to the men talking politics. Gavard had taken up
+      the newspaper again, and, in tones which he strove to render comic, was
+      reading out some passages of the speech from the throne which had been
+      delivered that morning at the opening of the Chambers. Charvet made fine
+      sport of the official phraseology; there was not a single line of it which
+      he did not tear to pieces. One sentence afforded especial amusement to
+      them all. It was this: &ldquo;We are confident, gentlemen, that, leaning on your
+      lights[*] and the conservative sentiments of the country, we shall succeed
+      in increasing the national prosperity day by day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] In the sense of illumination of mind. It has been
+     necessary to give a literal translation of this phrase to
+     enable the reader to realise the point of subsequent
+     witticisms in which Clemence and Gavard indulge.
+     &mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Logre rose up and repeated this sentence, and by speaking through his nose
+      succeeded fairly well in mimicking the Emperor&rsquo;s drawling voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s lovely, that prosperity of his; why, everyone&rsquo;s dying of hunger!&rdquo;
+       said Charvet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trade is shocking,&rdquo; asserted Gavard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what in the name of goodness is the meaning of anybody &lsquo;leaning on
+      lights&rsquo;?&rdquo; continued Clemence, who prided herself upon literary culture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Robine himself even allowed a faint laugh to escape from the depths of his
+      beard. The discussion began to grow warm. The party fell foul of the Corps
+      Legislatif, and spoke of it with great severity. Logre did not cease
+      ranting, and Florent found him the same as when he cried the fish at the
+      auctions&mdash;protruding his jaws and hurling his words forward with a
+      wave of the arm, whilst retaining the crouching attitude of a snarling
+      dog. Indeed, he talked politics in just the same furious manner as he
+      offered a tray full of soles for sale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Charvet, on the other hand, became quieter and colder amidst the smoke of
+      the pipes and the fumes of the gas which were now filling the little den;
+      and his voice assumed a dry incisive tone, sharp like a guillotine blade,
+      while Robine gently wagged his head without once removing his chin from
+      the ivory knob of his cane. However, some remark of Gavard&rsquo;s led the
+      conversation to the subject of women.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Woman,&rdquo; declared Charvet drily, &ldquo;is the equal of man; and, that being so,
+      she ought not to inconvenience him in the management of his life. Marriage
+      is a partnership, in which everything should be halved. Isn&rsquo;t that so,
+      Clemence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Clearly so,&rdquo; replied the young woman, leaning back with her head against
+      the wall and gazing into the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Florent now saw Lacaille, the costermonger, and Alexandre, the
+      porter, Claude Lantier&rsquo;s friend, come into the little room. In the past
+      these two had long remained at the other table in the sanctum; they did
+      not belong to the same class as the others. By the help of politics,
+      however, their chairs had drawn nearer, and they had ended by forming part
+      of the circle. Charvet, in whose eyes they represented &ldquo;the people,&rdquo; did
+      his best to indoctrinate them with his advanced political theories, while
+      Gavard played the part of the shopkeeper free from all social prejudices
+      by clinking glasses with them. Alexandre was a cheerful, good-humoured
+      giant, with the manner of a big merry lad. Lacaille, on the other hand,
+      was embittered; his hair was already grizzling; and, bent and wearied by
+      his ceaseless perambulations through the streets of Paris, he would at
+      times glance loweringly at the placid figure of Robine, and his sound
+      boots and heavy coat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening both Lacaille and Alexandre called for a liqueur glass of
+      brandy, and then the conversation was renewed with increased warmth and
+      excitement, the party being now quite complete. A little later, while the
+      door of the cabinet was left ajar, Florent caught sight of Mademoiselle
+      Saget standing in front of the counter. She had taken a bottle from under
+      her apron, and was watching Rose as the latter poured into it a large
+      measureful of black-currant syrup and a smaller one of brandy. Then the
+      bottle disappeared under the apron again, and Mademoiselle Saget, with her
+      hands out of sight, remained talking in the bright glow of the counter,
+      face to face with the big mirror, in which the flasks and bottles of
+      liqueurs were reflected like rows of Venetian lanterns. In the evening all
+      the metal and glass of the establishment helped to illuminate it with
+      wonderful brilliancy. The old maid, standing there in her black skirts,
+      looked almost like some big strange insect amidst all the crude
+      brightness. Florent noticed that she was trying to inveigle Rose into a
+      conversation, and shrewdly suspected that she had caught sight of him
+      through the half open doorway. Since he had been on duty at the markets he
+      had met her at almost every step, loitering in one or another of the
+      covered ways, and generally in the company of Madame Lecoeur and La
+      Sarriette. He had noticed also that the three women stealthily examined
+      him, and seemed lost in amazement at seeing him installed in the position
+      of inspector. That evening, however, Rose was no doubt loath to enter into
+      conversation with the old maid, for the latter at last turned round,
+      apparently with the intention of approaching Monsieur Lebigre, who was
+      playing piquet with a customer at one of the bronzed tables. Creeping
+      quietly along, Mademoiselle Saget had at last managed to install herself
+      beside the partition of the cabinet, when she was observed by Gavard, who
+      detested her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shut the door, Florent!&rdquo; he cried unceremoniously. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t even be by
+      ourselves, it seems!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When midnight came and Lacaille went away he exchanged a few whispered
+      words with Monsieur Lebigre, and as the latter shook hands with him he
+      slipped four five-franc pieces into his palm, without anyone noticing it.
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;ll make twenty-two francs that you&rsquo;ll have to pay to-morrow,
+      remember,&rdquo; he whispered in his ear. &ldquo;The person who lends the money won&rsquo;t
+      do it for less in future. Don&rsquo;t forget, too, that you owe three days&rsquo; 
+      truck hire. You must pay everything off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Monsieur Lebigre wished the friends good night. He was very sleepy
+      and should sleep well, he said, with a yawn which revealed his big teeth,
+      while Rose gazed at him with an air of submissive humility. However, he
+      gave her a push, and told her to go and turn out the gas in the little
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On reaching the pavement, Gavard stumbled and nearly fell. And being in a
+      humorous vein, he thereupon exclaimed: &ldquo;Confound it all! At any rate, I
+      don&rsquo;t seem to be leaning on anybody&rsquo;s lights.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This remark seemed to amuse the others, and the party broke up. A little
+      later Florent returned to Lebigre&rsquo;s, and indeed he became quite attached
+      to the &ldquo;cabinet,&rdquo; finding a seductive charm in Robine&rsquo;s contemplative
+      silence, Logre&rsquo;s fiery outbursts, and Charvet&rsquo;s cool venom. When he went
+      home, he did not at once retire to bed. He had grown very fond of his
+      attic, that girlish bedroom, where Augustine had left scraps of ribbons,
+      souvenirs, and other feminine trifles lying about. There still remained
+      some hair-pins on the mantelpiece, with gilt cardboard boxes of buttons
+      and lozenges, cutout pictures, and empty pomade pots that retained an
+      odour of jasmine. Then there were some reels of thread, needles, and a
+      missal lying by the side of a soiled Dream-book in the drawer of the
+      rickety deal table. A white summer dress with yellow spots hung forgotten
+      from a nail; while upon the board which served as a toilet-table a big
+      stain behind the water-jug showed where a bottle of bandoline had been
+      overturned. The little chamber, with its narrow iron bed, its two
+      rush-bottomed chairs, and its faded grey wallpaper, was instinct with
+      innocent simplicity. The plain white curtains, the childishness suggested
+      by the cardboard boxes and the Dream-book, and the clumsy coquetry which
+      had stained the walls, all charmed Florent and brought him back to dreams
+      of youth. He would have preferred not to have known that plain,
+      wiry-haired Augustine, but to have been able to imagine that he was
+      occupying the room of a sister, some bright sweet girl of whose budding
+      womanhood every trifle around him spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet another pleasure which he took was to lean out of the garret window at
+      nighttime. In front of it was a narrow ledge of roof, enclosed by an iron
+      railing, and forming a sort of balcony, on which Augustine had grown a
+      pomegranate in a box. Since the nights had turned cold, Florent had
+      brought the pomegranate indoors and kept it by the foot of his bed till
+      morning. He would linger for a few minutes by the open window, inhaling
+      deep draughts of the sharp fresh air which was wafted up from the Seine,
+      over the housetops of the Rue de Rivoli. Below him the roofs of the
+      markets spread confusedly in a grey expanse, like slumbering lakes on
+      whose surface the furtive reflection of a pane of glass gleamed every now
+      and then like a silvery ripple. Farther away the roofs of the meat and
+      poultry pavilions lay in deeper gloom, and became mere masses of shadow
+      barring the horizon. Florent delighted in the great stretch of open sky in
+      front of him, in that spreading expanse of the markets which amidst all
+      the narrow city streets brought him a dim vision of some strip of sea
+      coast, of the still grey waters of a bay scarce quivering from the roll of
+      the distant billows. He used to lose himself in dreams as he stood there;
+      each night he conjured up the vision of some fresh coast line. To return
+      in mind to the eight years of despair which he had spent away from France
+      rendered him both very sad and very happy. Then at last, shivering all
+      over, he would close the window. Often, as he stood in front of the
+      fireplace taking off his collar, the photograph of Auguste and Augustine
+      would fill him with disquietude. They seemed to be watching him as they
+      stood there, hand in hand, smiling faintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent&rsquo;s first few weeks at the fish market were very painful to him. The
+      Mehudins treated him with open hostility, which infected the whole market
+      with a spirit of opposition. The beautiful Norman intended to revenge
+      herself on the handsome Lisa, and the latter&rsquo;s cousin seemed a victim
+      ready to hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Mehudins came from Rouen. Louise&rsquo;s mother still related how she had
+      first arrived in Paris with a basket of eels. She had ever afterwards
+      remained in the fish trade. She had married a man employed in the Octroi
+      service, who had died leaving her with two little girls. It was she who by
+      her full figure and glowing freshness had won for herself in earlier days
+      the nickname of &ldquo;the beautiful Norman,&rdquo; which her eldest daughter had
+      inherited. Now five and sixty years of age, Madame Mehudin had become
+      flabby and shapeless, and the damp air of the fish market had rendered her
+      voice rough and hoarse, and given a bluish tinge to her skin. Sedentary
+      life had made her extremely bulky, and her head was thrown backwards by
+      the exuberance of her bosom. She had never been willing to renounce the
+      fashions of her younger days, but still wore the flowered gown, the yellow
+      kerchief, and turban-like head-gear of the classic fish-wife, besides
+      retaining the latter&rsquo;s loud voice and rapidity of gesture as she stood
+      with her hands on her hips, shouting out the whole abusive vocabulary of
+      her calling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked back regretfully to the old Marche des Innocents, which the new
+      central markets had supplanted. She would talk of the ancient rights of
+      the market &ldquo;ladies,&rdquo; and mingle stories of fisticuffs exchanged with the
+      police with reminiscences of the visits she had paid the Court in the time
+      of Charles X and Louis Philippe, dressed in silk, and carrying a bouquet
+      of flowers in her hand. Old Mother Mehudin, as she was now generally
+      called, had for a long time been the banner-bearer of the Sisterhood of
+      the Virgin at St. Leu. She would relate that in the processions in the
+      church there she had worn a dress and cap of tulle trimmed with satin
+      ribbons, whilst holding aloft in her puffy fingers the gilded staff of the
+      richly-fringed silk standard on which the figure of the Holy Mother was
+      embroidered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the gossip of the neighbourhood, the old woman had made a
+      fairly substantial fortune, though the only signs of it were the massive
+      gold ornaments with which she loaded her neck and arms and bosom on
+      important occasions. Her two daughters got on badly together as they grew
+      up. The younger one, Claire, an idle, fair-complexioned girl, complained
+      of the ill-treatment which she received from her sister Louise,
+      protesting, in her languid voice, that she could never submit to be the
+      other&rsquo;s servant. As they would certainly have ended by coming to blows,
+      their mother separated them. She gave her stall in the fish market to
+      Louise, while Claire, whom the smell of the skate and the herrings
+      affected in the lungs, installed herself among the fresh water fish. And
+      from that time the old mother, although she pretended to have retired from
+      business altogether, would flit from one stall to the other, still
+      interfering in the selling of the fish, and causing her daughters
+      continual annoyance by the foul insolence with which she would at times
+      speak to customers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claire was a fantastical creature, very gentle in her manner, and yet
+      continually at loggerheads with others. People said that she invariably
+      followed her own whimsical inclinations. In spite of her dreamy, girlish
+      face she was imbued with a nature of silent firmness, a spirit of
+      independence which prompted her to live apart; she never took things as
+      other people did, but would one day evince perfect fairness, and the next
+      day arrant injustice. She would sometimes throw the market into confusion
+      by suddenly increasing or lowering the prices at her stall, without anyone
+      being able to guess her reason for doing so. She herself would refuse to
+      explain her motive. By the time she reached her thirtieth year, her
+      delicate physique and fine skin, which the water of the tanks seemed to
+      keep continually fresh and soft, her small, faintly-marked face and
+      lissome limbs would probably become heavy, coarse, and flabby, till she
+      would look like some faded saint that had stepped from a stained-glass
+      window into the degrading sphere of the markets. At twenty-two, however,
+      Claire, in the midst of her carp and eels, was, to use Claude Lantier&rsquo;s
+      expression, a Murillo. A Murillo, that is, whose hair was often in
+      disorder, who wore heavy shoes and clumsily cut dresses, which left her
+      without any figure. But she was free from all coquetry, and she assumed an
+      air of scornful contempt when Louise, displaying her bows and ribbons,
+      chaffed her about her clumsily knotted neckerchiefs. Moreover, she was
+      virtuous; it was said that the son of a rich shopkeeper in the
+      neighbourhood had gone abroad in despair at having failed to induce her to
+      listen to his suit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Louise, the beautiful Norman, was of a different nature. She had been
+      engaged to be married to a clerk in the corn market; but a sack of flour
+      falling upon the young man had broken his back and killed him. Not very
+      long afterwards Louise had given birth to a boy. In the Mehudins&rsquo; circle
+      of acquaintance she was looked upon as a widow; and the old fish-wife in
+      conversation would occasionally refer to the time when her son-in-law was
+      alive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Mehudins were a power in the markets. When Monsieur Verlaque had
+      finished instructing Florent in his new duties, he advised him to
+      conciliate certain of the stall-holders, if he wished his life to be
+      endurable; and he even carried his sympathy so far as to put him in
+      possession of the little secrets of the office, such as the various little
+      breaches of rule that it was necessary to wink at, and those at which he
+      would have to feign stern displeasure; and also the circumstances under
+      which he might accept a small present. A market inspector is at once a
+      constable and a magistrate; he has to maintain proper order and
+      cleanliness, and settle in a conciliatory spirit all disputes between
+      buyers and sellers. Florent, who was of a weak disposition put on an
+      artificial sternness when he was obliged to exercise his authority, and
+      generally over-acted his part. Moreover, his gloomy, pariah-like face and
+      bitterness of spirit, the result of long suffering, were against him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The beautiful Norman&rsquo;s idea was to involve him in some quarrel or other.
+      She had sworn that he would not keep his berth a fortnight. &ldquo;That fat
+      Lisa&rsquo;s much mistaken,&rdquo; said she one morning on meeting Madame Lecoeur, &ldquo;if
+      she thinks that she&rsquo;s going to put people over us. We don&rsquo;t want such ugly
+      wretches here. That sweetheart of hers is a perfect fright!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After the auctions, when Florent commenced his round of inspection,
+      strolling slowly through the dripping alleys, he could plainly see the
+      beautiful Norman watching him with an impudent smile on her face. Her
+      stall, which was in the second row on the left, near the fresh water fish
+      department faced the Rue Rambuteau. She would turn round, however, and
+      never take her eyes off her victim whilst making fun of him with her
+      neighbours. And when he passed in front of her, slowly examining the
+      slabs, she feigned hilarious merriment, slapped her fish with her hand,
+      and turned her jets of water on at full stream, flooding the pathway.
+      Nevertheless Florent remained perfectly calm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, one morning as was bound to happen, war broke out. As Florent
+      reached La Normande&rsquo;s stall that day an unbearable stench assailed his
+      nostrils. On the marble slab, in addition to part of a magnificent salmon,
+      showing its soft roseate flesh, there lay some turbots of creamy
+      whiteness, a few conger-eels pierced with black pins to mark their
+      divisions, several pairs of soles, and some bass and red mullet&mdash;in
+      fact, quite a display of fresh fish. But in the midst of it, amongst all
+      these fish whose eyes still gleamed and whose gills were of a bright
+      crimson, there lay a huge skate of a ruddy tinge, splotched with dark
+      stains&mdash;superb, indeed, with all its strange colourings.
+      Unfortunately, it was rotten; its tail was falling off and the ribs of its
+      fins were breaking through the skin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must throw that skate away,&rdquo; said Florent as he came up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The beautiful Norman broke into a slight laugh. Florent raised his eyes
+      and saw her standing before him, with her back against the bronze lamp
+      post which lighted the stalls in her division. She had mounted upon a box
+      to keep her feet out of the damp, and appeared very tall as he glanced at
+      her. She looked also handsomer than usual, with her hair arranged in
+      little curls, her sly face slightly bent, her lips compressed, and her
+      hands showing somewhat too rosily against her big white apron. Florent had
+      never before seen her decked with so much jewellery. She had long pendants
+      in her ears, a chain round her neck, a brooch in her dress body, and quite
+      a collection of rings on two fingers of her left hand and one of her
+      right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she still continued to look slyly at Florent, without making any reply,
+      the latter continued: &ldquo;Do you hear? You must remove that skate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had not yet noticed the presence of old Madame Mehudin, who sat all of
+      a heap on a chair in a corner. She now got up, however, and, with her
+      fists resting on the marble slap, insolently exclaimed: &ldquo;Dear me! And why
+      is she to throw her skate away? You won&rsquo;t pay her for it, I&rsquo;ll bet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent immediately understood the position. The women at the other stalls
+      began to titter, and he felt that he was surrounded by covert rebellion,
+      which a word might cause to blaze forth. He therefore restrained himself,
+      and in person drew the refuse-pail from under the stall and dropped the
+      skate into it. Old Madame Mehudin had already stuck her hands on her hips,
+      while the beautiful Norman, who had not spoken a word, burst into another
+      malicious laugh as Florent strode sternly away amidst a chorus of jeers,
+      which he pretended not to hear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each day now some new trick was played upon him, and he was obliged to
+      walk through the market alleys as warily as though he were in a hostile
+      country. He was splashed with water from the sponges employed to cleanse
+      the slabs; he stumbled and almost fell over slippery refuse intentionally
+      spread in his way; and even the porters contrived to run their baskets
+      against the nape of his neck. One day, moreover, when two of the
+      fish-wives were quarrelling, and he hastened up to prevent them coming to
+      blows, he was obliged to duck in order to escape being slapped on either
+      cheek by a shower of little dabs which passed over his head. There was a
+      general outburst of laughter on this occasion, and Florent always believed
+      that the two fish-wives were in league with the Mehudins. However, his
+      old-time experiences as a teacher had endowed him with angelic patience,
+      and he was able to maintain a magisterial coolness of manner even when
+      anger was hotly rising within him, and his whole being quivered with a
+      sense of humiliation. Still, the young scamps of the Rue de l&rsquo;Estrapade
+      had never manifested the savagery of these fish-wives, the cruel tenacity
+      of these huge females, whose massive figures heaved and shook with a
+      giant-like joy whenever he fell into any trap. They stared him out of
+      countenance with their red faces; and in the coarse tones of their voices
+      and the impudent gesture of their hands he could read volumes of filthy
+      abuse levelled at himself. Gavard would have been quite in his element
+      amidst all these petticoats, and would have freely cuffed them all round;
+      but Florent, who had always been afraid of women, gradually felt
+      overwhelmed as by a sort of nightmare in which giant women, buxom beyond
+      all imagination, danced threateningly around him, shouting at him in
+      hoarse voices and brandishing bare arms, as massive as any
+      prize-fighter&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amongst this hoard of females, however, Florent had one friend. Claire
+      unhesitatingly declared that the new inspector was a very good fellow.
+      When he passed in front of her, pursued by the coarse abuse of the others,
+      she gave him a pleasant smile, sitting nonchalantly behind her stall, with
+      unruly errant locks of pale hair straying over her neck and her brow, and
+      the bodice of her dress pinned all askew. He also often saw her dipping
+      her hands into her tanks, transferring the fish from one compartment to
+      another, and amusing herself by turning on the brass taps, shaped like
+      little dolphins with open mouths, from which the water poured in
+      streamlets. Amidst the rustling sound of the water she had some of the
+      quivering grace of a girl who has just been bathing and has hurriedly
+      slipped on her clothes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning she was particularly amiable. She called the inspector to her
+      to show him a huge eel which had been the wonder of the market when
+      exhibited at the auction. She opened the grating, which she had previously
+      closed over the basin in whose depths the eel seemed to be lying sound
+      asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a moment,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ll show it to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she gently slipped her bare arm into the water; it was not a very
+      plump arm, and its veins showed softly blue beneath its satiny skin. As
+      soon as the eel felt her touch, it rapidly twisted round, and seemed to
+      fill the narrow trough with its glistening greenish coils. And directly it
+      had settled down to rest again Claire once more stirred it with her
+      fingertips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is an enormous creature,&rdquo; Florent felt bound to say. &ldquo;I have rarely
+      seen such a fine one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Claire thereupon confessed to him that she had at first been frightened of
+      eels; but now she had learned how to tighten her grip so that they could
+      not slip away. From another compartment she took a smaller one, which
+      began to wriggle both with head and tail, as she held it about the middle
+      in her closed fist. This made her laugh. She let it go, then seized
+      another and another, scouring the basin and stirring up the whole heap of
+      snaky-looking creatures with her slim fingers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Afterwards she began to speak of the slackness of trade. The hawkers on
+      the foot-pavement of the covered way did the regular saleswomen a great
+      deal of injury, she said. Meantime her bare arm, which she had not wiped,
+      was glistening and dripping with water. Big drops trickled from each
+      finger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; she exclaimed suddenly, &ldquo;I must show you my carp, too!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She now removed another grating, and, using both hands, lifted out a large
+      carp, which began to flap its tail and gasp. It was too big to be held
+      conveniently, so she sought another one. This was smaller, and she could
+      hold it with one hand, but the latter was forced slightly open by the
+      panting of the sides each time that the fish gasped. To amuse herself it
+      occurred to Claire to pop the tip of her thumb into the carp&rsquo;s mouth
+      whilst it was dilated. &ldquo;It won&rsquo;t bite,&rdquo; said she with her gentle laugh;
+      &ldquo;it&rsquo;s not spiteful. No more are the crawfishes; I&rsquo;m not the least afraid
+      of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She plunged her arm into the water again, and from a compartment full of a
+      confused crawling mass brought up a crawfish that had caught her little
+      finger in its claws. She gave the creature a shake, but it no doubt
+      gripped her too tightly, for she turned very red, and snapped off its claw
+      with a quick, angry gesture, though still continuing to smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the way,&rdquo; she continued quickly, to conceal her emotion, &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t
+      trust myself with a pike; he&rsquo;d cut off my fingers like a knife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She thereupon showed him some big pike arranged in order of size upon
+      clean scoured shelves, beside some bronze-hued tench and little heaps of
+      gudgeon. Her hands were now quite slimy with handling the carp, and as she
+      stood there in the dampness rising from the tanks, she held them
+      outstretched over the dripping fish on the stall. She seemed enveloped by
+      an odour of spawn, that heavy scent which rises from among the reeds and
+      water-lilies when the fish, languid in the sunlight, discharge their eggs.
+      Then she wiped her hands on her apron, still smiling the placid smile of a
+      girl who knew nothing of passion in that quivering atmosphere of the
+      frigid loves of the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The kindliness which Claire showed to Florent was but a slight consolation
+      to him. By stopping to talk to the girl he only drew upon himself still
+      coarser jeers from the other stallkeepers. Claire shrugged her shoulders,
+      and said that her mother was an old jade, and her sister a worthless
+      creature. The injustice of the market folk towards the new inspector
+      filled her with indignation. The war between them, however, grew more
+      bitter every day. Florent had serious thoughts of resigning his post;
+      indeed, he would not have retained it for another twenty-four hours if he
+      had not been afraid that Lisa might imagine him to be a coward. He was
+      frightened of what she might say and what she might think. She was
+      naturally well aware of the contest which was going on between the
+      fish-wives and their inspector; for the whole echoing market resounded
+      with it, and the entire neighbourhood discussed each fresh incident with
+      endless comments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, well,&rdquo; Lisa would often say in the evening, after dinner, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d soon
+      bring them to reason if I had anything to do with them! Why, they are a
+      lot of dirty jades that I wouldn&rsquo;t touch with the tip of my finger! That
+      Normande is the lowest of the low! I&rsquo;d soon crush her, that I would! You
+      should really use your authority, Florent. You are wrong to behave as you
+      do. Put your foot down, and they&rsquo;ll all come to their senses very quickly,
+      you&rsquo;ll see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A terrible climax was presently reached. One morning the servant of Madame
+      Taboureau, the baker, came to the market to buy a brill; and the beautiful
+      Norman, having noticed her lingering near her stall for several minutes,
+      began to make overtures to her in a coaxing way: &ldquo;Come and see me; I&rsquo;ll
+      suit you,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Would you like a pair of soles, or a fine turbot?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then as the servant at last came up, and sniffed at a brill with that
+      dissatisfied pout which buyers assume in the hope of getting what they
+      want at a lower price, La Normande continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just feel the weight of that, now,&rdquo; and so saying she laid the brill,
+      wrapped in a sheet of thick yellow paper, on the woman&rsquo;s open palm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The servant, a mournful little woman from Auvergne, felt the weight of the
+      brill, and examined its gills, still pouting, and saying not a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how much do you want for it?&rdquo; she asked presently, in a reluctant
+      tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fifteen francs,&rdquo; replied La Normande.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this the servant hastily laid the brill on the stall again, and seemed
+      anxious to hurry away, but the other detained her. &ldquo;Wait a moment,&rdquo; said
+      she. &ldquo;What do you offer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, I can&rsquo;t take it. It is much too dear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, now, make me an offer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, will you take eight francs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Madame Mehudin, who was there, suddenly seemed to wake up, and broke
+      out into a contemptuous laugh. Did people think that she and her daughter
+      stole the fish they sold? &ldquo;Eight francs for a brill that size!&rdquo; she
+      exclaimed. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll be wanting one for nothing next, to use as a cooling
+      plaster!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime La Normande turned her head away, as though greatly offended.
+      However, the servant came back twice and offered nine francs; and finally
+      she increased her bid to ten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, come on, give me your money!&rdquo; cried the fish-girl, seeing that
+      the woman was now really going away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The servant took her stand in front of the stall and entered into a
+      friendly gossip with old Madame Mehudin. Madame Taboureau, she said, was
+      so exacting! She had got some people coming to dinner that evening, some
+      cousins from Blois a notary and his wife. Madame Taboureau&rsquo;s family, she
+      added, was a very respectable one, and she herself, although only a baker,
+      had received an excellent education.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll clean it nicely for me, won&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; added the woman, pausing in
+      her chatter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a jerk of her finger La Normande had removed the fish&rsquo;s entrails and
+      tossed them into a pail. Then she slipped a corner of her apron under its
+      gills to wipe away a few grains of sand. &ldquo;There, my dear,&rdquo; she said,
+      putting the fish into the servant&rsquo;s basket, &ldquo;you&rsquo;ll come back to thank
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Certainly the servant did come back a quarter of an hour afterwards, but
+      it was with a flushed, red face. She had been crying, and her little body
+      was trembling all over with anger. Tossing the brill on to the marble
+      slab, she pointed to a broad gash in its belly that reached the bone. Then
+      a flood of broken words burst from her throat, which was still contracted
+      by sobbing: &ldquo;Madame Taboureau won&rsquo;t have it. She says she couldn&rsquo;t put it
+      on her table. She told me, too, that I was an idiot, and let myself be
+      cheated by anyone. You can see for yourself that the fish is spoilt. I
+      never thought of turning it round; I quite trusted you. Give me my ten
+      francs back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You should look at what you buy,&rdquo; the handsome Norman calmly observed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, as the servant was just raising her voice again, old Madame
+      Mehudin got up. &ldquo;Just you shut up!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to take
+      back a fish that&rsquo;s been knocking about in other people&rsquo;s houses. How do we
+      know that you didn&rsquo;t let it fall and damage it yourself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I! I damage it!&rdquo; The little servant was choking with indignation. &ldquo;Ah!
+      you&rsquo;re a couple of thieves!&rdquo; she cried, sobbing bitterly. &ldquo;Yes, a couple
+      of thieves! Madame Taboureau herself told me so!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Matters then became uproarious. Boiling over with rage and brandishing
+      their fists, both mother and daughter fairly exploded; while the poor
+      little servant, quite bewildered by their voices, the one hoarse and the
+      other shrill, which belaboured her with insults as though they were
+      battledores and she a shuttlecock, sobbed on more bitterly than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be off with you! Your Madame Taboureau would like to be half as fresh as
+      that fish is! She&rsquo;d like us to sew it up for her, no doubt!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A whole fish for ten francs! What&rsquo;ll she want next!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came coarse words and foul accusations. Had the servant been the most
+      worthless of her sex she could not have been more bitterly upbraided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent, whom the market keeper had gone to fetch, made his appearance
+      when the quarrel was at its hottest. The whole pavilion seemed to be in a
+      state of insurrection. The fish-wives, who manifest the keenest jealousy
+      of each other when the sale of a penny herring is in question, display a
+      united front when a quarrel arises with a buyer. They sang the popular old
+      ditty, &ldquo;The baker&rsquo;s wife has heaps of crowns, which cost her precious
+      little&rdquo;; they stamped their feet, and goaded the Mehudins as though the
+      latter were dogs which they were urging on to bite and devour. And there
+      were even some, having stalls at the other end of the alley, who rushed up
+      wildly, as though they meant to spring at the chignon of the poor little
+      woman, she meantime being quite submerged by the flood of insulting abuse
+      poured upon her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Return mademoiselle her ten francs,&rdquo; said Florent sternly, when he had
+      learned what had taken place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But old Madame Mehudin had her blood up. &ldquo;As for you, my little man,&rdquo;
+       quoth she, &ldquo;go to blazes! Here, that&rsquo;s how I&rsquo;ll return the ten francs!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As she spoke, she flung the brill with all her force at the head of Madame
+      Taboureau&rsquo;s servant, who received it full in the face. The blood spurted
+      from her nose, and the brill, after adhering for a moment to her cheeks,
+      fell to the ground and burst with a flop like that of a wet clout. This
+      brutal act threw Florent into a fury. The beautiful Norman felt frightened
+      and recoiled, as he cried out: &ldquo;I suspend you for a week, and I will have
+      your licence withdrawn. You hear me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as the other fish-wives were still jeering behind him, he turned
+      round with such a threatening air that they quailed like wild beasts
+      mastered by the tamer, and tried to assume an expression of innocence.
+      When the Mehudins had returned the ten francs, Florent peremptorily
+      ordered them to cease selling at once. The old woman was choking with
+      rage, while the daughter kept silent, but turned very white. She, the
+      beautiful Norman, to be driven out of her stall!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claire said in her quiet voice that it served her mother and sister right,
+      a remark which nearly resulted in the two girls tearing each other&rsquo;s hair
+      out that evening when they returned home to the Rue Pirouette. However,
+      when the Mehudins came back to the market at the week&rsquo;s end, they remained
+      very quiet, reserved, and curt of speech, though full of a cold-blooded
+      wrath. Moreover, they found the pavilion quite calm and restored to order
+      again. From that day forward the beautiful Norman must have harboured the
+      thought of some terrible vengeance. She felt that she really had Lisa to
+      thank for what had happened. She had met her, the day after the battle,
+      carrying her head so high, that she had sworn she would make her pay
+      dearly for her glance of triumph. She held interminable confabulations
+      with Madame Saget, Madame Lecoeur, and La Sarriette, in quiet corners of
+      the market; however, all their chatter about the shameless conduct which
+      they slanderously ascribed to Lisa and her cousin, and about the hairs
+      which they declared were found in Quenu&rsquo;s chitterlings, brought La
+      Normande little consolation. She was trying to think of some very
+      malicious plan of vengeance, which would strike her rival to the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her child was growing up in the fish market in all freedom and neglect.
+      When but three years old the youngster had been brought there, and day by
+      day remained squatting on some rag amidst the fish. He would fall asleep
+      beside the big tunnies as though he were one of them, and awake among the
+      mackerel and whiting. The little rascal smelt of fish as strongly as
+      though he were some big fish&rsquo;s offspring. For a long time his favourite
+      pastime, whenever his mother&rsquo;s back was turned, was to build walls and
+      houses of herrings; and he would also play at soldiers on the marble slab,
+      arranging the red gurnets in confronting lines, pushing them against each
+      other, and battering their heads, while imitating the sound of drum and
+      trumpet with his lips; after which he would throw them all into a heap
+      again, and exclaim that they were dead. When he grew older he would prowl
+      about his aunt Claire&rsquo;s stall to get hold of the bladders of the carp and
+      pike which she gutted. He placed them on the ground and made them burst,
+      an amusement which afforded him vast delight. When he was seven he rushed
+      about the alleys, crawled under the stalls, ferreted amongst the zinc
+      bound fish boxes, and became the spoiled pet of all the women. Whenever
+      they showed him something fresh which pleased him, he would clasp his
+      hands and exclaim in ecstasy, &ldquo;Oh, isn&rsquo;t it stunning!&rdquo; <i>Muche</i> was
+      the exact word which he used; <i>muche</i> being the equivalent of
+      &ldquo;stunning&rdquo; in the lingo of the markets; and he used the expression so
+      often that it clung to him as a nickname. He became known all over the
+      place as &ldquo;Muche.&rdquo; It was Muche here, there and everywhere; no one called
+      him anything else. He was to be met with in every nook; in out-of-the-way
+      corners of the offices in the auction pavilion; among the piles of oyster
+      baskets, and betwixt the buckets where the refuse was thrown. With a pinky
+      fairness of skin, he was like a young barbel frisking and gliding about in
+      deep water. He was as fond of running, streaming water as any young fry.
+      He was ever dabbling in the pools in the alleys. He wetted himself with
+      the drippings from the tables, and when no one was looking often slyly
+      turned on the taps, rejoicing in the bursting gush of water. But it was
+      especially beside the fountains near the cellar steps that his mother went
+      to seek him in the evening, and she would bring him thence with his hands
+      quite blue, and his shoes, and even his pockets, full of water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At seven years old Muche was as pretty as an angel, and as coarse in his
+      manners as any carter. He had curly chestnut hair, beautiful eyes, and an
+      innocent-looking mouth which gave vent to language that even a gendarme
+      would have hesitated to use. Brought up amidst all the ribaldry and
+      profanity of the markets, he had the whole vocabulary of the place on the
+      tip of his tongue. With his hands on his hips he often mimicked
+      Grandmother Mehudin in her anger, and at these times the coarsest and
+      vilest expressions would stream from his lips in a voice of crystalline
+      purity that might have belonged to some little chorister chanting the <i>Ave
+      Maria</i>. He would even try to assume a hoarse roughness of tone, seek to
+      degrade and taint that exquisite freshness of childhood which made him
+      resemble a <i>bambino</i> on the Madonna&rsquo;s knees. The fish-wives laughed
+      at him till they cried; and he, encouraged, could scarcely say a couple of
+      words without rapping out an oath. But in spite of all this he still
+      remained charming, understanding nothing of the dirt amidst which he
+      lived, kept in vigorous health by the fresh breezes and sharp odours of
+      the fish market, and reciting his vocabulary of coarse indecencies with as
+      pure a face as though he were saying his prayers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The winter was approaching, and Muche seemed very sensitive to the cold.
+      As soon as the chilly weather set in he manifested a strong predilection
+      for the inspector&rsquo;s office. This was situated in the left-hand corner of
+      the pavilion, on the side of the Rue Rambuteau. The furniture consisted of
+      a table, a stack of drawers, an easy-chair, two other chairs, and a stove.
+      It was this stove which attracted Muche. Florent quite worshipped
+      children, and when he saw the little fellow, with his dripping legs,
+      gazing wistfully through the window, he made him come inside. His first
+      conversation with the lad caused him profound amazement. Muche sat down in
+      front of the stove, and in his quiet voice exclaimed: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll just toast my
+      toes, do you see? It&rsquo;s d&mdash;&mdash;d cold this morning.&rdquo; Then he broke
+      into a rippling laugh, and added: &ldquo;Aunt Claire looks awfully blue this
+      morning. Is it true, sir, that you are sweet on her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amazed though he was, Florent felt quite interested in the odd little
+      fellow. The handsome Norman retained her surly bearing, but allowed her
+      son to frequent the inspector&rsquo;s office without a word of objection.
+      Florent consequently concluded that he had the mother&rsquo;s permission to
+      receive the boy, and every afternoon he asked him in; by degrees forming
+      the idea of turning him into a steady, respectable young fellow. He could
+      almost fancy that his brother Quenu had grown little again, and that they
+      were both in the big room in the Rue Royer-Collard once more. The life
+      which his self-sacrificing nature pictured to him as perfect happiness was
+      a life spent with some young being who would never grow up, whom he could
+      go on teaching for ever, and in whose innocence he might still love his
+      fellow man. On the third day of his acquaintance with Muche he brought an
+      alphabet to the office, and the lad delighted him by the intelligence he
+      manifested. He learned his letters with all the sharp precocity which
+      marks the Parisian street arab, and derived great amusement from the
+      woodcuts illustrating the alphabet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found opportunities, too, for plenty of fine fun in the little office,
+      where the stove still remained the chief attraction and a source of
+      endless enjoyment. At first he cooked potatoes and chestnuts at it, but
+      presently these seemed insipid, and he thereupon stole some gudgeons from
+      his aunt Claire, roasted them one by one, suspended from a string in front
+      of the glowing fire, and then devoured them with gusto, though he had no
+      bread. One day he even brought a carp with him; but it was impossible to
+      roast it sufficiently, and it made such a smell in the office that both
+      window and door had to be thrown open. Sometimes, when the odour of all
+      these culinary operations became too strong, Florent would throw the fish
+      into the street, but as a rule he only laughed. By the end of a couple of
+      months Muche was able to read fairly well, and his copy-books did him
+      credit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, every evening the lad wearied his mother with his talk about his
+      good friend Florent. His good friend Florent had drawn him pictures of
+      trees and of men in huts, said he. His good friend Florent waved his arm
+      and said that men would be far better if they all knew how to read. And at
+      last La Normande heard so much about Florent that she seemed to be almost
+      intimate with this man against whom she harboured so much rancour. One day
+      she shut Muche up at home to prevent him from going to the inspector&rsquo;s,
+      but he cried so bitterly that she gave him his liberty again on the
+      following morning. There was very little determination about her, in spite
+      of her broad shoulders and bold looks. When the lad told her how nice and
+      warm he had been in the office, and came back to her with his clothes
+      quite dry, she felt a sort of vague gratitude, a pleasure in knowing that
+      he had found a shelter-place where he could sit with his feet in front of
+      a fire. Later on, she was quite touched when he read her some words from a
+      scrap of soiled newspaper wrapped round a slice of conger-eel. By degrees,
+      indeed, she began to think, though without admitting it, that Florent
+      could not really be a bad sort of fellow. She felt respect for his
+      knowledge, mingled with an increasing curiosity to see more of him and
+      learn something of his life. Then, all at once, she found an excuse for
+      gratifying this inquisitiveness. She would use it as a means of vengeance.
+      It would be fine fun to make friends with Florent and embroil him with
+      that great fat Lisa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does your good friend Florent ever speak to you about me?&rdquo; she asked
+      Muche one morning as she was dressing him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no,&rdquo; replied the boy. &ldquo;We enjoy ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you can tell him that I&rsquo;ve quite forgiven him, and that I&rsquo;m much
+      obliged to him for having taught you to read.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thenceforward the child was entrusted with some message every day. He went
+      backwards and forwards from his mother to the inspector, and from the
+      inspector to his mother, charged with kindly words and questions and
+      answers, which he repeated mechanically without knowing their meaning. He
+      might, indeed, have been safely trusted with the most compromising
+      communications. However, the beautiful Norman felt afraid of appearing
+      timid, and so one day she herself went to the inspector&rsquo;s office and sat
+      down on the second chair, while Muche was having his writing lesson. She
+      proved very suave and complimentary, and Florent was by far the more
+      embarrassed of the two. They only spoke of the lad; and when Florent
+      expressed a fear that he might not be able to continue the lessons in the
+      office, La Normande invited him to come to their home in the evening. She
+      spoke also of payment; but at this he blushed, and said that he certainly
+      would not come if any mention were made of money. Thereupon the young
+      woman determined in her own mind that she would recompense him with
+      presents of choice fish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peace was thus made between them; the beautiful Norman even took Florent
+      under her protection. Apart from this, however, the whole market was
+      becoming reconciled to the new inspector, the fish-wives arriving at the
+      conclusion that he was really a better fellow than Monsieur Verlaque,
+      notwithstanding his strange eyes. It was only old Madame Mehudin who still
+      shrugged her shoulders, full of rancour as she was against the &ldquo;long
+      lanky-guts,&rdquo; as she contemptuously called him. And then, too, a strange
+      thing happened. One morning, when Florent stopped with a smile before
+      Claire&rsquo;s tanks, the girl dropped an eel which she was holding and angrily
+      turned her back upon him, her cheeks quite swollen and reddened by temper.
+      The inspector was so much astonished that he spoke to La Normande about
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, never mind her,&rdquo; said the young woman; &ldquo;she&rsquo;s cracked. She makes a
+      point of always differing from everybody else. She only behaved like that
+      to annoy me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      La Normande was now triumphant&mdash;she strutted about her stall, and
+      became more coquettish than ever, arranging her hair in the most elaborate
+      manner. Meeting the handsome Lisa one day she returned her look of scorn,
+      and even burst out laughing in her face. The certainty she felt of driving
+      the mistress of the pork shop to despair by winning her cousin from her
+      endowed her with a gay, sonorous laugh, which rolled up from her chest and
+      rippled her white plump neck. She now had the whim of dressing Muche very
+      showily in a little Highland costume and velvet bonnet. The lad had never
+      previously worn anything but a tattered blouse. It unfortunately happened,
+      however, that just about this time he again became very fond of the water.
+      The ice had melted and the weather was mild, so he gave his Scotch jacket
+      a bath, turning the fountain tap on at full flow and letting the water
+      pour down his arm from his elbow to his hand. He called this &ldquo;playing at
+      gutters.&rdquo; Then a little later, when his mother came up and caught him, she
+      found him with two other young scamps watching a couple of little fishes
+      swimming about in his velvet cap, which he had filled with water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For nearly eight months Florent lived in the markets, feeling continual
+      drowsiness. After his seven years of suffering he had lighted upon such
+      calm quietude, such unbroken regularity of life, that he was scarcely
+      conscious of existing. He gave himself up to this jog-trot peacefulness
+      with a dazed sort of feeling, continually experiencing surprise at finding
+      himself each morning in the same armchair in the little office. This
+      office with its bare hut-like appearance had a charm for him. He here
+      found a quiet and secluded refuge amidst that ceaseless roar of the
+      markets which made him dream of some surging sea spreading around him, and
+      isolating him from the world. Gradually, however, a vague nervousness
+      began to prey upon him; he became discontented, accused himself of faults
+      which he could not define, and began to rebel against the emptiness which
+      he experienced more and more acutely in mind and body. Then, too, the evil
+      smells of the fish market brought him nausea. By degrees he became
+      unhinged, his vague boredom developing into restless, nervous excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All his days were precisely alike, spent among the same sounds and the
+      same odours. In the mornings the noisy buzzing of the auction sales
+      resounded in his ears like a distant echo of bells; and sometimes, when
+      there was a delay in the arrival of the fish, the auctions continued till
+      very late. Upon these occasions he remained in the pavilion till noon,
+      disturbed at every moment by quarrels and disputes, which he endeavoured
+      to settle with scrupulous justice. Hours elapsed before he could get free
+      of some miserable matter or other which was exciting the market. He paced
+      up and down amidst the crush and uproar of the sales, slowly perambulating
+      the alleys and occasionally stopping in front of the stalls which fringed
+      the Rue Rambuteau, and where lay rosy heaps of prawns and baskets of
+      boiled lobsters with tails tied backwards, while live ones were gradually
+      dying as they sprawled over the marble slabs. And then he would watch
+      gentlemen in silk hats and black gloves bargaining with the fish-wives,
+      and finally going off with boiled lobsters wrapped in paper in the pockets
+      of their frock-coats.[*] Farther away, at the temporary stalls, where the
+      commoner sorts of fish were sold, he would recognise the bareheaded women
+      of the neighbourhood, who always came at the same hour to make their
+      purchases.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] The little fish-basket for the use of customers, so
+     familiar in London, is not known in Paris.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      At times he took an interest in some well-dressed lady trailing her lace
+      petticoats over the damp stones, and escorted by a servant in a white
+      apron; and he would follow her at a little distance on noticing how the
+      fish-wives shrugged their shoulders at sight of her air of disgust. The
+      medley of hampers and baskets and bags, the crowd of skirts flitting along
+      the damp alleys, occupied his attention until lunchtime. He took a delight
+      in the dripping water and the fresh breeze as he passed from the acrid
+      smell of the shell-fish to the pungent odour of the salted fish. It was
+      always with the latter that he brought his official round of inspection to
+      a close. The cases of red herrings, the Nantes sardines on their layers of
+      leaves, and the rolled cod, exposed for sale under the eyes of stout,
+      faded fish-wives, brought him thoughts of a voyage necessitating a vast
+      supply of salted provisions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon the markets became quieter, grew drowsy; and Florent then
+      shut himself up in his office, made out his reports, and enjoyed the
+      happiest hours of his day. If he happened to go out and cross the fish
+      market, he found it almost deserted. There was no longer the crushing and
+      pushing and uproar of ten o&rsquo;clock in the morning. The fish-wives, seated
+      behind their stalls, leant back knitting, while a few belated purchasers
+      prowled about casting sidelong glances at the remaining fish, with the
+      thoughtful eyes and compressed lips of women closely calculating the price
+      of their dinner. At last the twilight fell, there was a noise of boxes
+      being moved, and the fish was laid for the night on beds of ice; and then,
+      after witnessing the closing of the gates, Florent went off, seemingly
+      carrying the fish market along with him in his clothes and his beard and
+      his hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the first few months this penetrating odour caused him no great
+      discomfort. The winter was a severe one, the frosts converted the alleys
+      into slippery mirrors, and the fountains and marble slabs were fringed
+      with a lacework of ice. In the mornings it was necessary to place little
+      braziers underneath the taps before a drop of water could be drawn. The
+      frozen fish had twisted tails; and, dull of hue and hard to the touch like
+      unpolished metal, gave out a ringing sound akin to that of pale cast-iron
+      when it snaps. Until February the pavilion presented a most mournful
+      appearance: it was deserted, and wrapped in a bristling shroud of ice. But
+      with March came a thaw, with mild weather and fogs and rain. Then the fish
+      became soft again, and unpleasant odours mingled with the smell of mud
+      wafted from the neighbouring streets. These odours were as yet vague,
+      tempered by the moisture which clung to the ground. But in the blazing
+      June afternoons a reeking stench arose, and the atmosphere became heavy
+      with a pestilential haze. The upper windows were then opened, and huge
+      blinds of grey canvas were drawn beneath the burning sky. Nevertheless, a
+      fiery rain seemed to be pouring down, heating the market as though it were
+      a big stove, and there was not a breath of air to waft away the noxious
+      emanations from the fish. A visible steam went up from the stalls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The masses of food amongst which Florent lived now began to cause him the
+      greatest discomfort. The disgust with which the pork shop had filled him
+      came back in a still more intolerable fashion. He almost sickened as he
+      passed these masses of fish, which, despite all the water lavished upon
+      them, turned bad under a sudden whiff of hot air. Even when he shut
+      himself up in his office his discomfort continued, for the abominable
+      odour forced its way through the chinks in the woodwork of the window and
+      door. When the sky was grey and leaden, the little room remained quite
+      dark; and then the day was like a long twilight in the depths of some
+      fetid march. He was often attacked by fits of nervous excitement, and felt
+      a craving desire to walk; and he would then descend into the cellars by
+      the broad staircase opening in the middle of the pavilion. In the pent-up
+      air down below, in the dim light of the occasional gas jets, he once more
+      found the refreshing coolness diffused by pure cold water. He would stand
+      in front of the big tank where the reserve stock of live fish was kept,
+      and listen to the ceaseless murmur of the four streamlets of water falling
+      from the four corners of the central urn, and then spreading into a broad
+      stream and gliding beneath the locked gratings of the basins with a gentle
+      and continuous flow. This subterranean spring, this stream murmuring in
+      the gloom, had a tranquillising effect upon him. Of an evening, too, he
+      delighted in the fine sunsets which threw the delicate lacework of the
+      market buildings blackly against the red glow of the heavens. The dancing
+      dust of the last sun rays streamed through every opening, through every
+      chink of the Venetian shutters, and the whole was like some luminous
+      transparency on which the slender shafts of the columns, the elegant
+      curves of the girders, and the geometrical tracery of the roofs were
+      minutely outlined. Florent feasted his eyes on this mighty diagram washed
+      in with Indian ink on phosphorescent vellum, and his mind reverted to his
+      old fancy of a colossal machine with wheels and levers and beams espied in
+      the crimson glow of the fires blazing beneath its boilers. At each
+      consecutive hour of the day the changing play of the light&mdash;from the
+      bluish haze of early morning and the black shadows of noon to the flaring
+      of the sinking sun and the paling of its fires in the ashy grey of the
+      twilight&mdash;revealed the markets under a new aspect; but on the flaming
+      evenings, when the foul smells arose and forced their way across the broad
+      yellow beams like hot puffs of steam, Florent again experienced
+      discomfort, and his dream changed, and he imagined himself in some
+      gigantic knacker&rsquo;s boiling-house where the fat of a whole people was being
+      melted down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The coarseness of the market people, whose words and gestures seemed to be
+      infected with the evil smell of the place, also made him suffer. He was
+      very tolerant, and showed no mock modesty; still, these impudent women
+      often embarrassed him. Madame Francois, whom he had again met, was the
+      only one with whom he felt at ease. She showed such pleasure on learning
+      he had found a berth and was quite comfortable and out of worry, as she
+      put it, that he was quite touched. The laughter of Lisa, the handsome
+      Norman, and the others disquieted him; but of Madame Francois he would
+      willingly have made a confidante. She never laughed mockingly at him; when
+      she did laugh, it was like a woman rejoicing at another&rsquo;s happiness. She
+      was a brave, plucky creature, too; hers was a hard business in winter,
+      during the frosts, and the rainy weather was still more trying. On some
+      mornings Florent saw her arrive in a pouring deluge which had been slowly,
+      coldly falling ever since the previous night. Between Nanterre and Paris
+      the wheels of her cart had sunk up to the axles in mud, and Balthazar was
+      caked with mire to his belly. His mistress would pity him and sympathise
+      with him as she wiped him down with some old aprons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The poor creatures are very sensitive,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;a mere nothing gives
+      them a cold. Ah, my poor old Balthazar! I really thought that we had
+      tumbled into the Seine as we crossed the Neuilly bridge, the rain came
+      down in such a deluge!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While Balthazar was housed in the inn stable his mistress remained in the
+      pouring rain to sell her vegetables. The footway was transformed into a
+      lake of liquid mud. The cabbages, carrots, and turnips were pelted by the
+      grey water, quite drowned by the muddy torrent that rushed along the
+      pavement. There was no longer any of that glorious greenery so apparent on
+      bright mornings. The market gardeners, cowering in their heavy cloaks
+      beneath the downpour, swore at the municipality which, after due inquiry,
+      had declared that rain was in no way injurious to vegetables, and that
+      there was accordingly no necessity to erect any shelters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those rainy mornings greatly worried Florent, who thought about Madame
+      Francois. He always managed to slip away and get a word with her. But he
+      never found her at all low-spirited. She shook herself like a poodle,
+      saying that she was quite used to such weather, and was not made of sugar,
+      to melt away beneath a few drops of rain. However, he made her seek refuge
+      for a few minutes in one of the covered ways, and frequently even took her
+      to Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s, where they had some hot wine together. While she
+      with her peaceful face beamed on him in all friendliness, he felt quite
+      delighted with the healthy odour of the fields which she brought into the
+      midst of the foul market atmosphere. She exhaled a scent of earth, hay,
+      fresh air, and open skies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must come to Nanterre, my lad,&rdquo; she said to him, &ldquo;and look at my
+      kitchen garden. I have put borders of thyme everywhere. How bad your
+      villainous Paris does smell!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she went off, dripping. Florent, on his side, felt quite
+      re-invigorated when he parted from her. He tried, too the effect of work
+      upon the nervous depression from which he suffered. He was a man of a very
+      methodical temperament, and sometimes carried out his plans for the
+      allotment of his time with a strictness that bordered on mania. He shut
+      himself up two evenings a week in order to write an exhaustive work on
+      Cayenne. His modest bedroom was excellently adapted, he thought, to calm
+      his mind and incline him to work. He lighted his fire, saw that the
+      pomegranate at the foot of the bed was looking all right, and then seated
+      himself at the little table, and remained working till midnight. He had
+      pushed the missal and Dream-book back in the drawer, which was now filling
+      with notes, memoranda, manuscripts of all kinds. The work on Cayenne made
+      but slow progress, however, as it was constantly being interrupted by
+      other projects, plans for enormous undertakings which he sketched out in a
+      few words. He successively drafted an outline of a complete reform of the
+      administrative system of the markets, a scheme for transforming the city
+      dues, levied on produce as it entered Paris, into taxes levied upon the
+      sales, a new system of victualling the poorer neighbourhoods, and, lastly,
+      a somewhat vague socialist enactment for the storing in common warehouses
+      of all the provisions brought to the markets, and the ensuring of a
+      minimum daily supply to each household in Paris. As he sat there, with his
+      head bent over his table, and his mind absorbed in thoughts of all these
+      weighty matters, his gloomy figure cast a great black shadow on the soft
+      peacefulness of the garret. Sometimes a chaffinch which he had picked up
+      one snowy day in the market would mistake the lamplight for the day, and
+      break the silence, which only the scratching of Florent&rsquo;s pen on his paper
+      disturbed, by a cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent was fated to revert to politics. He had suffered too much through
+      them not to make them the dearest occupation of his life. Under other
+      conditions he might have become a good provincial schoolmaster, happy in
+      the peaceful life of some little town. But he had been treated as though
+      he were a wolf, and felt as though he had been marked out by exile for
+      some great combative task. His nervous discomfort was the outcome of his
+      long reveries at Cayenne, the brooding bitterness he had felt at his
+      unmerited sufferings, and the vows he had secretly sworn to avenge
+      humanity and justice&mdash;the former scourged with a whip, and the latter
+      trodden under foot. Those colossal markets and their teeming odoriferous
+      masses of food had hastened the crisis. To Florent they appeared
+      symbolical of some glutted, digesting beast, of Paris, wallowing in its
+      fat and silently upholding the Empire. He seemed to be encircled by
+      swelling forms and sleek, fat faces, which ever and ever protested against
+      his own martyrlike scragginess and sallow, discontented visage. To him the
+      markets were like the stomach of the shopkeeping classes, the stomach of
+      all the folks of average rectitude puffing itself out, rejoicing,
+      glistening in the sunshine, and declaring that everything was for the
+      best, since peaceable people had never before grown so beautifully fat. As
+      these thoughts passed through his mind Florent clenched his fists, and
+      felt ready for a struggle, more irritated now by the thought of his exile
+      than he had been when he first returned to France. Hatred resumed entire
+      possession of him. He often let his pen drop and became absorbed in
+      dreams. The dying fire cast a bright glow upon his face; the lamp burned
+      smokily, and the chaffinch fell asleep again on one leg, with its head
+      tucked under its wing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sometimes Auguste, on coming upstairs at eleven o&rsquo;clock and seeing the
+      light shining under the door, would knock, before going to bed. Florent
+      admitted him with some impatience. The assistant sat down in front of the
+      fire, speaking but little, and never saying why he had come. His eyes
+      would all the time remain fixed upon the photograph of himself and
+      Augustine in their Sunday finery. Florent came to the conclusion that the
+      young man took a pleasure in visiting the room for the simple reason that
+      it had been occupied by his sweetheart; and one evening he asked him with
+      a smile if he had guessed rightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, perhaps it is so,&rdquo; replied Auguste, very much surprised at the
+      discovery which he himself now made of the reasons which actuated him.
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;d really never thought of that before. I came to see you without
+      knowing why. But if I were to tell Augustine, how she&rsquo;d laugh!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whenever he showed himself at all loquacious, his one eternal theme was
+      the pork shop which he was going to set up with Augustine at Plaisance. He
+      seemed so perfectly assured of arranging his life in accordance with his
+      desires, that Florent grew to feel a sort of respect for him, mingled with
+      irritation. After all, the young fellow was very resolute and energetic,
+      in spite of his seeming stupidity. He made straight for the goal he had in
+      view, and would doubtless reach it in perfect assurance and happiness. On
+      the evenings of these visits from the apprentice, Florent could not settle
+      down to work again; he went off to bed in a discontented mood, and did not
+      recover his equilibrium till the thought passed through his mind, &ldquo;Why,
+      that Auguste is a perfect animal!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Every month he went to Clamart to see Monsieur Verlaque. These visits were
+      almost a delight to him. The poor man still lingered on, to the great
+      astonishment of Gavard, who had not expected him to last for more than six
+      months. Every time that Florent went to see him Verlaque would declare
+      that he was feeling better, and was most anxious to resume his work again.
+      But the days glided by, and he had serious relapses. Florent would sit by
+      his bedside, chat about the fish market, and do what he could to enliven
+      him. He deposited on the pedestal table the fifty francs which he
+      surrendered to him each month; and the old inspector, though the payment
+      had been agreed upon, invariably protested, and seemed disinclined to take
+      the money. Then they would begin to speak of something else, and the coins
+      remained lying on the table. When Florent went away, Madame Verlaque
+      always accompanied him to the street door. She was a gentle little woman,
+      of a very tearful disposition. Her one topic of conversation was the
+      expense necessitated by her husband&rsquo;s illness, the costliness of chicken
+      broth, butcher&rsquo;s meat, Bordeaux wine, medicine, and doctors&rsquo; fees. Her
+      doleful conversation greatly embarrassed Florent, and on the first few
+      occasions he did not understand the drift of it. But at last, as the poor
+      woman seemed always in a state of tears, and kept saying how happy and
+      comfortable they had been when they had enjoyed the full salary of
+      eighteen hundred francs a year, he timidly offered to make her a private
+      allowance, to be kept secret from her husband. This offer, however, she
+      declined, inconsistently declaring that the fifty francs were sufficient.
+      But in the course of the month she frequently wrote to Florent, calling
+      him their saviour. Her handwriting was small and fine, yet she would
+      contrive to fill three pages of letter paper with humble, flowing
+      sentences entreating the loan of ten francs; and this she at last did so
+      regularly that wellnigh the whole of Florent&rsquo;s hundred and fifty francs
+      found its way to the Verlaques. The husband was probably unaware of it;
+      however, the wife gratefully kissed Florent&rsquo;s hands. This charity afforded
+      him the greatest pleasure, and he concealed it as though it were some
+      forbidden selfish indulgence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That rascal Verlaque is making a fool of you,&rdquo; Gavard would sometimes
+      say. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s coddling himself up finely now that you are doing the work and
+      paying him an income.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At last one day Florent replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, we&rsquo;ve arranged matters together. I&rsquo;m only to give him twenty-five
+      francs a month in future.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As a matter of fact, Florent had but little need of money. The Quenus
+      continued to provide him with board and lodging; and the few francs which
+      he kept by him sufficed to pay for the refreshment he took in the evening
+      at Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s. His life had gradually assumed all the regularity
+      of clockwork. He worked in his bedroom, continued to teach little Muche
+      twice a week from eight to nine o&rsquo;clock, devoted an evening to Lisa, to
+      avoid offending her, and spent the rest of his spare time in the little
+      &ldquo;cabinet&rdquo; with Gavard and his friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he went to the Mehudins&rsquo; there was a touch of tutorial stiffness in
+      his gentle demeanour. He was pleased with the old house in the Rue
+      Pirouette. On the ground floor he passed through the faint odours
+      pervading the premises of the purveyor of cooked vegetables. Big pans of
+      boiled spinach and sorrel stood cooling in the little backyard. Then he
+      ascended the winding staircase, greasy and dark, with worn and bulging
+      steps which sloped in a disquieting manner. The Mehudins occupied the
+      whole of the second floor. Even when they had attained to comfortable
+      circumstances the old mother had always declined to move into fresh
+      quarters, despite all the supplications of her daughters, who dreamt of
+      living in a new house in a fine broad street. But on this point the old
+      woman was not to be moved; she had lived there, she said, and meant to die
+      there. She contented herself, moreover, with a dark little closet, leaving
+      the largest rooms to Claire and La Normande. The later, with the authority
+      of the elder born, had taken possession of the room that overlooked the
+      street; it was the best and largest of the suite. Claire was so much
+      annoyed at her sister&rsquo;s action in the matter that she refused to occupy
+      the adjoining room, whose window overlooked the yard, and obstinately
+      insisted on sleeping on the other side of the landing, in a sort of
+      garret, which she did not even have whitewashed. However, she had her own
+      key, and so was independent; directly anything happened to displease her
+      she locked herself up in her own quarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a rule, when Florent arrived the Mehudins were just finishing their
+      dinner. Muche sprang to his neck, and for a moment the young man remained
+      seated with the lad chattering between his legs. Then, when the oilcloth
+      cover had been wiped, the lesson began on a corner of the table. The
+      beautiful Norman gave Florent a cordial welcome. She generally began to
+      knit or mend some linen, and would draw her chair up to the table and work
+      by the light of the same lamp as the others; and she frequently put down
+      her needle to listen to the lesson, which filled her with surprise. She
+      soon began to feel warm esteem for this man who seemed so clever, who, in
+      speaking to the little one, showed himself as gentle as a woman, and
+      manifested angelic patience in again and again repeating the same
+      instructions. She no longer considered him at all plain, but even felt
+      somewhat jealous of beautiful Lisa. And then she drew her chair still
+      nearer, and gazed at Florent with an embarrassing smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you are jogging my elbow, mother, and I can&rsquo;t write,&rdquo; Muche exclaimed
+      angrily. &ldquo;There! see what a blot you&rsquo;ve made me make! Get further away,
+      do!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      La Normande now gradually began to say a good many unpleasant things about
+      beautiful Lisa. She pretended that the latter concealed her real age, that
+      she laced her stays so tightly that she nearly suffocated herself, and
+      that if she came down of a morning looking so trim and neat, without a
+      single hair out of place, it must be because she looked perfectly hideous
+      when in dishabille. Then La Normande would raise her arm a little, and say
+      that there was no need for her to wear any stays to cramp and deform her
+      figure. At these times the lessons would be interrupted, and Muche gazed
+      with interest at his mother as she raised her arms. Florent listened to
+      her, and even laughed, thinking to himself that women were very odd
+      creatures. The rivalry between the beautiful Norman and beautiful Lisa
+      amused him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muche, however, managed to finish his page of writing. Florent, who was a
+      good penman, set him copies in large hand and round hand on slips of
+      paper. The words he chose were very long and took up the whole line, and
+      he evinced a marked partiality for such expressions as &ldquo;tyrannically,&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;liberticide,&rdquo; &ldquo;unconstitutional,&rdquo; and &ldquo;revolutionary.&rdquo; At times also he
+      made the boy copy such sentences as these: &ldquo;The day of justice will surely
+      come&rdquo;; &ldquo;The suffering of the just man is the condemnation of the
+      oppressor&rdquo;; &ldquo;When the hour strikes, the guilty shall fall.&rdquo; In preparing
+      these copy slips he was, indeed, influenced by the ideas which haunted his
+      brain; he would for the time become quite oblivious of Muche, the
+      beautiful Norman, and all his surroundings. The lad would have copied
+      Rousseau&rsquo;s &ldquo;Contrat Social&rdquo; had he been told to do so; and thus, drawing
+      each letter in turn, he filled page after page with lines of
+      &ldquo;tyrannically&rdquo; and &ldquo;unconstitutional.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As long as the tutor remained there, old Madame Mehudin kept fidgeting
+      round the table, muttering to herself. She still harboured terrible
+      rancour against Florent; and asserted that it was folly to make the lad
+      work in that way at a time when children should be in bed. She would
+      certainly have turned that &ldquo;spindle-shanks&rdquo; out of the house, if the
+      beautiful Norman, after a stormy scene, had not bluntly told her that she
+      would go to live elsewhere if she were not allowed to receive whom she
+      chose. However, the pair began quarrelling again on the subject every
+      evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may say what you like,&rdquo; exclaimed the old woman; &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s got
+      treacherous eyes. And, besides, I&rsquo;m always suspicious of those skinny
+      people. A skinny man&rsquo;s capable of anything. I&rsquo;ve never come across a
+      decent one yet. That one&rsquo;s as flat as a board. And he&rsquo;s got such an ugly
+      face, too! Though I&rsquo;m sixty-five and more, I&rsquo;d precious soon send him
+      about his business if he came a-courting of me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She said this because she had a shrewd idea of how matters were likely to
+      turn out. And then she went on to speak in laudatory terms of Monsieur
+      Lebigre, who, indeed, paid the greatest attention to the beautiful Norman.
+      Apart from the handsome dowry which he imagined she would bring with her,
+      he considered that she would be a magnificent acquisition to his counter.
+      The old woman never missed an opportunity to sound his praises; there was
+      no lankiness, at any rate, about him, said she; he was stout and strong,
+      with a pair of calves which would have done honour even to one of the
+      Emperor&rsquo;s footmen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, La Normande shrugged her shoulders and snappishly replied: &ldquo;What
+      do I care whether he&rsquo;s stout or not? I don&rsquo;t want him or anybody. And
+      besides, I shall do as I please.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, if the old woman became too pointed in her remarks, the other added:
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no business of yours, and besides, it isn&rsquo;t true. Hold your tongue
+      and don&rsquo;t worry me.&rdquo; And thereupon she would go off into her room, banging
+      the door behind her. Florent, however, had a yet more bitter enemy than
+      Madame Mehudin in the house. As soon as ever he arrived there, Claire
+      would get up without a word, take a candle, and go off to her own room on
+      the other side of the landing; and she could be heard locking her door in
+      a burst of sullen anger. One evening when her sister asked the tutor to
+      dinner, she prepared her own food on the landing, and ate it in her
+      bedroom; and now and again she secluded herself so closely that nothing
+      was seen of her for a week at a time. She usually retained her appearance
+      of soft lissomness, but periodically had a fit of iron rigidity, when her
+      eyes blazed from under her pale tawny locks like those of a distrustful
+      wild animal. Old Mother Mehudin, fancying that she might relieve herself
+      in her company, only made her furious by speaking to her of Florent; and
+      thereupon the old woman, in her exasperation, told everyone that she would
+      have gone off and left her daughters to themselves had she not been afraid
+      of their devouring each other if they remained alone together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Florent went away one evening, he passed in front of Claire&rsquo;s door,
+      which was standing wide open. He saw the girl look at him, and turn very
+      red. Her hostile demeanour annoyed him; and it was only the timidity which
+      he felt in the presence of women that restrained him from seeking an
+      explanation of her conduct. On this particular evening he would certainly
+      have addressed her if he had not detected Mademoiselle Saget&rsquo;s pale face
+      peering over the balustrade of the upper landing. So he went his way, but
+      had not taken a dozen steps before Claire&rsquo;s door was closed behind him
+      with such violence as to shake the whole staircase. It was after this that
+      Mademoiselle Saget, eager to propagate slander, went about repeating
+      everywhere that Madame Quenu&rsquo;s cousin was &ldquo;carrying on&rdquo; most dreadfully
+      with both the Mehudin girls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent, however, gave very little thought to these two handsome young
+      women. His usual manner towards them was that of a man who has but little
+      success with the sex. Certainly he had come to entertain a feeling of
+      genuine friendship for La Normande, who really displayed a very good heart
+      when her impetuous temper did not run away with her. But he never went any
+      further than this. Moreover, the queenly proportions of her robust figure
+      filled him with a kind of alarm; and of an evening, whenever she drew her
+      chair up to the lamp and bent forward as though to look at Muche&rsquo;s
+      copy-book, he drew in his own sharp bony elbows and shrunken shoulders as
+      if realising what a pitiful specimen of humanity he was by the side of
+      that buxom, hardy creature so full of the life of ripe womanhood.
+      Moreover, there was another reason why he recoiled from her. The smells of
+      the markets distressed him; on finishing his duties of an evening he would
+      have liked to escape from the fishy odour amidst which his days were
+      spent; but, alas! beautiful though La Normande was, this odour seemed to
+      adhere to her silky skin. She had tried every sort of aromatic oil, and
+      bathed freely; but as soon as the freshening influence of the bath was
+      over her blood again impregnated her skin with the faint odour of salmon,
+      the musky perfume of smelts, and the pungent scent of herrings and skate.
+      Her skirts, too, as she moved about, exhaled these fishy smells, and she
+      walked as though amidst an atmosphere redolent of slimy seaweed. With her
+      tall, goddess-like figure, her purity of form, and transparency of
+      complexion she resembled some lovely antique marble that had rolled about
+      in the depths of the sea and had been brought to land in some fisherman&rsquo;s
+      net.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget, however, swore by all her gods that Florent was the
+      young woman&rsquo;s lover. According to her account, indeed, he courted both the
+      sisters. She had quarrelled with the beautiful Norman about a ten-sou dab;
+      and ever since this falling-out she had manifested warm friendship for
+      handsome Lisa. By this means she hoped the sooner to arrive at a solution
+      of what she called the Quenus&rsquo; mystery. Florent still continued to elude
+      her curiosity, and she told her friends that she felt like a body without
+      a soul, though she was careful not to reveal what was troubling her so
+      grievously. A young girl infatuated with a hopeless passion could not have
+      been in more distress than this terrible old woman at finding herself
+      unable to solve the mystery of the Quenus&rsquo; cousin. She was constantly
+      playing the spy on Florent, following him about, and watching him, in a
+      burning rage at her failure to satisfy her rampant curiosity. Now that he
+      had begun to visit the Mehudins she was for ever haunting the stairs and
+      landings. She soon discovered that handsome Lisa was much annoyed at
+      Florent visiting &ldquo;those women,&rdquo; and accordingly she called at the pork
+      shop every morning with a budget of information. She went in shrivelled
+      and shrunk by the frosty air, and, resting her hands on the heating-pan to
+      warm them, remained in front of the counter buying nothing, but repeating
+      in her shrill voice: &ldquo;He was with them again yesterday; he seems to live
+      there now. I heard La Normande call him &lsquo;my dear&rsquo; on the staircase.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She indulged like this in all sorts of lies in order to remain in the shop
+      and continue warming her hands for a little longer. On the morning after
+      the evening when she had heard Claire close her door behind Florent, she
+      spun out her story for a good half hour, inventing all sorts of mendacious
+      and abominable particulars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa, who had assumed a look of contemptuous scorn, said but little,
+      simply encouraging Mademoiselle Saget&rsquo;s gossip by her silence. At last,
+      however, she interrupted her. &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t really listen
+      to all that. Is it possible that there can be such women?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon Mademoiselle Saget told Lisa that unfortunately all women were
+      not so well conducted as herself. And then she pretended to find all sorts
+      of excuses for Florent: it wasn&rsquo;t his fault; he was no doubt a bachelor;
+      these women had very likely inveigled him in their snares. In this way she
+      hinted questions without openly asking them. But Lisa preserved silence
+      with respect to her cousin, merely shrugging her shoulders and compressing
+      her lips. When Mademoiselle Saget at last went away, the mistress of the
+      shop glanced with disgust at the cover of the heating-pan, the glistening
+      metal of which had been tarnished by the impression of the old woman&rsquo;s
+      little hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Augustine,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;bring a duster, and wipe the cover of the
+      heating-pan. It&rsquo;s quite filthy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The rivalry between the beautiful Lisa and the beautiful Norman now became
+      formidable. The beautiful Norman flattered herself that she had carried a
+      lover off from her enemy; and the beautiful Lisa was indignant with the
+      hussy who, by luring the sly cousin to her home, would surely end by
+      compromising them all. The natural temperament of each woman manifested
+      itself in the hostilities which ensued. The one remained calm and
+      scornful, like a lady who holds up her skirts to keep them from being
+      soiled by the mud; while the other, much less subject to shame, displayed
+      insolent gaiety and swaggered along the footways with the airs of a
+      duellist seeking a cause of quarrel. Each of their skirmishes would be the
+      talk of the fish market for the whole day. When the beautiful Norman saw
+      the beautiful Lisa standing at the door of her shop, she would go out of
+      her way in order to pass her, and brush against her with her apron; and
+      then the angry glances of the two rivals crossed like rapiers, with the
+      rapid flash and thrust of pointed steel. When the beautiful Lisa, on the
+      other hand, went to the fish market, she assumed an expression of disgust
+      on approaching the beautiful Norman&rsquo;s stall. And then she proceeded to
+      purchase some big fish&mdash;a turbot or a salmon&mdash;of a neighbouring
+      dealer, spreading her money out on the marble slab as she did so, for she
+      had noticed that this seemed to have a painful effect upon the &ldquo;hussy,&rdquo;
+       who ceased laughing at the sight. To hear the two rivals speak, anyone
+      would have supposed that the fish and pork they sold were quite unfit for
+      food. However, their principal engagements took place when the beautiful
+      Norman was seated at her stall and the beautiful Lisa at her counter, and
+      they glowered blackly at each other across the Rue Rambuteau. They sat in
+      state in their big white aprons, decked out with showy toilets and jewels,
+      and the battle between them would commence early in the morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hallo, the fat woman&rsquo;s got up!&rdquo; the beautiful Norman would exclaim. &ldquo;She
+      ties herself up as tightly as her sausages! Ah, she&rsquo;s got Saturday&rsquo;s
+      collar on again, and she&rsquo;s still wearing that poplin dress!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same moment, on the opposite side of the street, beautiful Lisa was
+      saying to her shop girl: &ldquo;Just look at that creature staring at us over
+      yonder, Augustine! She&rsquo;s getting quite deformed by the life she leads. Do
+      you see her earrings? She&rsquo;s wearing those big drops of hers, isn&rsquo;t she? It
+      makes one feel ashamed to see a girl like that with brilliants.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All complaisance, Augustine echoed her mistress&rsquo;s words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When either of them was able to display a new ornament it was like scoring
+      a victory&mdash;the other one almost choked with spleen. Every day they
+      would scrutinise and count each other&rsquo;s customers, and manifest the
+      greatest annoyance if they thought that the &ldquo;big thing over the way&rdquo; was
+      doing the better business. Then they spied out what each had for lunch.
+      Each knew what the other ate, and even watched to see how she digested it.
+      In the afternoon, while the one sat amidst her cooked meats and the other
+      amidst her fish, they posed and gave themselves airs, as though they were
+      queens of beauty. It was then that the victory of the day was decided. The
+      beautiful Norman embroidered, selecting the most delicate and difficult
+      work, and this aroused Lisa&rsquo;s exasperation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she said, speaking of her rival, &ldquo;she had far better mend her boy&rsquo;s
+      stockings. He&rsquo;s running about quite barefooted. Just look at that fine
+      lady, with her red hands stinking of fish!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For her part, Lisa usually knitted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She&rsquo;s still at that same sock,&rdquo; La Normande would say, as she watched
+      her. &ldquo;She eats so much that she goes to sleep over her work. I pity her
+      poor husband if he&rsquo;s waiting for those socks to keep his feet warm!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They would sit glowering at each other with this implacable hostility
+      until evening, taking note of every customer, and displaying such keen
+      eyesight that they detected the smallest details of each other&rsquo;s dress and
+      person when other women declared that they could see nothing at such a
+      distance. Mademoiselle Saget expressed the highest admiration for Madame
+      Quenu&rsquo;s wonderful sight when she one day detected a scratch on the
+      fish-girl&rsquo;s left cheek. With eyes like those, said the old maid, one might
+      even see through a door. However, the victory often remained undecided
+      when night fell; sometimes one or other of the rivals was temporarily
+      crushed, but she took her revenge on the morrow. Several people of the
+      neighbourhood actually laid wagers on these contests, some backing the
+      beautiful Lisa and others the beautiful Norman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last they ended by forbidding their children to speak to one another.
+      Pauline and Muche had formerly been good friends, notwithstanding the
+      girl&rsquo;s stiff petticoats and lady-like demeanour, and the lad&rsquo;s tattered
+      appearance, coarse language, and rough manners. They had at times played
+      together at horses on the broad footway in front of the fish market,
+      Pauline always being the horse and Muche the driver. One day, however,
+      when the boy came in all simplicity to seek his playmate, Lisa turned him
+      out of the house, declaring that he was a dirty little street arab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One can&rsquo;t tell what may happen with children who have been so shockingly
+      brought up,&rdquo; she observed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, indeed; you are quite right,&rdquo; replied Mademoiselle Saget, who
+      happened to be present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Muche, who was barely seven years old, came in tears to his mother to
+      tell her of what had happened, La Normande broke out into a terrible
+      passion. At the first moment she felt a strong inclination to rush over to
+      the Quenu-Gradelles&rsquo; and smash everything in their shop. But eventually
+      she contented herself with giving Muche a whipping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If ever I catch you going there again,&rdquo; she cried, boiling over with
+      anger, &ldquo;you&rsquo;ll get it hot from me, I can tell you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent, however, was the real victim of the two women. It was he, in
+      truth, who had set them by the ears, and it was on his account that they
+      were fighting each other. Ever since he had appeared upon the scene things
+      had been going from bad to worse. He compromised and disturbed and
+      embittered all these people, who had previously lived in such sleek peace
+      and harmony. The beautiful Norman felt inclined to claw him when he
+      lingered too long with the Quenus, and it was chiefly from an impulse of
+      hostile rivalry that she desired to win him to herself. The beautiful
+      Lisa, on her side, maintained a cold judicial bearing, and although
+      extremely annoyed, forced herself to silence whenever she saw Florent
+      leaving the pork shop to go to the Rue Pirouette.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still, there was now much less cordiality than formerly round the Quenus&rsquo; 
+      dinner-table in the evening. The clean, prim dining-room seemed to have
+      assumed an aspect of chilling severity. Florent divined a reproach, a sort
+      of condemnation in the bright oak, the polished lamp, and the new matting.
+      He scarcely dared to eat for fear of letting crumbs fall on the floor or
+      soiling his plate. There was a guileless simplicity about him which
+      prevented him from seeing how the land really lay. He still praised Lisa&rsquo;s
+      affectionate kindliness on all sides; and outwardly, indeed, she did
+      continue to treat him with all gentleness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is very strange,&rdquo; she said to him one day with a smile, as though she
+      were joking; &ldquo;although you don&rsquo;t eat at all badly now, you don&rsquo;t get
+      fatter. Your food doesn&rsquo;t seem to do you any good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this Quenu laughed aloud, and tapping his brother&rsquo;s stomach, protested
+      that the whole contents of the pork shop might pass through it without
+      depositing a layer of fat as thick as a two-sou piece. However, Lisa&rsquo;s
+      insistence on this particular subject was instinct with that same
+      suspicious dislike for fleshless men which Madame Mehudin manifested more
+      outspokenly; and behind it all there was likewise a veiled allusion to the
+      disorderly life which she imagined Florent was leading. She never,
+      however, spoke a word to him about La Normande. Quenu had attempted a joke
+      on the subject one evening, but Lisa had received it so icily that the
+      good man had not ventured to refer to the matter again. They would remain
+      seated at table for a few moments after dessert, and Florent, who had
+      noticed his sister-in-law&rsquo;s vexation if ever he went off too soon, tried
+      to find something to talk about. On these occasions Lisa would be near
+      him, and certainly he did not suffer in her presence from that fishy smell
+      which assailed him when he was in the company of La Normande. The mistress
+      of the pork shop, on the contrary, exhaled an odour of fat and rich meats.
+      Moreover, not a thrill of life stirred her tight-fitting bodice; she was
+      all massiveness and all sedateness. Gavard once said to Florent in
+      confidence that Madame Quenu was no doubt handsome, but that for his part
+      he did not admire such armour-plated women.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa avoided talking to Quenu of Florent. She habitually prided herself on
+      her patience, and considered, too, that it would not be proper to cause
+      any unpleasantness between the brothers, unless some peremptory reason for
+      her interference should arise. As she said, she could put up with a good
+      deal, but, of course, she must not be tried too far. She had now reached
+      the period of courteous tolerance, wearing an expressionless face,
+      affecting perfect indifference and strict politeness, and carefully
+      avoiding everything which might seem to hint that Florent was boarding and
+      lodging with them without their receiving the slightest payment from him.
+      Not, indeed, that she would have accepted any payment from him, she was
+      above all that; still he might, at any rate, she thought, have lunched
+      away from the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We never seem to be alone now,&rdquo; she remarked to Quenu one day. &ldquo;If there
+      is anything we want to say to one another we have to wait till we go
+      upstairs at night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, one night when they were in bed, she said to him: &ldquo;Your brother
+      earns a hundred and fifty francs a month, doesn&rsquo;t he? Well, it&rsquo;s strange
+      he can&rsquo;t put a trifle by to buy himself some more linen. I&rsquo;ve been obliged
+      to give him three more of your old shirts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, that doesn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; Quenu replied. &ldquo;Florent&rsquo;s not hard to please;
+      and we must let him keep his money for himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, of course,&rdquo; said Lisa, without pressing the matter further. &ldquo;I
+      didn&rsquo;t mention it for that reason. Whether he spends his money well or
+      ill, it isn&rsquo;t our business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In her own mind she felt quite sure that he wasted his salary at the
+      Mehudins&rsquo;.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only on one occasion did she break through her habitual calmness of
+      demeanour, the quiet reserve which was the result of both natural
+      temperament and preconceived design. The beautiful Norman had made Florent
+      a present of a magnificent salmon. Feeling very much embarrassed with the
+      fish, and not daring to refuse it, he brought it to Lisa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can make a pasty of it,&rdquo; he said ingenuously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa looked at him sternly with whitening lips. Then, striving to restrain
+      her anger, she exclaimed: &ldquo;Do you think that we are short of food? Thank
+      God, we&rsquo;ve got quite enough to eat here! Take it back!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, at any rate, cook it for me,&rdquo; replied Florent, amazed by her anger;
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll eat it myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this she burst out furiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The house isn&rsquo;t an inn! Tell those who gave you the fish to cook it for
+      you! I won&rsquo;t have my pans tainted and infected! Take it back again! Do you
+      hear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If he had not gone away with it, she would certainly have seized it and
+      hurled it into the street. Florent took it to Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s, where
+      Rose was ordered to make a pasty of it; and one evening the pasty was
+      eaten in the little &ldquo;cabinet,&rdquo; Gavard, who was present, &ldquo;standing&rdquo; some
+      oysters for the occasion. Florent now gradually came more and more
+      frequently to Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s, till at last he was constantly to be met
+      in the little private room. He there found an atmosphere of heated
+      excitement in which his political feverishness could pulsate freely. At
+      times, now, when he shut himself up in his garret to work, the quiet
+      simplicity of the little room irritated him, his theoretical search for
+      liberty proved quite insufficient, and it became necessary that he should
+      go downstairs, sally out, and seek satisfaction in the trenchant axioms of
+      Charvet and the wild outbursts of Logre. During the first few evenings the
+      clamour and chatter had made him feel ill at ease; he was then quite
+      conscious of their utter emptiness, but he felt a need of drowning his
+      thoughts, of goading himself on to some extreme resolution which might
+      calm his mental disquietude. The atmosphere of the little room, reeking
+      with the odour of spirits and warm with tobacco smoke, intoxicated him and
+      filled him with peculiar beatitude, prompting a kind of self-surrender
+      which made him willing to acquiesce in the wildest ideas. He grew attached
+      to those he met there, and looked for them and awaited their coming with a
+      pleasure which increased with habit. Robine&rsquo;s mild, bearded countenance,
+      Clemence&rsquo;s serious profile, Charvet&rsquo;s fleshless pallor, Logre&rsquo;s hump,
+      Gavard, Alexandre, and Lacaille, all entered into his life, and assumed a
+      larger and larger place in it. He took quite a sensual enjoyment in these
+      meetings. When his fingers closed round the brass knob on the door of the
+      little cabinet it seemed to be animated with life, to warm him, and turn
+      of its own accord. Had he grasped the supple wrist of a woman he could not
+      have felt a more thrilling emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To tell the truth, very serious things took place in that little room. One
+      evening, Logre, after indulging in wilder outbursts than usual, banged his
+      fist upon the table, declaring that if they were men they would make a
+      clean sweep of the Government. And he added that it was necessary they
+      should come to an understanding without further delay, if they desired to
+      be fully prepared when the time for action arrived. Then they all bent
+      their heads together, discussed the matter in lower tones, and decided to
+      form a little &ldquo;group,&rdquo; which should be ready for whatever might happen.
+      From that day forward Gavard flattered himself that he was a member of a
+      secret society, and was engaged in a conspiracy. The little circle
+      received no new members, but Logre promised to put it into communication
+      with other associations with which he was acquainted; and then, as soon as
+      they held all Paris in their grasp, they would rise and make the
+      Tuileries&rsquo; people dance. A series of endless discussions, renewed during
+      several months, then began&mdash;discussions on questions of organisation,
+      on questions of ways and means, on questions of strategy, and of the form
+      of the future Government. As soon as Rose had brought Clemence&rsquo;s grog,
+      Charvet&rsquo;s and Robine&rsquo;s beer, the coffee for Logre, Gavard, and Florent,
+      and the liqueur glasses of brandy for Lacaille and Alexandre, the door of
+      the cabinet was carefully fastened, and the debate began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Charvet and Florent were naturally those whose utterances were listened to
+      with the greatest attention. Gavard had not been able to keep his tongue
+      from wagging, but had gradually related the whole story of Cayenne; and
+      Florent found himself surrounded by a halo of martyrdom. His words were
+      received as though they were the expression of indisputable dogmas. One
+      evening, however, the poultry dealer, vexed at hearing his friend, who
+      happened to be absent, attacked, exclaimed: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t say anything against
+      Florent; he&rsquo;s been to Cayenne!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Charvet was rather annoyed by the advantage which this circumstance gave
+      to Florent. &ldquo;Cayenne, Cayenne,&rdquo; he muttered between his teeth. &ldquo;Ah, well,
+      they were not so badly off there, after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he attempted to prove that exile was a mere nothing, and that real
+      suffering consisted in remaining in one&rsquo;s oppressed country, gagged in
+      presence of triumphant despotism. And besides, he urged, it wasn&rsquo;t his
+      fault that he hadn&rsquo;t been arrested on the Second of December. Next,
+      however, he hinted that those who had allowed themselves to be captured
+      were imbeciles. His secret jealousy made him a systematic opponent of
+      Florent; and the general discussions always ended in a duel between these
+      two, who, while their companions listened in silence, would speak against
+      one another for hours at a time, without either of them allowing that he
+      was beaten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the favourite subjects of discussion was that of the reorganisation
+      of the country which would have to be effected on the morrow of their
+      victory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are the conquerors, are we not?&rdquo; began Gavard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And, triumph being taken for granted, everyone offered his opinion. There
+      were two rival parties. Charvet, who was a disciple of Hebert, was
+      supported by Logre and Robine; while Florent, who was always absorbed in
+      humanitarian dreams, and called himself a Socialist, was backed by
+      Alexandre and Lacaille. As for Gavard, he felt no repugnance for violent
+      action; but, as he was often twitted about his fortune with no end of
+      sarcastic witticisms which annoyed him, he declared himself a Communist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must make a clean sweep of everything,&rdquo; Charvet would curtly say, as
+      though he were delivering a blow with a cleaver. &ldquo;The trunk is rotten, and
+      it must come down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes! yes!&rdquo; cried Logre, standing up that he might look taller, and making
+      the partition shake with the excited motion of his hump. &ldquo;Everything will
+      be levelled to the ground; take my word for it. After that we shall see
+      what to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Robine signified approval by wagging his beard. His silence seemed
+      instinct with delight whenever violent revolutionary propositions were
+      made. His eyes assumed a soft ecstatic expression at the mention of the
+      guillotine. He half closed them, as though he could see the machine, and
+      was filled with pleasant emotion at the sight; and next he would gently
+      rub his chin against the knob of his stick, with a subdued purr of
+      satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the same,&rdquo; said Florent, in whose voice a vague touch of sadness
+      lingered, &ldquo;if you cut down the tree it will be necessary to preserve some
+      seed. For my part, I think that the tree ought to be preserved, so that we
+      may graft new life on it. The political revolution, you know, has already
+      taken place; to-day we have got to think of the labourer, the working man.
+      Our movement must be altogether a social one. I defy you to reject the
+      claims of the people. They are weary of waiting, and are determined to
+      have their share of happiness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These words aroused Alexandre&rsquo;s enthusiasm. With a beaming, radiant face
+      he declared that this was true, that the people were weary of waiting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we will have our share,&rdquo; added Lacaille, with a more menacing
+      expression. &ldquo;All the revolutions that have taken place have been for the
+      good of the middle classes. We&rsquo;ve had quite enough of that sort of thing,
+      and the next one shall be for our benefit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      From this moment disagreement set in. Gavard offered to make a division of
+      his property, but Logre declined, asserting that he cared nothing for
+      money. Then Charvet gradually overcame the tumult, till at last he alone
+      was heard speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The selfishness of the different classes does more than anything else to
+      uphold tyranny,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;It is wrong of the people to display egotism.
+      If they assist us they shall have their share. But why should I fight for
+      the working man if the working man won&rsquo;t fight for me? Moreover, that is
+      not the question at present. Ten years of revolutionary dictatorship will
+      be necessary to accustom a nation like France to the fitting enjoyment of
+      liberty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the more so as the working man is not ripe for it, and requires to be
+      directed,&rdquo; said Clemence bluntly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She but seldom spoke. This tall, serious looking girl, alone among so many
+      men, listened to all the political chatter with a learnedly critical air.
+      She leaned back against the partition, and every now and then sipped her
+      grog whilst gazing at the speakers with frowning brows or inflated
+      nostrils, thus silently signifying her approval or disapproval, and making
+      it quite clear that she held decided opinions upon the most complicated
+      matters. At times she would roll a cigarette, and puff slender whiffs of
+      smoke from the corners of her mouth, whilst lending increased attention to
+      what was being debated. It was as though she were presiding over the
+      discussion, and would award the prize to the victor when it was finished.
+      She certainly considered that it became her, as a woman, to display some
+      reserve in her opinions, and to remain calm whilst the men grew more and
+      more excited. Now and then, however, in the heat of the debate, she would
+      let a word or a phrase escape her and &ldquo;clench the matter&rdquo; even for Charvet
+      himself, as Gavard said. In her heart she believed herself the superior of
+      all these fellows. The only one of them for whom she felt any respect was
+      Robine, and she would thoughtfully contemplate his silent bearing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither Florent nor any of the others paid any special attention to
+      Clemence. They treated her just as though she were a man, shaking hands
+      with her so roughly as almost to dislocate her arms. One evening Florent
+      witnessed the periodical settlement of accounts between her and Charvet.
+      She had just received her pay, and Charvet wanted to borrow ten francs
+      from her; but she first of all insisted that they must reckon up how
+      matters stood between them. They lived together in a voluntary
+      partnership, each having complete control of his or her earnings, and
+      strictly paying his or her expenses. By so doing, said they, they were
+      under no obligations to one another, but retained entire freedom. Rent,
+      food, washing, and amusements, were all noted down and added up. That
+      evening, when the accounts had been verified, Clemence proved to Charvet
+      that he already owed her five francs. Then she handed him the other ten
+      which he wished to borrow, and exclaimed: &ldquo;Recollect that you now owe me
+      fifteen. I shall expect you to repay me on the fifth, when you get paid
+      for teaching little Lehudier.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Rose was summoned to receive payment for the &ldquo;drinks,&rdquo; each produced
+      the few coppers required to discharge his or her liability. Charvet
+      laughingly called Clemence an aristocrat because she drank grog. She
+      wanted to humiliate him, said he, and make him feel that he earned less
+      than she did, which, as it happened, was the fact. Beneath his laugh,
+      however, there was a feeling of bitterness that the girl should be better
+      circumstanced than himself, for, in spite of his theory of the equality of
+      the sexes, this lowered him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the discussions in the little room had virtually no result, they
+      served to exercise the speakers&rsquo; lungs. A tremendous hubbub proceeded from
+      the sanctum, and the panes of frosted glass vibrated like drum-skins.
+      Sometimes the uproar became so great that Rose, while languidly serving
+      some blouse-wearing customer in the shop, would turn her head uneasily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, they&rsquo;re surely fighting together in there,&rdquo; the customer would say,
+      as he put his glass down on the zinc-covered counter, and wiped his mouth
+      with the back of his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, there&rsquo;s no fear of that,&rdquo; Monsieur Lebigre tranquilly replied. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s
+      only some gentlemen talking together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Monsieur Lebigre, indeed, although very strict with his other customers,
+      allowed the politicians to shout as loudly as they pleased, and never made
+      the least remark on the subject. He would sit for hours together on the
+      bench behind the counter, with his big head lolling drowsily against the
+      mirror, whilst he watched Rose uncorking the bottles and giving a wipe
+      here and there with her duster. And in spite of the somniferous effects of
+      the wine fumes and the warm streaming gaslight, he would keep his ears
+      open to the sounds proceeding from the little room. At times, when the
+      voices grew noisier than usual, he got up from his seat and went to lean
+      against the partition; and occasionally he even pushed the door open, and
+      went inside and sat down there for a few minutes, giving Gavard a friendly
+      slap on the thigh. And then he would nod approval of everything that was
+      said. The poultry dealer asserted that although friend Lebigre hadn&rsquo;t the
+      stuff of an orator in him, they might safely reckon on him when the
+      &ldquo;shindy&rdquo; came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning, however, at the markets, when a tremendous row broke out
+      between Rose and one of the fish-wives, through the former accidentally
+      knocking over a basket of herrings, Florent heard Rose&rsquo;s employer spoken
+      of as a &ldquo;dirty spy&rdquo; in the pay of the police. And after he had succeeded
+      in restoring peace, all sorts of stories about Monsieur Lebigre were
+      poured into his ears. Yes, the wine seller was in the pay of the police,
+      the fish-wives said; all the neighbourhood knew it. Before Mademoiselle
+      Saget had begun to deal with him she had once met him entering the
+      Prefecture to make his report. It was asserted, too, that he was a
+      money-monger, a usurer, and lent petty sums by the day to costermongers,
+      and let out barrows to them, exacting a scandalous rate of interest in
+      return. Florent was greatly disturbed by all this, and felt it his duty to
+      repeat it that evening to his fellow politicians. The latter, however,
+      only shrugged their shoulders, and laughed at his uneasiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Florent!&rdquo; Charvet exclaimed sarcastically; &ldquo;he imagines the whole
+      police force is on his track, just because he happens to have been sent to
+      Cayenne!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard gave his word of honour that Lebigre was perfectly staunch and
+      true, while Logre, for his part, manifested extreme irritation. He fumed
+      and declared that it would be quite impossible for them to get on if
+      everyone was to be accused of being a police spy; for his own part, he
+      would rather stay at home, and have nothing more to do with politics. Why,
+      hadn&rsquo;t people even dared to say that he, Logre himself, who had fought in
+      &lsquo;48 and &lsquo;51, and had twice narrowly escaped transportation, was a spy as
+      well? As he shouted this out, he thrust his jaws forward, and glared at
+      the others as though he would have liked to ram the conviction that he had
+      nothing to do with the police down their throats. At the sight of his
+      furious glances his companions made gestures of protestation. However,
+      Lacaille, on hearing Monsieur Lebigre accused of usury, silently lowered
+      his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The incident was forgotten in the discussions which ensued. Since Logre
+      had suggested a conspiracy, Monsieur Lebigre had grasped the hands of the
+      frequenters of the little room with more vigor than ever. Their custom, to
+      tell the truth, was of but small value to him, for they never ordered more
+      than one &ldquo;drink&rdquo; apiece. They drained the last drops just as they rose to
+      leave, having been careful to allow a little to remain in their glasses,
+      even during their most heated arguments. In this wise the one &ldquo;shout&rdquo;
+       lasted throughout the evening. They shivered as they turned out into the
+      cold dampness of the night, and for a moment or two remained standing on
+      the footway with dazzled eyes and buzzing ears, as though surprised by the
+      dark silence of the street. Rose, meanwhile, fastened the shutters behind
+      them. Then, quite exhausted, at a loss for another word they shook hands,
+      separated, and went their different ways, still mentally continuing the
+      discussion of the evening, and regretting that they could not ram their
+      particular theories down each other&rsquo;s throats. Robine walked away, with
+      his bent back bobbing up and down, in the direction of the Rue Rambuteau;
+      whilst Charvet and Clemence went off through the markets on their return
+      to the Luxembourg quarter, their heels sounding on the flag-stones in
+      military fashion, whilst they still discussed some question of politics or
+      philosophy, walking along side by side, but never arm-in-arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conspiracy ripened very slowly. At the commencement of the summer the
+      plotters had got no further than agreeing that it was necessary a stroke
+      should be attempted. Florent, who had at first looked upon the whole
+      business with a kind of distrust, had now, however, come to believe in the
+      possibility of a revolutionary movement. He took up the matter seriously;
+      making notes, and preparing plans in writing, while the others still did
+      nothing but talk. For his part, he began to concentrate his whole life in
+      the one persistent idea which made his brain throb night after night; and
+      this to such a degree that he at last took his brother Quenu with him to
+      Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s, as though such a course were quite natural. Certainly
+      he had no thought of doing anything improper. He still looked upon Quenu
+      as in some degree his pupil, and may even have considered it his duty to
+      start him on the proper path. Quenu was an absolute novice in politics,
+      but after spending five or six evenings in the little room he found
+      himself quite in accord with the others. When Lisa was not present he
+      manifested much docility, a sort of respect for his brother&rsquo;s opinions.
+      But the greatest charm of the affair for him was really the mild
+      dissipation of leaving his shop and shutting himself up in the little room
+      where the others shouted so loudly, and where Clemence&rsquo;s presence, in his
+      opinion, gave a tinge of rakishness and romance to the proceedings. He now
+      made all haste with his chitterlings in order that he might get away as
+      early as possible, anxious to lose not a single word of the discussions,
+      which seemed to him to be very brilliant, though he was not always able to
+      follow them. The beautiful Lisa did not fail to notice his hurry to be
+      gone, but as yet she refrained from saying anything. When Florent took him
+      off, she simply went to the door-step, and watched them enter Monsieur
+      Lebigre&rsquo;s, her face paling somewhat, and a severe expression coming into
+      her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening, as Mademoiselle Saget was peering out of her garret casement,
+      she recognised Quenu&rsquo;s shadow on the frosted glass of the &ldquo;cabinet&rdquo; window
+      facing the Rue Pirouette. She had found her casement an excellent post of
+      observation, as it overlooked that milky transparency, on which the
+      gaslight threw silhouettes of the politicians, with noses suddenly
+      appearing and disappearing, gaping jaws abruptly springing into sight and
+      then vanishing, and huge arms, apparently destitute of bodies, waving
+      hither and thither. This extraordinary jumble of detached limbs, these
+      silent but frantic profiles, bore witness to the heated discussions that
+      went on in the little room, and kept the old maid peering from behind her
+      muslin curtains until the transparency turned black. She shrewdly
+      suspected some &ldquo;bit of trickery,&rdquo; as she phrased it. By continual watching
+      she had come to recognise the different shadows by their hands and hair
+      and clothes. As she gazed upon the chaos of clenched fists, angry heads,
+      and swaying shoulders, which seemed to have become detached from their
+      trunks and to roll about one atop of the other, she would exclaim
+      unhesitatingly, &ldquo;Ah, there&rsquo;s that big booby of a cousin; there&rsquo;s that
+      miserly old Gavard; and there&rsquo;s the hunchback; and there&rsquo;s that maypole of
+      a Clemence!&rdquo; Then, when the action of the shadow-play became more
+      pronounced, and they all seemed to have lost control over themselves, she
+      felt an irresistible impulse to go downstairs to try to find out what was
+      happening. Thus she now made a point of buying her black-currant syrup at
+      nights, pretending that she felt out-of-sorts in the morning, and was
+      obliged to take a sip as soon as ever she was out of bed. On the evening
+      when she noticed Quenu&rsquo;s massive head shadowed on the transparency in
+      close proximity to Charvet&rsquo;s fist, she made her appearance at Monsieur
+      Lebigre&rsquo;s in a breathless condition. To gain more time, she made Rose
+      rinse out her little bottle for her; however, she was about to return to
+      her room when she heard the pork butcher exclaim with a sort of childish
+      candour:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, indeed, we&rsquo;ll stand for it no longer! We&rsquo;ll make a clean sweep of all
+      those humbugging Deputies and Ministers! Yes, we&rsquo;ll send the whole lot
+      packing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eight o&rsquo;clock had scarcely struck on the following morning when
+      Mademoiselle Saget was already at the pork shop. She found Madame Lecoeur
+      and La Sarriette there, dipping their noses into the heating-pan, and
+      buying hot sausages for breakfast. As the old maid had managed to draw
+      them into her quarrel with La Normande with respect to the ten-sou dab,
+      they had at once made friends again with Lisa, and they now had nothing
+      but contempt for the handsome fish-girl, and assailed her and her sister
+      as good-for-nothing hussies, whose only aim was to fleece men of their
+      money. This opinion had been inspired by the assertions of Mademoiselle
+      Saget, who had declared to Madame Lecoeur that Florent had induced one of
+      the two girls to coquette with Gavard, and that the four of them had
+      indulged in the wildest dissipation at Barratte&rsquo;s&mdash;of course, at the
+      poultry dealer&rsquo;s expense. From the effects of this impudent story Madame
+      Lecoeur had not yet recovered; she wore a doleful appearance, and her eyes
+      were quite yellow with spleen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That morning, however, it was for Madame Quenu that the old maid had a
+      shock in store. She looked round the counter, and then in her most gentle
+      voice remarked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw Monsieur Quenu last night. They seem to enjoy themselves immensely
+      in that little room at Lebigre&rsquo;s, if one may judge from the noise they
+      make.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa had turned her head towards the street, listening very attentively,
+      but apparently unwilling to show it. The old maid paused, hoping that one
+      of the others would question her; and then, in a lower tone, she added:
+      &ldquo;They had a woman with them. Oh, I don&rsquo;t mean Monsieur Quenu, of course! I
+      didn&rsquo;t say that; I don&rsquo;t know&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be Clemence,&rdquo; interrupted La Sarriette; &ldquo;a big scraggy creature
+      who gives herself all sorts of airs just because she went to boarding
+      school. She lives with a threadbare usher. I&rsquo;ve seen them together; they
+      always look as though they were taking each other off to the police
+      station.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes; I know,&rdquo; replied the old maid, who, indeed, knew everything
+      about Charvet and Clemence, and whose only purpose was to alarm Lisa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mistress of the pork shop, however, never flinched. She seemed to be
+      absorbed in watching something of great interest in the market yonder.
+      Accordingly the old maid had recourse to stronger measures. &ldquo;I think,&rdquo;
+       said she, addressing herself to Madame Lecoeur, &ldquo;that you ought to advise
+      your brother-in-law to be careful. Last night they were shouting out the
+      most shocking things in that little room. Men really seem to lose their
+      heads over politics. If anyone had heard them, it might have been a very
+      serious matter for them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! Gavard will go his own way,&rdquo; sighed Madame Lecoeur. &ldquo;It only wanted
+      this to fill my cup. I shall die of anxiety, I am sure, if he ever gets
+      arrested.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As she spoke, a gleam shot from her dim eyes. La Sarriette, however,
+      laughed and wagged her little face, bright with the freshness of the
+      morning air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You should hear what Jules says of those who speak against the Empire,&rdquo;
+       she remarked. &ldquo;They ought all to be thrown into the Seine, he told me; for
+      it seems there isn&rsquo;t a single respectable person amongst them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! there&rsquo;s no harm done, of course, so long as only people like myself
+      hear their foolish talk,&rdquo; resumed Mademoiselle Saget. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather cut my
+      hand off, you know, than make mischief. Last night now, for instance,
+      Monsieur Quenu was saying&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She again paused. Lisa had started slightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monsieur Quenu was saying that the Ministers and Deputies and all who are
+      in power ought to be shot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this Lisa turned sharply, her face quite white and her hands clenched
+      beneath her apron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quenu said that?&rdquo; she curtly asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, indeed, and several other similar things that I can&rsquo;t recollect now.
+      I heard him myself. But don&rsquo;t distress yourself like that, Madame Quenu.
+      You know very well that I sha&rsquo;n&rsquo;t breathe a word. I&rsquo;m quite old enough to
+      know what might harm a man if it came out. Oh, no; it will go no further.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa had recovered her equanimity. She took a pride in the happy
+      peacefulness of her home; she would not acknowledge that there had ever
+      been the slightest difference between herself and her husband. And so now
+      she shrugged her shoulders and said with a smile: &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s all a pack of
+      foolish nonsense.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the three others were in the street together they agreed that
+      handsome Lisa had pulled a very doleful face; and they were unanimously of
+      opinion that the mysterious goings-on of the cousin, the Mehudins, Gavard,
+      and the Quenus would end in trouble. Madame Lecoeur inquired what was done
+      to the people who got arrested &ldquo;for politics,&rdquo; but on this point
+      Mademoiselle Saget could not enlighten her; she only knew that they were
+      never seen again&mdash;no, never. And this induced La Sarriette to suggest
+      that perhaps they were thrown into the Seine, as Jules had said they ought
+      to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa avoided all reference to the subject at breakfast and dinner that
+      day; and even in the evening, when Florent and Quenu went off together to
+      Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s, there was no unwonted severity in her glance. On that
+      particular evening, however, the question of framing a constitution for
+      the future came under discussion, and it was one o&rsquo;clock in the morning
+      before the politicians could tear themselves away from the little room.
+      The shutters had already been fastened, and they were obliged to leave by
+      a small door, passing out one at a time with bent backs. Quenu returned
+      home with an uneasy conscience. He opened the three or four doors on his
+      way to bed as gently as possible, walking on tip-toe and stretching out
+      his hands as he passed through the sitting-room, to avoid a collision with
+      any of the furniture. The whole house seemed to be asleep. When he reached
+      the bedroom, he was annoyed to find that Lisa had not extinguished the
+      candle, which was burning with a tall, mournful flame in the midst of the
+      deep silence. As Quenu took off his shoes, and put them down in a corner,
+      the time-piece struck half past one with such a clear, ringing sound that
+      he turned in alarm, almost frightened to move, and gazing with an
+      expression of angry reproach at the shining gilded Gutenberg standing
+      there, with his finger on a book. Lisa&rsquo;s head was buried in her pillow,
+      and Quenu could only see her back; but he divined that she was merely
+      feigning sleep, and her conduct in turning her back upon him was so
+      instinct with reproach that he felt sorely ill at ease. At last he slipped
+      beneath the bed-clothes, blew out the candle, and lay perfectly still. He
+      could have sworn that his wife was awake, though she did not speak to him;
+      and presently he fell asleep, feeling intensely miserable, and lacking the
+      courage to say good night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He slept till late, and when he awoke he found himself sprawling in the
+      middle of the bed with the eider-down quilt up to his chin, whilst Lisa
+      sat in front of the secretaire, arranging some papers. His slumber had
+      been so heavy that he had not heard her rise. However, he now took
+      courage, and spoke to her from the depths of the alcove: &ldquo;Why didn&rsquo;t you
+      wake me? What are you doing there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorting the papers in these drawers,&rdquo; she replied in her usual tone
+      of voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu felt relieved. But Lisa added: &ldquo;One never knows what may happen. If
+      the police were to come&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! the police?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, indeed, the police; for you&rsquo;re mixing yourself up with politics
+      now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this Quenu sat up in bed, quite dazed and confounded by such a violent
+      and unexpected attack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mix myself up with politics! I mix myself up with politics!&rdquo; he
+      repeated. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no concern of the police. I&rsquo;ve nothing to do with any
+      compromising matters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; replied Lisa, shrugging her shoulders; &ldquo;you merely talk about
+      shooting everybody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I! I!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. And you bawl it out in a public-house! Mademoiselle Saget heard you.
+      All the neighbourhood knows by this time that you are a Red Republican!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu fell back in bed again. He was not perfectly awake as yet. Lisa&rsquo;s
+      words resounded in his ears as though he already heard the heavy tramp of
+      gendarmes at the bedroom door. He looked at her as she sat there, with her
+      hair already arranged, her figure tightly imprisoned in her stays, her
+      whole appearance the same as it was on any other morning; and he felt more
+      astonished than ever that she should be so neat and prim under such
+      extraordinary circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I leave you absolutely free, you know,&rdquo; she continued, as she went on
+      arranging the papers. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to wear the breeches, as the saying
+      goes. You are the master, and you are at liberty to endanger your
+      position, compromise our credit, and ruin our business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as Quenu tried to protest, she silenced him with a gesture. &ldquo;No, no;
+      don&rsquo;t say anything,&rdquo; she continued. &ldquo;This is no quarrel, and I am not even
+      asking an explanation from you. But if you had consulted me, and we had
+      talked the matter over together, I might have intervened. Ah! it&rsquo;s a great
+      mistake to imagine that women understand nothing about politics. Shall I
+      tell you what my politics are?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had risen from her seat whilst speaking, and was now walking to and
+      fro between the bed and the window, wiping as she went some specks of dust
+      from the bright mahogany of the mirrored wardrobe and the dressing-table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My politics are the politics of honest folks,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m grateful to
+      the Government when business is prosperous, when I can eat my meals in
+      peace and comfort, and can sleep at nights without being awakened by the
+      firing of guns. There were pretty times in &lsquo;48, were there not? You
+      remember our uncle Gradelle, the worthy man, showing us his books for that
+      year? He lost more than six thousand francs. Now that we have got the
+      Empire, however, everything prospers. We sell our goods readily enough.
+      You can&rsquo;t deny it. Well, then, what is it that you want? How will you be
+      better off when you have shot everybody?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She took her stand in front of the little night-table, crossed her arms
+      over her breast, and fixed her eyes upon Quenu, who had shuffled himself
+      beneath the bed-clothes, almost out of sight. He attempted to explain what
+      it was that his friends wanted, but he got quite confused in his
+      endeavours to summarise Florent&rsquo;s and Charvet&rsquo;s political and social
+      systems; and could only talk about the disregard shown to principles, the
+      accession of the democracy to power, and the regeneration of society, in
+      such a strange tangled way that Lisa shrugged her shoulders, quite unable
+      to understand him. At last, however, he extricated himself from his
+      difficulties by declaring that the Empire was the reign of licentiousness,
+      swindling finance, and highway robbery. And, recalling an expression of
+      Logre&rsquo;s he added: &ldquo;We are the prey of a band of adventurers, who are
+      pillaging, violating, and assassinating France. We&rsquo;ll have no more of
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa, however, still shrugged her shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, and is that all you have got to say?&rdquo; she asked with perfect
+      coolness. &ldquo;What has all that got to do with me? Even supposing it were
+      true, what then? Have I ever advised you to practise dishonest courses?
+      Have I ever prompted you to dishonour your acceptances, or cheat your
+      customers, or pile up money by fraudulent practices? Really, you&rsquo;ll end by
+      making me quite angry! We are honest folks, and we don&rsquo;t pillage or
+      assassinate anybody. That&rsquo;s quite sufficient. What other folks do is no
+      concern of ours. If they choose to be rogues it&rsquo;s their affair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked quite majestic and triumphant; and again pacing the room,
+      drawing herself up to her full height, she resumed: &ldquo;A pretty notion it is
+      that people are to let their business go to rack and ruin just to please
+      those who are penniless. For my part, I&rsquo;m in favour of making hay while
+      the sun shines, and supporting a Government which promotes trade. If it
+      does do dishonourable things, I prefer to know nothing about them. I know
+      that I myself commit none, and that no one in the neighbourhood can point
+      a finger at me. It&rsquo;s only fools who go tilting at windmills. At the time
+      of the last elections, you remember, Gavard said that the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      candidate had been bankrupt, and was mixed up in all sorts of scandalous
+      matters. Well, perhaps that was true, I don&rsquo;t deny it; but all the same,
+      you acted wisely in voting for him, for all that was not in question; you
+      were not asked to lend the man any money or to transact any business with
+      him, but merely to show the Government that you were pleased with the
+      prosperity of the pork trade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment Quenu called to mind a sentence of Charvet&rsquo;s, asserting
+      that &ldquo;the bloated bourgeois, the sleek shopkeepers, who backed up that
+      Government of universal gormandising, ought to be hurled into the sewers
+      before all others, for it was owing to them and their gluttonous egotism
+      that tyranny had succeeded in mastering and preying upon the nation.&rdquo; He
+      was trying to complete this piece of eloquence when Lisa, carried off by
+      her indignation, cut him short.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t talk such stuff! My conscience doesn&rsquo;t reproach me with anything. I
+      don&rsquo;t owe a copper to anybody; I&rsquo;m not mixed up in any dishonest business;
+      I buy and sell good sound stuff; and I charge no more than others do. What
+      you say may perhaps apply to people like our cousins, the Saccards. They
+      pretend to be even ignorant that I am in Paris; but I am prouder than they
+      are, and I don&rsquo;t care a rap for their millions. It&rsquo;s said that Saccard
+      speculates in condemned buildings, and cheats and robs everybody. I&rsquo;m not
+      surprised to hear it, for he was always that way inclined. He loves money
+      just for the sake of wallowing in it, and then tossing it out of his
+      windows, like the imbecile he is. I can understand people attacking men of
+      his stamp, who pile up excessive fortunes. For my part, if you care to
+      know it, I have but a bad opinion of Saccard. But we&mdash;we who live so
+      quietly and peaceably, who will need at least fifteen years to put by
+      sufficient money to make ourselves comfortably independent, we who have no
+      reason to meddle in politics, and whose only aim is to bring up our
+      daughter respectably, and to see that our business prospers&mdash;why you
+      must be joking to talk such stuff about us. We are honest folks!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She came and sat down on the edge of the bed. Quenu was already much
+      shaken in his opinions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen to me, now,&rdquo; she resumed in a more serious voice. &ldquo;You surely
+      don&rsquo;t want to see your own shop pillaged, your cellar emptied, and your
+      money taken from you? If these men who meet at Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s should
+      prove triumphant, do you think that you would then lie as comfortably in
+      your bed as you do now? And on going down into the kitchen, do you imagine
+      that you would set about making your galantines as peacefully as you will
+      presently? No, no, indeed! So why do you talk about overthrowing a
+      Government which protects you, and enables you to put money by? You have a
+      wife and a daughter, and your first duty is towards them. You would be in
+      fault if you imperilled their happiness. It is only those who have neither
+      home nor hearth, who have nothing to lose, who want to be shooting people.
+      Surely you don&rsquo;t want to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for <i>them</i>!
+      So stay quietly at home, you foolish fellow, sleep comfortably, eat well,
+      make money, keep an easy conscience, and leave France to free herself of
+      the Empire if the Empire annoys her. France can get on very well without
+      <i>you</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed her bright melodious laugh as she finished; and Quenu was now
+      altogether convinced. Yes, she was right, after all; and she looked so
+      charming, he thought, as she sat there on the edge of the bed, so trim,
+      although it was so early, so bright, and so fresh in the dazzling
+      whiteness of her linen. As he listened to her his eyes fell on their
+      portraits hanging on either side of the fireplace. Yes, they were
+      certainly honest folks; they had such a respectable, well-to-do air in
+      their black clothes and their gilded frames! The bedroom, too, looked as
+      though it belonged to people of some account in the world. The lace
+      squares seemed to give a dignified appearance to the chairs; and the
+      carpet, the curtains, and the vases decorated with painted landscapes&mdash;all
+      spoke of their exertions to get on in the world and their taste for
+      comfort. Thereupon he plunged yet further beneath the eider-down quilt,
+      which kept him in a state of pleasant warmth. He began to feel that he had
+      risked losing all these things at Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s&mdash;his huge bed,
+      his cosy room, and his business, on which his thoughts now dwelt with
+      tender remorse. And from Lisa, from the furniture, from all his cosy
+      surroundings, he derived a sense of comfort which thrilled him with a
+      delightful, overpowering charm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You foolish fellow!&rdquo; said his wife, seeing that he was now quite
+      conquered. &ldquo;A pretty business it was that you&rsquo;d embarked upon; but you&rsquo;d
+      have had to reckon with Pauline and me, I can tell you! And now don&rsquo;t
+      bother your head any more about the Government. To begin with, all
+      Governments are alike, and if we didn&rsquo;t have this one, we should have
+      another. A Government is necessary. But the one thing is to be able to
+      live on, to spend one&rsquo;s savings in peace and comfort when one grows old,
+      and to know that one has gained one&rsquo;s means honestly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu nodded his head in acquiescence, and tried to commence a
+      justification of his conduct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was Gavard&mdash;,&rdquo; he began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Lisa&rsquo;s face again assumed a serious expression, and she interrupted
+      him sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it was not Gavard. I know very well who it was; and it would be a
+      great deal better if he would look after his own safety before
+      compromising that of others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it Florent you mean?&rdquo; Quenu timidly inquired after a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa did not immediately reply. She got up and went back to the
+      secretaire, as if trying to restrain herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it is Florent,&rdquo; she said presently, in incisive tones. &ldquo;You know how
+      patient I am. I would bear almost anything rather than come between you
+      and your brother. The tie of relationship is a sacred thing. But the cup
+      is filled to overflowing now. Since your brother came here things have
+      been constantly getting worse and worse. But now, I won&rsquo;t say anything
+      more; it is better that I shouldn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another pause. Then, as her husband gazed up at the ceiling with
+      an air of embarrassment, she continued, with increased violence:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really, he seems to ignore all that we have done for him. We have put
+      ourselves to great inconvenience for his sake; we have given him
+      Augustine&rsquo;s bedroom, and the poor girl sleeps without a murmur in a stuffy
+      little closet where she can scarcely breathe. We board and lodge him and
+      give him every attention&mdash;but no, he takes it all quite as a matter
+      of course. He is earning money, but what he does with it nobody knows; or,
+      rather, one knows only too well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But there&rsquo;s his share of the inheritance, you know,&rdquo; Quenu ventured to
+      say, pained at hearing his brother attacked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa suddenly stiffened herself as though she were stunned, and her anger
+      vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you are right; there is his share of the inheritance. Here is the
+      statement of it, in this drawer. But he refused to take it; you remember,
+      you were present, and heard him. That only proves that he is a brainless,
+      worthless fellow. If he had had an idea in his head, he would have made
+      something out of that money by now. For my own part, I should be very glad
+      to get rid of it; it would be a relief to us. I have told him so twice,
+      but he won&rsquo;t listen to me. You ought to persuade him to take it. Talk to
+      him about it, will you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu growled something in reply; and Lisa refrained from pressing the
+      point further, being of opinion that she had done all that could be
+      expected of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is not like other men,&rdquo; she resumed. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a comfortable sort of
+      person to have in the house. I shouldn&rsquo;t have said this if we hadn&rsquo;t got
+      talking on the subject. I don&rsquo;t busy myself about his conduct, though it&rsquo;s
+      setting the whole neighbourhood gossiping about us. Let him eat and sleep
+      here, and put us about, if he likes; we can get over that; but what I
+      won&rsquo;t tolerate is that he should involve us in his politics. If he tries
+      to lead you off again, or compromises us in the least degree, I shall turn
+      him out of the house without the least hesitation. I warn you, and now you
+      understand!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent was doomed. Lisa was making a great effort to restrain herself, to
+      prevent the animosity which had long been rankling in her heart from
+      flowing forth. But Florent and his ways jarred against her every instinct;
+      he wounded her, frightened her, and made her quite miserable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man who has made such a discreditable career,&rdquo; she murmured, &ldquo;who has
+      never been able to get a roof of his own over his head! I can very well
+      understand his partiality for bullets! He can go and stand in their way if
+      he chooses; but let him leave honest folks to their families! And then, he
+      isn&rsquo;t pleasant to have about one! He reeks of fish in the evening at
+      dinner! It prevents me from eating. He himself never lets a mouthful go
+      past him, though it&rsquo;s little better he seems to be for it all! He can&rsquo;t
+      even grow decently stout, the wretched fellow, to such a degree do his bad
+      instincts prey on him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had stepped up to the window whilst speaking, and now saw Florent
+      crossing the Rue Rambuteau on his way to the fish market. There was a very
+      large arrival of fish that morning; the tray-like baskets were covered
+      with rippling silver, and the auction rooms roared with the hubbub of
+      their sales. Lisa kept her eyes on the bony shoulders of her
+      brother-in-law as he made his way into the pungent smells of the market,
+      stooping beneath the sickening sensation which they brought him; and the
+      glance with which she followed his steps was that of a woman bent on
+      combat and resolved to be victorious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she turned round again, Quenu was getting up. As he sat on the edge
+      of the bed in his night-shirt, still warm from the pleasant heat of the
+      eider-down quilt and with his feet resting on the soft fluffy rug below
+      him, he looked quite pale, quite distressed at the misunderstanding
+      between his wife and his brother. Lisa, however, gave him one of her
+      sweetest smiles, and he felt deeply touched when she handed him his socks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Marjolin had been found in a heap of cabbages at the Market of the
+      Innocents. He was sleeping under the shelter of a large white-hearted one,
+      a broad leaf of which concealed his rosy childish face It was never known
+      what poverty-stricken mother had laid him there. When he was found he was
+      already a fine little fellow of two or three years of age, very plump and
+      merry, but so backward and dense that he could scarcely stammer a few
+      words, and only seemed able to smile. When one of the vegetable saleswomen
+      found him lying under the big white cabbage she raised such a loud cry of
+      surprise that her neighbours rushed up to see what was the matter, while
+      the youngster, still in petticoats, and wrapped in a scrap of old blanket,
+      held out his arms towards her. He could not tell who his mother was, but
+      opened his eyes in wide astonishment as he squeezed against the shoulder
+      of a stout tripe dealer who eventually took him up. The whole market
+      busied itself about him throughout the day. He soon recovered confidence,
+      ate slices of bread and butter, and smiled at all the women. The stout
+      tripe dealer kept him for a time, then a neighbour took him; and a month
+      later a third woman gave him shelter. When they asked him where his mother
+      was, he waved his little hand with a pretty gesture which embraced all the
+      women present. He became the adopted child of the place, always clinging
+      to the skirts of one or another of the women, and always finding a corner
+      of a bed and a share of a meal somewhere. Somehow, too, he managed to find
+      clothes, and he even had a copper or two at the bottom of his ragged
+      pockets. It was a buxom, ruddy girl dealing in medicinal herbs who gave
+      him the name of Marjolin,[*] though no one knew why.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [*] Literally &ldquo;Marjoram.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Marjolin was nearly four years of age, old Mother Chantemesse also
+      happened to find a child, a little girl, lying on the footway of the Rue
+      Saint Denis, near the corner of the market. Judging by the little one&rsquo;s
+      size, she seemed to be a couple of years old, but she could already
+      chatter like a magpie, murdering her words in an incessant childish
+      babble. Old Mother Chantemesse after a time gathered that her name was
+      Cadine, and that on the previous evening her mother had left her sitting
+      on a doorstep, with instructions to wait till she returned. The child had
+      fallen asleep there, and did not cry. She related that she was beaten at
+      home; and she gladly followed Mother Chantemesse, seemingly quite
+      enchanted with that huge square, where there were so many people and such
+      piles of vegetables. Mother Chantemesse, a retail dealer by trade, was a
+      crusty but very worthy woman, approaching her sixtieth year. She was
+      extremely fond of children, and had lost three boys of her own when they
+      were mere babies. She came to the opinion that the chit she had found &ldquo;was
+      far too wide awake to kick the bucket,&rdquo; and so she adopted her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening, however, as she was going off home with her right hand
+      clasping Cadine&rsquo;s, Marjolin came up and unceremoniously caught hold of her
+      left hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, my lad,&rdquo; said the old woman, stopping, &ldquo;the place is filled. Have
+      you left your big Therese, then? What a fickle little gadabout you are!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy gazed at her with his smiling eyes, without letting go of her
+      hand. He looked so pretty with his curly hair that she could not resist
+      him. &ldquo;Well, come along, then, you little scamp,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll put you
+      to bed as well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus she made her appearance in the Rue au Lard, where she lived, with a
+      child clinging to either hand. Marjolin made himself quite at home there.
+      When the two children proved too noisy the old woman cuffed them,
+      delighted to shout and worry herself, and wash the youngsters, and pack
+      them away beneath the blankets. She had fixed them up a little bed in an
+      old costermonger&rsquo;s barrow, the wheels and shafts of which had disappeared.
+      It was like a big cradle, a trifle hard, but retaining a strong scent of
+      the vegetables which it had long kept fresh and cool beneath a covering of
+      damp cloths. And there, when four years old, Cadine and Marjolin slept
+      locked in each other&rsquo;s arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They grew up together, and were always to be seen with their arms about
+      one another&rsquo;s waist. At night time old Mother Chantemesse heard them
+      prattling softly. Cadine&rsquo;s clear treble went chattering on for hours
+      together, while Marjolin listened with occasional expressions of
+      astonishment vented in a deeper tone. The girl was a mischievous young
+      creature, and concocted all sorts of stories to frighten her companion;
+      telling him, for instance, that she had one night seen a man, dressed all
+      in white, looking at them and putting out a great red tongue, at the foot
+      of the bed. Marjolin quite perspired with terror, and anxiously asked for
+      further particulars; but the girl would then begin to jeer at him, and end
+      by calling him a big donkey. At other times they were not so peaceably
+      disposed, but kicked each other beneath the blankets. Cadine would pull up
+      her legs, and try to restrain her laughter as Marjolin missed his aim, and
+      sent his feet banging against the wall. When this happened, old Madame
+      Chantemesse was obliged to get up to put the bed-clothes straight again;
+      and, by way of sending the children to sleep, she would administer a box
+      on the ear to both of them. For a long time their bed was a sort of
+      playground. They carried their toys into it, and munched stolen carrots
+      and turnips as they lay side by side. Every morning their adopted mother
+      was amazed at the strange things she found in the bed&mdash;pebbles,
+      leaves, apple cores, and dolls made out of scraps of rags. When the very
+      cold weather came, she went off to her work, leaving them sleeping there,
+      Cadine&rsquo;s black mop mingling with Marjolin&rsquo;s sunny curls, and their mouths
+      so near together that they looked as though they were keeping each other
+      warm with their breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The room in the Rue au Lard was a big, dilapidated garret, with a single
+      window, the panes of which were dimmed by the rain. The children would
+      play at hide-and-seek in the tall walnut wardrobe and underneath Mother
+      Chantemesse&rsquo;s colossal bed. There were also two or three tables in the
+      room, and they crawled under these on all fours. They found the place a
+      very charming playground, on account of the dim light and the vegetables
+      scattered about in the dark corners. The street itself, too, narrow and
+      very quiet, with a broad arcade opening into the Rue de la Lingerie,
+      provided them with plenty of entertainment. The door of the house was by
+      the side of the arcade; it was a low door and could only be opened half
+      way owing to the near proximity of the greasy corkscrew staircase. The
+      house, which had a projecting pent roof and a bulging front, dark with
+      damp, and displaying greenish drain-sinks near the windows of each floor,
+      also served as a big toy for the young couple. They spent their mornings
+      below in throwing stones up into the drain-sinks, and the stones thereupon
+      fell down the pipes with a very merry clatter. In thus amusing themselves,
+      however, they managed to break a couple of windows, and filled the drains
+      with stones, so that Mother Chantemesse, who had lived in the house for
+      three and forty years, narrowly escaped being turned out of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cadine and Marjolin then directed their attention to the vans and drays
+      and tumbrels which were drawn up in the quiet street. They clambered on to
+      the wheels, swung from the dangling chains, and larked about amongst the
+      piles of boxes and hampers. Here also were the back premises of the
+      commission agents of the Rue de la Poterie&mdash;huge, gloomy warehouses,
+      each day filled and emptied afresh, and affording a constant succession of
+      delightful hiding-places, where the youngsters buried themselves amidst
+      the scent of dried fruits, oranges, and fresh apples. When they got tired
+      of playing in his way, they went off to join old Madame Chantemesse at the
+      Market of the Innocents. They arrived there arm-in-arm, laughing gaily as
+      they crossed the streets with never the slightest fear of being run over
+      by the endless vehicles. They knew the pavement well, and plunged their
+      little legs knee-deep in the vegetable refuse without ever slipping. They
+      jeered merrily at any porter in heavy boots who, in stepping over an
+      artichoke stem, fell sprawling full-length upon the ground. They were the
+      rosy-cheeked familiar spirits of those greasy streets. They were to be
+      seen everywhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On rainy days they walked gravely beneath the shelter of a ragged old
+      umbrella, with which Mother Chantemesse had protected her stock-in-trade
+      for twenty years, and sticking it up in a corner of the market they called
+      it their house. On sunny days they romped to such a degree that when
+      evening came they were almost too tired to move. They bathed their feet in
+      the fountains, dammed up the gutters, or hid themselves beneath piles of
+      vegetables, and remained there prattling to each other just as they did in
+      bed at night. People passing some huge mountain of cos or cabbage lettuces
+      often heard a muffled sound of chatter coming from it. And when the
+      green-stuff was removed, the two children would be discovered lying side
+      by side on their couch of verdure, their eyes glistening uneasily like
+      those of birds discovered in the depth of a thicket. As time went on,
+      Cadine could not get along without Marjolin, and Marjolin began to cry
+      when he lost sight of Cadine. If they happened to get separated, they
+      sought one another behind the petticoats of every stallkeeper in the
+      markets, amongst the boxes and under the cabbages. If was, indeed, chiefly
+      under the cabbages that they grew up and learned to love each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marjolin was nearly eight years old, and Cadine six, when old Madame
+      Chantemesse began to reproach them for their idleness. She told them that
+      she would interest them in her business, and pay them a sou a day to
+      assist her in paring her vegetables. During the first few days the
+      children displayed eager zeal; they squatted down on either side of the
+      big flat basket with little knives in their hands, and worked away
+      energetically. Mother Chantemesse made a specialty of pared vegetables; on
+      her stall, covered with a strip of damp black lining, were little lots of
+      potatoes, turnips, carrots, and white onions, arranged in pyramids of four&mdash;three
+      at the base and one at the apex, all quite ready to be popped into the
+      pans of dilatory housewives. She also had bundles duly stringed in
+      readiness for the soup-pot&mdash;four leeks, three carrots, a parsnip, two
+      turnips, and a couple of springs of celery. Then there were finely cut
+      vegetables for julienne soup laid out on squares of paper, cabbages cut
+      into quarters, and little heaps of tomatoes and slices of pumpkin which
+      gleamed like red stars and golden crescents amidst the pale hues of the
+      other vegetables. Cadine evinced much more dexterity than Marjolin,
+      although she was younger. The peelings of the potatoes she pared were so
+      thin that you could see through them; she tied up the bundles for the
+      soup-pot so artistically that they looked like bouquets; and she had a way
+      of making the little heaps she set up, though they contained but three
+      carrots or turnips, look like very big ones. The passers-by would stop and
+      smile when she called out in her shrill childish voice: &ldquo;Madame! madame!
+      come and try me! Each little pile for two sous.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had her regular customers, and her little piles and bundles were
+      widely known. Old Mother Chantemesse, seated between the two children,
+      would indulge in a silent laugh which made her bosom rise almost to her
+      chin, at seeing them working away so seriously. She paid them their daily
+      sous most faithfully. But they soon began to weary of the little heaps and
+      bundles; they were growing up, and began to dream of some more lucrative
+      business. Marjolin remained very childish for his years, and this
+      irritated Cadine. He had no more brains than a cabbage, she often said.
+      And it was, indeed, quite useless for her to devise any plan for him to
+      make money; he never earned any. He could not even do an errand
+      satisfactorily. The girl, on the other hand, was very shrewd. When but
+      eight years old she obtained employment from one of those women who sit on
+      a bench in the neighbourhood of the markets provided with a basket of
+      lemons, and employ a troop of children to go about selling them. Carrying
+      the lemons in her hands and offering them at two for three sous, Cadine
+      thrust them under every woman&rsquo;s nose, and ran after every passer-by. Her
+      hands empty, she hastened back for a fresh supply. She was paid two sous
+      for every dozen lemons that she sold, and on good days she could earn some
+      five or six sous. During the following year she hawked caps at nine sous
+      apiece, which proved a more profitable business; only she had to keep a
+      sharp look-out, as street trading of this kind is forbidden unless one be
+      licensed. However, she scented a policeman at a distance of a hundred
+      yards; and the caps forthwith disappeared under her skirts, whilst she
+      began to munch an apple with an air of guileless innocence. Then she took
+      to selling pastry, cakes, cherry-tarts, gingerbread, and thick yellow
+      maize biscuits on wicker trays. Marjolin, however, ate up nearly the whole
+      of her stock-in-trade. At last, when she was eleven years old, she
+      succeeded in realising a grand idea which had long been worrying her. In a
+      couple of months she put by four francs, bought a small <i>hotte</i>,[*]
+      and then set up as a dealer in birds&rsquo; food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [*] A basket carried on the back.&mdash;Translator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a big affair. She got up early in the morning and purchased her
+      stock of groundsel, millet, and bird-cake from the wholesale dealers. Then
+      she set out on her day&rsquo;s work, crossing the river, and perambulating the
+      Latin Quarter from the Rue Saint Jacques to the Rue Dauphine, and even to
+      the Luxembourg. Marjolin used to accompany her, but she would not let him
+      carry the basket. He was only fit to call out, she said; and so, in his
+      thick, drawling voice, he would raise the cry, &ldquo;Chickweed for the little
+      birds!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Cadine herself, with her flute-like voice, would start on a strange
+      scale of notes ending in a clear, protracted alto, &ldquo;Chickweed for the
+      little birds!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They each took one side of the road, and looked up in the air as they
+      walked along. In those days Marjolin wore a big scarlet waistcoat which
+      hung down to his knees; it had belonged to the defunct Monsieur
+      Chantemesse, who had been a cab-driver. Cadine for her part wore a white
+      and blue check gown, made out of an old tartan of Madame Chantemesse&rsquo;s.
+      All the canaries in the garrets of the Latin Quarter knew them; and, as
+      they passed along, repeating their cry, each echoing the other&rsquo;s voice,
+      every cage poured out a song.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cadine sold water-cress, too. &ldquo;Two sous a bunch! Two sous a bunch!&rdquo; And
+      Marjolin went into the shops to offer it for sale. &ldquo;Fine water-cress!
+      Health for the body! Fine fresh water-cress!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However, the new central markets had just been erected, and the girl would
+      stand gazing in ecstacy at the avenue of flower stalls which runs through
+      the fruit pavilion. Here on either hand, from end to end, big clumps of
+      flowers bloom as in the borders of a garden walk. It is a perfect harvest,
+      sweet with perfume, a double hedge of blossoms, between which the girls of
+      the neighbourhood love to walk, smiling the while, though almost stifled
+      by the heavy perfume. And on the top tiers of the stalls are artificial
+      flowers, with paper leaves, in which dewdrops are simulated by drops of
+      gum; and memorial wreaths of black and white beads rippling with bluish
+      reflections. Cadine&rsquo;s rosy nostrils would dilate with feline sensuality;
+      she would linger as long as possible in that sweet freshness, and carry as
+      much of the perfume away with her as she could. When her hair bobbed under
+      Marjolin&rsquo;s nose he would remark that it smelt of pinks. She said that she
+      had given over using pomatum; that is was quite sufficient for her to
+      stroll through the flower walk in order to scent her hair. Next she began
+      to intrigue and scheme with such success that she was engaged by one of
+      the stallkeepers. And then Marjolin declared that she smelt sweet from
+      head to foot. She lived in the midst of roses, lilacs, wall-flowers, and
+      lilies of the valley; and Marjolin would playfully smell at her skirts,
+      feign a momentary hesitation, and then exclaim, &ldquo;Ah, that&rsquo;s lily of the
+      valley!&rdquo; Next he would sniff at her waist and bodice: &ldquo;Ah, that&rsquo;s
+      wall-flowers!&rdquo; And at her sleeves and wrists: &ldquo;Ah, that&rsquo;s lilac!&rdquo; And at
+      her neck, and her cheeks and lips: &ldquo;Ah, but that&rsquo;s roses!&rdquo; he would cry.
+      Cadine used to laugh at him, and call him a &ldquo;silly stupid,&rdquo; and tell him
+      to get away, because he was tickling her with the tip of his nose. As she
+      spoke her breath smelt of jasmine. She was verily a bouquet, full of
+      warmth and life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She now got up at four o&rsquo;clock every morning to assist her mistress in her
+      purchases. Each day they bought armfuls of flowers from the suburban
+      florists, with bundles of moss, and bundles of fern fronds, and periwinkle
+      leaves to garnish the bouquets. Cadine would gaze with amazement at the
+      diamonds and Valenciennes worn by the daughters of the great gardeners of
+      Montreuil, who came to the markets amidst their roses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the saints&rsquo; days of popular observance, such as Saint Mary&rsquo;s, Saint
+      Peter&rsquo;s, and Saint Joseph&rsquo;s days, the sale of flowers began at two
+      o&rsquo;clock. More than a hundred thousand francs&rsquo; worth of cut flowers would
+      be sold on the footways, and some of the retail dealers would make as much
+      as two hundred francs in a few hours. On days like those only Cadine&rsquo;s
+      curly locks peered over the mounds of pansies, mignonette, and
+      marguerites. She was quite drowned and lost in the flood of flowers. Then
+      she would spend all her time in mounting bouquets on bits of rush. In a
+      few weeks she acquired considerable skillfulness in her business, and
+      manifested no little originality. Her bouquets did not always please
+      everybody, however. Sometimes they made one smile, sometimes they alarmed
+      the eyes. Red predominated in them, mottled with violent tints of blue,
+      yellow, and violet of a barbaric charm. On the mornings when she pinched
+      Marjolin, and teased him till she made him cry, she made up fierce-looking
+      bouquets, suggestive of her own bad temper, bouquets with strong rough
+      scents and glaring irritating colours. On other days, however, when she
+      was softened by some thrill of joy or sorrow, her bouquets would assume a
+      tone of silvery grey, very soft and subdued, and delicately perfumed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, too, she would set roses, as sanguineous as open hearts, in lakes of
+      snow-white pinks; arrange bunches of tawny iris that shot up in tufts of
+      flame from foliage that seemed scared by the brilliance of the flowers;
+      work elaborate designs, as complicated as those of Smyrna rugs, adding
+      flower to flower, as on a canvas; and prepare rippling fanlike bouquets
+      spreading out with all the delicacy of lace. Here was a cluster of flowers
+      of delicious purity, there a fat nosegay, whatever one might dream of for
+      the hand of a marchioness or a fish-wife; all the charming quaint fancies,
+      in short, which the brain of a sharp-witted child of twelve, budding into
+      womanhood, could devise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were only two flowers for which Cadine retained respect; white
+      lilac, which by the bundle of eight or ten sprays cost from fifteen to
+      twenty francs in the winter time; and camellias, which were still more
+      costly, and arrived in boxes of a dozen, lying on beds of moss, and
+      covered with cotton wool. She handled these as delicately as though they
+      were jewels, holding her breath for fear of dimming their lustre, and
+      fastening their short stems to springs of cane with the tenderest care.
+      She spoke of them with serious reverence. She told Marjolin one day that a
+      speckless white camellia was a very rare and exceptionally lovely thing,
+      and, as she was making him admire one, he exclaimed: &ldquo;Yes; it&rsquo;s pretty;
+      but I prefer your neck, you know. It&rsquo;s much more soft and transparent than
+      the camellia, and there are some little blue and pink veins just like the
+      pencillings on a flower.&rdquo; Then, drawing near and sniffing, he murmured:
+      &ldquo;Ah! you smell of orange blossom to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cadine was self-willed, and did not get on well in the position of a
+      servant, so she ended by setting up in business on her own account. As she
+      was only thirteen at the time, and could not hope for a big trade and a
+      stall in the flower avenue, she took to selling one-sou bunches of violets
+      pricked into a bed of moss in an osier tray which she carried hanging from
+      her neck. All day long she wandered about the markets and their precincts
+      with her little bit of hanging garden. She loved this continual stroll,
+      which relieved the numbness of her limbs after long hours spent, with bent
+      knees, on a low chair, making bouquets. She fastened her violets together
+      with marvellous deftness as she walked along. She counted out six or eight
+      flowers, according to the season, doubled a sprig of cane in half, added a
+      leaf, twisted some damp thread round the whole, and broke off the thread
+      with her strong young teeth. The little bunches seemed to spring
+      spontaneously from the layer of moss, so rapidly did she stick them into
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Along the footways, amidst the jostling of the street traffic, her nimble
+      fingers were ever flowering though she gave them not a glance, but boldly
+      scanned the shops and passers-by. Sometimes she would rest in a doorway
+      for a moment; and alongside the gutters, greasy with kitchen slops, she
+      sat, as it were a patch of springtime, a suggestion of green woods, and
+      purple blossoms. Her flowers still betokened her frame of mind, her fits
+      of bad temper and her thrills of tenderness. Sometimes they bristled and
+      glowered with anger amidst their crumpled leaves; at other times they
+      spoke only of love and peacefulness as they smiled in their prim collars.
+      As Cadine passed along, she left a sweet perfume behind her; Marjolin
+      followed her devoutly. From head to foot she now exhaled but one scent,
+      and the lad repeated that she was herself a violet, a great big violet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you remember the day when we went to Romainville together?&rdquo; he would
+      say; &ldquo;Romainville, where there are so many violets. The scent was just the
+      same. Oh! don&rsquo;t change again&mdash;you smell too sweetly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And she did not change again. This was her last trade. Still, she often
+      neglected her osier tray to go rambling about the neighbourhood. The
+      building of the central markets&mdash;as yet incomplete&mdash;provided
+      both children with endless opportunities for amusement. They made their
+      way into the midst of the work-yards through some gap or other between the
+      planks; they descended into the foundations, and climbed up to the
+      cast-iron pillars. Every nook, every piece of the framework witnessed
+      their games and quarrels; the pavilions grew up under the touch of their
+      little hands. From all this arose the affection which they felt for the
+      great markets, and which the latter seemed to return. They were on
+      familiar terms with that gigantic pile, old friends as they were, who had
+      seen each pin and bolt put into place. They felt no fear of the huge
+      monster; but slapped it with their childish hands, treated it like a good
+      friend, a chum whose presence brought no constraint. And the markets
+      seemed to smile at these two light-hearted children, whose love was the
+      song, the idyll of their immensity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cadine alone now slept at Mother Chantemesse&rsquo;s. The old woman had packed
+      Marjolin off to a neighbour&rsquo;s. This made the two children very unhappy.
+      Still, they contrived to spend much of their time together. In the daytime
+      they would hide themselves away in the warehouses of the Rue au Lard,
+      behind piles of apples and cases of oranges; and in the evening they would
+      dive into the cellars beneath the poultry market, and secret themselves
+      among the huge hampers of feathers which stood near the blocks where the
+      poultry was killed. They were quite alone there, amidst the strong smell
+      of the poultry, and with never a sound but the sudden crowing of some
+      rooster to break upon their babble and their laughter. The feathers amidst
+      which they found themselves were of all sorts&mdash;turkey&rsquo;s feathers,
+      long and black; goose quills, white and flexible; the downy plumage of
+      ducks, soft like cotton wool; and the ruddy and mottled feathers of fowls,
+      which at the faintest breath flew up in a cloud like a swarm of flies
+      buzzing in the sun. And then in wintertime there was the purple plumage of
+      the pheasants, the ashen grey of the larks, the splotched silk of the
+      partridges, quails, and thrushes. And all these feathers freshly plucked
+      were still warm and odoriferous, seemingly endowed with life. The spot was
+      as cosy as a nest; at times a quiver as of flapping wings sped by, and
+      Marjolin and Cadine, nestling amidst all the plumage, often imagined that
+      they were being carried aloft by one of those huge birds with outspread
+      pinions that one hears of in the fairy tales.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As time went on their childish affection took the inevitable turn.
+      Veritable offsprings of Nature, knowing naught of social conventions and
+      restraints, they loved one another in all innocence and guilelessness.
+      They mated even as the birds of the air mate, even as youth and maid mated
+      in primeval times, because such is Nature&rsquo;s law. At sixteen Cadine was a
+      dusky town gipsy, greedy and sensual, whilst Marjolin, now eighteen, was a
+      tall, strapping fellow, as handsome a youth as could be met, but still
+      with his mental faculties quite undeveloped. He had lived, indeed, a mere
+      animal life, which had strengthened his frame, but left his intellect in a
+      rudimentary state.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When old Madame Chantemesse realised the turn that things were taking she
+      wrathfully upbraided Cadine and struck out vigorously at her with her
+      broom. But the hussy only laughed and dodged the blows, and then hied off
+      to her lover. And gradually the markets became their home, their manger,
+      their aviary, where they lived and loved amidst the meat, the butter, the
+      vegetables, and the feathers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They discovered another little paradise in the pavilion where butter,
+      eggs, and cheese were sold wholesale. Enormous walls of empty baskets were
+      here piled up every morning, and amidst these Cadine and Marjolin burrowed
+      and hollowed out a dark lair for themselves. A mere partition of
+      osier-work separated them from the market crowd, whose loud voices rang
+      out all around them. They often shook with laughter when people, without
+      the least suspicion of their presence, stopped to talk together a few
+      yards away from them. On these occasions they would contrive peepholes,
+      and spy through them, and when cherries were in season Cadine tossed the
+      stones in the faces of all the old women who passed along&mdash;a pastime
+      which amused them the more as the startled old crones could never make out
+      whence the hail of cherry-stones had come. They also prowled about the
+      depths of the cellars, knowing every gloomy corner of them, and contriving
+      to get through the most carefully locked gates. One of their favourite
+      amusements was to visit the track of the subterranean railway, which had
+      been laid under the markets, and which those who planned the latter had
+      intended to connect with the different goods&rsquo; stations of Paris. Sections
+      of this railway were laid beneath each of the covered ways, between the
+      cellars of each pavilion; the work, indeed, was in such an advanced state
+      that turn-tables had been put into position at all the points of
+      intersection, and were in readiness for use. After much examination,
+      Cadine and Marjolin had at last succeeded in discovering a loose plank in
+      the hoarding which enclosed the track, and they had managed to convert it
+      into a door, by which they could easily gain access to the line. There
+      they were quite shut off from the world, though they could hear the
+      continuous rumbling of the street traffic over their heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The line stretched through deserted vaults, here and there illumined by a
+      glimmer of light filtering through iron gratings, while in certain dark
+      corners gas jets were burning. And Cadine and Marjolin rambled about as in
+      the secret recesses of some castle of their own, secure from all
+      interruption, and rejoicing in the buzzy silence, the murky glimmer, and
+      subterranean secrecy, which imparted a touch of melodrama to their
+      experiences. All sorts of smells were wafted through the hoarding from the
+      neighbouring cellars; the musty smell of vegetables, the pungency of fish,
+      the overpowering stench of cheese, and the warm reek of poultry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At other times, on clear nights and fine dawns, they would climb on to the
+      roofs, ascending thither by the steep staircases of the turrets at the
+      angles of the pavilions. Up above they found fields of leads, endless
+      promenades and squares, a stretch of undulating country which belonged to
+      them. They rambled round the square roofs of the pavilions, followed the
+      course of the long roofs of the covered ways, climbed and descended the
+      slopes, and lost themselves in endless perambulations of discovery. And
+      when they grew tired of the lower levels they ascended still higher,
+      venturing up the iron ladders, on which Cadine&rsquo;s skirts flapped like
+      flags. Then they ran along the second tier of roofs beneath the open
+      heavens. There was nothing save the stars above them. All sorts of sounds
+      rose up from the echoing markets, a clattering and rumbling, a vague roar
+      as of a distant tempest heard at nighttime. At that height the morning
+      breeze swept away the evil smells, the foul breath of the awaking markets.
+      They would kiss one another on the edge of the gutterings like sparrows
+      frisking on the house-tops. The rising fires of the sun illumined their
+      faces with a ruddy glow. Cadine laughed with pleasure at being so high up
+      in the air, and her neck shone with iridescent tints like a dove&rsquo;s; while
+      Marjolin bent down to look at the street still wrapped in gloom, with his
+      hands clutching hold of the leads like the feet of a wood-pigeon. When
+      they descended to earth again, joyful from their excursion in the fresh
+      air, they would remark to one another that they were coming back from the
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in the tripe market that they had made the acquaintance of Claude
+      Lantier. They went there every day, impelled thereto by an animal taste
+      for blood, the cruel instinct of urchins who find amusement in the sight
+      of severed heads. A ruddy stream flowed along the gutters round the
+      pavilion; they dipped the tips of their shoes in it, and dammed it up with
+      leaves, so as to form large pools of blood. They took a strong interest in
+      the arrival of the loads of offal in carts which always smelt offensively,
+      despite all the drenchings of water they got; they watched the unloading
+      of the bundles of sheep&rsquo;s trotters, which were piled up on the ground like
+      filthy paving-stones, of the huge stiffened tongues, bleeding at their
+      torn roots, and of the massive bell-shaped bullocks&rsquo; hearts. But the
+      spectacle which, above all others, made them quiver with delight was that
+      of the big dripping hampers, full of sheep&rsquo;s heads, with greasy horns and
+      black muzzles, and strips of woolly skin dangling from bleeding flesh. The
+      sight of these conjured up in their minds the idea of some guillotine
+      casting into the baskets the heads of countless victims.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They followed the baskets into the depths of the cellar, watching them
+      glide down the rails laid over the steps, and listening to the rasping
+      noise which the casters of these osier waggons made in their descent. Down
+      below there was a scene of exquisite horror. They entered into a
+      charnel-house atmosphere, and walked along through murky puddles, amidst
+      which every now and then purple eyes seem to be glistening. At times the
+      soles of their boots stuck to the ground, at others they splashed through
+      the horrible mire, anxious and yet delighted. The gas jets burned low,
+      like blinking, bloodshot eyes. Near the water-taps, in the pale light
+      falling through the gratings, they came upon the blocks; and there they
+      remained in rapture watching the tripe men, who, in aprons stiffened by
+      gory splashings, broke the sheep&rsquo;s heads one after another with a blow of
+      their mallets. They lingered there for hours, waiting till all the baskets
+      were empty, fascinated by the crackling of the bones, unable to tear
+      themselves away till all was over. Sometimes an attendant passed behind
+      them, cleansing the cellar with a hose; floods of water rushed out with a
+      sluice-like roar, but although the violence of the discharge actually ate
+      away the surface of the flagstones, it was powerless to remove the ruddy
+      stains and stench of blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cadine and Marjolin were sure of meeting Claude between four and five in
+      the afternoon at the wholesale auction of the bullocks&rsquo; lights. He was
+      always there amidst the tripe dealers&rsquo; carts backed up against the
+      kerb-stones and the blue-bloused, white-aproned men who jostled him and
+      deafened his ears by their loud bids. But he never felt their elbows; he
+      stood in a sort of ecstatic trance before the huge hanging lights, and
+      often told Cadine and Marjolin that there was no finer sight to be seen.
+      The lights were of a soft rosy hue, gradually deepening and turning at the
+      lower edges to a rich carmine; and Claude compared them to watered satin,
+      finding no other term to describe the soft silkiness of those flowing
+      lengths of flesh which drooped in broad folds like ballet dancers&rsquo; skirts.
+      He thought, too, of gauze and lace allowing a glimpse of pinky skin; and
+      when a ray of sunshine fell upon the lights and girdled them with gold an
+      expression of languorous rapture came into his eyes, and he felt happier
+      than if he had been privileged to contemplate the Greek goddesses in their
+      sovereign nudity, or the chatelaines of romance in their brocaded robes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist became a great friend of the two young scapegraces. He loved
+      beautiful animals, and such undoubtedly they were. For a long time he
+      dreamt of a colossal picture which should represent the loves of Cadine
+      and Marjolin in the central markets, amidst the vegetables, the fish, and
+      the meat. He would have depicted them seated on some couch of food, their
+      arms circling each other&rsquo;s waists, and their lips exchanging an idyllic
+      kiss. In this conception he saw a manifesto proclaiming the positivism of
+      art&mdash;modern art, experimental and materialistic. And it seemed to him
+      also that it would be a smart satire on the school which wishes every
+      painting to embody an &ldquo;idea,&rdquo; a slap for the old traditions and all they
+      represented. But during a couple of years he began study after study
+      without succeeding in giving the particular &ldquo;note&rdquo; he desired. In this way
+      he spoilt fifteen canvases. His failure filled him with rancour; however,
+      he continued to associate with his two models from a sort of hopeless love
+      for his abortive picture. When he met them prowling about in the
+      afternoon, he often scoured the neighbourhood with them, strolling around
+      with his hands in his pockets, and deeply interested in the life of the
+      streets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They all three trudged along together, dragging their heels over the
+      footways and monopolising their whole breadth so as to force others to
+      step down into the road. With their noses in the air they sniffed in the
+      odours of Paris, and could have recognised every corner blindfold by the
+      spirituous emanations of the wine shops, the hot puffs that came from the
+      bakehouses and confectioners&rsquo;, and the musty odours wafted from the
+      fruiterers&rsquo;. They would make the circuit of the whole district. They
+      delighted in passing through the rotunda of the corn market, that huge
+      massive stone cage where sacks of flour were piled up on every side, and
+      where their footsteps echoed in the silence of the resonant roof. They
+      were fond, too, of the little narrow streets in the neighbourhood, which
+      had become as deserted, as black, and as mournful as though they formed
+      part of an abandoned city. These were the Rue Babille, the Rue Sauval, the
+      Rue des Deux Ecus, and the Rue de Viarmes, this last pallid from its
+      proximity to the millers&rsquo; stores, and at four o&rsquo;clock lively by reason of
+      the corn exchange held there. It was generally at this point that they
+      started on their round. They made their way slowly along the Rue
+      Vauvilliers, glancing as they went at the windows of the low
+      eating-houses, and thus reaching the miserably narrow Rue des Prouvaires,
+      where Claude blinked his eyes as he saw one of the covered ways of the
+      market, at the far end of which, framed round by this huge iron nave,
+      appeared a side entrance of St. Eustache with its rose and its tiers of
+      arched windows. And then, with an air of defiance, he would remark that
+      all the middle ages and the Renaissance put together were less mighty than
+      the central markets. Afterwards, as they paced the broad new streets, the
+      Rue du Pont Neuf and the Rue des Halles, he explained modern life with its
+      wide footways, its lofty houses, and its luxurious shops, to the two
+      urchins. He predicted, too, the advent of new and truly original art,
+      whose approach he could divine, and despair filled him that its revelation
+      should seemingly be beyond his own powers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cadine and Marjolin, however, preferred the provincial quietness of the
+      Rue des Bourdonnais, where one can play at marbles without fear of being
+      run over. The girl perked her head affectedly as she passed the wholesale
+      glove and hosiery stores, at each door of which bareheaded assistants,
+      with their pens stuck in their ears, stood watching her with a weary gaze.
+      And she and her lover had yet a stronger preference for such bits of olden
+      Paris as still existed: the Rue de la Poterie and the Rue de la Lingerie,
+      with their butter and egg and cheese dealers; the Rue de la Ferronerie and
+      the Rue de l&rsquo;Aiguillerie (the beautiful streets of far-away times), with
+      their dark narrow shops; and especially the Rue Courtalon, a dank, dirty
+      by-way running from the Place Sainte Opportune to the Rue Saint Denis, and
+      intersected by foul-smelling alleys where they had romped in their younger
+      days. In the Rue Saint Denis they entered into the land of dainties; and
+      they smiled upon the dried apples, the &ldquo;Spanishwood,&rdquo; the prunes, and the
+      sugar-candy in the windows of the grocers and druggists. Their ramblings
+      always set them dreaming of a feast of good things, and inspired them with
+      a desire to glut themselves on the contents of the windows. To them the
+      district seemed like some huge table, always laid with an everlasting
+      dessert into which they longed to plunge their fingers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They devoted but a moment to visiting the other blocks of tumble-down old
+      houses, the Rue Pirouette, the Rue de Mondetour, the Rue de la Petite
+      Truanderie, and the Rue de la Grande Truanderie, for they took little
+      interest in the shops of the dealers in edible snails, cooked vegetables,
+      tripe, and drink. In the Rue de la Grand Truanderie, however, there was a
+      soap factory, an oasis of sweetness in the midst of all the foul odours,
+      and Marjolin was fond of standing outside it till some one happened to
+      enter or come out, so that the perfume which swept through the doorway
+      might blow full in his face. Then with all speed they returned to the Rue
+      Pierre Lescot and the Rue Rambuteau. Cadine was extremely fond of salted
+      provisions; she stood in admiration before the bundles of red-herrings,
+      the barrels of anchovies and capers, and the little casks of gherkins and
+      olives, standing on end with wooden spoons inside them. The smell of the
+      vinegar titillated her throat; the pungent odour of the rolled cod, smoked
+      salmon, bacon and ham, and the sharp acidity of the baskets of lemons,
+      made her mouth water longingly. She was also fond of feasting her eyes on
+      the boxes of sardines piled up in metallic columns amidst the cases and
+      sacks. In the Rue Montorgueil and the Rue Montmartre were other
+      tempting-looking groceries and restaurants, from whose basements
+      appetising odours were wafted, with glorious shows of game and poultry,
+      and preserved-provision shops, which last displayed beside their doors
+      open kegs overflowing with yellow sourkrout suggestive of old lacework.
+      Then they lingered in the Rue Coquilliere, inhaling the odour of truffles
+      from the premises of a notable dealer in comestibles, which threw so
+      strong a perfume into the street that Cadine and Marjolin closed their
+      eyes and imagined they were swallowing all kinds of delicious things.
+      These perfumes, however, distressed Claude. They made him realise the
+      emptiness of his stomach, he said; and, leaving the &ldquo;two animals&rdquo; to feast
+      on the odour of the truffles&mdash;the most penetrating odour to be found
+      in all the neighbourhood&mdash;he went off again to the corn market by way
+      of the Rue Oblin, studying on his road the old women who sold green-stuff
+      in the doorways and the displays of cheap pottery spread out on the
+      foot-pavements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were their rambles in common; but when Cadine set out alone with her
+      bunches of violets she often went farther afield, making it a point to
+      visit certain shops for which she had a particular partiality. She had an
+      especial weakness for the Taboureau bakery establishment, one of the
+      windows of which was exclusively devoted to pastry. She would follow the
+      Rue Turbigo and retrace her steps a dozen times in order to pass again and
+      again before the almond cakes, the <i>savarins</i>, the St. Honore tarts,
+      the fruit tarts, and the various dishes containing bunlike <i>babas</i>
+      redolent of rum, eclairs combining the finger biscuit with chocolate, and
+      <i>choux a la crème</i>, little rounds of pastry overflowing with whipped
+      white of egg. The glass jars full of dry biscuits, macaroons, and <i>madeleines</i>
+      also made her mouth water; and the bright shop with its big mirrors, its
+      marble slabs, its gilding, its bread-bins of ornamental ironwork, and its
+      second window in which long glistening loaves were displayed slantwise,
+      with one end resting on a crystal shelf whilst above they were upheld by a
+      brass rod, was so warm and odoriferous of baked dough that her features
+      expanded with pleasure when, yielding to temptation, she went in to buy a
+      <i>brioche</i> for two sous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another shop, one in front of the Square des Innocents, also filled her
+      with gluttonous inquisitiveness, a fever of longing desire. This shop made
+      a specialty of forcemeat pasties. In addition to the ordinary ones there
+      were pasties of pike and pasties of truffled <i>foie gras</i>; and the
+      girl would gaze yearningly at them, saying to herself that she would
+      really have to eat one some day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cadine also had her moments of vanity and coquetry. When these fits were
+      on her, she bought herself in imagination some of the magnificent dresses
+      displayed in the windows of the &ldquo;Fabriques de France&rdquo; which made the
+      Pointe Saint Eustache gaudy with their pieces of bright stuff hanging from
+      the first floor to the footway and flapping in the breeze. Somewhat
+      incommoded by the flat basket hanging before her, amidst the crowd of
+      market women in dirty aprons gazing at future Sunday dresses, the girl
+      would feel the woollens, flannels, and cottons to test the texture and
+      suppleness of the material; and she would promise herself a gown of
+      bright-coloured flannelling, flowered print, or scarlet poplin. Sometimes
+      even from amongst the pieces draped and set off to advantage by the
+      window-dressers she would choose some soft sky-blue or apple-green silk,
+      and dream of wearing it with pink ribbons. In the evenings she would
+      dazzle herself with the displays in the windows of the big jewellers in
+      the Rue Montmartre. That terrible street deafened her with its ceaseless
+      flow of vehicles, and the streaming crowd never ceased to jostle her;
+      still she did not stir, but remained feasting her eyes on the blazing
+      splendour set out in the light of the reflecting lamps which hung outside
+      the windows. On one side all was white with the bright glitter of silver:
+      watches in rows, chains hanging, spoons and forks laid crossways, cups,
+      snuff-boxes, napkin-rings, and combs arranged on shelves. The silver
+      thimbles, dotting a porcelain stand covered with a glass shade, had an
+      especial attraction for her. Then on the other side the windows glistened
+      with the tawny glow of gold. A cascade of long pendant chains descended
+      from above, rippling with ruddy gleams; small ladies&rsquo; watches, with the
+      backs of their cases displayed, sparkled like fallen stars; wedding rings
+      clustered round slender rods; bracelets, broaches, and other costly
+      ornaments glittered on the black velvet linings of their cases; jewelled
+      rings set their stands aglow with blue, green, yellow, and violet
+      flamelets; while on every tier of the shelves superposed rows of earrings
+      and crosses and lockets hung against the crystal like the rich fringes of
+      altar-cloths. The glow of this gold illumined the street half way across
+      with a sun-like radiance. And Cadine, as she gazed at it, almost fancied
+      that she was in presence of something holy, or on the threshold of the
+      Emperor&rsquo;s treasure chamber. She would for a long time scrutinise all this
+      show of gaudy jewellery, adapted to the taste of the fish-wives, and
+      carefully read the large figures on the tickets affixed to each article;
+      and eventually she would select for herself a pair of earrings&mdash;pear-shaped
+      drops of imitation coral hanging from golden roses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning Claude caught her standing in ecstasy before a hair-dresser&rsquo;s
+      window in the Rue Saint Honore. She was gazing at the display of hair with
+      an expression of intense envy. High up in the window was a streaming
+      cascade of long manes, soft wisps, loose tresses, frizzy falls, undulating
+      comb-curls, a perfect cataract of silky and bristling hair, real and
+      artificial, now in coils of a flaming red, now in thick black crops, now
+      in pale golden locks, and even in snowy white ones for the coquette of
+      sixty. In cardboard boxes down below were cleverly arranged fringes,
+      curling side-ringlets, and carefully combed chignons glossy with pomade.
+      And amidst this framework, in a sort of shrine beneath the ravelled ends
+      of the hanging locks, there revolved the bust of a woman, arrayed in a
+      wrapper of cherry-coloured satin fastened between the breasts with a brass
+      brooch. The figure wore a lofty bridal coiffure picked out with sprigs of
+      orange blossom, and smiled with a dollish smile. Its eyes were pale blue;
+      its eyebrows were very stiff and of exaggerated length; and its waxen
+      cheeks and shoulders bore evident traces of the heat and smoke of the gas.
+      Cadine waited till the revolving figure again displayed its smiling face,
+      and as its profile showed more distinctly and it slowly went round from
+      left to right she felt perfectly happy. Claude, however, was indignant,
+      and, shaking Cadine, he asked her what she was doing in front of &ldquo;that
+      abomination, that corpse-like hussy picked up at the Morgue!&rdquo; He flew into
+      a temper with the &ldquo;dummy&rsquo;s&rdquo; cadaverous face and shoulders, that
+      disfigurement of the beautiful, and remarked that artists painted nothing
+      but that unreal type of woman nowadays. Cadine, however, remained
+      unconvinced by his oratory, and considered the lady extremely beautiful.
+      Then, resisting the attempts of the artist to drag her away by the arm,
+      and scratching her black mop in vexation, she pointed to an enormous ruddy
+      tail, severed from the quarters of some vigorous mare, and told him she
+      would have liked to have a crop of hair like that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the long rambles when Claude, Cadine, and Marjolin prowled about
+      the neighbourhood of the markets, they saw the iron ribs of the giant
+      building at the end of every street. Wherever they turned they caught
+      sudden glimpses of it; the horizon was always bounded by it; merely the
+      aspect under which it was seen varied. Claude was perpetually turning
+      round, and particularly in the Rue Montmartre, after passing the church.
+      From that point the markets, seen obliquely in the distance, filled him
+      with enthusiasm. A huge arcade, a giant, gaping gateway, was open before
+      him; then came the crowding pavilions with their lower and upper roofs,
+      their countless Venetian shutters and endless blinds, a vision, as it
+      were, of superposed houses and palaces; a Babylon of metal of Hindoo
+      delicacy of workmanship, intersected by hanging terraces, aerial
+      galleries, and flying bridges poised over space. The trio always returned
+      to this city round which they strolled, unable to stray more than a
+      hundred yards away. They came back to it during the hot afternoons when
+      the Venetian shutters were closed and the blinds lowered. In the covered
+      ways all seemed to be asleep, the ashy greyness was streaked by yellow
+      bars of sunlight falling through the high windows. Only a subdued murmur
+      broke the silence; the steps of a few hurrying passers-by resounded on the
+      footways; whilst the badge-wearing porters sat in rows on the stone ledges
+      at the corners of the pavilions, taking off their boots and nursing their
+      aching feet. The quietude was that of a colossus at rest, interrupted at
+      times by some cock-crow rising from the cellars below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude, Cadine, and Marjolin then often went to see the empty hampers
+      piled upon the drays, which came to fetch them every afternoon so that
+      they might be sent back to the consignors. There were mountains of them,
+      labelled with black letters and figures, in front of the salesmen&rsquo;s
+      warehouses in the Rue Berger. The porters arranged them symmetrically,
+      tier by tier, on the vehicles. When the pile rose, however, to the height
+      of a first floor, the porter who stood below balancing the next batch of
+      hampers had to make a spring in order to toss them up to his mate, who was
+      perched aloft with arms extended. Claude, who delighted in feats of
+      strength and dexterity, would stand for hours watching the flight of these
+      masses of osier, and would burst into a hearty laugh whenever too vigorous
+      a toss sent them flying over the pile into the roadway beyond. He was
+      fond, too, of the footways of the Rue Rambuteau and the Rue du Pont Neuf,
+      near the fruit market, where the retail dealers congregated. The sight of
+      the vegetables displayed in the open air, on trestle-tables covered with
+      damp black rags, was full of charm for him. At four in the afternoon the
+      whole of this nook of greenery was aglow with sunshine; and Claude
+      wandered between the stalls, inspecting the bright-coloured heads of the
+      saleswomen with keen artistic relish. The younger ones, with their hair in
+      nets, had already lost all freshness of complexion through the rough life
+      they led; while the older ones were bent and shrivelled, with wrinkled,
+      flaring faces showing under the yellow kerchiefs bound round their heads.
+      Cadine and Marjolin refused to accompany him hither, as they could
+      perceive old Mother Chantemesse shaking her fist at them, in her anger at
+      seeing them prowling about together. He joined them again, however, on the
+      opposite footway, where he found a splendid subject for a picture in the
+      stallkeepers squatting under their huge umbrellas of faded red, blue, and
+      violet, which, mounted upon poles, filled the whole market-side with
+      bumps, and showed conspicuously against the fiery glow of the sinking sun,
+      whose rays faded amidst the carrots and the turnips. One tattered
+      harridan, a century old, was sheltering three spare-looking lettuces
+      beneath an umbrella of pink silk, shockingly split and stained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cadine and Marjolin had struck up an acquaintance with Leon, Quenu&rsquo;s
+      apprentice, one day when he was taking a pie to a house in the
+      neighbourhood. They saw him cautiously raise the lid of his pan in a
+      secluded corner of the Rue de Mondetour, and delicately take out a ball of
+      forcemeat. They smiled at the sight, which gave them a very high opinion
+      of Leon. And the idea came to Cadine that she might at last satisfy one of
+      her most ardent longings. Indeed, the very next time that she met the lad
+      with his basket she made herself very agreeable, and induced him to offer
+      her a forcemeat ball. But, although she laughed and licked her fingers,
+      she experienced some disappointment. The forcemeat did not prove nearly so
+      nice as she had anticipated. On the other hand, the lad, with his sly,
+      greedy phiz and his white garments, which made him look like a girl going
+      to her first communion, somewhat took her fancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She invited him to a monster lunch which she gave amongst the hampers in
+      the auction room at the butter market. The three of them&mdash;herself,
+      Marjolin, and Leon&mdash;completely secluded themselves from the world
+      within four walls of osier. The feast was laid out on a large flat basket.
+      There were pears, nuts, cream-cheese, shrimps, fried potatoes, and
+      radishes. The cheese came from a fruiterer&rsquo;s in the Rue de la Cossonnerie,
+      and was a present; and a &ldquo;frier&rdquo; of the Rue de la Grande Truanderie had
+      given Cadine credit for two sous&rsquo; worth of potatoes. The rest of the
+      feast, the pears, the nuts, the shrimps, and the radishes, had been
+      pilfered from different parts of the market. It was a delicious treat; and
+      Leon, desirous of returning the hospitality, gave a supper in his bedroom
+      at one o&rsquo;clock in the morning. The bill of fare included cold
+      black-pudding, slices of polony, a piece of salt pork, some gherkins, and
+      some goose-fat. The Quenu-Gradelles&rsquo; shop had provided everything. And
+      matters did not stop there. Dainty suppers alternated with delicate
+      luncheons, and invitation upon invitation. Three times a week there were
+      banquets, either amidst the hampers or in Leon&rsquo;s garret, where Florent, on
+      the nights when he lay awake, could hear a stifled sound of munching and
+      rippling laughter until day began to break.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The loves of Cadine and Marjolin now took another turn. The youth played
+      the gallant, and just as another might entertain his <i>innamorata</i> at
+      a champagne supper <i>en tete a tete</i> in a private room, he led Cadine
+      into some quiet corner of the market cellars to munch apples or sprigs of
+      celery. One day he stole a red-herring, which they devoured with immense
+      enjoyment on the roof of the fish market beside the guttering. There was
+      not a single shady nook in the whole place where they did not indulge in
+      secret feasts. The district, with its rows of open shops full of fruit and
+      cakes and preserves, was no longer a closed paradise, in front of which
+      they prowled with greedy, covetous appetites. As they passed the shops
+      they now extended their hands and pilfered a prune, a few cherries, or a
+      bit of cod. They also provisioned themselves at the markets, keeping a
+      sharp look-out as they made their way between the stalls, picking up
+      everything that fell, and often assisting the fall by a push of their
+      shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite, however, of all the marauding, some terrible scores had to be
+      run up with the &ldquo;frier&rdquo; of the Rue de la Grand Truanderie. This &ldquo;frier,&rdquo;
+       whose shanty leaned against a tumble-down house, and was propped up by
+      heavy joists, green with moss, made a display of boiled mussels lying in
+      large earthenware bowls filled to the brim with clear water; of dishes of
+      little yellow dabs stiffened by too thick a coating of paste; of squares
+      of tripe simmering in a pan; and of grilled herrings, black and charred,
+      and so hard that if you tapped them they sounded like wood. On certain
+      weeks Cadine owed the frier as much as twenty sous, a crushing debt, which
+      required the sale of an incalculable number of bunches of violets, for she
+      could count upon no assistance from Marjolin. Moreover, she was bound to
+      return Leon&rsquo;s hospitalities; and she even felt some little shame at never
+      being able to offer him a scrap of meat. He himself had now taken to
+      purloining entire hams. As a rule, he stowed everything away under his
+      shirt; and at night when he reached his bedroom he drew from his bosom
+      hunks of polony, slices of <i>pate de foie gras</i>, and bundles of pork
+      rind. They had to do without bread, and there was nothing to drink; but no
+      matter. One night Marjolin saw Leon kiss Cadine between two mouthfuls;
+      however, he only laughed. He could have smashed the little fellow with a
+      blow from his fist, but he felt no jealousy in respect of Cadine. He
+      treated her simply as a comrade with whom he had chummed for years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude never participated in these feasts. Having caught Cadine one day
+      stealing a beet-root from a little hamper lined with hay, he had pulled
+      her ears and given her a sound rating. These thieving propensities made
+      her perfect as a ne&rsquo;er-do-well. However, in spite of himself, he could not
+      help feeling a sort of admiration for these sensual, pilfering, greedy
+      creatures, who preyed upon everything that lay about, feasting off the
+      crumbs that fell from the giant&rsquo;s table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last Marjolin nominally took service under Gavard, happy in having
+      nothing to do except to listen to his master&rsquo;s flow of talk, while Cadine
+      still continued to sell violets, quite accustomed by this time to old
+      Mother Chantemesse&rsquo;s scoldings. They were still the same children as ever,
+      giving way to their instincts and appetites without the slightest shame&mdash;they
+      were the growth of the slimy pavements of the market district, where, even
+      in fine weather, the mud remains black and sticky. However, as Cadine
+      walked along the footways, mechanically twisting her bunches of violets,
+      she was sometimes disturbed by disquieting reveries; and Marjolin, too,
+      suffered from an uneasiness which he could not explain. He would
+      occasionally leave the girl and miss some ramble or feast in order to go
+      and gaze at Madame Quenu through the windows of her pork shop. She was so
+      handsome and plump and round that it did him good to look at her. As he
+      stood gazing at her, he felt full and satisfied, as though he had just
+      eaten or drunk something extremely nice. And when he went off, a sort of
+      hunger and thirst to see her again suddenly came upon him. This had been
+      going on for a couple of months. At first he had looked at her with the
+      respectful glance which he bestowed upon the shop-fronts of the grocers
+      and provision dealers; but subsequently, when he and Cadine had taken to
+      general pilfering, he began to regard her smooth cheeks much as he
+      regarded the barrels of olives and boxes of dried apples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some time past Marjolin had seen handsome Lisa every day, in the
+      morning. She would pass Gavard&rsquo;s stall, and stop for a moment or two to
+      chat with the poultry dealer. She now did her marketing herself, so that
+      she might be cheated as little as possible, she said. The truth, however,
+      was that she wished to make Gavard speak out. In the pork shop he was
+      always distrustful, but at his stall he chatted and talked with the utmost
+      freedom. Now, Lisa had made up her mind to ascertain from him exactly what
+      took place in the little room at Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s; for she had no great
+      confidence in her secret police office, Mademoiselle Saget. In a short
+      time she learnt from the incorrigible chatterbox a lot of vague details
+      which very much alarmed her. Two days after her explanation with Quenu she
+      returned home from the market looking very pale. She beckoned to her
+      husband to follow her into the dining-room, and having carefully closed
+      the door she said to him: &ldquo;Is your brother determined to send us to the
+      scaffold, then? Why did you conceal from me what you knew?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu declared that he knew nothing. He even swore a great oath that he
+      had not returned to Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s, and would never go there again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will do well not to do so,&rdquo; replied Lisa, shrugging her shoulders,
+      &ldquo;unless you want to get yourself into a serious scrape. Florent is up to
+      some evil trick, I&rsquo;m certain of it! I have just learned quite sufficient
+      to show me where he is going. He&rsquo;s going back to Cayenne, do you hear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, after a pause, she continued in calmer ones: &ldquo;Oh, the unhappy man!
+      He had everything here that he could wish for. He might have redeemed his
+      character; he had nothing but good examples before him. But no, it is in
+      his blood! He will come to a violent end with his politics! I insist upon
+      there being an end to all this! You hear me, Quenu? I gave you due warning
+      long ago!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She spoke the last words very incisively. Quenu bent his head, as if
+      awaiting sentence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To begin with,&rdquo; continued Lisa, &ldquo;he shall cease to take his meals here.
+      It will be quite sufficient if we give him a bed. He is earning money; let
+      him feed himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu seemed on the point of protesting, but his wife silenced him by
+      adding energetically:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Make your choice between him and me. If he remains here, I swear to you
+      that I will go away, and take my daughter with me. Do you want me to tell
+      you the whole truth about him? He is a man capable of anything; he has
+      come here to bring discord into our household. But I will set things
+      right, you may depend on it. You have your choice between him and me; you
+      hear me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, leaving her husband in silent consternation, she returned to the
+      shop, where she served a customer with her usual affable smile. The fact
+      was that, having artfully inveigled Gavard into a political discussion,
+      the poultry dealer had told her that she would soon see how the land lay,
+      that they were going to make a clean sweep of everything, and that two
+      determined men like her brother-in-law and himself would suffice to set
+      the fire blazing. This was the evil trick of which she had spoken to
+      Quenu, some conspiracy to which Gavard was always making mysterious
+      allusions with a sniggering grin from which he seemingly desired a great
+      deal to be inferred. And in imagination Lisa already saw the gendarmes
+      invading the pork shop, gagging herself, her husband, and Pauline, and
+      casting them into some underground dungeon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening, at dinner, she evinced an icy frigidity. She made no
+      offers to serve Florent, but several times remarked: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very strange
+      what an amount of bread we&rsquo;ve got through lately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent at last understood. He felt that he was being treated like a poor
+      relation who is gradually turned out of doors. For the last two months
+      Lisa had dressed him in Quenu&rsquo;s old trousers and coats; and, as he was as
+      thin as his brother was fat, these ragged garments had a most
+      extraordinary appearance upon him. She also turned her oldest linen over
+      to him: pocket-handkerchiefs which had been darned a score of times,
+      ragged towels, sheets which were only fit to be cut up into dusters and
+      dish-cloths, and worn-out shirts, distended by Quenu&rsquo;s corpulent figure,
+      and so short that they would have served Florent as under-vests. Moreover,
+      he no longer found around him the same good-natured kindliness as in the
+      earlier days. The whole household seemed to shrug its shoulders after the
+      example set by handsome Lisa. Auguste and Augustine turned their backs
+      upon him, and little Pauline, with the cruel frankness of childhood, let
+      fall some bitter remarks about the stains on his coat and the holes in his
+      shirt. However, during the last days he suffered most at table. He
+      scarcely dared to eat, as he saw the mother and daughter fix their gaze
+      upon him whenever he cut himself a piece of bread. Quenu meantime peered
+      into his plate, to avoid having to take any part in what went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That which most tortured Florent was his inability to invent a reason for
+      leaving the house. During a week he kept on revolving in his mind a
+      sentence expressing his resolve to take his meals elsewhere, but could not
+      bring himself to utter it. Indeed, this man of tender nature lived in such
+      a world of illusions that he feared he might hurt his brother and
+      sister-in-law by ceasing to lunch and dine with them. It had taken him
+      over two months to detect Lisa&rsquo;s latent hostility; and even now he was
+      sometimes inclined to think that he must be mistaken, and that she was in
+      reality kindly disposed towards him. Unselfishness with him extended to
+      forgetfulness of his requirements; it was no longer a virtue, but utter
+      indifference to self, an absolute obliteration of personality. Even when
+      he recognised that he was being gradually turned out of the house, his
+      mind never for a moment dwelt upon his share in old Gradelle&rsquo;s fortune, or
+      upon the accounts which Lisa had offered him. He had already planned out
+      his expenditure for the future; reckoning that with what Madame Verlaque
+      still allowed him to retain of his salary, and the thirty francs a month
+      which a pupil, obtained through La Normande, paid him he would be able to
+      spend eighteen sous on his breakfast and twenty-six sous on his dinner.
+      This, he thought, would be ample. And so, at last, taking as his excuse
+      the lessons which he was giving his new pupil, he emboldened himself one
+      morning to pretend that it would be impossible for him in future to come
+      to the house at mealtimes. He blushed as he gave utterance to this
+      laboriously constructed lie, which had given him so much trouble, and
+      continued apologetically:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mustn&rsquo;t be offended; the boy only has those hours free. I can easily
+      get something to eat, you know; and I will come and have a chat with you
+      in the evenings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beautiful Lisa maintained her icy reserve, and this increased Florent&rsquo;s
+      feeling of trouble. In order to have no cause for self-reproach she had
+      been unwilling to send him about his business, preferring to wait till he
+      should weary of the situation and go of his own accord. Now he was going,
+      and it was a good riddance; and she studiously refrained from all show of
+      kindliness for fear it might induce him to remain. Quenu, however, showed
+      some signs of emotion, and exclaimed: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t think of putting yourself
+      about; take your meals elsewhere by all means, if it is more convenient.
+      It isn&rsquo;t we who are turning you way; you&rsquo;ll at all events dine with us
+      sometimes on Sundays, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent hurried off. His heart was very heavy. When he had gone, the
+      beautiful Lisa did not venture to reproach her husband for his weakness in
+      giving that invitation for Sundays. She had conquered, and again breathed
+      freely amongst the light oak of her dining-room, where she would have
+      liked to burn some sugar to drive away the odour of perverse leanness
+      which seemed to linger about. Moreover, she continued to remain on the
+      defensive; and at the end of another week she felt more alarmed than ever.
+      She only occasionally saw Florent in the evenings, and began to have all
+      sorts of dreadful thoughts, imagining that her brother-in-law was
+      constructing some infernal machine upstairs in Augustine&rsquo;s bedroom, or
+      else making signals which would result in barricades covering the whole
+      neighbourhood. Gavard, who had become gloomy, merely nodded or shook his
+      head when she spoke to him, and left his stall for days together in
+      Marjolin&rsquo;s charge. The beautiful Lisa, however, determined that she would
+      get to the bottom of affairs. She knew that Florent had obtained a day&rsquo;s
+      leave, and intended to spend it with Claude Lantier, at Madame Francois&rsquo;s,
+      at Nanterre. As he would start in the morning, and remain away till night,
+      she conceived the idea of inviting Gavard to dinner. He would be sure to
+      talk freely, at table, she thought. But throughout the morning she was
+      unable to meet the poultry dealer, and so in the afternoon she went back
+      again to the markets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marjolin was in the stall alone. He used to drowse there for hours,
+      recouping himself from the fatigue of his long rambles. He generally sat
+      upon one chair with his legs resting upon another, and his head leaning
+      against a little dresser. In the wintertime he took a keen delight in
+      lolling there and contemplating the display of game; the bucks hanging
+      head downwards, with their fore-legs broken and twisted round their necks;
+      the larks festooning the stall like garlands; the big ruddy hares, the
+      mottled partridges, the water-fowl of a bronze-grey hue, the Russian black
+      cocks and hazel hens, which arrived in a packing of oat straw and
+      charcoal;[*] and the pheasants, the magnificent pheasants, with their
+      scarlet hoods, their stomachers of green satin, their mantles of embossed
+      gold, and their flaming tails, that trailed like trains of court robes.
+      All this show of plumage reminded Marjolin of his rambles in the cellars
+      with Cadine amongst the hampers of feathers.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] The baskets in which these are sent to Paris are
+     identical with those which in many provinces of Russia serve
+     the <i>moujiks</i> as cradles for their infants.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      That afternoon the beautiful Lisa found Marjolin in the midst of the
+      poultry. It was warm, and whiffs of hot air passed along the narrow alleys
+      of the pavilion. She was obliged to stoop before she could see him
+      stretched out inside the stall, below the bare flesh of the birds. From
+      the hooked bar up above hung fat geese, the hooks sticking in the bleeding
+      wounds of their long stiffened necks, while their huge bodies bulged out,
+      glowing ruddily beneath their fine down, and, with their snowy tails and
+      wings, suggesting nudity encompassed by fine linen. And also hanging from
+      the bar, with ears thrown back and feet parted as though they were bent on
+      some vigorous leap, were grey rabbits whose turned-up tails gleamed
+      whitely, whilst their heads, with sharp teeth and dim eyes, laughed with
+      the grin of death. On the counter of the stall plucked fowls showed their
+      strained fleshy breasts; pigeons, crowded on osier trays, displayed the
+      soft bare skin of innocents; ducks, with skin of rougher texture,
+      exhibited their webbed feet; and three magnificent turkeys, speckled with
+      blue dots, like freshly-shaven chins, slumbered on their backs amidst the
+      black fans of their expanded tails. On plates near by were giblets,
+      livers, gizzards, necks, feet, and wings; while an oval dish contained a
+      skinned and gutted rabbit, with its four legs wide apart, its head
+      bleeding, and is kidneys showing through its gashed belly. A streamlet of
+      dark blood, after trickling along its back to its tail, had fallen drop by
+      drop, staining the whiteness of the dish. Marjolin had not even taken the
+      trouble to wipe the block, near which the rabbit&rsquo;s feet were still lying.
+      He reclined there with his eyes half closed, encompassed by other piles of
+      dead poultry which crowded the shelves of the stall, poultry in paper
+      wrappers like bouquets, rows upon rows of protuberant breasts and bent
+      legs showing confusedly. And amidst all this mass of food, the young
+      fellow&rsquo;s big, fair figure, the flesh of his cheeks, hands, and powerful
+      neck covered with ruddy down seemed as soft as that of the magnificent
+      turkeys, and as plump as the breasts of the fat geese.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he caught sight of Lisa, he at once sprang up, blushing at having
+      been caught sprawling in this way. He always seemed very nervous and ill
+      at ease in Madame Quenu&rsquo;s presence; and when she asked him if Monsieur
+      Gavard was there, he stammered out: &ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t think so. He was here a
+      little while ago, but he want away again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa looked at him, smiling; she had a great liking for him. But feeling
+      something warm brush against her hand, which was hanging by her side, she
+      raised a little shriek. Some live rabbits were thrusting their noses out
+      of a box under the counter of the stall, and sniffing at her skirts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; she exclaimed with a laugh, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s your rabbits that are tickling
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she stooped and attempted to stroke a white rabbit, which darted in
+      alarm into a corner of the box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will Monsieur Gavard be back soon, do you think?&rdquo; she asked, as she again
+      rose erect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marjolin once more replied that he did not know; then in a hesitating way
+      he continued: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very likely gone down into the cellars. He told me, I
+      think, that he was going there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I think I&rsquo;ll wait for him, then,&rdquo; replied Lisa. &ldquo;Could you let him
+      know that I am here? or I might go down to him, perhaps. Yes, that&rsquo;s a
+      good idea; I&rsquo;ve been intending to go and have a look at the cellars for
+      these last five years. You&rsquo;ll take me down, won&rsquo;t you, and explain things
+      to me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marjolin blushed crimson, and, hurrying out of the stall, walked on in
+      front of her, leaving the poultry to look after itself. &ldquo;Of course I
+      will,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll do anything you wish, Madame Lisa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When they got down below, the beautiful Lisa felt quite suffocated by the
+      dank atmosphere of the cellar. She stood at the bottom step, and raised
+      her eyes to look at the vaulted roofing of red and white bricks arching
+      slightly between the iron ribs upheld by small columns. What made her
+      hesitate more than the gloominess of the place was a warm, penetrating
+      odour, the exhalations of large numbers of living creatures, which
+      irritated her nostrils and throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a nasty smell!&rdquo; she exclaimed. &ldquo;It must be very unhealthy down
+      here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It never does me any harm,&rdquo; replied Marjolin in astonishment. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s
+      nothing unpleasant about the smell when you&rsquo;ve got accustomed to it; and
+      it&rsquo;s very warm and cosy down here in the wintertime.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Lisa followed him, however, she declared that the strong scent of the
+      poultry quite turned her stomach, and that she would certainly not be able
+      to eat a fowl for the next two months. All around her, the storerooms, the
+      small cabins where the stallkeepers keep their live stock, formed regular
+      streets, intersecting each other at right angles. There were only a few
+      scattered gas lights, and the little alleys seemed wrapped in sleep like
+      the lanes of a village where the inhabitants have all gone to bed.
+      Marjolin made Lisa feel the close-meshed wiring, stretched on a framework
+      of cast iron; and as she made her way along one of the streets she amused
+      herself by reading the names of the different tenants, which were
+      inscribed on blue labels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monsieur Gavard&rsquo;s place is quite at the far end,&rdquo; said the young man,
+      still walking on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They turned to the left, and found themselves in a sort of blind alley, a
+      dark, gloomy spot where not a ray of light penetrated. Gavard was not
+      there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it makes no difference,&rdquo; said Marjolin. &ldquo;I can show you our birds
+      just the same. I have a key of the storeroom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa followed him into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t suppose that I can see your birds in this black oven, do you?&rdquo;
+       she asked, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marjolin did not reply at once; but presently he stammered out that there
+      was always a candle in the storeroom. He was fumbling about the lock, and
+      seemed quite unable to find the keyhole. As Lisa came up to help him, she
+      felt a hot breath on her neck; and when the young man had at last
+      succeeded in opening the door and lighted the candle, she saw that he was
+      trembling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You silly fellow!&rdquo; she exclaimed, &ldquo;to get yourself into such a state just
+      because a door won&rsquo;t open! Why, you&rsquo;re no better than a girl, in spite of
+      your big fists!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She stepped inside the storeroom. Gavard had rented two compartments,
+      which he had thrown into one by removing the partition between them. In
+      the dirt on the floor wallowed the larger birds&mdash;the geese, turkeys,
+      and ducks&mdash;while up above, on tiers of shelves, were boxes with
+      barred fronts containing fowls and rabbits. The grating of the storeroom
+      was so coated with dust and cobwebs that it looked as though covered with
+      grey blinds. The woodwork down below was rotting, and covered with filth.
+      Lisa, however, not wishing to vex Marjolin, refrained from any further
+      expression of disgust. She pushed her fingers between the bars of the
+      boxes, and began to lament the fate of the unhappy fowls, which were so
+      closely huddled together and could not even stand upright. Then she
+      stroked a duck with a broken leg which was squatting in a corner, and the
+      young man told her that it would be killed that very evening, for fear
+      lest it should die during the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what do they do for food?&rdquo; asked Lisa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon he explained to her that poultry would not eat in the dark, and
+      that it was necessary to light a candle and wait there till they had
+      finished their meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It amuses me to watch them,&rdquo; he continued; &ldquo;I often stay here with a
+      light for hours altogether. You should see how they peck away; and when I
+      hide the flame of the candle with my hand they all stand stock-still with
+      their necks in the air, just as though the sun had set. It is against the
+      rules to leave a lighted candle here and go away. One of the dealers, old
+      Mother Palette&mdash;you know her, don&rsquo;t you?&mdash;nearly burned the
+      whole place down the other day. A fowl must have knocked the candle over
+      into the straw while she was away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A pretty thing, isn&rsquo;t it,&rdquo; said Lisa, &ldquo;for fowls to insist upon having
+      the chandeliers lighted up every time they take a meal?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This idea made her laugh. Then she came out of the storeroom, wiping her
+      feet, and holding up her skirts to keep them from the filth. Marjolin blew
+      out the candle and locked the door. Lisa felt rather nervous at finding
+      herself in the dark again with this big young fellow, and so she hastened
+      on in front.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad I came, all the same,&rdquo; she presently said, as he joined her.
+      &ldquo;There is a great deal more under these markets than I ever imagined. But
+      I must make haste now and get home again. They&rsquo;ll wonder what has become
+      of me at the shop. If Monsieur Gavard comes back, tell him that I want to
+      speak to him immediately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I expect he&rsquo;s in the killing-room,&rdquo; said Marjolin. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll go and see, if
+      you like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa made no reply. She felt oppressed by the close atmosphere which
+      warmed her face. She was quite flushed, and her bodice, generally so still
+      and lifeless, began to heave. Moreover, the sound of Marjolin&rsquo;s hurrying
+      steps behind her filled her with an uneasy feeling. At last she stepped
+      aside, and let him go on in front. The lanes of this underground village
+      were still fast asleep. Lisa noticed that her companion was taking the
+      longest way. When they came out in front of the railway track he told her
+      that he had wished to show it to her; and they stood for a moment or two
+      looking through the chinks in the hoarding of heavy beams. Then Marjolin
+      proposed to take her on to the line; but she refused, saying that it was
+      not worth while, as she could see things well enough where she was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they returned to the poultry cellars they found old Madame Palette in
+      front of her storeroom, removing the cords of a large square hamper, in
+      which a furious fluttering of wings and scraping of feet could be heard.
+      As she unfastened the last knot the lid suddenly flew open, as though shot
+      up by a spring, and some big geese thrust out their heads and necks. Then,
+      in wild alarm, they sprang from their prison and rushed away, craning
+      their necks, and filling the dark cellars with a frightful noise of
+      hissing and clattering of beaks. Lisa could not help laughing, in spite of
+      the lamentations of the old woman, who swore like a carter as she caught
+      hold of two of the absconding birds and dragged them back by the neck.
+      Marjolin, meantime, set off in pursuit of a third. They could hear him
+      running along the narrow alleys, hunting for the runaway, and delighting
+      in the chase. Then, far off in the distance, they heard the sounds of a
+      struggle, and presently Marjolin came back again, bringing the goose with
+      him. Mother Palette, a sallow-faced old woman, took it in her arms and
+      clasped it for a moment to her bosom, in the classic attitude of Leda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, I&rsquo;m sure I don&rsquo;t know what I should have done if you hadn&rsquo;t
+      been here,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;The other day I had a regular fight with one of the
+      brutes; but I had my knife with me, and I cut its throat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marjolin was quite out of breath. When they reached the stone blocks where
+      the poultry were killed, and where the gas burnt more brightly, Lisa could
+      see that he was perspiring, and had bold, glistening eyes. She thought he
+      looked very handsome like that, with his broad shoulders, big flushed
+      face, and fair curly hair, and she looked at him so complacently, with
+      that air of admiration which women feel they may safely express for quite
+      young lads, that he relapsed into timid bashfulness again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Monsieur Gavard isn&rsquo;t here, you see,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve only made
+      me waste my time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marjolin, however, began rapidly explaining the killing of the poultry to
+      her. Five huge stone slabs stretched out in the direction of the Rue
+      Rambuteau under the yellow light of the gas jets. A woman was killing
+      fowls at one end; and this led him to tell Lisa that the birds were
+      plucked almost before they were dead, the operation thus being much
+      easier. Then he wanted her to feel the feathers which were lying in heaps
+      on the stone slabs; and told her that they were sorted and sold for as
+      much as nine sous the pound, according to their quality. To satisfy him,
+      she was also obliged to plunge her hand into the big hampers full of down.
+      Then he turned the water-taps, of which there was one by every pillar.
+      There was no end to the particulars he gave. The blood, he said, streamed
+      along the stone blocks, and collected into pools on the paved floor, which
+      attendants sluiced with water every two hours, removing the more recent
+      stains with coarse brushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Lisa stooped over the drain which carries away the swillings,
+      Marjolin found a fresh text for talk. On rainy days, said he, the water
+      sometimes rose through this orifice and flooded the place. It had once
+      risen a foot high; and they had been obliged to transport all the poultry
+      to the other end of the cellar, which is on a higher level. He laughed as
+      he recalled the wild flutter of the terrified creatures. However, he had
+      now finished, and it seemed as though there remained nothing else for him
+      to show, when all at once he bethought himself of the ventilator.
+      Thereupon he took Lisa off to the far end of the cellar, and told her to
+      look up; and inside one of the turrets at the corner angles of the
+      pavilion she observed a sort of escape-pipe, by which the foul atmosphere
+      of the storerooms ascended into space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, in this corner, reeking with abominable odours, Marjolin&rsquo;s nostrils
+      quivered, and his breath came and went violently. His long stroll with
+      Lisa in these cellars, full of warm animal perfumes, had gradually
+      intoxicated him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had again turned towards him. &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;it was very kind of
+      you to show me all this, and when you come to the shop I will give you
+      something.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst speaking she took hold of his soft chin, as she often did, without
+      recognising that he was no longer a child; and perhaps she allowed her
+      hand to linger there a little longer than was her wont. At all events,
+      Marjolin, usually so bashful, was thrilled by the caress, and all at once
+      he impetuously sprang forward, clasped Lisa by the shoulders, and pressed
+      his lips to her soft cheeks. She raised no cry, but turned very pale at
+      this sudden attack, which showed her how imprudent she had been. And then,
+      freeing herself from the embrace, she raised her arm, as she had seen men
+      do in slaughter houses, clenched her comely fist, and knocked Marjolin
+      down with a single blow, planted straight between his eyes; and as he fell
+      his head came into collision with one of the stone slabs, and was split
+      open. Just at that moment the hoarse and prolonged crowing of a cock
+      sounded through the gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handsome Lisa, however, remained perfectly cool. Her lips were tightly
+      compressed, and her bosom had recovered its wonted immobility. Up above
+      she could hear the heavy rumbling of the markets, and through the
+      vent-holes alongside the Rue Rambuteau the noise of the street traffic
+      made its way into the oppressive silence of the cellar. Lisa reflected
+      that her own strong arm had saved her; and then, fearing lest some one
+      should come and find her there, she hastened off, without giving a glance
+      at Marjolin. As she climbed the steps, after passing through the grated
+      entrance of the cellars, the daylight brought her great relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She returned to the shop, quite calm, and only looking a little pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve been a long time,&rdquo; Quenu said to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t find Gavard. I have looked for him everywhere,&rdquo; she quietly
+      replied. &ldquo;We shall have to eat our leg of mutton without him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she filled the lard pot, which she noticed was empty; and cut some
+      pork chops for her friend Madame Taboureau, who had sent her little
+      servant for them. The blows which she dealt with her cleaver reminded her
+      of Marjolin. She felt that she had nothing to reproach herself with. She
+      had acted like an honest woman. She was not going to disturb her peace of
+      mind; she was too happy to do anything to compromise herself. However, she
+      glanced at Quenu, whose neck was coarse and ruddy, and whose shaven chin
+      looked as rough as knotted wood; whereas Marjolin&rsquo;s chin and neck
+      resembled rosy satin. But then she must not think of him any more, for he
+      was no longer a child. She regretted it, and could not help thinking that
+      children grew up much too quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A slight flush came back to her cheeks, and Quenu considered that she
+      looked wonderfully blooming. He came and sat down beside her at the
+      counter for a moment or two. &ldquo;You ought to go out oftener,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;it
+      does you good. We&rsquo;ll go to the theatre together one of these nights, if
+      you like; to the Gaite, eh? Madame Taboureau has been to see the piece
+      they are playing there, and she declares it&rsquo;s splendid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa smiled, and said they would see about it, and then once more she took
+      herself off. Quenu thought that it was too good of her to take so much
+      trouble in running about after that brute Gavard. In point of fact,
+      however, she had simply gone upstairs to Florent&rsquo;s bedroom, the key of
+      which was hanging from a nail in the kitchen. She hoped to find out
+      something or other by an inspection of this room, since the poultry dealer
+      had failed her. She went slowly round it, examining the bed, the
+      mantelpiece, and every corner. The window with the little balcony was
+      open, and the budding pomegranate was steeped in the golden beams of the
+      setting sun. The room looked to her as though Augustine had never left it&mdash;had
+      slept there only the night before. There seemed to be nothing masculine
+      about the place. She was quite surprised, for she had expected to find
+      some suspicious-looking chests, and coffers with strong locks. She went to
+      feel Augustine&rsquo;s summer gown, which was still hanging against the wall.
+      Then she sat down at the table, and began to read an unfinished page of
+      manuscript, in which the word &ldquo;revolution&rdquo; occurred twice. This alarmed
+      her, and she opened the drawer, which she saw was full of papers. But her
+      sense of honour awoke within her in presence of the secret which the
+      rickety deal table so badly guarded. She remained bending over the papers,
+      trying to understand them without touching them, in a state of great
+      emotion, when the shrill song of the chaffinch, on whose cage streamed a
+      ray of sunshine, made her start. She closed the drawer. It was a base
+      thing that she had contemplated, she thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as she lingered by the window, reflecting that she ought to go and
+      ask counsel of Abbe Roustan, who was a very sensible man, she saw a crowd
+      of people round a stretcher in the market square below. The night was
+      falling, still she distinctly recognised Cadine weeping in the midst of
+      the crowd; while Florent and Claude, whose boots were white with dust,
+      stood together talking earnestly at the edge of the footway. She hurried
+      downstairs again, surprised to see them back so soon, and scarcely had she
+      reached her counter when Mademoiselle Saget entered the shop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have found that scamp of a Marjolin in the cellar, with his head
+      split open,&rdquo; exclaimed the old maid. &ldquo;Won&rsquo;t you come to see him, Madame
+      Quenu?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa crossed the road to look at him. The young fellow was lying on his
+      back on the stretcher, looking very pale. His eyes were closed, and a
+      stiff wisp of his fair hair was clotted with blood. The bystanders,
+      however, declared that there was no serious harm done, and, besides, the
+      scamp had only himself to blame, for he was always playing all sorts of
+      wild pranks in the cellars. It was generally supposed that he had been
+      trying to jump over one of the stone blocks&mdash;one of his favourite
+      amusements&mdash;and had fallen with his head against the slab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare say that hussy there gave him a shove,&rdquo; remarked Mademoiselle
+      Saget, pointing to Cadine, who was weeping. &ldquo;They are always larking
+      together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime the fresh air had restored Marjolin to consciousness, and he
+      opened his eyes in wide astonishment. He looked round at everybody, and
+      then, observing Lisa bending over him, he gently smiled at her with an
+      expression of mingled humility and affection. He seemed to have forgotten
+      all that had happened. Lisa, feeling relieved, said that he ought to be
+      taken to the hospital at once, and promised to go and see him there, and
+      take him some oranges and biscuits. However, Marjolin&rsquo;s head had fallen
+      back, and when the stretcher was carried away Cadine followed it, with her
+      flat basket slung round her neck, and her hot tears rolling down upon the
+      bunches of violets in their mossy bed. She certainly had no thoughts for
+      the flowers that she was thus scalding with her bitter grief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Lisa went back to her shop, she heard Claude say, as he shook hands
+      with Florent and parted from him: &ldquo;Ah! the confounded young scamp! He&rsquo;s
+      quite spoiled my day for me! Still, we had a very enjoyable time, didn&rsquo;t
+      we?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude and Florent had returned both worried and happy, bringing with them
+      the pleasant freshness of the country air. Madame Francois had disposed of
+      all her vegetables that morning before daylight; and they had all three
+      gone to the Golden Compasses, in the Rue Montorgueil, to get the cart.
+      Here, in the middle of Paris, they found a foretaste of the country.
+      Behind the Restaurant Philippe, with its frontage of gilt woodwork rising
+      to the first floor, there was a yard like that of a farm, dirty, teeming
+      with life, reeking with the odour of manure and straw. Bands of fowls were
+      pecking at the soft ground. Sheds and staircases and galleries of greeny
+      wood clung to the old houses around, and at the far end, in a shanty of
+      big beams, was Balthazar, harnessed to the cart, and eating the oats in
+      his nosebag. He went down the Rue Montorgueil at a slow trot, seemingly
+      well pleased to return to Nanterre so soon. However, he was not going home
+      without a load. Madame Francois had a contract with the company which
+      undertook the scavenging of the markets, and twice a week she carried off
+      with her a load of leaves, forked up from the mass of refuse which
+      littered the square. It made excellent manure. In a few minutes the cart
+      was filled to overflowing. Claude and Florent stretched themselves out on
+      the deep bed of greenery; Madame Francois grasped her reins, and Balthazar
+      went off at his slow, steady pace, his head somewhat bent by reason of
+      there being so many passengers to pull along.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This excursion had been talked of for a long time past. Madame Francois
+      laughed cheerily. She was partial to the two men, and promised them an <i>omelette
+      au lard</i> as had never been eaten, said she, in &ldquo;that villainous Paris.&rdquo;
+       Florent and Claude revelled in the thought of this day of lounging
+      idleness which as yet had scarcely begun to dawn. Nanterre seemed to be
+      some distant paradise into which they would presently enter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you quite comfortable?&rdquo; Madame Francois asked as the cart turned into
+      the Rue du Pont Neuf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude declared that their couch was as soft as a bridal bed. Lying on
+      their backs, with their hands crossed under their heads, both men were
+      looking up at the pale sky from which the stars were vanishing. All along
+      the Rue de Rivoli they kept unbroken silence, waiting till they should
+      have got clear of the houses, and listening to the worthy woman as she
+      chattered to Balthazar: &ldquo;Take your time, old man,&rdquo; she said to him in
+      kindly tones. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re in no hurry; we shall be sure to get there at last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On reaching the Champs Elysees, when the artist saw nothing but tree-tops
+      on either side of him, and the great green mass of the Tuileries gardens
+      in the distance, he woke up, as it were, and began to talk. When the cart
+      had passed the end of the Rue du Roule he had caught a glimpse of the side
+      entrance of Saint Eustache under the giant roofing of one of the market
+      covered-ways. He was constantly referring to this view of the church, and
+      tried to give it a symbolical meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an odd mixture,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that bit of church framed round by an
+      avenue of cast iron. The one will kill the other; the iron will slay the
+      stone, and the time is not very far off. Do you believe in chance,
+      Florent? For my part, I don&rsquo;t think that it was any mere chance of
+      position that set a rose-window of Saint Eustache right in the middle of
+      the central markets. No; there&rsquo;s a whole manifesto in it. It is modern
+      art, realism, naturalism&mdash;whatever you like to call it&mdash;that has
+      grown up and dominates ancient art. Don&rsquo;t you agree with me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as Florent still kept silence, Claude continued: &ldquo;Besides, that
+      church is a piece of bastard architecture, made up of the dying gasp of
+      the middle ages, and the first stammering of the Renaissance. Have you
+      noticed what sort of churches are built nowadays? They resemble all kinds
+      of things&mdash;libraries, observatories, pigeon-cotes, barracks; and
+      surely no one can imagine that the Deity dwells in such places. The pious
+      old builders are all dead and gone; and it would be better to cease
+      erecting those hideous carcasses of stone, in which we have no belief to
+      enshrine. Since the beginning of the century there has only been one large
+      original pile of buildings erected in Paris&mdash;a pile in accordance
+      with modern developments&mdash;and that&rsquo;s the central markets. You hear
+      me, Florent? Ah! they are a fine bit of building, though they but faintly
+      indicate what we shall see in the twentieth century! And so, you see,
+      Saint Eustache is done for! It stands there with its rose-windows,
+      deserted by worshippers, while the markets spread out by its side and teem
+      with noisy life. Yes! that&rsquo;s how I understand it all, my friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! Monsieur Claude,&rdquo; said Madame Francois, laughing, &ldquo;the woman who cut
+      your tongue-string certainly earned her money. Look at Balthazar laying
+      his ears back to listen to you. Come, come, get along, Balthazar!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cart was slowly making its way up the incline. At this early hour of
+      the morning the avenue, with its double lines of iron chairs on either
+      pathway, and its lawns, dotted with flowerbeds and clumps of shrubbery,
+      stretching away under the blue shadows of the trees, was quite deserted;
+      however, at the Rond-Point a lady and gentleman on horseback passed the
+      cart at a gentle trot. Florent, who had made himself a pillow with a
+      bundle of cabbage-leaves, was still gazing at the sky, in which a
+      far-stretching rosy glow was appearing. Every now and then he would close
+      his eyes, the better to enjoy the fresh breeze of the morning as it fanned
+      his face. He was so happy to escape from the markets, and travel on
+      through the pure air, that he remained speechless, and did not even listen
+      to what was being said around him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then, too, what fine jokers are those fellows who imprison art in a
+      toy-box!&rdquo; resumed Claude, after a pause. &ldquo;They are always repeating the
+      same idiotic words: &lsquo;You can&rsquo;t create art out of science,&rsquo; says one;
+      &lsquo;Mechanical appliances kill poetry,&rsquo; says another; and a pack of fools
+      wail over the fate of the flowers, as though anybody wished the flowers
+      any harm! I&rsquo;m sick of all such twaddle; I should like to answer all that
+      snivelling with some work of open defiance. I should take a pleasure in
+      shocking those good people. Shall I tell you what was the finest thing I
+      ever produced since I first began to work, and the one which I recall with
+      the greatest pleasure? It&rsquo;s quite a story. When I was at my Aunt Lisa&rsquo;s on
+      Christmas Eve last year that idiot of an Auguste, the assistant, was
+      setting out the shop-window. Well, he quite irritated me by the weak,
+      spiritless way in which he arranged the display; and at last I requested
+      him to take himself off, saying that I would group the things myself in a
+      proper manner. You see, I had plenty of bright colours to work with&mdash;the
+      red of the tongues, the yellow of the hams, the blue of the paper
+      shavings, the rosy pink of the things that had been cut into, the green of
+      the sprigs of heath, and the black of the black-puddings&mdash;ah! a
+      magnificent black, which I have never managed to produce on my palette.
+      And naturally, the <i>crepine</i>, the small sausages, the chitterlings,
+      and the crumbed trotters provided me with delicate greys and browns. I
+      produced a perfect work of art. I took the dishes, the plates, the pans,
+      and the jars, and arranged the different colours; and I devised a
+      wonderful picture of still life, with subtle scales of tints leading up to
+      brilliant flashes of colour. The red tongues seemed to thrust themselves
+      out like greedy flames, and the black-puddings, surrounded by pale
+      sausages, suggested a dark night fraught with terrible indigestion. I had
+      produced, you see, a picture symbolical of the gluttony of Christmas Eve,
+      when people meet and sup&mdash;the midnight feasting, the ravenous gorging
+      of stomachs void and faint after all the singing of hymns.[*] At the top
+      of everything a huge turkey exhibited its white breast, marbled blackly by
+      the truffles showing through its skin. It was something barbaric and
+      superb, suggesting a paunch amidst a halo of glory; but there was such a
+      cutting, sarcastic touch about it all that people crowded to the window,
+      alarmed by the fierce flare of the shop-front. When my aunt Lisa came back
+      from the kitchen she was quite frightened, and thought I&rsquo;d set the fat in
+      the shop on fire; and she considered the appearance of the turkey so
+      indelicate that she turned me out of the place while Auguste re-arranged
+      the window after his own idiotic fashion. Such brutes will never
+      understand the language of a red splotch by the side of a grey one. Ah,
+      well! that was my masterpiece. I have never done anything better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] An allusion to the &ldquo;midnight mass&rdquo; usually celebrated in
+     Roman Catholic churches on Christmas Eve.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He relapsed into silence, smiling and dwelling with gratification on this
+      reminiscence. The cart had now reached the Arc de Triomphe, and strong
+      currents of air swept from the avenues across the expanse of open ground.
+      Florent sat up, and inhaled with zest the first odours of grass wafted
+      from the fortifications. He turned his back on Paris, anxious to behold
+      the country in the distance. At the corner of the Rue de Longchamp, Madame
+      Francois pointed out to him the spot where she had picked him up. This
+      rendered him thoughtful, and he gazed at her as she sat there, so
+      healthy-looking and serene, with her arms slightly extended so as to grasp
+      the reins. She looked even handsomer than Lisa, with her neckerchief tied
+      over her head, her robust glow of health, and her brusque, kindly air.
+      When she gave a slight cluck with her tongue, Balthazar pricked up his
+      ears and rattled down the road at a quicker pace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On arriving at Nanterre, the cart turned to the left into a narrow lane,
+      skirted some blank walls, and finally came to a standstill at the end of a
+      sort of blind alley. It was the end of the world, Madame Francois used to
+      say. The load of vegetable leaves now had to be discharged. Claude and
+      Florent would not hear of the journeyman gardener, who was planting
+      lettuces, leaving his work, but armed themselves with pitchforks and
+      proceeded to toss the leaves into the manure pit. This occupation afforded
+      them much amusement. Claude had quite a liking for manure, since it
+      symbolises the world and its life. The strippings and parings of the
+      vegetables, the scourings of the markets, the refuse that fell from that
+      colossal table, remained full of life, and returned to the spot where the
+      vegetables had previously sprouted, to warm and nourish fresh generations
+      of cabbages, turnips, and carrots. They rose again in fertile crops, and
+      once more went to spread themselves out upon the market square. Paris
+      rotted everything, and returned everything to the soil, which never
+      wearied of repairing the ravages of death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; exclaimed Claude, as he plied his fork for the last time, &ldquo;here&rsquo;s a
+      cabbage-stalk that I&rsquo;m sure I recognise. It has grown up at least half a
+      score of times in that corner yonder by the apricot tree.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This remark made Florent laugh. But he soon became grave again, and
+      strolled slowly through the kitchen garden, while Claude made a sketch of
+      the stable, and Madame Francois got breakfast ready. The kitchen garden
+      was a long strip of ground, divided in the middle by a narrow path; it
+      rose slightly, and at the top end, on raising the head, you could perceive
+      the low barracks of Mont Valerien. Green hedges separated it from other
+      plots of land, and these lofty walls of hawthorn fringed the horizon with
+      a curtain of greenery in such wise that of all the surrounding country
+      Mont Valerien alone seemed to rise inquisitively on tip-toe in order to
+      peer into Madame Francois&rsquo;s close. Great peacefulness came from the
+      countryside which could not be seen. Along the kitchen garden, between the
+      four hedges, the May sun shone with a languid heat, a silence disturbed
+      only by the buzzing of insects, a somnolence suggestive of painless
+      parturition. Every now and then a faint cracking sound, a soft sigh, made
+      one fancy that one could hear the vegetables sprout into being. The
+      patches of spinach and sorrel, the borders of radishes, carrots, and
+      turnips, the beds of potatoes and cabbages, spread out in even regularity,
+      displaying their dark leaf-mould between their tufts of greenery. Farther
+      away, the trenched lettuces, onions, leeks, and celery, planted by line in
+      long straight rows, looked like soldiers on parade; while the peas and
+      beans were beginning to twine their slender tendrils round a forest of
+      sticks, which, when June came, they would transform into a thick and
+      verdant wood. There was not a weed to be seen. The garden resembled two
+      parallel strips of carpet of a geometrical pattern of green on a reddish
+      ground, which were carefully swept every morning. Borders of thyme grew
+      like greyish fringe along each side of the pathway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent paced backwards and forwards amidst the perfume of the thyme,
+      which the sun was warming. He felt profoundly happy in the peacefulness
+      and cleanliness of the garden. For nearly a year past he had only seen
+      vegetables bruised and crushed by the jolting of the market-carts;
+      vegetables torn up on the previous evening, and still bleeding. He
+      rejoiced to find them at home, in peace in the dark mould, and sound in
+      every part. The cabbages had a bulky, prosperous appearance; the carrots
+      looked bright and gay; and the lettuces lounged in line with an air of
+      careless indolence. And as he looked at them all, the markets which he had
+      left behind him that morning seemed to him like a vast mortuary, an abode
+      of death, where only corpses could be found, a charnel-house reeking with
+      foul smells and putrefaction. He slackened his steps, and rested in that
+      kitchen garden, as after a long perambulation amidst deafening noises and
+      repulsive odours. The uproar and the sickening humidity of the fish market
+      had departed from him; and he felt as though he were being born anew in
+      the pure fresh air. Claude was right, he thought. The markets were a
+      sphere of death. The soil was the life, the eternal cradle, the health of
+      the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The omelet&rsquo;s ready!&rdquo; suddenly cried Madame Francois.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were all three seated round the table in the kitchen, with the
+      door thrown open to the sunshine, they ate their breakfast with such
+      light-hearted gaiety that Madame Francois looked at Florent in amazement,
+      repeating between each mouthful: &ldquo;You&rsquo;re quite altered. You&rsquo;re ten years
+      younger. It is that villainous Paris which makes you seem so gloomy.
+      You&rsquo;ve got a little sunshine in your eyes now. Ah! those big towns do
+      one&rsquo;s health no good, you ought to come and live here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude laughed, and retorted that Paris was a glorious place. He stuck up
+      for it and all that belonged to it, even to its gutters; though at the
+      same time retaining a keen affection for the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon Madame Francois and Florent found themselves alone at the
+      end of the garden, in a corner planted with a few fruit trees. Seated on
+      the ground, they talked somewhat seriously together. The good woman
+      advised Florent with an affectionate and quite maternal kindness. She
+      asked him endless questions about his life, and his intentions for the
+      future, and begged him to remember that he might always count upon her, if
+      ever he thought that she could in the slightest degree contribute to his
+      happiness. Florent was deeply touched. No woman had ever spoken to him in
+      that way before. Madame Francois seemed to him like some healthy, robust
+      plant that had grown up with the vegetables in the leaf-mould of the
+      garden; while the Lisas, the Normans, and other pretty women of the
+      markets appeared to him like flesh of doubtful freshness decked out for
+      exhibition. He here enjoyed several hours of perfect well-being, delivered
+      from all that reek of food which sickened him in the markets, and reviving
+      to new life amidst the fertile atmosphere of the country, like that
+      cabbage stalk which Claude declared he had seen sprout up more than half a
+      score of times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men took leave of Madame Francois at about five o&rsquo;clock. They had
+      decided to walk back to Paris; and the market gardener accompanied them
+      into the lane. As she bade good-bye to Florent, she kept his hand in her
+      own for a moment, and said gently: &ldquo;If ever anything happens to trouble
+      you, remember to come to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For a quarter of an hour Florent walked on without speaking, already
+      getting gloomy again, and reflecting that he was leaving health behind
+      him. The road to Courbevoie was white with dust. However, both men were
+      fond of long walks and the ringing of stout boots on the hard ground.
+      Little clouds of dust rose up behind their heels at every step, while the
+      rays of the sinking sun darted obliquely over the avenue, lengthening
+      their shadows in such wise that their heads reached the other side of the
+      road, and journeyed along the opposite footway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude, swinging his arms, and taking long, regular strides, complacently
+      watched these two shadows, whilst enjoying the rhythmical cadence of his
+      steps, which he accentuated by a motion of his shoulders. Presently,
+      however, as though just awaking from a dream, he exclaimed: &ldquo;Do you know
+      the &lsquo;Battle of the Fat and the Thin&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent, surprised by the question, replied in the negative; and thereupon
+      Claude waxed enthusiastic, talking of that series of prints in very
+      eulogical fashion. He mentioned certain incidents: the Fat, so swollen
+      that they almost burst, preparing their evening debauch, while the Thin,
+      bent double by fasting, looked in from the street with the appearance of
+      envious laths; and then, again, the Fat, with hanging cheeks, driving off
+      one of the Thin, who had been audacious enough to introduce himself into
+      their midst in lowly humility, and who looked like a ninepin amongst a
+      population of balls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In these designs Claude detected the entire drama of human life, and he
+      ended by classifying men into Fat and Thin, two hostile groups, one of
+      which devours the other, and grows fat and sleek and enjoys itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cain,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;was certainly one of the Fat, and Abel one of the Thin.
+      Ever since that first murder, there have been rampant appetites which have
+      drained the life-blood of small eaters. It&rsquo;s a continual preying of the
+      stronger upon the weaker; each swallowing his neighbour, and then getting
+      swallowed in his turn. Beware of the Fat, my friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He relapsed into silence for a moment, still watching their two shadows,
+      which the setting sun elongated more than ever. Then he murmured: &ldquo;You
+      see, we belong to the Thin&mdash;you and I. Those who are no more
+      corpulent than we are don&rsquo;t take up much room in the sunlight, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent glanced at the two shadows, and smiled. But Claude waxed angry,
+      and exclaimed: &ldquo;You make a mistake if you think it is a laughing matter.
+      For my own part, I greatly suffer from being one of the Thin. If I were
+      one of the Fat, I could paint at my ease; I should have a fine studio, and
+      sell my pictures for their weight in gold. But, instead of that, I&rsquo;m one
+      of the Thin; and I have to grind my life out in producing things which
+      simply make the Fat ones shrug their shoulders. I shall die of it all in
+      the end, I&rsquo;m sure of it, with my skin clinging to my bones, and so
+      flattened that they will be able to bury me between two leaves of a book.
+      And you, too, you are one of the Thin, a wonderful one; the very king of
+      Thin, in fact! Do you remember your quarrel with the fish-wives? It was
+      magnificent; all those colossal bosoms flying at your scraggy breast! Oh!
+      they were simply acting from natural instinct; they were pursuing one of
+      the Thin just as cats pursue a mouse. The Fat, you know, have an
+      instinctive hatred of the Thin, to such an extent that they must needs
+      drive the latter from their sight, either by means of their teeth or their
+      feet. And that is why, if I were in your place, I should take my
+      precautions. The Quenus belong to the Fat, and so do the Mehudins; indeed,
+      you have none but Fat ones around you. I should feel uneasy under such
+      circumstances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what about Gavard, and Mademoiselle Saget, and your friend Marjolin?&rdquo;
+       asked Florent, still smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, if you like, I will classify all our acquaintances for you,&rdquo; replied
+      Claude. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had their heads in a portfolio in my studio for a long time
+      past, with memoranda of the order to which they belong. Gavard is one of
+      the Fat, but of the kind which pretends to belong to the Thin. The variety
+      is by no means uncommon. Mademoiselle Saget and Madame Lecoeur belong to
+      the Thin, but to a variety which is much to be feared&mdash;the Thin ones
+      whom envy drives to despair, and who are capable of anything in their
+      craving to fatten themselves. My friend Marjolin, little Cadine, and La
+      Sarriette are three Fat ones, still innocent, however, and having nothing
+      but the guileless hunger of youth. I may remark that the Fat, so long as
+      they&rsquo;ve not grown old, are charming creatures. Monsieur Lebigre is one of
+      the Fat&mdash;don&rsquo;t you think so? As for your political friends, Charvet,
+      Clemence, Logre, and Lacaille, they mostly belong to the Thin. I only
+      except that big animal Alexandre, and that prodigy Robine, who has caused
+      me a vast amount of annoyance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The artist continued to talk in this strain from the Pont de Neuilly to
+      the Arc de Triomphe. He returned to some of those whom he had already
+      mentioned, and completed their portraits with a few characteristic
+      touches. Logre, he said, was one of the Thin whose belly had been placed
+      between his shoulders. Beautiful Lisa was all stomach, and the beautiful
+      Norman all bosom. Mademoiselle Saget, in her earlier life, must have
+      certainly lost some opportunity to fatten herself, for she detested the
+      Fat, while, at the same time, she despised the Thin. As for Gavard, he was
+      compromising his position as one of the Fat, and would end by becoming as
+      flat as a bug.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what about Madame Francois?&rdquo; Florent asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude seemed much embarrassed by this question. He cast about for an
+      answer, and at last stammered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madame Francois, Madame Francois&mdash;well, no, I really don&rsquo;t know; I
+      never thought about classifying her. But she&rsquo;s a dear good soul, and
+      that&rsquo;s quite sufficient. She&rsquo;s neither one of the Fat nor one of the
+      Thin!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They both laughed. They were now in front of the Arc de Triomphe. The sun,
+      over by the hills of Suresnes, was so low on the horizon that their
+      colossal shadows streaked the whiteness of the great structure even above
+      the huge groups of statuary, like strokes made with a piece of charcoal.
+      This increased Claude&rsquo;s merriment, he waved his arms and bent his body;
+      and then, as he started on his way again, he said; &ldquo;Did you notice&mdash;just
+      as the sun set our two heads shot up to the sky!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Florent no longer smiled. Paris was grasping him again, that Paris
+      which now frightened him so much, after having cost him so many tears at
+      Cayenne. When he reached the markets night was falling, and there was a
+      suffocating smell. He bent his head as he once more returned to the
+      nightmare of endless food, whilst preserving the sweet yet sad
+      recollection of that day of bright health odorous with the perfume of
+      thyme.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      At about four o&rsquo;clock on the afternoon of the following day Lisa betook
+      herself to Saint Eustache. For the short walk across the square she had
+      arrayed herself very seriously in a black silk gown and thick woollen
+      shawl. The handsome Norman, who, from her stall in the fish market,
+      watched her till she vanished into the church porch, was quite amazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hallo! So the fat thing&rsquo;s gone in for priests now, has she?&rdquo; she
+      exclaimed, with a sneer. &ldquo;Well, a little holy water may do her good!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was mistaken in her surmises, however, for Lisa was not a devotee. She
+      did not observe the ordinances of the Church, but said that she did her
+      best to lead an honest life, and that this was all that was necessary. At
+      the same time, however, she disliked to hear religion spoken ill of, and
+      often silenced Gavard, who delighted in scandalous stories of priests and
+      their doings. Talk of that sort seemed to her altogether improper.
+      Everyone, in her opinion, should be allowed to believe as they pleased,
+      and every scruple should be respected. Besides, the majority of the clergy
+      were most estimable men. She knew Abbe Roustan, of Saint Eustache&mdash;a
+      distinguished priest, a man of shrewd sense, and one, she thought, whose
+      friendship might be safely relied upon. And she would wind up by
+      explaining that religion was absolutely necessary for the people; she
+      looked upon it as a sort of police force that helped to maintain order,
+      and without which no government would be possible. When Gavard went too
+      far on this subject and asserted that the priests ought to be turned into
+      the streets and have their shops shut up, Lisa, shrugged her shoulders and
+      replied: &ldquo;A great deal of good that would do! Why, before a month was over
+      the people would be murdering one another in the streets, and you would be
+      compelled to invent another God. That was just what happened in &lsquo;93. You
+      know very well that I&rsquo;m not given to mixing with the priests, but for all
+      that I say that they are necessary, as we couldn&rsquo;t do without them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so when Lisa happened to enter a church she always manifested the
+      utmost decorum. She had bought a handsome missal, which she never opened,
+      for use when she was invited to a funeral or a wedding. She knelt and rose
+      at the proper times, and made a point of conducting herself with all
+      propriety. She assumed, indeed, what she considered a sort of official
+      demeanour, such as all well-to-do folks, tradespeople, and house-owners
+      ought to observe with regard to religion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she entered Saint Eustache that afternoon she let the double doors,
+      covered with green baize, faded and worn by the frequent touch of pious
+      hands, close gently behind her. Then she dipped her fingers in the holy
+      water and crossed herself in the correct fashion. And afterwards, with
+      hushed footsteps, she made her way to the chapel of Saint Agnes, where two
+      kneeling women with their faces buried in their hands were waiting, whilst
+      the blue skirts of a third protruded from the confessional. Lisa seemed
+      rather put out by the sight of these women, and, addressing a verger who
+      happened to pass along, wearing a black skullcap and dragging his feet
+      over the slabs, she inquired: &ldquo;Is this Monsieur l&rsquo;Abbe Roustan&rsquo;s day for
+      hearing confessions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The verger replied that his reverence had only two more penitents waiting,
+      and that they would not detain him long, so that if Lisa would take a
+      chair her turn would speedily come. She thanked him, without telling him
+      that she had not come to confess; and, making up her mind to wait, she
+      began to pace the church, going as far as the chief entrance, whence she
+      gazed at the lofty, severe, bare nave stretching between the brightly
+      coloured aisles. Raising her head a little, she examined the high altar,
+      which she considered too plain, having no taste for the cold grandeur of
+      stonework, but preferring the gilding and gaudy colouring of the side
+      chapels. Those on the side of the Rue du Jour looked greyish in the light
+      which filtered through their dusty windows, but on the side of the markets
+      the sunset was lighting up the stained glass with lovely tints, limpid
+      greens and yellows in particular, which reminded Lisa of the bottle of
+      liqueurs in front of Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s mirror. She came back by this
+      side, which seemed to be warmed by the glow of light, and took a passing
+      interest in the reliquaries, altar ornaments, and paintings steeped in
+      prismatic reflections. The church was empty, quivering with the silence
+      that fell from its vaulted roofing. Here and there a woman&rsquo;s dress showed
+      like a dark splotch amidst the vague yellow of the chairs; and a low
+      buzzing came from the closed confessionals. As Lisa again passed the
+      chapel of Saint Agnes she saw the blue dress still kneeling at Abbe
+      Roustan&rsquo;s feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, if I&rsquo;d wanted to confess I could have said everything in ten
+      seconds,&rdquo; she thought, proud of her irreproachable integrity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she went on to the end of the church. Behind the high altar, in the
+      gloom of a double row of pillars, is the chapel of the Blessed Virgin,
+      damp and dark and silent. The dim stained windows only show the flowing
+      crimson and violet robes of saints, which blaze like flames of mystic love
+      in the solemn, silent adoration of the darkness. It is a weird, mysterious
+      spot, like some crepuscular nook of paradise solely illumined by the
+      gleaming stars of two tapers. The four brass lamps hanging from the roof
+      remain unlighted, and are but faintly seen; on espying them you think of
+      the golden censers which the angels swing before the throne of Mary. And
+      kneeling on the chairs between the pillars there are always women
+      surrendering themselves languorously to the dim spot&rsquo;s voluptuous charm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa stood and gazed tranquilly around her. She did not feel the least
+      emotion, but considered that it was a mistake not to light the lamps.
+      Their brightness would have given the place a more cheerful look. The
+      gloom even struck her as savouring of impropriety. Her face was warmed by
+      the flames of some candles burning in a candelabrum by her side, and an
+      old woman armed with a big knife was scraping off the wax which had
+      trickled down and congealed into pale tears. And amidst the quivering
+      silence, the mute ecstasy of adoration prevailing in the chapel, Lisa
+      would distinctly hear the rumbling of the vehicles turning out of the Rue
+      Montmartre, behind the scarlet and purple saints on the windows, whilst in
+      the distance the markets roared without a moment&rsquo;s pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as Lisa was leaving the chapel, she saw the younger of the Mehudins,
+      Claire, the dealer in fresh water fish, come in. The girl lighted a taper
+      at the candelabrum, and then went to kneel behind a pillar, her knees
+      pressed upon the hard stones, and her face so pale beneath her loose fair
+      hair that she seemed a corpse. And believing herself to be securely
+      screened from observation, she gave way to violent emotion, and wept hot
+      tears with a passionate outpouring of prayer which bent her like a rushing
+      wind. Lisa looked on in amazement, for the Mehudins were not known to be
+      particularly pious; indeed, Claire was accustomed to speak of religion and
+      priests in such terms as to horrify one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the meaning of this, I wonder?&rdquo; pondered Lisa, as she again made
+      her way to the chapel of Saint Agnes. &ldquo;The hussy must have been poisoning
+      some one or other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Abbe Roustan was at last coming out of his confessional. He was a handsome
+      man, of some forty years of age, with a smiling, kindly air. When he
+      recognised Madame Quenu he grasped her hand, called her &ldquo;dear lady,&rdquo; and
+      conducted her to the vestry, where, taking off his surplice, he told her
+      that he would be entirely at her service in a moment. They returned, the
+      priest in his cassock, bareheaded, and Lisa strutting along in her shawl,
+      and paced up and down in front of the side-chapels adjacent to the Rue du
+      Jour. They conversed together in low tones. The sunlight was departing
+      from the stained windows, the church was growing dark, and the retreating
+      footsteps of the last worshippers sounded but faintly over the flagstones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa explained her doubts and scruples to Abbe Roustan. There had never
+      been any question of religion between them; she never confessed, but
+      merely consulted him in cases of difficulty, because he was shrewd and
+      discreet, and she preferred him, as she sometimes said, to shady business
+      men redolent of the galleys. The abbe, on his side, manifested
+      inexhaustible complaisance. He looked up points of law for her in the
+      Code, pointed out profitable investments, resolved her moral difficulties
+      with great tact, recommended tradespeople to her, invariably having an
+      answer ready however diverse and complicated her requirements might be.
+      And he supplied all this help in a natural matter-of-fact way, without
+      ever introducing the Deity into his talk, or seeking to obtain any
+      advantage either for himself or the cause of religion. A word of thanks
+      and a smile sufficed him. He seemed glad to have an opportunity of
+      obliging the handsome Madame Quenu, of whom his housekeeper often spoke to
+      him in terms of praise, as of a woman who was highly respected in the
+      neighbourhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their consultation that afternoon was of a peculiarly delicate nature.
+      Lisa was anxious to know what steps she might legitimately take, as a
+      woman of honour, with respect to her brother-in-law. Had she a right to
+      keep a watch upon him, and to do what she could to prevent him from
+      compromising her husband, her daughter, and herself? And then how far
+      might she go in circumstances of pressing danger? She did not bluntly put
+      these questions to the abbe, but asked them with such skilful
+      circumlocutions that he was able to discuss the matter without entering
+      into personalities. He brought forward arguments on both sides of the
+      question, but the conclusion he came to was that a person of integrity was
+      entitled, indeed bound, to prevent evil, and was justified in using
+      whatever means might be necessary to ensure the triumph of that which was
+      right and proper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is my opinion, dear lady,&rdquo; he said in conclusion. &ldquo;The question of
+      means is always a very grave one. It is a snare in which souls of average
+      virtue often become entangled. But I know your scrupulous conscience.
+      Deliberate carefully over each step you think of taking, and if it
+      contains nothing repugnant to you, go on boldly. Pure natures have the
+      marvelous gift of purifying all that they touch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, changing his tone of voice, he continued: &ldquo;Pray give my kind regards
+      to Monsieur Quenu. I&rsquo;ll come in to kiss my dear little Pauline some time
+      when I&rsquo;m passing. And now good-bye, dear lady; remember that I&rsquo;m always at
+      your service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon he returned to the vestry. Lisa, on her way out, was curious to
+      see if Claire was still praying, but the girl had gone back to her eels
+      and carp; and in front of the Lady-chapel, which was already shrouded in
+      darkness, there was now but a litter of chairs overturned by the ardent
+      vehemence of the woman who had knelt there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the handsome Lisa again crossed the square, La Normande, who had been
+      watching for her exit from the church, recognised her in the twilight by
+      the rotundity of her skirts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good gracious!&rdquo; she exclaimed, &ldquo;she&rsquo;s been more than an hour in there!
+      When the priests set about cleansing her of her sins, the choir-boys have
+      to form in line to pass the buckets of filth and empty them in the
+      street!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning Lisa went straight up to Florent&rsquo;s bedroom and settled
+      herself there with perfect equanimity. She felt certain that she would not
+      be disturbed, and, moreover, she had made up her mind to tell a falsehood
+      and say that she had come to see if the linen was clean, should Florent by
+      any chance return. Whilst in the shop, however, she had observed him
+      busily engaged in the fish market. Seating herself in front of the little
+      table, she pulled out the drawer, placed it upon her knees, and began to
+      examine its contents, taking the greatest care to restore them to their
+      original positions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First of all she came upon the opening chapters of the work on Cayenne;
+      then upon the drafts of Florent&rsquo;s various plans and projects, his schemes
+      for converting the Octroi duties into taxes upon sales, for reforming the
+      administrative system of the markets, and all the others. These pages of
+      small writing, which she set herself to read, bored her extremely, and she
+      was about to restore the drawer to its place, feeling convinced that
+      Florent concealed the proofs of his wicked designs elsewhere, and already
+      contemplating a searching visitation of his mattress, when she discovered
+      a photograph of La Normande in an envelope. The impression was rather
+      dark. La Normande was standing up with her right arm resting on a broken
+      column. Decked out with all her jewels, and attired in a new silk dress,
+      the fish-girl was smiling impudently, and Lisa, at the sight, forgot all
+      about her brother-in-law, her fears, and the purpose for which she had
+      come into the room. She became quite absorbed in her examination of the
+      portrait, as often happens when one woman scrutinises the photograph of
+      another at her ease, without fear of being seen. Never before had she so
+      favourable an opportunity to study her rival. She scrutinised her hair,
+      her nose, her mouth; held the photograph at a distance, and then brought
+      it closer again. And, finally, with compressed lips, she read on the back
+      of it, in a big, ugly scrawl: &ldquo;Louise, to her friend, Florent.&rdquo; This quite
+      scandalised her; to her mind it was a confession, and she felt a strong
+      impulse to take possession of the photograph, and keep it as a weapon
+      against her enemy. However, she slowly replaced it in the envelope on
+      coming to the conclusion that this course would be wrong, and reflecting
+      that she would always know where to find it should she want it again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as she again began turning over the loose sheets of paper, it
+      occurred to her to look at the back end of the drawer, where Florent had
+      relegated Augustine&rsquo;s needles and thread; and there, between the missal
+      and the Dream-book, she discovered what she sought, some extremely
+      compromising memoranda, simply screened from observation by a wrapper of
+      grey paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That idea of an insurrection, of the overthrow of the Empire by means of
+      an armed rising, which Logre had one evening propounded at Monsieur
+      Lebigre&rsquo;s, had slowly ripened in Florent&rsquo;s feverish brain. He soon grew to
+      see a duty, a mission in it. Therein undoubtedly lay the task to which his
+      escape from Cayenne and his return to Paris predestined him. Believing in
+      a call to avenge his leanness upon the city which wallowed in food while
+      the upholders of right and equity were racked by hunger in exile, he took
+      upon himself the duties of a justiciary, and dreamt of rising up, even in
+      the midst of those markets, to sweep away the reign of gluttony and
+      drunkenness. In a sensitive nature like his, this idea quickly took root.
+      Everything about him assumed exaggerated proportions, the wildest fancies
+      possessed him. He imagined that the markets had been conscious of his
+      arrival, and had seized hold of him that they might enervate him and
+      poison him with their stenches. Then, too, Lisa wanted to cast a spell
+      over him, and for two or three days at a time he would avoid her, as
+      though she were some dissolving agency which would destroy all his power
+      of will should he approach too closely. However, these paroxysms of
+      puerile fear, these wild surgings of his rebellious brain, always ended in
+      thrills of the gentlest tenderness, with yearnings to love and be loved,
+      which he concealed with a boyish shame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was more especially in the evening that his mind became blurred by all
+      his wild imaginings. Depressed by his day&rsquo;s work, but shunning sleep from
+      a covert fear&mdash;the fear of the annihilation it brought with it&mdash;he
+      would remain later than ever at Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s, or at the Mehudins&rsquo;;
+      and on his return home he still refrained from going to bed, and sat up
+      writing and preparing for the great insurrection. By slow degrees he
+      devised a complete system of organisation. He divided Paris into twenty
+      sections, one for each arrondissement. Each section would have a chief, a
+      sort of general, under whose orders there were to be twenty lieutenants
+      commanding twenty companies of affiliated associates. Every week, among
+      the chiefs, there would be a consultation, which was to be held in a
+      different place each time; and, the better to ensure secrecy and
+      discretion, the associates would only come in contact with their
+      respective lieutenants, these alone communicating with the chiefs of the
+      sections. It also occurred to Florent that it would be as well that the
+      companies should believe themselves charged with imaginary missions, as a
+      means of putting the police upon a wrong scent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the employment of the insurrectionary forces, that would be all
+      simplicity. It would, of course, be necessary to wait till the companies
+      were quite complete, and then advantage would be taken of the first public
+      commotion. They would doubtless only have a certain number of guns used
+      for sporting purposes in their possession, so they would commence by
+      seizing the police stations and guard-houses, disarming the soldiers of
+      the line; resorting to violence as little as possible, and inviting the
+      men to make common cause with the people. Afterwards they would march upon
+      the Corps Legislatif, and thence to the Hotel de Ville. This plan, to
+      which Florent returned night after night, as though it were some dramatic
+      scenario which relieved his over-excited nervous system, was as yet simply
+      jotted down on scraps of paper, full of erasures, which showed how the
+      writer had felt his way, and revealed each successive phase of his
+      scientific yet puerile conception. When Lisa had glanced through the
+      notes, without understanding some of them, she remained there trembling
+      with fear; afraid to touch them further lest they should explode in her
+      hands like live shells.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A last memorandum frightened her more than any of the others. It was a
+      half sheet of paper on which Florent had sketched the distinguishing
+      insignia which the chiefs and the lieutenants were to wear. By the side of
+      these were rough drawings of the standards which the different companies
+      were to carry; and notes in pencil even described what colours the banners
+      should assume. The chiefs were to wear red scarves, and the lieutenants
+      red armlets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Lisa this seemed like an immediate realisation of the rising; she saw
+      all the men with their red badges marching past the pork shop, firing
+      bullets into her mirrors and marble, and carrying off sausages and
+      chitterlings from the window. The infamous projects of her brother-in-law
+      were surely directed against herself&mdash;against her own happiness. She
+      closed the drawer and looked round the room, reflecting that it was she
+      herself who had provided this man with a home&mdash;that he slept between
+      her sheets and used her furniture. And she was especially exasperated at
+      his keeping his abominable infernal machine in that little deal table
+      which she herself had used at Uncle Gradelle&rsquo;s before her marriage&mdash;a
+      perfectly innocent, rickety little table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a while she stood thinking what she should do. In the first place, it
+      was useless to say anything to Quenu. For a moment it occurred to her to
+      provoke an explanation with Florent, but she dismissed that idea, fearing
+      lest he would only go and perpetrate his crime elsewhere, and maliciously
+      make a point of compromising them. Then gradually growing somewhat calmer,
+      she came to the conclusion that her best plan would be to keep a careful
+      watch over her brother-in-law. It would be time enough to take further
+      steps at the first sign of danger. She already had quite sufficient
+      evidence to send him back to the galleys.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On returning to the shop again, she found Augustine in a state of great
+      excitement. Little Pauline had disappeared more than half an hour before,
+      and to Lisa&rsquo;s anxious questions the young woman could only reply: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t
+      know where she can have got to, madame. She was on the pavement there with
+      a little boy. I was watching them, and then I had to cut some ham for a
+      gentleman, and I never saw them again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll wager it was Muche!&rdquo; cried Lisa. &ldquo;Ah, the young scoundrel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was, indeed, Muche who had enticed Pauline away. The little girl, who
+      was wearing a new blue-striped frock that day for the first time, had been
+      anxious to exhibit it, and had accordingly taken her stand outside the
+      shop, manifesting great propriety of bearing, and compressing her lips
+      with the grave expression of a little woman of six who is afraid of
+      soiling her clothes. Her short and stiffly-starched petticoats stood out
+      like the skirts of a ballet girl, allowing a full view of her tightly
+      stretched white stockings and little sky-blue boots. Her pinafore, which
+      hung low about her neck, was finished off at the shoulders with an edging
+      of embroidery, below which appeared her pretty little arms, bare and rosy.
+      She had small turquoise rings in her ears, a cross at her neck, a blue
+      velvet ribbon in her well-brushed hair; and she displayed all her mother&rsquo;s
+      plumpness and softness&mdash;the gracefulness, indeed, of a new doll.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muche had caught sight of her from the market, where he was amusing
+      himself by dropping little dead fishes into the gutter, following them
+      along the kerb as the water carried them away, and declaring that they
+      were swimming. However, the sight of Pauline standing in front of the shop
+      and looking so smart and pretty made him cross over to her, capless as he
+      was, with his blouse ragged, his trousers slipping down, and his whole
+      appearance suggestive of a seven-year-old street-arab. His mother had
+      certainly forbidden him to play any more with &ldquo;that fat booby of a girl
+      who was stuffed by her parents till she almost burst&rdquo;; so he stood
+      hesitating for a moment, but at last came up to Pauline, and wanted to
+      feel her pretty striped frock. The little girl, who had at first felt
+      flattered, then put on a prim air and stepped back, exclaiming in a tone
+      of displeasure: &ldquo;Leave me alone. Mother says I&rsquo;m not to have anything to
+      do with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This brought a laugh to the lips of Muche, who was a wily, enterprising
+      young scamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a little flat you are!&rdquo; he retorted. &ldquo;What does it matter what your
+      mother says? Let&rsquo;s go and play at shoving each other, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He doubtless nourished some wicked idea of dirtying the neat little girl;
+      but she, on seeing him prepare to give her a push in the back, retreated
+      as though about to return inside the shop. Muche thereupon adopted a
+      flattering tone like a born cajoler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You silly! I didn&rsquo;t mean it,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;How nice you look like that! Is
+      that little cross your mother&rsquo;s?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pauline perked herself up, and replied that it was her own, whereupon
+      Muche gently led her to the corner of the Rue Pirouette, touching her
+      skirts the while and expressing his astonishment at their wonderful
+      stiffness. All this pleased the little girl immensely. She had been very
+      much vexed at not receiving any notice while she was exhibiting herself
+      outside the shop. However, in spite of all Muche&rsquo;s blandishments, she
+      still refused to leave the footway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You stupid fatty!&rdquo; thereupon exclaimed the youngster, relapsing into
+      coarseness. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll squat you down in the gutter if you don&rsquo;t look out, Miss
+      Fine-airs!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl was dreadfully alarmed. Muche had caught hold of her by the hand;
+      but, recognising his mistake in policy, he again put on a wheedling air,
+      and began to fumble in his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a sou,&rdquo; said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sight of the coin had a soothing effect upon Pauline. The boy held up
+      the sou with the tips of his fingers, and the temptation to follow it
+      proved so great that the girl at last stepped down into the roadway.
+      Muche&rsquo;s diplomacy was eminently successful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you like best?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pauline gave no immediate answer. She could not make up her mind; there
+      were so many things that she liked. Muche, however, ran over a whole list
+      of dainties&mdash;liquorice, molasses, gum-balls, and powdered sugar. The
+      powdered sugar made the girl ponder. One dipped one&rsquo;s fingers into it and
+      sucked them; it was very nice. For a while she gravely considered the
+      matter. Then, at last making up her mind, she said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I like the mixed screws the best.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Muche thereupon took hold of her arm, and she unresistingly allowed him to
+      lead her away. They crossed the Rue Rambuteau, followed the broad footway
+      skirting the markets, and went as far as a grocer&rsquo;s shop in the Rue de la
+      Cossonnerie which was celebrated for its mixed screws. These mixed screws
+      are small screws of paper in which grocers put up all sorts of damaged
+      odds and ends, broken sugar-plums, fragments of crystallised chestnuts&mdash;all
+      the doubtful residuum of their jars of sweets. Muche showed himself very
+      gallant, allowed Pauline to choose the screw&mdash;a blue one&mdash;paid
+      his sou, and did not attempt to dispossess her of the sweets. Outside, on
+      the footway, she emptied the miscellaneous collection of scraps into both
+      pockets of her pinafore; and they were such little pockets that they were
+      quite filled. Then in delight she began to munch the fragments one by one,
+      wetting her fingers to catch the fine sugary dust, with such effect that
+      she melted the scraps of sweets, and the pockets of her pinafore soon
+      showed two brownish stains. Muche laughed slily to himself. He had his arm
+      about the girl&rsquo;s waist, and rumpled her frock at his ease whilst leading
+      her round the corner of the Rue Pierre Lescot, in the direction of the
+      Place des Innocents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll come and play now, won&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s nice what you&rsquo;ve
+      got in your pockets, ain&rsquo;t it? You see that I didn&rsquo;t want to do you any
+      harm, you big silly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon he plunged his own fingers into her pockets, and they entered
+      the square together. To this spot, no doubt, he had all along intended to
+      lure his victim. He did the honours of the square as though it were his
+      own private property, and indeed it was a favourite haunt of his, where he
+      often larked about for whole afternoons. Pauline had never before strayed
+      so far from home, and would have wept like an abducted damsel had it not
+      been that her pockets were full of sweets. The fountain in the middle of
+      the flowered lawn was sending sheets of water down its tiers of basins,
+      whilst, between the pilasters above, Jean Goujon&rsquo;s nymphs, looking very
+      white beside the dingy grey stonework, inclined their urns and displayed
+      their nude graces in the grimy air of the Saint Denis quarter. The two
+      children walked round the fountain, watching the water fall into the
+      basins, and taking an interest in the grass, with thoughts, no doubt, of
+      crossing the central lawn, or gliding into the clumps of holly and
+      rhododendrons that bordered the railings of the square. Little Muche,
+      however, who had now effectually rumpled the back of the pretty frock,
+      said with his sly smile:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s play at throwing sand at each other, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pauline had no will of her own left; and they began to throw the sand at
+      each other, keeping their eyes closed meanwhile. The sand made its way in
+      at the neck of the girl&rsquo;s low bodice, and trickled down into her stockings
+      and boots. Muche was delighted to see the white pinafore become quite
+      yellow. But he doubtless considered that it was still far too clean.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s go and plant trees, shall we?&rdquo; he exclaimed suddenly. &ldquo;I know how
+      to make such pretty gardens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really, gardens!&rdquo; murmured Pauline full of admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as the keeper of the square happened to be absent, Muche told her to
+      make some holes in one of the borders; and dropping on her knees in the
+      middle of the soft mould, and leaning forward till she lay at full length
+      on her stomach, she dug her pretty little arms into the ground. He,
+      meantime, began to hunt for scraps of wood, and broke off branches. These
+      were the garden-trees which he planted in the holes that Pauline made. He
+      invariably complained, however, that the holes were not deep enough, and
+      rated the girl as though she were an idle workman and he an indignant
+      master. When she at last got up, she was black from head to foot. Her hair
+      was full of mould, her face was smeared with it, she looked such a sight
+      with her arms as black as a coalheaver&rsquo;s that Muche clapped his hands with
+      glee, and exclaimed: &ldquo;Now we must water the trees. They won&rsquo;t grow, you
+      know, if we don&rsquo;t water them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That was the finishing stroke. They went outside the square, scooped the
+      gutter-water up in the palms of their hands, and then ran back to pour it
+      over the bits of wood. On the way, Pauline, who was so fat that she
+      couldn&rsquo;t run properly, let the water trickle between her fingers on to her
+      frock, so that by the time of her sixth journey she looked as if she had
+      been rolled in the gutter. Muche chuckled with delight on beholding her
+      dreadful condition. He made her sit down beside him under a rhododendron
+      near the garden they had made, and told her that the trees were already
+      beginning to grow. He had taken hold of her hand and called her his little
+      wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not sorry now that you came, are you,&rdquo; he asked, &ldquo;instead of
+      mooning about on the pavement, where there was nothing to do? I know all
+      sorts of fun we can have in the streets; you must come with me again. You
+      will, won&rsquo;t you? But you mustn&rsquo;t say anything to your mother, mind. If you
+      say a word to her, I&rsquo;ll pull your hair the next time I come past your
+      shop.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pauline consented to everything; and then, as a last attention, Muche
+      filled both pockets of her pinafore with mould. However, all the sweets
+      were finished, and the girl began to get uneasy, and ceased playing. Muche
+      thereupon started pinching her, and she burst into tears, sobbing that she
+      wanted to go away. But at this the lad only grinned, and played the bully,
+      threatening that he would not take her home at all. Then she grew terribly
+      alarmed, and sobbed and gasped like a maiden in the power of a libertine.
+      Muche would certainly have ended by punching her in order to stop her row,
+      had not a shrill voice, the voice of Mademoiselle Saget, exclaimed, close
+      by: &ldquo;Why, I declare it&rsquo;s Pauline! Leave her alone, you wicked young
+      scoundrel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the old maid took the girl by the hand, with endless expressions of
+      amazement at the pitiful condition of her clothes. Muche showed no alarm,
+      but followed them, chuckling to himself, and declaring that it was Pauline
+      who had wanted to come with him, and had tumbled down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget was a regular frequenter of the Square des Innocents.
+      Every afternoon she would spend a good hour there to keep herself well
+      posted in the gossip of the common people. On either side there is a long
+      crescent of benches placed end to end; and on these the poor folks who
+      stifle in the hovels of the neighbouring narrow streets assemble in
+      crowds. There are withered, chilly-looking old women in tumbled caps, and
+      young ones in loose jackets and carelessly fastened skirts, with bare
+      heads and tired, faded faces, eloquent of the wretchedness of their lives.
+      There are some men also: tidy old buffers, porters in greasy jackets, and
+      equivocal-looking individuals in black silk hats, while the foot-path is
+      overrun by a swarm of youngsters dragging toy carts without wheels about,
+      filling pails with sand, and screaming and fighting; a dreadful crew, with
+      ragged clothes and dirty noses, teeming in the sunshine like vermin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget was so slight and thin that she always managed to
+      insinuate herself into a place on one of the benches. She listened to what
+      was being said, and started a conversation with her neighbour, some
+      sallow-faced workingman&rsquo;s wife, who sat mending linen, from time to time
+      producing handkerchiefs and stockings riddled with holes from a little
+      basket patched up with string. Moreover, Mademoiselle Saget had plenty of
+      acquaintances here. Amidst the excruciating squalling of the children, and
+      the ceaseless rumble of the traffic in the Rue Saint Denis, she took part
+      in no end of gossip, everlasting tales about the tradesmen of the
+      neighbourhood, the grocers, the butchers, and the bakers, enough, indeed,
+      to fill the columns of a local paper, and the whole envenomed by refusals
+      of credit and covert envy, such as is always harboured by the poor. From
+      these wretched creatures she also obtained the most disgusting
+      revelations, the gossip of low lodging-houses and doorkeepers&rsquo; 
+      black-holes, all the filthy scandal of the neighbourhood, which tickled
+      her inquisitive appetite like hot spice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she sat with her face turned towards the markets, she had immediately
+      in front of her the square and its three blocks of houses, into the
+      windows of which her eyes tried to pry. She seemed to gradually rise and
+      traverse the successive floors right up to the garret skylights. She
+      stared at the curtains; based an entire drama on the appearance of a head
+      between two shutters; and, by simply gazing at the facades, ended by
+      knowing the history of all the dwellers in these houses. The Baratte
+      Restaurant, with its wine shop, its gilt wrought-iron <i>marquise</i>,
+      forming a sort of terrace whence peeped the foliage of a few plants in
+      flower-pots, and its four low storeys, all painted and decorated, had an
+      especial interest for her. She gazed at its yellow columns standing out
+      against a background of tender blue, at the whole of its imitation
+      temple-front daubed on the facade of a decrepit, tumble-down house,
+      crowned at the summit by a parapet of painted zinc. Behind the red-striped
+      window-blinds she espied visions of nice little lunches, delicate suppers,
+      and uproarious, unlimited orgies. And she did not hesitate to invent lies
+      about the place. It was there, she declared, that Florent came to gorge
+      with those two hussies, the Mehudins, on whom he lavished his money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Pauline cried yet louder than before when the old maid took hold
+      of her hand. Mademoiselle Saget at first led her towards the gate of the
+      square; but before she got there she seemed to change her mind; for she
+      sat down at the end of a bench and tried to pacify the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, now, give over crying, or the policeman will lock you up,&rdquo; she said
+      to Pauline. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take you home safely. You know me, don&rsquo;t you? I&rsquo;m a good
+      friend. Come, come, let me see how prettily you can smile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The child, however, was choking with sobs and wanted to go away.
+      Mademoiselle Saget thereupon quietly allowed her to continue weeping,
+      reserving further remarks till she should have finished. The poor little
+      creature was shivering all over; her petticoats and stockings were wet
+      through, and as she wiped her tears away with her dirty hands she
+      plastered the whole of her face with earth to the very tips of her ears.
+      When at last she became a little calmer the old maid resumed in a
+      caressing tone: &ldquo;Your mamma isn&rsquo;t unkind, is she? She&rsquo;s very fond of you,
+      isn&rsquo;t she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, indeed,&rdquo; replied Pauline, still sobbing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And your papa, he&rsquo;s good to you, too, isn&rsquo;t he? He doesn&rsquo;t flog you, or
+      quarrel with your mother, does he? What do they talk about when they go to
+      bed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I don&rsquo;t know. I&rsquo;m asleep then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do they talk about your cousin Florent?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget thereupon assumed a severe expression, and got up as if
+      about to go away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m afraid you are a little story-teller,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you know that
+      it&rsquo;s very wicked to tell stories? I shall go away and leave you, if you
+      tell me lies, and then Muche will come back and pinch you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pauline began to cry again at the threat of being abandoned. &ldquo;Be quiet, be
+      quiet, you wicked little imp!&rdquo; cried the old maid shaking her. &ldquo;There,
+      there, now, I won&rsquo;t go away. I&rsquo;ll buy you a stick of barley-sugar; yes, a
+      stick of barley-sugar! So you don&rsquo;t love your cousin Florent, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, mamma says he isn&rsquo;t good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, then, so you see your mother does say something.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One night when I was in bed with Mouton&mdash;I sleep with Mouton
+      sometimes, you know&mdash;I heard her say to father, &lsquo;Your brother has
+      only escaped from the galleys to take us all back with him there.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget gave vent to a faint cry, and sprang to her feet,
+      quivering all over. A ray of light had just broken upon her. Then without
+      a word she caught hold of Pauline&rsquo;s hand and made her run till they
+      reached the pork shop, her lips meanwhile compressed by an inward smile,
+      and her eyes glistening with keen delight. At the corner of the Rue
+      Pirouette, Muche, who had so far followed them, amused at seeing the girl
+      running along in her muddy stockings, prudently disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa was now in a state of terrible alarm; and when she saw her daughter
+      so bedraggled and limp, her consternation was such that she turned the
+      child round and round, without even thinking of beating her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has been with little Muche,&rdquo; said the old maid, in her malicious
+      voice. &ldquo;I took her away at once, and I&rsquo;ve brought her home. I found them
+      together in the square. I don&rsquo;t know what they&rsquo;ve been up to; but that
+      young vagabond is capable of anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa could not find a word to say; and she did not know where to take hold
+      of her daughter, so great was her disgust at the sight of the child&rsquo;s
+      muddy boots, soiled stockings, torn skirts, and filthy face and hands. The
+      blue velvet ribbon, the earrings, and the necklet were all concealed
+      beneath a crust of mud. But what put the finishing touch to Lisa&rsquo;s
+      exasperation was the discovery of the two pockets filled with mould. She
+      stooped and emptied them, regardless of the pink and white flooring of the
+      shop. And as she dragged Pauline away, she could only gasp: &ldquo;Come along,
+      you filthy thing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quite enlivened by this scene, Mademoiselle Saget now hurriedly made her
+      way across the Rue Rambuteau. Her little feet scarcely touched the ground;
+      her joy seemed to carry her along like a breeze which fanned her with a
+      caressing touch. She had at last found out what she had so much wanted to
+      know! For nearly a year she had been consumed by curiosity, and now at a
+      single stroke she had gained complete power over Florent! This was
+      unhoped-for contentment, positive salvation, for she felt that Florent
+      would have brought her to the tomb had she failed much longer in
+      satisfying her curiosity about him. At present she was complete mistress
+      of the whole neighbourhood of the markets. There was no longer any gap in
+      her information. She could have narrated the secret history of every
+      street, shop by shop. And thus, as she entered the fruit market, she
+      fairly gasped with delight, in a perfect transport of pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hallo, Mademoiselle Saget,&rdquo; cried La Sarriette from her stall, &ldquo;what are
+      you smiling to yourself like that about? Have you won the grand prize in
+      the lottery?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no. Ah, my dear, if you only knew!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Standing there amidst her fruit, La Sarriette, in her picturesque
+      disarray, looked charming. Frizzy hair fell over her brow like vine
+      branches. Her bare arms and neck, indeed all the rosy flesh she showed,
+      bloomed with the freshness of peach and cherry. She had playfully hung
+      some cherries on her ears, black cherries which dangled against her cheeks
+      when she stooped, shaking with merry laughter. She was eating currants,
+      and her merriment arose from the way in which she was smearing her face
+      with them. Her lips were bright red, glistening with the juice of the
+      fruit, as though they had been painted and perfumed with some seraglio
+      face-paint. A perfume of plum exhaled from her gown, while from the
+      kerchief carelessly fastened across her breast came an odour of
+      strawberries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fruits of all kinds were piled around her in her narrow stall. On the
+      shelves at the back were rows of melons, so-called &ldquo;cantaloups&rdquo; swarming
+      with wart-like knots, &ldquo;maraichers&rdquo; whose skin was covered with grey
+      lace-like netting, and &ldquo;culs-de-singe&rdquo; displaying smooth bare bumps. In
+      front was an array of choice fruits, carefully arranged in baskets, and
+      showing like smooth round cheeks seeking to hide themselves, or glimpses
+      of sweet childish faces, half veiled by leaves. Especially was this the
+      case with the peaches, the blushing peaches of Montreuil, with skin as
+      delicate and clear as that of northern maidens, and the yellow, sun-burnt
+      peaches from the south, brown like the damsels of Provence. The apricots,
+      on their beds of moss, gleamed with the hue of amber or with that sunset
+      glow which so warmly colours the necks of brunettes at the nape, just
+      under the little wavy curls which fall below the chignon. The cherries,
+      ranged one by one, resembled the short lips of smiling Chinese girls; the
+      Montmorencies suggested the dumpy mouths of buxom women; the English ones
+      were longer and graver-looking; the common black ones seemed as though
+      they had been bruised and crushed by kisses; while the white-hearts, with
+      their patches of rose and white, appeared to smile with mingled merriment
+      and vexation. Then piles of apples and pears, built up with architectural
+      symmetry, often in pyramids, displayed the ruddy glow of budding breasts
+      and the gleaming sheen of shoulders, quite a show of nudity, lurking
+      modestly behind a screen of fern-leaves. There were all sorts of varieties&mdash;little
+      red ones so tiny that they seemed to be yet in the cradle, shapeless
+      &ldquo;rambours&rdquo; for baking, &ldquo;calvilles&rdquo; in light yellow gowns,
+      sanguineous-looking &ldquo;Canadas,&rdquo; blotched &ldquo;chataignier&rdquo; apples, fair
+      freckled rennets and dusky russets. Then came the pears&mdash;the
+      &ldquo;blanquettes,&rdquo; the &ldquo;British queens,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Beurres,&rdquo; the &ldquo;messirejeans,&rdquo;
+       and the &ldquo;duchesses&rdquo;&mdash;some dumpy, some long and tapering, some with
+      slender necks, and others with thick-set shoulders, their green and yellow
+      bellies picked out at times with a splotch of carmine. By the side of
+      these the transparent plums resembled tender, chlorotic virgins; the
+      greengages and the Orleans plums paled as with modest innocence, while the
+      mirabelles lay like golden beads of a rosary forgotten in a box amongst
+      sticks of vanilla. And the strawberries exhaled a sweet perfume&mdash;a
+      perfume of youth&mdash;especially those little ones which are gathered in
+      the woods, and which are far more aromatic than the large ones grown in
+      gardens, for these breathe an insipid odour suggestive of the
+      watering-pot. Raspberries added their fragrance to the pure scent. The
+      currants&mdash;red, white, and black&mdash;smiled with a knowing air;
+      whilst the heavy clusters of grapes, laden with intoxication, lay
+      languorously at the edges of their wicker baskets, over the sides of which
+      dangled some of the berries, scorched by the hot caresses of the
+      voluptuous sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was there that La Sarriette lived in an orchard, as it were, in an
+      atmosphere of sweet, intoxicating scents. The cheaper fruits&mdash;the
+      cherries, plums, and strawberries&mdash;were piled up in front of her in
+      paper-lined baskets, and the juice coming from their bruised ripeness
+      stained the stall-front, and steamed, with a strong perfume, in the heat.
+      She would feel quite giddy on those blazing July afternoons when the
+      melons enveloped her with a powerful, vaporous odour of musk; and then
+      with her loosened kerchief, fresh as she was with the springtide of life,
+      she brought sudden temptation to all who saw her. It was she&mdash;it was
+      her arms and necks which gave that semblance of amorous vitality to her
+      fruit. On the stall next to her an old woman, a hideous old drunkard,
+      displayed nothing but wrinkled apples, pears as flabby as herself, and
+      cadaverous apricots of a witch-like sallowness. La Sarriette&rsquo;s stall,
+      however, spoke of love and passion. The cherries looked like the red
+      kisses of her bright lips; the silky peaches were not more delicate than
+      her neck; to the plums she seemed to have lent the skin from her brow and
+      chin; while some of her own crimson blood coursed through the veins of the
+      currants. All the scents of the avenue of flowers behind her stall were
+      but insipid beside the aroma of vitality which exhaled from her open
+      baskets and falling kerchief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That day she was quite intoxicated by the scent of a large arrival of
+      mirabelle plums, which filled the market. She could plainly see that
+      Mademoiselle Saget had learnt some great piece of news, and she wished to
+      make her talk. But the old maid stamped impatiently whilst she repeated:
+      &ldquo;No, no; I&rsquo;ve no time. I&rsquo;m in a great hurry to see Madame Lecoeur. I&rsquo;ve
+      just learnt something and no mistake. You can come with me, if you like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As a matter of fact, she had simply gone through the fruit market for the
+      purpose of enticing La Sarriette to go with her. The girl could not refuse
+      temptation. Monsieur Jules, clean-shaven and as fresh as a cherub, was
+      seated there, swaying to and fro on his chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just look after the stall for a minute, will you?&rdquo; La Sarriette said to
+      him. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be back directly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules, however, got up and called after her, in a thick voice: &ldquo;Not I; no
+      fear! I&rsquo;m off! I&rsquo;m not going to wait an hour for you, as I did the other
+      day. And, besides, those cursed plums of yours quite make my head ache.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he calmly strolled off, with his hands in his pockets, and the stall
+      was left to look after itself. Mademoiselle Saget went so fast that La
+      Sarriette had to run. In the butter pavilion a neighbour of Madame
+      Lecoeur&rsquo;s told them that she was below in the cellar; and so, whilst La
+      Sarriette went down to find her, the old maid installed herself amidst the
+      cheeses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cellar under the butter market is a very gloomy spot. The rows of
+      storerooms are protected by a very fine wire meshing, as a safeguard
+      against fire; and the gas jets, which are very few and far between,
+      glimmer like yellow splotches destitute of radiance in the heavy,
+      malordorous atmosphere beneath the low vault. Madame Lecoeur, however, was
+      at work on her butter at one of the tables placed parallel with the Rue
+      Berger, and here a pale light filtered through the vent-holes. The tables,
+      which are continually sluiced with a flood of water from the taps, are as
+      white as though they were quite new. With her back turned to the pump in
+      the rear, Madame Lecoeur was kneading her butter in a kind of oak box. She
+      took some of different sorts which lay beside her, and mixed the varieties
+      together, correcting one by another, just as is done in the blending of
+      wines. Bent almost double, and showing sharp, bony shoulders, and arms
+      bared to the elbows, as scraggy and knotted as pea-rods, she dug her fists
+      into the greasy paste in front of her, which was assuming a whitish and
+      chalky appearance. It was trying work, and she heaved a sigh at each fresh
+      effort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mademoiselle Saget wants to speak to you, aunt,&rdquo; said La Sarriette.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Lecoeur stopped her work, and pulled her cap over her hair with her
+      greasy fingers, seemingly quite careless of staining it. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve nearly
+      finished. Ask her to wait a moment,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She&rsquo;s got something very particular to tell you,&rdquo; continued La Sarriette.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t be more than a minute, my dear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she again plunged her arms into the butter, which buried them up to
+      the elbows. Previously softened in warm water, it covered Madame Lecoeur&rsquo;s
+      parchment-like skin as with an oily film, and threw the big purple veins
+      that streaked her flesh into strong relief. La Sarriette was quite
+      disgusted by the sight of those hideous arms working so frantically amidst
+      the melting mass. However, she could recall the time when her own pretty
+      little hands had manipulated the butter for whole afternoons at a time. It
+      had even been a sort of almond-paste to her, a cosmetic which had kept her
+      skin white and her nails delicately pink; and even now her slender fingers
+      retained the suppleness it had endowed them with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think that butter of yours will be very good, aunt,&rdquo; she
+      continued, after a pause. &ldquo;Some of the sorts seem much too strong.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m quite aware of that,&rdquo; replied Madame Lecoeur, between a couple of
+      groans. &ldquo;But what can I do? I must use everything up. There are some folks
+      who insist upon having butter cheap, and so cheap butter must be made for
+      them. Oh! it&rsquo;s always quite good enough for those who buy it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      La Sarriette reflected that she would hardly care to eat butter which had
+      been worked by her aunt&rsquo;s arms. Then she glanced at a little jar full of a
+      sort of reddish dye. &ldquo;Your colouring is too pale,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This colouring-matter&mdash;&ldquo;raucourt,&rdquo; as the Parisians call it is used
+      to give the butter a fine yellow tint. The butter women imagine that its
+      composition is known only to themselves, and keep it very secret. However,
+      it is merely made from anotta;[*] though a composition of carrots and
+      marigold is at times substituted for it.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] Anotta, which is obtained from the pulp surrounding the
+     seeds of the <i>Bixa Orellana</i>, is used for a good many
+     purposes besides the colouring of butter and cheese. It
+     frequently enters into the composition of chocolate, and is
+     employed to dye nankeen. Police court proceedings have also
+     shown that it is well known to the London milkmen, who are
+     in the habit of adding water to their merchandise.
+     &mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, do be quick!&rdquo; La Sarriette now exclaimed, for she was getting
+      impatient, and was, moreover, no longer accustomed to the malodorous
+      atmosphere of the cellar. &ldquo;Mademoiselle Saget will be going. I fancy she&rsquo;s
+      got something very important to tell you abut my uncle Gavard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On hearing this, Madame Lecoeur abruptly ceased working. She at once
+      abandoned both butter and dye, and did not even wait to wipe her arms.
+      With a slight tap of her hand she settled her cap on her head again, and
+      made her way up the steps, at her niece&rsquo;s heels, anxiously repeating: &ldquo;Do
+      you really think that she&rsquo;ll have gone away?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was reassured, however, on catching sight of Mademoiselle Saget amidst
+      the cheeses. The old maid had taken good care not to go away before Madame
+      Lecoeur&rsquo;s arrival. The three women seated themselves at the far end of the
+      stall, crowding closely together, and their faces almost touching one
+      another. Mademoiselle Saget remained silent for two long minutes, and
+      then, seeing that the others were burning with curiosity, she began, in
+      her shrill voice: &ldquo;You know that Florent! Well, I can tell you now where
+      he comes from.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For another moment she kept them in suspense; and then, in a deep,
+      melodramatic voice, she said: &ldquo;He comes from the galleys!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cheeses were reeking around the three women. On the two shelves at the
+      far end of the stall were huge masses of butter: Brittany butters
+      overflowing from baskets; Normandy butters, wrapped in canvas, and
+      resembling models of stomachs over which some sculptor had thrown damp
+      cloths to keep them from drying; while other great blocks had been cut
+      into, fashioned into perpendicular rocky masses full of crevasses and
+      valleys, and resembling fallen mountain crests gilded by the pale sun of
+      an autumn evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath the stall show-table, formed of a slab of red marble veined with
+      grey, baskets of eggs gleamed with a chalky whiteness; while on layers of
+      straw in boxes were Bondons, placed end to end, and Gournays, arranged
+      like medals, forming darker patches tinted with green. But it was upon the
+      table that the cheeses appeared in greatest profusion. Here, by the side
+      of the pound-rolls of butter lying on white-beet leaves, spread a gigantic
+      Cantal cheese, cloven here and there as by an axe; then came a golden-hued
+      Cheshire, and next a Gruyere, resembling a wheel fallen from some
+      barbarian chariot; whilst farther on were some Dutch cheeses, suggesting
+      decapitated heads suffused with dry blood, and having all that hardness of
+      skulls which in France has gained them the name of &ldquo;death&rsquo;s heads.&rdquo; Amidst
+      the heavy exhalations of these, a Parmesan set a spicy aroma. Then there
+      came three Brie cheeses displayed on round platters, and looking like
+      melancholy extinct moons. Two of them, very dry, were at the full; the
+      third, in its second quarter, was melting away in a white cream, which had
+      spread into a pool and flowed over the little wooden barriers with which
+      an attempt had been made to arrest its course. Next came some Port Saluts,
+      similar to antique discs, with exergues bearing their makers&rsquo; names in
+      print. A Romantour, in its tin-foil wrapper, suggested a bar of nougat or
+      some sweet cheese astray amidst all these pungent, fermenting curds. The
+      Roqueforts under their glass covers also had a princely air, their fat
+      faces marbled with blue and yellow, as though they were suffering from
+      some unpleasant malady such as attacks the wealthy gluttons who eat too
+      many truffles. And on a dish by the side of these, the hard grey goats&rsquo; 
+      milk cheeses, about the size of a child&rsquo;s fist, resembled the pebbles
+      which the billy-goats send rolling down the stony paths as they clamber
+      along ahead of their flocks. Next came the strong smelling cheeses: the
+      Mont d&rsquo;Ors, of a bright yellow hue, and exhaling a comparatively mild
+      odour; the Troyes, very thick, and bruised at the edges, and of a far more
+      pungent smell, recalling the dampness of a cellar; the Camemberts,
+      suggestive of high game; the square Neufchatels, Limbourgs, Marolles, and
+      Pont l&rsquo;Eveques, each adding its own particular sharp scent to the
+      malodorous bouquet, till it became perfectly pestilential; the Livarots,
+      ruddy in hue, and as irritating to the throat as sulphur fumes; and,
+      lastly, stronger than all the others, the Olivets, wrapped in walnut
+      leaves, like the carrion which peasants cover with branches as it lies
+      rotting in the hedgerow under the blazing sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The heat of the afternoon had softened the cheeses; the patches of mould
+      on their crusts were melting, and glistening with tints of ruddy bronze
+      and verdigris. Beneath their cover of leaves, the skins of the Olivets
+      seemed to be heaving as with the slow, deep respiration of a sleeping man.
+      A Livarot was swarming with life; and in a fragile box behind the scales a
+      Gerome flavoured with aniseed diffused such a pestilential smell that all
+      around it the very flies had fallen lifeless on the gray-veined slap of
+      ruddy marble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This Gerome was almost immediately under Mademoiselle Saget&rsquo;s nose; so she
+      drew back, and leaned her head against the big sheets of white and yellow
+      paper which were hanging in a corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she repeated, with an expression of disgust, &ldquo;he comes from the
+      galleys! Ah, those Quenu-Gradelles have no reason to put on so many airs!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette, however, had burst into exclamations of
+      astonishment: &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t possible, surely! What had he done to be sent to
+      the galleys? Could anyone, now, have ever suspected that Madame Quenu,
+      whose virtue was the pride of the whole neighbourhood, would choose a
+      convict for a lover?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, but you don&rsquo;t understand at all!&rdquo; cried the old maid impatiently.
+      &ldquo;Just listen, now, while I explain things. I was quite certain that I had
+      seen that great lanky fellow somewhere before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she proceeded to tell them Florent&rsquo;s story. She had recalled to mind
+      a vague report which had circulated of a nephew of old Gradelle being
+      transported to Cayenne for murdering six gendarmes at a barricade. She had
+      even seen this nephew on one occasion in the Rue Pirouette. The pretended
+      cousin was undoubtedly the same man. Then she began to bemoan her waning
+      powers. Her memory was quite going, she said; she would soon be unable to
+      remember anything. And she bewailed her perishing memory as bitterly as
+      any learned man might bewail the loss of his notes representing the work
+      of a life-time, on seeing them swept away by a gust of wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Six gendarmes!&rdquo; murmured La Sarriette, admiringly; &ldquo;he must have a very
+      heavy fist!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s made away with plenty of others, as well,&rdquo; added Mademoiselle
+      Saget. &ldquo;I shouldn&rsquo;t advise you to meet him at night!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a villain!&rdquo; stammered out Madame Lecoeur, quite terrified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The slanting beams of the sinking sun were now enfilading the pavilion,
+      and the odour of the cheeses became stronger than ever. That of the
+      Marolles seemed to predominate, borne hither and thither in powerful
+      whiffs. Then, however, the wind appeared to change, and suddenly the
+      emanations of the Limbourgs were wafted towards the three women, pungent
+      and bitter, like the last gasps of a dying man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But in that case,&rdquo; resumed Madame Lecoeur, &ldquo;he must be fat Lisa&rsquo;s
+      brother-in-law. And we thought that he was her lover!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The women exchanged glances. This aspect of the case took them by
+      surprise. They were loth to give up their first theory. However, La
+      Sarriette, turning to Mademoiselle Saget, remarked: &ldquo;That must have been
+      all wrong. Besides, you yourself say that he&rsquo;s always running after the
+      two Mehudin girls.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly he is,&rdquo; exclaimed Mademoiselle Saget sharply, fancying that her
+      word was doubted. &ldquo;He dangles about them every evening. But, after all,
+      it&rsquo;s no concern of ours, is it? We are virtuous women, and what he does
+      makes no difference to us, the horrid scoundrel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, certainly not,&rdquo; agreed the other two. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a consummate villain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The affair was becoming tragical. Of course beautiful Lisa was now out of
+      the question, but for this they found ample consolation in prophesying
+      that Florent would bring about some frightful catastrophe. It was quite
+      clear, they said, that he had got some base design in his head. When
+      people like him escaped from gaol it was only to burn everything down; and
+      if he had come to the markets it must assuredly be for some abominable
+      purpose. Then they began to indulge in the wildest suppositions. The two
+      dealers declared that they would put additional padlocks to the doors of
+      their storerooms; and La Sarriette called to mind that a basket of peaches
+      had been stolen from her during the previous week. Mademoiselle Saget,
+      however, quite frightened the two others by informing them that that was
+      not the way in which the Reds behaved; they despised such trifles as
+      baskets of peaches; their plan was to band themselves together in
+      companies of two or three hundred, kill everybody they came across, and
+      then plunder and pillage at their ease. That was &ldquo;politics,&rdquo; she said,
+      with the superior air of one who knew what she was talking about. Madame
+      Lecoeur felt quite ill. She already saw Florent and his accomplices hiding
+      in the cellars, and rushing out during the night to set the markets in
+      flames and sack Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! by the way,&rdquo; suddenly exclaimed the old maid, &ldquo;now I think of it,
+      there&rsquo;s all that money of old Gradelle&rsquo;s! Dear me, dear me, those Quenus
+      can&rsquo;t be at all at their ease!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She now looked quite gay again. The conversation took a fresh turn, and
+      the others fell foul of the Quenus when Mademoiselle Saget had told them
+      the history of the treasure discovered in the salting-tub, with every
+      particular of which she was acquainted. She was even able to inform them
+      of the exact amount of the money found&mdash;eighty-five thousand francs&mdash;though
+      neither Lisa nor Quenu was aware of having revealed this to a living soul.
+      However, it was clear that the Quenus had not given the great lanky fellow
+      his share. He was too shabbily dressed for that. Perhaps he had never even
+      heard of the discovery of the treasure. Plainly enough, they were all
+      thieves in his family. Then the three women bent their heads together and
+      spoke in lower tones. They were unanimously of opinion that it might
+      perhaps be dangerous to attack the beautiful Lisa, but it was decidedly
+      necessary that they should settle the Red Republican&rsquo;s hash, so that he
+      might no longer prey upon the purse of poor Monsieur Gavard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the mention of Gavard there came a pause. The gossips looked at each
+      other with a circumspect air. And then, as they drew breath, they inhaled
+      the odour of the Camemberts, whose gamy scent had overpowered the less
+      penetrating emanations of the Marolles and the Limbourgs, and spread
+      around with remarkable power. Every now and then, however, a slight whiff,
+      a flutelike note, came from the Parmesan, while the Bries contributed a
+      soft, musty scent, the gentle, insipid sound, as it were, of damp
+      tambourines. Next followed an overpowering refrain from the Livarots, and
+      afterwards the Gerome, flavoured with aniseed, kept up the symphony with a
+      high prolonged note, like that of a vocalist during a pause in the
+      accompaniment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have seen Madame Leonce,&rdquo; Mademoiselle Saget at last continued, with a
+      significant expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this the two others became extremely attentive. Madame Leonce was the
+      doorkeeper of the house where Gavard lived in the Rue de la Cossonnerie.
+      It was an old house standing back, with its ground floor occupied by an
+      importer of oranges and lemons, who had had the frontage coloured blue as
+      high as the first floor. Madame Leonce acted as Gavard&rsquo;s housekeeper, kept
+      the keys of his cupboards and closets, and brought him up tisane when he
+      happened to catch cold. She was a severe-looking woman, between fifty and
+      sixty years of age, and spoke slowly, but at endless length. Mademoiselle
+      Saget, who went to drink coffee with her every Wednesday evening, had
+      cultivated her friendship more closely than ever since the poultry dealer
+      had gone to lodge in the house. They would talk about the worthy man for
+      hours at a time. They both professed the greatest affection for him, and a
+      keen desire to ensure his comfort and happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I have seen Madame Leonce,&rdquo; repeated the old maid. &ldquo;We had a cup of
+      coffee together last night. She was greatly worried. It seems that
+      Monsieur Gavard never comes home now before one o&rsquo;clock in the morning.
+      Last Sunday she took him up some broth, as she thought he looked quite
+      ill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, she knows very well what she&rsquo;s about,&rdquo; exclaimed Madame Lecoeur, whom
+      these attentions to Gavard somewhat alarmed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget felt bound to defend her friend. &ldquo;Oh, really, you are
+      quite mistaken,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;Madame Leonce is much above her position; she
+      is quite a lady. If she wanted to enrich herself at Monsieur Gavard&rsquo;s
+      expense, she might easily have done so long ago. It seems that he leaves
+      everything lying about in the most careless fashion. It&rsquo;s about that,
+      indeed, that I want to speak to you. But you&rsquo;ll not repeat anything I say,
+      will you? I am telling it you in strict confidence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Both the others swore that they would never breathe a word of what they
+      might hear; and they craned out their necks with eager curiosity, whilst
+      the old maid solemnly resumed: &ldquo;Well, then, Monsieur Gavard has been
+      behaving very strangely of late. He has been buying firearms&mdash;a great
+      big pistol&mdash;one of those which revolve, you know. Madame Leonce says
+      that things are awful, for this pistol is always lying about on the table
+      or the mantelpiece; and she daren&rsquo;t dust anywhere near it. But that isn&rsquo;t
+      all. His money&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His money!&rdquo; echoed Madame Lecoeur, with blazing cheeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, he&rsquo;s disposed of all his stocks and shares. He&rsquo;s sold everything,
+      and keeps a great heap of gold in a cupboard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A heap of gold!&rdquo; exclaimed La Sarriette in ecstasy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, a great heap of gold. It covers a whole shelf, and is quite
+      dazzling. Madame Leonce told me that one morning Gavard opened the
+      cupboard in her presence, and that the money quite blinded her, it shone
+      so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another pause. The eyes of the three women were blinking as
+      though the dazzling pile of gold was before them. Presently La Sarriette
+      began to laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a jolly time I would have with Jules if my uncle would give that
+      money to me!&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Lecoeur, however, seemed quite overwhelmed by this revelation,
+      crushed beneath the weight of the gold which she could not banish from her
+      sight. Covetous envy thrilled her. But at last, raising her skinny arms
+      and shrivelled hands, her finger-nails still stuffed with butter, she
+      stammered in a voice full of bitter distress: &ldquo;Oh, I mustn&rsquo;t think of it!
+      It&rsquo;s too dreadful!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it would all be yours, you know, if anything were to happen to
+      Monsieur Gavard,&rdquo; retorted Mademoiselle Saget. &ldquo;If I were in your place, I
+      would look after my interests. That revolver means nothing good, you may
+      depend upon it. Monsieur Gavard has got into the hands of evil
+      counsellors; and I&rsquo;m afraid it will all end badly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the conversation again turned upon Florent. The three women assailed
+      him more violently than ever. And afterwards, with perfect composure, they
+      began to discuss what would be the result of all these dark goings-on so
+      far as he and Gavard were concerned; certainly it would be no pleasant one
+      if there was any gossiping. And thereupon they swore that they themselves
+      would never repeat a word of what they knew; not, however, because that
+      scoundrel Florent merited any consideration, but because it was necessary,
+      at all costs, to save that worthy Monsieur Gavard from being compromised.
+      Then they rose from their seats, and Mademoiselle Saget was burning as if
+      to go away when the butter dealer asked her: &ldquo;All the same, in case of
+      accident, do you think that Madame Leonce can be trusted? I dare say she
+      has the key of the cupboard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s more than I can tell you,&rdquo; replied the old maid. &ldquo;I believe
+      she&rsquo;s a very honest woman; but, after all, there&rsquo;s no telling. There are
+      circumstances, you know, which tempt the best of people. Anyhow, I&rsquo;ve
+      warned you both; and you must do what you think proper.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the three women stood there, taking leave of each other, the odour of
+      the cheeses seemed to become more pestilential than ever. It was a
+      cacophony of smells, ranging from the heavily oppressive odour of the
+      Dutch cheeses and the Gruyeres to the alkaline pungency of the Olivets.
+      From the Cantal, the Cheshire, and the goats&rsquo; milk cheeses there seemed to
+      come a deep breath like the sound of a bassoon, amidst which the sharp,
+      sudden whiffs of the Neufchatels, the Troyes, and the Mont d&rsquo;Ors
+      contributed short, detached notes. And then the different odours appeared
+      to mingle one with another, the reek of the Limbourgs, the Port Saluts,
+      the Geromes, the Marolles, the Livarots, and the Pont l&rsquo;Eveques uniting in
+      one general, overpowering stench sufficient to provoke asphyxia. And yet
+      it almost seemed as though it were not the cheeses but the vile words of
+      Madame Lecoeur and Mademoiselle Saget that diffused this awful odour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very much obliged to you, indeed I am,&rdquo; said the butter dealer. &ldquo;If
+      ever I get rich, you shall not find yourself forgotten.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old maid still lingered in the stall. Taking up a Bondon, she turned
+      it round, and put it down on the slab again. Then she asked its price.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me!&rdquo; she added, with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, nothing to you,&rdquo; replied Madame Lecoeur. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll make you a present of
+      it.&rdquo; And again she exclaimed: &ldquo;Ah, if I were only rich!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget thereupon told her that some day or other she would be
+      rich. The Bondon had already disappeared within the old maid&rsquo;s bag. And
+      now the butter dealer returned to the cellar, while Mademoiselle Saget
+      escorted La Sarriette back to her stall. On reaching it they talked for a
+      moment or two about Monsieur Jules. The fruits around them diffused a
+      fresh scent of summer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It smells much nicer here than at your aunt&rsquo;s,&rdquo; said the old maid. &ldquo;I
+      felt quite ill a little time ago. I can&rsquo;t think how she manages to exist
+      there. But here it&rsquo;s very sweet and pleasant. It makes you look quite
+      rosy, my dear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      La Sarriette began to laugh, for she was fond of compliments. Then she
+      served a lady with a pound of mirabelle plums, telling her that they were
+      as sweet as sugar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like to buy some of those mirabelles too,&rdquo; murmured Mademoiselle
+      Saget, when the lady had gone away; &ldquo;only I want so few. A lone woman, you
+      know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take a handful of them,&rdquo; exclaimed the pretty brunette. &ldquo;That won&rsquo;t ruin
+      me. Send Jules back to me if you see him, will you? You&rsquo;ll most likely
+      find him smoking his cigar on the first bench to the right as you turn out
+      of the covered way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget distended her fingers as widely as possible in order to
+      take a handful of mirabelles, which joined the Bondon in the bag. Then she
+      pretended to leave the market, but in reality made a detour by one of the
+      covered ways, thinking, as she walked slowly along, that the mirabelles
+      and Bondon would not make a very substantial dinner. When she was unable,
+      during her afternoon perambulations, to wheedle stallkeepers into filling
+      her bag for her, she was reduced to dining off the merest scraps. So she
+      now slyly made her way back to the butter pavilions, where, on the side of
+      the Rue Berger, at the back of the offices of the oyster salesmen, there
+      were some stalls at which cooked meat was sold. Every morning little
+      closed box-like carts, lined with zinc and furnished with ventilators,
+      drew up in front of the larger Parisian kitchens and carried away the
+      leavings of the restaurants, the embassies, and State Ministries. These
+      leavings were conveyed to the market cellars and there sorted. By nine
+      o&rsquo;clock plates of food were displayed for sale at prices ranging from
+      three to five sous, their contents comprising slices of meat, scraps of
+      game, heads and tails of fishes, bits of galantine, stray vegetables, and,
+      by way of dessert, cakes scarcely cut into, and other confectionery. Poor
+      starving wretches, scantily-paid clerks, and women shivering with fever
+      were to be seen crowding around, and the street lads occasionally amused
+      themselves by hooting the pale-faced individuals, known to be misers, who
+      only made their purchases after slyly glancing about them to see that they
+      were not observed.[*] Mademoiselle Saget wriggled her way to a stall, the
+      keeper of which boasted that the scraps she sold came exclusively from the
+      Tuileries. One day, indeed, she had induced the old maid to buy a slice of
+      leg of mutton by informing that it had come from the plate of the Emperor
+      himself; and this slice of mutton, eaten with no little pride, had been a
+      soothing consolation to Mademoiselle Saget&rsquo;s vanity. The wariness of her
+      approach to the stall was, moreover, solely caused by her desire to keep
+      well with the neighbouring shop people, whose premises she was eternally
+      haunting without ever buying anything. Her usual tactics were to quarrel
+      with them as soon as she had managed to learn their histories, when she
+      would bestow her patronage upon a fresh set, desert it in due course, and
+      then gradually make friends again with those with whom she had quarrelled.
+      In this way she made the complete circuit of the market neighbourhood,
+      ferreting about in every shop and stall. Anyone would have imagined that
+      she consumed an enormous amount of provisions, whereas, in point of fact,
+      she lived solely upon presents and the few scraps which she was compelled
+      to buy when people were not in the giving vein.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] The dealers in these scraps are called <i>bijoutiers</i>, or
+     jewellers, whilst the scraps themselves are known as
+     <i>harlequins</i>, the idea being that they are of all colours
+     and shapes when mingled together, thus suggesting
+     harlequin&rsquo;s variegated attire.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On that particular evening there was only a tall old man standing in front
+      of the stall. He was sniffing at a plate containing a mixture of meat and
+      fish. Mademoiselle Saget, in her turn, began to sniff at a plate of cold
+      fried fish. The price of it was three sous, but, by dint of bargaining,
+      she got it for two. The cold fish then vanished into the bag. Other
+      customers now arrived, and with a uniform impulse lowered their noses over
+      the plates. The smell of the stall was very disgusting, suggestive alike
+      of greasy dishes and a dirty sink.[*]
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] Particulars of the strange and repulsive trade in
+     harlequins, which even nowadays is not extinct, will be
+     found in Privat d&rsquo;Anglemont&rsquo;s well-known book <i>Paris
+     Anecdote</i>, written at the very period with which M. Zola
+     deals in the present work. My father, Henry Vizetelly, also
+     gave some account of it in his <i>Glances Back through Seventy
+     Years</i>, in a chapter describing the odd ways in which
+     certain Parisians contrive to get a living.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come and see me to-morrow,&rdquo; the stallkeeper called out to the old maid,
+      &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ll put something nice on one side for you. There&rsquo;s going to be a
+      grand dinner at the Tuileries to-night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget was just promising to come, when, happening to turn
+      round, she discovered Gavard looking at her and listening to what she was
+      saying. She turned very red, and, contracting her skinny shoulders,
+      hurried away, affecting not to recognise him. Gavard, however, followed
+      her for a few yards, shrugging his shoulders and muttering to himself that
+      he was no longer surprised at the old shrew&rsquo;s malice, now he knew that
+      &ldquo;she poisoned herself with the filth carted away from the Tuileries.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On the very next morning vague rumours began to circulate in the markets.
+      Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette were in their own fashion keeping the
+      oaths of silence they had taken. For her own part, Mademoiselle Saget
+      warily held her tongue, leaving the two others to circulate the story of
+      Florent&rsquo;s antecedents. At first only a few meagre details were hawked
+      about in low tones; then various versions of the facts got into
+      circulation, incidents were exaggerated, and gradually quite a legend was
+      constructed, in which Florent played the part of a perfect bogey man. He
+      had killed ten gendarmes at the barricade in the Rue Greneta, said some;
+      he had returned to France on a pirate ship whose crew scoured the seas to
+      murder everyone they came across, said others; whilst a third set declared
+      that ever since his arrival he had been observed prowling about at
+      nighttime with suspicious-looking characters, of whom he was undoubtedly
+      the leader. Soon the imaginative market women indulged in the highest
+      flights of fancy, revelled in the most melodramatic ideas. There was talk
+      of a band of smugglers plying their nefarious calling in the very heart of
+      Paris, and of a vast central association formed for systematically robbing
+      the stalls in the markets. Much pity was expressed for the
+      Quenu-Gradelles, mingled with malicious allusions to their uncle&rsquo;s
+      fortune. That fortune was an endless subject of discussion. The general
+      opinion was that Florent had returned to claim his share of the treasure;
+      however, as no good reason was forthcoming to explain why the division had
+      not taken place already, it was asserted that Florent was waiting for some
+      opportunity which might enable him to pocket the whole amount. The
+      Quenu-Gradelles would certainly be found murdered some morning, it was
+      said; and a rumour spread that dreadful quarrels already took place every
+      night between the two brothers and beautiful Lisa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When these stories reached the ears of the beautiful Norman, she shrugged
+      her shoulders and burst out laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get away with you!&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;you don&rsquo;t know him. Why, the dear
+      fellow&rsquo;s as gentle as a lamb.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had recently refused the hand of Monsieur Lebigre, who had at last
+      ventured upon a formal proposal. For two months past he had given the
+      Mehudins a bottle of some liqueur every Sunday. It was Rose who brought
+      it, and she was always charged with a compliment for La Normande, some
+      pretty speech which she faithfully repeated, without appearing in the
+      slightest degree embarrassed by the peculiar commission. When Monsieur
+      Lebigre was rejected, he did not pine, but to show that he took no offence
+      and was still hopeful, he sent Rose on the following Sunday with two
+      bottles of champagne and a large bunch of flowers. She gave them into the
+      handsome fish-girl&rsquo;s own hands, repeating, as she did so, the wine
+      dealer&rsquo;s prose madrigal:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monsieur Lebigre begs you to drink this to his health, which has been
+      greatly shaken by you know what. He hopes that you will one day be willing
+      to cure him, by being for him as pretty and as sweet as these flowers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      La Normande was much amused by the servant&rsquo;s delighted air. She kissed her
+      as she spoke to her of her master, and asked her if he wore braces, and
+      snored at nights. Then she made her take the champagne and flowers back
+      with her. &ldquo;Tell Monsieur Lebigre,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;that he&rsquo;s not to send you
+      here again. It quite vexes me to see you coming here so meekly, with your
+      bottles under your arms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, he wishes me to come,&rdquo; replied Rose, as she went away. &ldquo;It is wrong
+      of you to distress him. He is a very handsome man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      La Normande, however, was quite conquered by Florent&rsquo;s affectionate
+      nature. She continued to follow Muche&rsquo;s lessons of an evening in the
+      lamplight, indulging the while in a dream of marrying this man who was so
+      kind to children. She would still keep her fish stall, while he would
+      doubtless rise to a position of importance in the administrative staff of
+      the markets. This dream of hers, however, was scarcely furthered by the
+      tutor&rsquo;s respectful bearing towards her. He bowed to her, and kept himself
+      at a distance, when she have liked to laugh with him, and love him as she
+      knew how to love. But it was just this covert resistance on Florent&rsquo;s part
+      which continually brought her back to the dream of marrying him. She
+      realised that he lived in a loftier sphere than her own; and by becoming
+      his wife she imagined that her vanity would reap no little satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was greatly surprised when she learned the history of the man she
+      loved. He had never mentioned a word of those things to her; and she
+      scolded him about it. His extraordinary adventures only increased her
+      tenderness for him, and for evenings together she made him relate all that
+      had befallen him. She trembled with fear lest the police should discover
+      him; but he reassured her, saying that the matter was now too old for the
+      police to trouble their heads about it. One evening he told her of the
+      woman on the Boulevard Montmartre, the woman in the pink bonnet, whose
+      blood had dyed his hands. He still frequently thought of that poor
+      creature. His anguish-stricken mind had often dwelt upon her during the
+      clear nights he had passed in Cayenne; and he had returned to France with
+      a wild dream of meeting her again on some footway in the bright sunshine,
+      even though he could still feel her corpse-like weight across his legs.
+      And yet, he thought, she might perhaps have recovered. At times he
+      received quite a shock while he was walking through the streets, on
+      fancying that he recognised her; and he followed pink bonnets and
+      shawl-draped shoulders with a wildly beating heart. When he closed his
+      eyes he could see her walking, and advancing towards him; but she let her
+      shawl slip down, showing the two red stains on her chemisette; and then he
+      saw that her face was pale as wax, and that her eyes were blank, and her
+      lips distorted by pain. For a long time he suffered from not knowing her
+      name, from being forced to look upon her as a mere shadow, whose
+      recollection filled him with sorrow. Whenever any idea of woman crossed
+      his mind it was always she that rose up before him, as the one pure,
+      tender wife. He often found himself fancying that she might be looking for
+      him on that boulevard where she had fallen dead, and that if she had met
+      him a few seconds sooner she would have given him a life of joy. And he
+      wished for no other wife; none other existed for him. When he spoke of
+      her, his voice trembled to such a degree that La Normande, her wits
+      quickened by her love, guessed his secret, and felt jealous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s really much better that you shouldn&rsquo;t see her again,&rdquo; she said
+      maliciously. &ldquo;She can&rsquo;t look particularly nice by this time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent turned pale with horror at the vision which these words evoked.
+      His love was rotting in her grave. He could not forgive La Normande&rsquo;s
+      savage cruelty, which henceforth made him see the grinning jaws and hollow
+      eyes of a skeleton within that lovely pink bonnet. Whenever the fish-girl
+      tried to joke with him on the subject he turned quite angry, and silenced
+      her with almost coarse language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That, however, which especially surprised the beautiful Norman in these
+      revelations was the discovery that she had been quite mistaken in
+      supposing that she was enticing a lover away from handsome Lisa. This so
+      diminished her feeling of triumph, that for a week or so her love for
+      Florent abated. She consoled herself, however, with the story of the
+      inheritance, no longer calling Lisa a strait-laced prude, but a thief who
+      kept back her brother-in-law&rsquo;s money, and assumed sanctimonious airs to
+      deceive people. Every evening, while Muche took his writing lesson, the
+      conversation turned upon old Gradelle&rsquo;s treasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did anyone ever hear of such an idea?&rdquo; the fish-girl would exclaim, with
+      a laugh. &ldquo;Did the old man want to salt his money, since he put it in a
+      salting-tub? Eighty-five thousand francs! That&rsquo;s a nice sum of money! And,
+      besides, the Quenus, no doubt, lied about it&mdash;there was perhaps two
+      or three times as much. Ah, if I were in your place, I shouldn&rsquo;t lose any
+      time about claiming my share; indeed I shouldn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve no need of anything,&rdquo; was Florent&rsquo;s invariable answer. &ldquo;I shouldn&rsquo;t
+      know what to do with the money if I had it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you&rsquo;re no man!&rdquo; cried La Normande, losing all control over herself.
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s pitiful! Can&rsquo;t you see that the Quenus are laughing at you? That
+      great fat thing passes all her husband&rsquo;s old clothes over to you. I&rsquo;m not
+      saying this to hurt your feelings, but everybody makes remarks about it.
+      Why, the whole neighbourhood has seen the greasy pair of trousers, which
+      you&rsquo;re now wearing, on your brother&rsquo;s legs for three years and more! If I
+      were in your place I&rsquo;d throw their dirty rags in their faces, and insist
+      upon my rights. Your share comes to forty-two thousand five hundred
+      francs, doesn&rsquo;t it? Well, I shouldn&rsquo;t go out of the place till I&rsquo;d got
+      forty-two thousand five hundred francs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was useless for Florent to explain to her that his sister-in-law had
+      offered to pay him his share, that she was taking care of it for him, and
+      that it was he himself who had refused to receive it. He entered into the
+      most minute particulars, seeking to convince her of the Quenus&rsquo; honesty,
+      but she sarcastically replied: &ldquo;Oh, yes, I dare say! I know all about
+      their honesty. That fat thing folds it up every morning and puts it away
+      in her wardrobe for fear it should get soiled. Really, I quite pity you,
+      my poor friend. It&rsquo;s easy to gull you, for you can&rsquo;t see any further than
+      a child of five. One of these days she&rsquo;ll simply put your money in her
+      pocket, and you&rsquo;ll never look on it again. Shall I go, now, and claim your
+      share for you, just to see what she says? There&rsquo;d be some fine fun, I can
+      tell you! I&rsquo;d either have the money, or I&rsquo;d break everything in the house&mdash;I
+      swear I would!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, it&rsquo;s no business of yours,&rdquo; Florent replied, quite alarmed. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll
+      see about it; I may possibly be wanting some money soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this La Normande assumed an air of doubt, shrugged her shoulders, and
+      told him that he was really too chicken-hearted. Her one great aim now was
+      to embroil him with the Quenu-Gradelles, and she employed every means she
+      could think of to effect her purpose, both anger and banter, as well as
+      affectionate tenderness. She also cherished another design. When she had
+      succeeded in marrying Florent, she would go and administer a sound cuffing
+      to beautiful Lisa, if the latter did not yield up the money. As she lay
+      awake in her bed at night she pictured every detail of the scene. She saw
+      herself sitting down in the middle of the pork shop in the busiest part of
+      the day, and making a terrible fuss. She brooded over this idea to such an
+      extent, it obtained such a hold upon her, that she would have been willing
+      to marry Florent simply in order to be able to go and demand old
+      Gradelle&rsquo;s forty-two thousand five hundred francs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Madame Mehudin, exasperated by La Normande&rsquo;s dismissal of Monsieur
+      Lebigre, proclaimed everywhere that her daughter was mad, and that the
+      &ldquo;long spindle-shanks&rdquo; must have administered some insidious drug to her.
+      When she learned the Cayenne story, her anger was terrible. She called
+      Florent a convict and murderer, and said it was no wonder that his
+      villainy had kept him lank and flat. Her versions of Florent&rsquo;s biography
+      were the most horrible of all that were circulated in the neighbourhood.
+      At home she kept a moderately quiet tongue in her head, and restricted
+      herself to muttered indignation, and a show of locking up the drawer where
+      the silver was kept whenever Florent arrived. One day, however, after a
+      quarrel with her elder daughter, she exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Things can&rsquo;t go on much longer like this! It is that vile man who is
+      setting you against me. Take care that you don&rsquo;t try me too far, or I&rsquo;ll
+      go and denounce him to the police. I will, as true as I stand here!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll denounce him!&rdquo; echoed La Normande, trembling violently, and
+      clenching her fists. &ldquo;You&rsquo;d better not! Ah, if you weren&rsquo;t my mother&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this, Claire, who was a spectator of the quarrel, began to laugh, with
+      a nervous laughter that seemed to rasp her throat. For some time past she
+      had been gloomier and more erratic than ever, invariably showing red eyes
+      and a pale face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what would you do?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;Would you give her a cuffing?
+      Perhaps you&rsquo;d like to give me, your sister, one as well? I dare say it
+      will end in that. But I&rsquo;ll clear the house of him. I&rsquo;ll go to the police
+      to save mother the trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as La Normande almost choked with the angry threats that rose to her
+      throat, the younger girl added: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll spare you the exertion of beating
+      me. I&rsquo;ll throw myself into the river as I come back over the bridge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Big tears were streaming from her eyes; and she rushed off to her bedroom,
+      banging the doors violently behind her. Old Madame Mehudin said nothing
+      more about denouncing Florent. Muche, however, told La Normande that he
+      met his grandma talking with Monsieur Lebigre in every corner of the
+      neighbourhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rivalry between the beautiful Norman and the beautiful Lisa now
+      assumed a less aggressive but more disturbing character. In the afternoon,
+      when the red-striped canvas awning was drawn down in front of the pork
+      shop, the fish-girl would remark that the big fat thing felt afraid, and
+      was concealing herself. She was also much exasperated by the occasional
+      lowering of the window-blind, on which was pictured a hunting-breakfast in
+      a forest glade, with ladies and gentlemen in evening dress partaking of a
+      red pasty, as big as themselves, on the yellow grass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beautiful Lisa, however, was by no means afraid. As soon as the sun began
+      to sink she drew up the blind; and, as she sat knitting behind her
+      counter, she serenely scanned the market square, where numerous urchins
+      were poking about in the soil under the gratings which protected the roots
+      of the plane-trees, while porters smoked their pipes on the benches along
+      the footway, at either end of which was an advertisement column covered
+      with theatrical posters, alternately green, yellow, red, and blue, like
+      some harlequin&rsquo;s costume. And while pretending to watch the passing
+      vehicles, Lisa would really be scrutinising the beautiful Norman. She
+      might occasionally be seen bending forward, as though her eyes were
+      following the Bastille and Place Wagram omnibus to the Pointe Saint
+      Eustache, where it always stopped for a time. But this was only a
+      manoeuvre to enable her to get a better view of the fish-girl, who, as a
+      set-off against the blind, retorted by covering her head and fish with
+      large sheets of brown paper, on the pretext of warding off the rays of the
+      setting sun. The advantage at present was on Lisa&rsquo;s side, for as the time
+      for striking the decisive blow approached she manifested the calmest
+      serenity of bearing, whereas her rival, in spite of all her efforts to
+      attain the same air of distinction, always lapsed into some piece of gross
+      vulgarity, which she afterwards regretted. La Normande&rsquo;s ambition was to
+      look &ldquo;like a lady.&rdquo; Nothing irritated her more than to hear people
+      extolling the good manners of her rival. This weak point of hers had not
+      escaped old Madame Mehudin&rsquo;s observation, and she now directed all her
+      attacks upon it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw Madame Quenu standing at her door this evening,&rdquo; she would say
+      sometimes. &ldquo;It is quite amazing how well she wears. And she&rsquo;s so
+      refined-looking, too; quite the lady, indeed. It&rsquo;s the counter that does
+      it, I&rsquo;m sure. A fine counter gives a woman such a respectable look.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In this remark there was a veiled allusion to Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s proposal.
+      The beautiful Norman would make no reply; but for a moment or two she
+      would seem deep in thought. In her mind&rsquo;s eye she saw herself behind the
+      counter of the wine shop at the other corner of the street, forming a
+      pendent, as it were, to beautiful Lisa. It was this that first shook her
+      love for Florent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To tell the truth, it was now becoming a very difficult thing to defend
+      Florent. The whole neighbourhood was in arms against him; it seemed as
+      though everyone had an immediate interest in exterminating him. Some of
+      the market people swore that he had sold himself to the police; while
+      others asserted that he had been seen in the butter-cellar, attempting to
+      make holes in the wire grating, with the intention of tossing lighted
+      matches through them. There was a vast increase of slander, a perfect
+      flood of abuse, the source of which could not be exactly determined. The
+      fish pavilion was the last one to join in the revolt against the
+      inspector. The fish-wives liked Florent on account of his gentleness, and
+      for some time they defended him; but, influenced by the stallkeepers of
+      the butter and fruit pavilions, they at last gave way. Then hostilities
+      began afresh between these huge, swelling women and the lean and lank
+      inspector. He was lost in the whirl of the voluminous petticoats and buxom
+      bodices which surged furiously around his scraggy shoulders. However, he
+      understood nothing, but pursued his course towards the realisation of his
+      one haunting idea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At every hour of the day, and in every corner of the market, Mademoiselle
+      Saget&rsquo;s black bonnet was now to be seen in the midst of this outburst of
+      indignation. Her little pale face seemed to multiply. She had sworn a
+      terrible vengeance against the company which assembled in Monsieur
+      Lebigre&rsquo;s little cabinet. She accused them of having circulated the story
+      that she lived on waste scraps of meat. The truth was that old Gavard had
+      told the others one evening that the &ldquo;old nanny-goat&rdquo; who came to play the
+      spy upon them gorged herself with the filth which the Bonapartist clique
+      tossed away. Clemence felt quite ill on hearing this, and Robine hurriedly
+      gulped down a draught of beer, as though to wash his throat. In Gavard&rsquo;s
+      opinion, the scraps of meat left on the Emperor&rsquo;s plate were so much
+      political ordure, the putrid remnants of all the filth of the reign.
+      Thenceforth the party at Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s looked on Mademoiselle Saget
+      as a creature whom no one could touch except with tongs. She was regarded
+      as some unclean animal that battened upon corruption. Clemence and Gavard
+      circulated the story so freely in the markets that the old maid found
+      herself seriously injured in her intercourse with the shopkeepers, who
+      unceremoniously bade her go off to the scrap-stalls when she came to
+      haggle and gossip at their establishments without the least intention of
+      buying anything. This cut her off from her sources of information; and
+      sometimes she was altogether ignorant of what was happening. She shed
+      tears of rage, and in one such moment of anger she bluntly said to La
+      Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur: &ldquo;You needn&rsquo;t give me any more hints: I&rsquo;ll
+      settle your Gavard&rsquo;s hash for him now&mdash;that I will!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two women were rather startled, but refrained from all protestation.
+      The next day, however, Mademoiselle Saget had calmed down, and again
+      expressed much tender-hearted pity for that poor Monsieur Gavard who was
+      so badly advised, and was certainly hastening to his ruin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard was undoubtedly compromising himself. Ever since the conspiracy had
+      begun to ripen he had carried the revolver, which caused Madame Leonce so
+      much alarm, in his pocket wherever he went. It was a big,
+      formidable-looking weapon, which he had bought of the principal gunmaker
+      in Paris. He exhibited it to all the women in the poultry market, like a
+      schoolboy who has got some prohibited novel hidden in his desk. First he
+      would allow the barrel to peer out of his pocket, and call attention to it
+      with a wink. Then he affected a mysterious reticence, indulged in vague
+      hints and insinuations&mdash;played, in short, the part of a man who
+      revelled in feigning fear. The possession of this revolver gave him
+      immense importance, placed him definitely amongst the dangerous characters
+      of Paris. Sometimes, when he was safe inside his stall, he would consent
+      to take it out of his pocket, and exhibit it to two or three of the women.
+      He made them stand before him so as to conceal him with their petticoats,
+      and then he brandished the weapon, cocked the lock, caused the breech to
+      revolve, and took aim at one of the geese or turkeys that were hanging in
+      the stall. He was immensely delighted at the alarm manifested by the
+      women; but eventually reassured them by stating that the revolver was not
+      loaded. However, he carried a supply of cartridges about with him, in a
+      case which he opened with the most elaborate precautions. When he had
+      allowed his friends to feel the weight of the cartridges, he would again
+      place both weapon and ammunition in his pockets. And afterwards, crossing
+      his arms over his breast, he would chatter away jubilantly for hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man&rsquo;s a man when he&rsquo;s got a weapon like that,&rdquo; he would say with a
+      swaggering air. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care a fig now for the gendarmes. A friend and I
+      went to try it last Sunday on the plain of Saint Denis. Of course, you
+      know, a man doesn&rsquo;t tell everyone that he&rsquo;s got a plaything of that sort.
+      But, ah! my dears, we fired at a tree, and hit it every time. Ah, you&rsquo;ll
+      see, you&rsquo;ll see. You&rsquo;ll hear of Anatole one of these days, I can tell
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had bestowed the name of Anatole upon the revolver; and he carried
+      things so far that in a week&rsquo;s time both weapon and cartridges were known
+      to all the women in the pavilion. His friendship for Florent seemed to
+      them suspicious; he was too sleek and rich to be visited with the hatred
+      that was manifested towards the inspector; still, he lost the esteem of
+      the shrewder heads amongst his acquaintances, and succeeded in terrifying
+      the timid ones. This delighted him immensely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is very imprudent for a man to carry firearms about with him,&rdquo; said
+      Mademoiselle Saget. &ldquo;Monsieur Gavard&rsquo;s revolver will end by playing him a
+      nasty trick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard now showed the most jubilant bearing at Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s.
+      Florent, since ceasing to take his meals with the Quenus, had come almost
+      to live in the little &ldquo;cabinet.&rdquo; He breakfasted, dined, and constantly
+      shut himself up there. In fact he had converted the place almost into a
+      sort of private room of his own, where he left his old coats and books and
+      papers lying about. Monsieur Lebigre had offered no objection to these
+      proceedings; indeed, he had even removed one of the tables to make room
+      for a cushioned bench, on which Florent could have slept had he felt so
+      inclined. When the inspector manifested any scruples about taking
+      advantage of Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s kindness, the latter told him to do as he
+      pleased, saying that the whole house was at his service. Logre also
+      manifested great friendship for him, and even constituted himself his
+      lieutenant. He was constantly discussing affairs with him, rendering an
+      account of the steps he was supposed to take, and furnishing the names of
+      newly affiliated associates. Logre, indeed, had now assumed the duties of
+      organiser; on him rested the task of bringing the various plotters
+      together, forming the different sections, and weaving each mesh of the
+      gigantic net into which Paris was to fall at a given signal. Florent
+      meantime remained the leader, the soul of the conspiracy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, much as the hunchback seemed to toil, he attained no appreciable
+      result. Although he had loudly asserted that in each district of Paris he
+      knew two or three groups of men as determined and trustworthy as those who
+      met at Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s, he had never yet given any precise information
+      about them, but had merely mentioned a name here and there, and recounted
+      stories of endless alleged secret expeditions, and the wonderful
+      enthusiasm that the people manifested for the cause. He made a great point
+      of the hand-grasps he had received. So-and-so, whom he thou&rsquo;d and thee&rsquo;d,
+      had squeezed his fingers and declared he would join them. At the Gros
+      Caillou a big, burly fellow, who would make a magnificent sectional
+      leader, had almost dislocated his arm in his enthusiasm; while in the Rue
+      Popincourt a whole group of working men had embraced him. He declared that
+      at a day&rsquo;s notice a hundred thousand active supporters could be gathered
+      together. Each time that he made his appearance in the little room,
+      wearing an exhausted air, and dropping with apparent fatigue on the bench,
+      he launched into fresh variations of his usual reports, while Florent duly
+      took notes of what he said, and relied on him to realise his many
+      promises. And soon in Florent&rsquo;s pockets the plot assumed life. The notes
+      were looked upon as realities, as indisputable facts, upon which the
+      entire plan of the rising was constructed. All that now remained to be
+      done was to wait for a favourable opportunity, and Logre asserted with
+      passionate gesticulations that the whole thing would go on wheels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent was at last perfectly happy. His feet no longer seemed to tread
+      the ground; he was borne aloft by his burning desire to pass sentence on
+      all the wickedness he had seen committed. He had all the credulity of a
+      little child, all the confidence of a hero. If Logre had told him that the
+      Genius of Liberty perched on the Colonne de Juillet[*] would have come
+      down and set itself at their head, he would hardly have expressed any
+      surprise. In the evenings, at Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s, he showed great
+      enthusiasm and spoke effusively of the approaching battle, as though it
+      were a festival to which all good and honest folks would be invited. But
+      although Gavard in his delight began to play with his revolver, Charvet
+      got more snappish than ever, and sniggered and shrugged his shoulders. His
+      rival&rsquo;s assumption of the leadership angered him extremely; indeed, quite
+      disgusted him with politics. One evening when, arriving early, he happened
+      to find himself alone with Logre and Lebigre, he frankly unbosomed
+      himself.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] The column erected on the Place de la Bastille in memory
+     of the Revolution of July 1830, by which Charles X was
+     dethroned.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that fellow Florent hasn&rsquo;t an idea about politics, and
+      would have done far better to seek a berth as writing master in a ladies&rsquo; 
+      school! It would be nothing short of a misfortune if he were to succeed,
+      for, with his visionary social sentimentalities, he would crush us down
+      beneath his confounded working men! It&rsquo;s all that, you know, which ruins
+      the party. We don&rsquo;t need any more tearful sentimentalists, humanitarian
+      poets, people who kiss and slobber over each other for the merest scratch.
+      But he won&rsquo;t succeed! He&rsquo;ll just get locked up, and that will be the end
+      of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Logre and the wine dealer made no remark, but allowed Charvet to talk on
+      without interruption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he&rsquo;d have been locked up long ago,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;if he were
+      anything as dangerous as he fancies he is. The airs he puts on just
+      because he&rsquo;s been to Cayenne are quite sickening. But I&rsquo;m sure that the
+      police knew of his return the very first day he set foot in Paris, and if
+      they haven&rsquo;t interfered with him it&rsquo;s simply because they hold him in
+      contempt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this Logre gave a slight start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been dogging me for the last fifteen years,&rdquo; resumed the
+      Hebertist, with a touch of pride, &ldquo;but you don&rsquo;t hear me proclaiming it
+      from the house-tops. However, he won&rsquo;t catch me taking part in his riot.
+      I&rsquo;m not going to let myself be nabbed like a mere fool. I dare say he&rsquo;s
+      already got half a dozen spies at his heels, who will take him by the
+      scruff of the neck whenever the authorities give the word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear, no! What an idea!&rdquo; exclaimed Monsieur Lebigre, who usually
+      observed complete silence. He was rather pale, and looked at Logre, who
+      was gently rubbing his hump against the partition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s mere imagination,&rdquo; murmured the hunchback.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well; call it imagination, if you like,&rdquo; replied the tutor; &ldquo;but I
+      know how these things are arranged. At all events, I don&rsquo;t mean to let the
+      &lsquo;coppers&rsquo; nab me this time. You others, of course, will please yourselves,
+      but if you take my advice&mdash;and you especially, Monsieur Lebigre&mdash;you&rsquo;ll
+      take care not to let your establishment be compromised, or the authorities
+      will close it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this Logre could not restrain a smile. On several subsequent occasions
+      Charvet plied him and Lebigre with similar arguments, as though he wished
+      to detach them from Florent&rsquo;s project by frightening them; and he was much
+      surprised at the calmness and confidence which they both continued to
+      manifest. For his own part, he still came pretty regularly in the evening
+      with Clemence. The tall brunette was no longer a clerk at the fish
+      auctions&mdash;Monsieur Manoury had discharged her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those salesmen are all scoundrels!&rdquo; Logre growled, when he heard of her
+      dismissal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon Clemence, who, lolling back against the partition, was rolling a
+      cigarette between her long, slim fingers, replied in a sharp voice: &ldquo;Oh,
+      it&rsquo;s fair fighting! We don&rsquo;t hold the same political views, you know. That
+      fellow Manoury, who&rsquo;s making no end of money, would lick the Emperor&rsquo;s
+      boots. For my part, if I were an auctioneer, I wouldn&rsquo;t keep him in my
+      service for an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth was that she had been indulging in some clumsy pleasantry,
+      amusing herself one day by inscribing in the sale-book, alongside of the
+      dabs and skate and mackerel sold by auction, the names of some of the
+      best-known ladies and gentlemen of the Court. This bestowal of piscine
+      names upon high dignitaries, these entries of the sale of duchesses and
+      baronesses at thirty sous apiece, had caused Monsieur Manoury much alarm.
+      Gavard was still laughing over it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, never mind!&rdquo; said he, patting Clemence&rsquo;s arm; &ldquo;you are every inch a
+      man, you are!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Clemence had discovered a new method of mixing her grog. She began by
+      filling her glass with hot water; and after adding some sugar she poured
+      the rum drop by drop upon the slice of lemon floating on the surface, in
+      such wise that it did not mix with the water. Then she lighted it and with
+      a grave expression watched it blaze, slowly smoking her cigarette while
+      the flame of the alcohol cast a greenish tinge over her face. &ldquo;Grog,&rdquo;
+       however, was an expensive luxury in which she could not afford to indulge
+      after she had lost her place. Charvet told her, with a strained laugh,
+      that she was no longer a millionaire. She supported herself by giving
+      French lessons, at a very early hour in the morning, to a young lady
+      residing in the Rue de Miromesnil, who was perfecting her education in
+      secrecy, unknown even to her maid. And so now Clemence merely ordered a
+      glass of beer in the evenings, but this she drank, it must be admitted,
+      with the most philosophical composure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evenings in the little sanctum were now far less noisy than they had
+      been. Charvet would suddenly lapse into silence, pale with suppressed
+      rage, when the others deserted him to listen to his rival. The thought
+      that he had been the king of the place, had ruled the whole party with
+      despotic power before Florent&rsquo;s appearance there, gnawed at his heart, and
+      he felt all the regretful pangs of a dethroned monarch. If he still came
+      to the meetings, it was only because he could not resist the attraction of
+      the little room where he had spent so many happy hours in tyrannising over
+      Gavard and Robine. In those days even Logre&rsquo;s hump had been his property,
+      as well as Alexandre&rsquo;s fleshy arms and Lacaille&rsquo;s gloomy face. He had done
+      what he liked with them, stuffed his opinions down their throats,
+      belaboured their shoulders with his sceptre. But now he endured much
+      bitterness of spirit; and ended by quite ceasing to speak, simply
+      shrugging his shoulders and whistling disdainfully, without condescending
+      to combat the absurdities vented in his presence. What exasperated him
+      more than anything else was the gradual way in which he had been ousted
+      from his position of predominance without being conscious of it. He could
+      not see that Florent was in any way his superior, and after hearing the
+      latter speak for hours, in his gentle and somewhat sad voice, he often
+      remarked: &ldquo;Why, the fellow&rsquo;s a parson! He only wants a cassock!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The others, however, to all appearance eagerly absorbed whatever the
+      inspector said. When Charvet saw Florent&rsquo;s clothes hanging from every peg,
+      he pretended not to know where he could put his hat so that it would not
+      be soiled. He swept away the papers that lay about the little room,
+      declaring that there was no longer any comfort for anyone in the place
+      since that &ldquo;gentleman&rdquo; had taken possession of it. He even complained to
+      the landlord, and asked if the room belonged to a single customer or to
+      the whole company. This invasion of his realm was indeed the last straw.
+      Men were brutes, and he conceived an unspeakable scorn for humanity when
+      he saw Logre and Monsieur Lebigre fixing their eyes on Florent with rapt
+      attention. Gavard with his revolver irritated him, and Robine, who sat
+      silent behind his glass of beer, seemed to him to be the only sensible
+      person in the company, and one who doubtless judged people by their real
+      value, and was not led away by mere words. As for Alexandre and Lacaille,
+      they confirmed him in his belief that &ldquo;the people&rdquo; were mere fools, and
+      would require at least ten years of revolutionary dictatorship to learn
+      how to conduct themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Logre, however, declared that the sections would soon be completely
+      organised; and Florent began to assign the different parts that each would
+      have to play. One evening, after a final discussion in which he again got
+      worsted, Charvet rose up, took his hat, and exclaimed: &ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;ll wish
+      you all good night. You can get your skulls cracked if it amuses you; but
+      I would have you understand that I won&rsquo;t take any part in the business. I
+      have never abetted anybody&rsquo;s ambition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Clemence, who had also risen and was putting on her shawl, coldly added:
+      &ldquo;The plan&rsquo;s absurd.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as Robine sat watching their departure with a gentle glance, Charvet
+      asked him if he were not coming with them; but Robine, having still some
+      beer left in his glass, contented himself with shaking hands. Charvet and
+      Clemence never returned again; and Lacaille one day informed the company
+      that they now frequented a beer-house in the Rue Serpente. He had seen
+      them through the window, gesticulating with great energy, in the midst of
+      an attentive group of very young men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent was never able to enlist Claude amongst his supporters. He had
+      once entertained the idea of gaining him over to his own political views,
+      of making a disciple of him, an assistant in his revolutionary task; and
+      in order to initiate him he had taken him one evening to Monsieur
+      Lebigre&rsquo;s. Claude, however, spent the whole time in making a sketch of
+      Robine, in his hat and chestnut cloak, and with his beard resting on the
+      knob of his walking-stick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really, you know,&rdquo; he said to Florent, as they came away, &ldquo;all that you
+      have been saying inside there doesn&rsquo;t interest me in the least. It may be
+      very clever, but, for my own part, I see nothing in it. Still, you&rsquo;ve got
+      a splendid fellow there, that blessed Robine. He&rsquo;s as deep as a well. I&rsquo;ll
+      come with you again some other time, but it won&rsquo;t be for politics. I shall
+      make sketches of Logre and Gavard, so as to put them with Robine in a
+      picture which I was thinking about while you were discussing the question
+      of&mdash;what do you call it? eh? Oh, the question of the two Chambers.
+      Just fancy, now, a picture of Gavard and Logre and Robine talking
+      politics, entrenched behind their glasses of beer! It would be the success
+      of the Salon, my dear fellow, an overwhelming success, a genuine modern
+      picture!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent was grieved by the artist&rsquo;s political scepticism; so he took him
+      up to his bedroom, and kept him on the narrow balcony in front of the
+      bluish mass of the markets, till two o&rsquo;clock in the morning, lecturing
+      him, and telling him that he was no man to show himself so indifferent to
+      the happiness of his country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you&rsquo;re perhaps right,&rdquo; replied Claude, shaking his head; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m an
+      egotist. I can&rsquo;t even say that I paint for the good of my country; for, in
+      the first place, my sketches frighten everybody, and then, when I&rsquo;m busy
+      painting, I think about nothing but the pleasure I take in it. When I&rsquo;m
+      painting, it is as though I were tickling myself; it makes me laugh all
+      over my body. Well, I can&rsquo;t help it, you know; it&rsquo;s my nature to be like
+      that; and you can&rsquo;t expect me to go and drown myself in consequence.
+      Besides, France can get on very well without me, as my aunt Lisa says. And&mdash;may
+      I be quite frank with you?&mdash;if I like you it&rsquo;s because you seem to me
+      to follow politics just as I follow painting. You titillate yourself, my
+      good friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as Florent protested, he continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes; you are an artist in your own way; you dream of politics, and
+      I&rsquo;ll wager you spend hours here at night gazing at the stars and imagining
+      they are the voting-papers of infinity. And then you titillate yourself
+      with your ideas of truth and justice; and this is so evidently the case
+      that those ideas of yours cause just as much alarm to commonplace
+      middle-class folks as my sketches do. Between ourselves, now, do you
+      imagine that if you were Robine I should take any pleasure in your
+      friendship? Ah, no, my friend, you are a great poet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he began to joke on the subject, saying that politics caused him no
+      trouble, and that he had got accustomed to hear people discussing them in
+      beer shops and studios. This led him to speak of a cafe in the Rue
+      Vauvilliers; the cafe on the ground-floor of the house where La Sarriette
+      lodged. This smoky place, with its torn, velvet-cushioned seats, and
+      marble table-tops discoloured by the drippings from coffee-cups, was the
+      chief resort of the young people of the markets. Monsieur Jules reigned
+      there over a company of porters, apprentices, and gentlemen in white
+      blouses and velvet caps. Two curling &ldquo;Newgate knockers&rdquo; were glued against
+      his temples; and to keep his neck white he had it scraped with a razor
+      every Saturday at a hair-dresser&rsquo;s in the Rue des Deux Ecus. At the cafe
+      he gave the tone to his associates, especially when he played billiards
+      with studied airs and graces, showing off his figure to the best
+      advantage. After the game the company would begin to chat. They were a
+      very reactionary set, taking a delight in the doings of &ldquo;society.&rdquo; For his
+      part, Monsieur Jules read the lighter boulevardian newspapers, and knew
+      the performers at the smaller theatres, talked familiarly of the
+      celebrities of the day, and could always tell whether the piece first
+      performed the previous evening had been a success or a failure. He had a
+      weakness, however, for politics. His ideal man was Morny, as he curtly
+      called him. He read the reports of the discussions of the Corps
+      Legislatif, and laughed with glee over the slightest words that fell from
+      Morny&rsquo;s lips. Ah, Morny was the man to sit upon your rascally republicans!
+      And he would assert that only the scum detested the Emperor, for his
+      Majesty desired that all respectable people should have a good time of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been to the cafe occasionally,&rdquo; Claude said to Florent. &ldquo;The young
+      men there are vastly amusing, with their clay pipes and their talk about
+      the Court balls! To hear them chatter you might almost fancy they were
+      invited to the Tuileries. La Sarriette&rsquo;s young man was making great fun of
+      Gavard the other evening. He called him uncle. When La Sarriette came
+      downstairs to look for him she was obliged to pay his bill. It cost her
+      six francs, for he had lost at billiards, and the drinks they had played
+      for were owing. And now, good night, my friend, and pleasant dreams. If
+      ever you become a Minister, I&rsquo;ll give you some hints on the beautifying of
+      Paris.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent was obliged to relinquish the hope of making a docile disciple of
+      Claude. This was a source of grief to him, for, blinded though he was by
+      his fanatical ardour, he at last grew conscious of the ever-increasing
+      hostility which surrounded him. Even at the Mehudins&rsquo; he now met with a
+      colder reception: the old woman would laugh slyly; Muche no longer obeyed
+      him, and the beautiful Norman cast glances of hasty impatience at him,
+      unable as she was to overcome his coldness. At the Quenus&rsquo;, too, he had
+      lost Auguste&rsquo;s friendship. The assistant no longer came to see him in his
+      room on the way to bed, being greatly alarmed by the reports which he
+      heard concerning this man with whom he had previously shut himself up till
+      midnight. Augustine had made her lover swear that he would never again be
+      guilty of such imprudence; however, it was Lisa who turned the young man
+      into Florent&rsquo;s determined enemy by begging him and Augustine to defer
+      their marriage till her cousin should vacate the little bedroom at the top
+      of the house, as she did not want to give that poky dressing-room on the
+      first floor to the new shop girl whom she would have to engage. From that
+      time forward Auguste was anxious that the &ldquo;convict&rdquo; should be arrested. He
+      had found such a pork shop as he had long dreamed of, not at Plaisance
+      certainly, but at Montrouge, a little farther away. And now trade had much
+      improved, and Augustine, with her silly, overgrown girl&rsquo;s laugh, said that
+      she was quite ready. So every night, whenever some slight noise awoke him,
+      August was thrilled with delight as he imagined that the police were at
+      last arresting Florent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing was said at the Quenu-Gradelles&rsquo; about all the rumours which
+      circulated. There was a tacit understanding amongst the staff of the pork
+      shop to keep silent respecting them in the presence of Quenu. The latter,
+      somewhat saddened by the falling-out between his brother and his wife,
+      sought consolation in stringing his sausages and salting his pork.
+      Sometimes he would come and stand on his door-step, with his red face
+      glowing brightly above his white apron, which his increasing corpulence
+      stretched quite taut, and never did he suspect all the gossip which his
+      appearance set on foot in the markets. Some of the women pitied him, and
+      thought that he was losing flesh, though he was, indeed, stouter than
+      ever; while others, on the contrary, reproached him for not having grown
+      thin with shame at having such a brother as Florent. He, however, like one
+      of those betrayed husbands who are always the last to know what has
+      befallen them, continued in happy ignorance, displaying a
+      light-heartedness which was quite affecting. He would stop some
+      neighbour&rsquo;s wife on the footway to ask her if she found his brawn or
+      truffled boar&rsquo;s head to her liking, and she would at once assume a
+      sympathetic expression, and speak in a condoling way, as though all the
+      pork on his premises had got jaundice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do they all mean by looking at me with such a funereal air?&rdquo; he
+      asked Lisa one day. &ldquo;Do you think I&rsquo;m looking ill?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa, well aware that he was terribly afraid of illness, and groaned and
+      made a dreadful disturbance if he suffered the slightest ailment,
+      reassured him on this point, telling him that he was as blooming as a
+      rose. The fine pork shop, however, was becoming gloomy; the mirrors seemed
+      to pale, the marbles grew frigidly white, and the cooked meats on the
+      counter stagnated in yellow fat or lakes of cloudy jelly. One day, even,
+      Claude came into the shop to tell his aunt that the display in the window
+      looked quite &ldquo;in the dumps.&rdquo; This was really the truth. The Strasburg
+      tongues on their beds of blue paper-shavings had a melancholy whiteness of
+      hue, like the tongues of invalids; and the whilom chubby hams seemed to be
+      wasting away beneath their mournful green top-knots. Inside the shop, too,
+      when customers asked for a black-pudding or ten sous&rsquo; worth of bacon, or
+      half a pound of lard, they spoke in subdued, sorrowful voices, as though
+      they were in the bed-chamber of a dying man. There were always two or
+      three lachrymose women in front of the chilled heating-pan. Beautiful Lisa
+      meantime discharged the duties of chief mourner with silent dignity. Her
+      white apron fell more primly than ever over her black dress. Her hands,
+      scrupulously clean and closely girded at the wrists by long white
+      sleevelets, her face with its becoming air of sadness, plainly told all
+      the neighbourhood, all the inquisitive gossips who streamed into the shop
+      from morning to night, that they, the Quenu-Gradelles, were suffering from
+      unmerited misfortune, but that she knew the cause of it, and would triumph
+      over it at last. And sometimes she stooped to look at the two gold-fish,
+      who also seemed ill at ease as they swam languidly around the aquarium in
+      the window, and her glance seemed to promise them better days in the
+      future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beautiful Lisa now only allowed herself one indulgence. She fearlessly
+      patted Marjolin&rsquo;s satiny chin. The young man had just come out of the
+      hospital. His skull had healed, and he looked as fat and merry as ever;
+      but even the little intelligence he had possessed had left him, he was now
+      quite an idiot. The gash in his skull must have reached his brain, for he
+      had become a mere animal. The mind of a child of five dwelt in his sturdy
+      frame. He laughed and stammered, he could no longer pronounce his words
+      properly, and he was as submissively obedient as a sheep. Cadine took
+      entire possession of him again; surprised, at first, at the alteration in
+      him, and then quite delighted at having this big fellow to do exactly as
+      she liked with. He was her doll, her toy, her slave in all respects but
+      one: she could not prevent him from going off to Madame Quenu&rsquo;s every now
+      and then. She thumped him, but he did not seem to feel her blows; as soon
+      as she had slung her basket round her neck, and set off to sell her
+      violets in the Rue du Pont Neuf and the Rue de Turbigo, he went to prowl
+      about in front of the pork shop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in!&rdquo; Lisa cried to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She generally gave him some gherkins, of which he was extremely fond; and
+      he ate them, laughing in a childish way, whilst he stood in front of the
+      counter. The sight of the handsome mistress of the shop filled him with
+      rapture; he often clapped his hands with joy and began to jump about and
+      vent little cries of pleasure, like a child delighted at something shown
+      to it. On the first few occasions when he came to see her after leaving
+      the hospital Lisa had feared that he might remember what had happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does your head still hurt you?&rdquo; she asked him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he swayed about and burst into a merry laugh as he answered no; and
+      then Lisa gently inquired: &ldquo;You had a fall, hadn&rsquo;t you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, a fall, fall, fall,&rdquo; he sang, in a happy voice, tapping his skull
+      the while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, as though he were in a sort of ecstasy, he continued in lingering
+      notes, as he gazed at Lisa, &ldquo;Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!&rdquo; This quite
+      touched Madame Quenu. She had prevailed upon Gavard to keep him in his
+      service. It was on the occasions when he so humbly vented his admiration
+      that she caressed his chin, and told him that he was a good lad. He smiled
+      with childish satisfaction, at times closing his eyes like some domestic
+      pet fondled by its mistress; and Lisa thought to herself that she was
+      making him some compensation for the blow with which she had felled him in
+      the cellar of the poultry market.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, the Quenus&rsquo; establishment still remained under a cloud. Florent
+      sometimes ventured to show himself, and shook hands with his brother,
+      while Lisa observed a frigid silence. He even dined with them sometimes on
+      Sundays, at long intervals, and Quenu then made great efforts at gaiety,
+      but could not succeed in imparting any cheerfulness to the meal. He ate
+      badly, and ended by feeling altogether put out. One evening, after one of
+      these icy family gatherings, he said to his wife with tears in his eyes:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can be the matter with me? Is it true that I&rsquo;m not ill? Don&rsquo;t you
+      really see anything wrong in my appearance? I feel just as though I&rsquo;d got
+      a heavy weight somewhere inside me. And I&rsquo;m so sad and depressed, too,
+      without in the least knowing why. What can it be, do you think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, a little attack of indigestion, I dare say,&rdquo; replied Lisa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no; it&rsquo;s been going on too long for that; I feel quite crushed down.
+      Yet the business is going on all right; I&rsquo;ve no great worries, and I am
+      leading just the same steady life as ever. But you, too, my dear, don&rsquo;t
+      look well; you seem melancholy. If there isn&rsquo;t a change for the better
+      soon, I shall send for the doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa looked at him with a grave expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no need of a doctor,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;things will soon be all right
+      again. There&rsquo;s something unhealthy in the atmosphere just now. All the
+      neighbourhood is unwell.&rdquo; Then, as if yielding to an impulse of anxious
+      affection, she added: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry yourself, my dear. I can&rsquo;t have you
+      falling ill; that would be the crowning blow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As a rule she sent him back to the kitchen, knowing that the noise of the
+      choppers, the tuneful simmering of the fat, and the bubbling of the pans
+      had a cheering effect upon him. In this way, too, she kept him at a
+      distance from the indiscreet chatter of Mademoiselle Saget, who now spent
+      whole mornings in the shop. The old maid seemed bent on arousing Lisa&rsquo;s
+      alarm, and thus driving her to some extreme step. She began by trying to
+      obtain her confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a lot of mischievous folks there are about!&rdquo; she exclaimed; &ldquo;folks
+      who would be much better employed in minding their own business. If you
+      only knew, my dear Madame Quenu&mdash;but no, really, I should never dare
+      to repeat such things to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, as Madame Quenu replied that she was quite indifferent to gossip, and
+      that it had no effect upon her, the old maid whispered into her ear across
+      the counter: &ldquo;Well, people say, you know, that Monsieur Florent isn&rsquo;t your
+      cousin at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she gradually allowed Lisa to see that she knew the whole story; by
+      way of proving that she had her quite at her mercy. When Lisa confessed
+      the truth, equally as a matter of diplomacy, in order that she might have
+      the assistance of some one who would keep her well posted in all the
+      gossip of the neighbourhood, the old maid swore that for her own part she
+      would be as mute as a fish, and deny the truth of the reports about
+      Florent, even if she were to be led to the stake for it. And afterwards
+      this drama brought her intense enjoyment; every morning she came to the
+      shop with some fresh piece of disturbing news.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must be careful,&rdquo; she whispered one day; &ldquo;I have just heard two women
+      in the tripe market talking about you know what. I can&rsquo;t interrupt people
+      and tell them they are lying, you know. It would look so strange. But the
+      story&rsquo;s got about, and it&rsquo;s spreading farther every day. It can&rsquo;t be
+      stopped now, I fear; the truth will have to come out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days later she returned to the assault in all earnest. She made her
+      appearance looking quite scared, and waited impatiently till there was no
+      one in the shop, when she burst out in her sibilant voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know what people are saying now? Well, they say that all those men
+      who meet at Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s have got guns, and are going to break out
+      again as they did in &lsquo;48. It&rsquo;s quite distressing to see such a worthy man
+      as Monsieur Gavard&mdash;rich, too, and so respectable&mdash;leaguing
+      himself with such scoundrels! I was very anxious to let you know, on
+      account of your brother-in-law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s mere nonsense, I&rsquo;m sure; it can&rsquo;t be serious,&rdquo; rejoined Lisa,
+      just to incite the old maid to tell her more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not serious, indeed! Why, when one passes along the Rue Pirouette in the
+      evening one can hear them screaming out in the most dreadful way. Oh! they
+      make no mystery of it all. You know yourself how they tried to corrupt
+      your husband. And the cartridges which I have seen them making from my own
+      window, are they mere nonsense? Well, well, I&rsquo;m only telling you this for
+      your own good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I&rsquo;m sure of that, and I&rsquo;m very much obliged to you,&rdquo; replied Lisa;
+      &ldquo;but people do invent such stories, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, but this is no invention, unfortunately. The whole neighbourhood is
+      talking of it. It is said, too, that if the police discover the matter
+      there will be a great many people compromised&mdash;Monsieur Gavard, for
+      instance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Quenu shrugged her shoulders as though to say that Monsieur Gavard
+      was an old fool, and that it would do him good to be locked up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I merely mention Monsieur Gavard as I might mention any of the
+      others, your brother-in-law, for instance,&rdquo; resumed the old maid with a
+      wily glance. &ldquo;Your brother-in-law is the leader, it seems. That&rsquo;s very
+      annoying for you, and I&rsquo;m very sorry indeed; for if the police were to
+      make a descent here they might march Monsieur Quenu off as well. Two
+      brothers, you know, they&rsquo;re like two fingers of the same hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beautiful Lisa protested against this, but she turned very pale, for
+      Mademoiselle Saget&rsquo;s last thrust had touched a vulnerable point. From that
+      day forward the old maid was ever bringing her stories of innocent people
+      who had been thrown into prison for extending hospitality to criminal
+      scoundrels. In the evening, when La Saget went to get her black-currant
+      syrup at the wine dealer&rsquo;s, she prepared her budget for the next morning.
+      Rose was but little given to gossiping, and the old main reckoned chiefly
+      on her own eyes and ears. She had been struck by Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s
+      extremely kind and obliging manner towards Florent, his eagerness to keep
+      him at his establishment, all the polite civilities, for which the little
+      money which the other spent in the house could never recoup him. And this
+      conduct of Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s surprised her the more as she was aware of
+      the position in which the two men stood in respect to the beautiful
+      Norman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks as though Lebigre were fattening him up for sale,&rdquo; she
+      reflected. &ldquo;Whom can he want to sell him to, I wonder?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening when she was in the bar she saw Logre fling himself on the
+      bench in the sanctum, and heard him speak of his perambulations through
+      the faubourgs, with the remark that he was dead beat. She cast a hasty
+      glance at his feet, and saw that there was not a speck of dust on his
+      boots. Then she smiled quietly, and went off with her black-currant syrup,
+      her lips closely compressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She used to complete her budget of information on getting back to her
+      window. It was very high up, commanding a view of all the neighbouring
+      houses, and proved a source of endless enjoyment to her. She was
+      constantly installed at it, as though it were an observatory from which
+      she kept watch upon everything that went on in the neighbourhood. She was
+      quite familiar with all the rooms opposite her, both on the right and the
+      left, even to the smallest details of their furniture. She could have
+      described, without the least omission, the habits of their tenants, have
+      related if the latter&rsquo;s homes were happy or the contrary, have told when
+      and how they washed themselves, what they had for dinner, and who it was
+      that came to see them. Then she obtained a side view of the markets, and
+      not a woman could walk along the Rue Rambuteau without being seen by her;
+      and she could have correctly stated whence the woman had come and whither
+      she was going, what she had got in her basket, and, in short, every detail
+      about her, her husband, her clothes, her children, and her means. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s
+      Madame Loret, over there; she&rsquo;s giving her son a fine education; that&rsquo;s
+      Madame Hutin, a poor little woman who&rsquo;s dreadfully neglected by her
+      husband; that&rsquo;s Mademoiselle Cecile, the butcher&rsquo;s daughter, a girl that
+      no one will marry because she&rsquo;s scrofulous.&rdquo; In this way she could have
+      continued jerking out biographical scraps for days together, deriving
+      extraordinary amusement from the most trivial, uninteresting incidents.
+      However, as soon as eight o&rsquo;clock struck, she only had eyes for the
+      frosted &ldquo;cabinet&rdquo; window on which appeared the black shadows of the
+      coterie of politicians. She discovered the secession of Charvet and
+      Clemence by missing their bony silhouettes from the milky transparency.
+      Not an incident occurred in that room but she sooner or later learnt it by
+      some sudden motion of those silent arms and heads. She acquired great
+      skill in interpretation, and could divine the meaning of protruding noses,
+      spreading fingers, gaping mouths, and shrugging shoulders; and in this way
+      she followed the progress of the conspiracy step by step, in such wise
+      that she could have told day by day how matters stood. One evening the
+      terrible outcome of it all was revealed to her. She saw the shadow of
+      Gavard&rsquo;s revolver, a huge silhouette with pointed muzzle showing very
+      blackly against the glimmering window. It kept appearing and disappearing
+      so rapidly that it seemed as though the room was full of revolvers. Those
+      were the firearms of which Mademoiselle Saget had spoken to Madame Quenu.
+      On another evening she was much puzzled by the sight of endless lengths of
+      some material or other, and came to the conclusion that the men must be
+      manufacturing cartridges. The next morning, however, she made her
+      appearance in the wine shop by eleven o&rsquo;clock, on the pretext of asking
+      Rose if she could let her have a candle, and, glancing furtively into the
+      little sanctum, she espied a heap of red material lying on the table. This
+      greatly alarmed her, and her next budget of news was one of decisive
+      gravity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to alarm you, Madame Quenu,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but matters are
+      really looking very serious. Upon my word, I&rsquo;m quite alarmed. You must on
+      no account repeat what I am going to confide to you. They would murder me
+      if they knew I had told you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, when Lisa had sworn to say nothing that might compromise her, she
+      told her about the red material.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t think what it can be. There was a great heap of it. It looked
+      just like rags soaked in blood. Logre, the hunchback, you know, put one of
+      the pieces over his shoulder. He looked like a headsman. You may be sure
+      this is some fresh trickery or other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa made no reply, but seemed deep in thought whilst with lowered eyes,
+      she handled a fork and mechanically arranged some piece of salt pork on a
+      dish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I were you,&rdquo; resumed Mademoiselle Saget softly, &ldquo;I shouldn&rsquo;t be easy
+      in mind; I should want to know the meaning of it all. Why shouldn&rsquo;t you go
+      upstairs and examine your brother-in-law&rsquo;s bedroom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this Lisa gave a slight start, let the fork drop, and glanced uneasily
+      at the old maid, believing that she had discovered her intentions. But the
+      other continued: &ldquo;You would certainly be justified in doing so. There&rsquo;s no
+      knowing into what danger your brother-in-law may lead you, if you don&rsquo;t
+      put a check on him. They were talking about you yesterday at Madame
+      Taboureau&rsquo;s. Ah! you have a most devoted friend in her. Madame Taboureau
+      said that you were much too easy-going, and that if she were you she would
+      have put an end to all this long ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madame Taboureau said that?&rdquo; murmured Lisa thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, indeed she did; and Madame Taboureau is a woman whose advice is
+      worth listening to. Try to find out the meaning of all those red bands;
+      and if you do, you&rsquo;ll tell me, won&rsquo;t you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa, however, was no longer listening to her. She was gazing abstractedly
+      at the edible snails and Gervais cheeses between the festoons of sausages
+      in the window. She seemed absorbed in a mental conflict, which brought two
+      little furrows to her brow. The old maid, however, poked her nose over the
+      dishes on the counter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, some slices of saveloy!&rdquo; she muttered, as though she were speaking to
+      herself. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll get very dry cut up like that. And that black-pudding&rsquo;s
+      broken, I see&mdash;a fork&rsquo;s been stuck into it, I expect. It might be
+      taken away&mdash;it&rsquo;s soiling the dish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa, still absent-minded, gave her the black-pudding and slices of
+      saveloy. &ldquo;You may take them,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;if you would care for them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The black bag swallowed them up. Mademoiselle Saget was so accustomed to
+      receiving presents that she had actually ceased to return thanks for them.
+      Every morning she carried away all the scraps of the pork shop. And now
+      she went off with the intention of obtaining her dessert from La Sarriette
+      and Madame Lecoeur, by gossiping to them about Gavard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Lisa was alone again she installed herself on the bench, behind the
+      counter, as though she thought she would be able to come to a sounder
+      decision if she were comfortably seated. For the last week she had been
+      very anxious. Florent had asked Quenu for five hundred francs one evening,
+      in the easy, matter-of-course way of a man who had money lying to his
+      credit at the pork shop. Quenu referred him to his wife. This was
+      distasteful to Florent, who felt somewhat uneasy on applying to beautiful
+      Lisa. But she immediately went up to her bedroom, brought the money down
+      and gave it to him, without saying a word, or making the least inquiry as
+      to what he intended to do with it. She merely remarked that she had made a
+      note of the payment on the paper containing the particulars of Florent&rsquo;s
+      share of the inheritance. Three days later he took a thousand francs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was scarcely worth while trying to make himself out so disinterested,&rdquo;
+       Lisa said to Quenu that night, as they went to bed. &ldquo;I did quite right,
+      you see, in keeping the account. By the way, I haven&rsquo;t noted down the
+      thousand francs I gave him to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She sat down at the secretaire, and glanced over the page of figures. Then
+      she added: &ldquo;I did well to leave a blank space. I&rsquo;ll put down what I pay
+      him on the margin. You&rsquo;ll see, now, he&rsquo;ll fritter it all away by degrees.
+      That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;ve been expecting for a long time past.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu said nothing, but went to bed feeling very much put out. Every time
+      that his wife opened the secretaire the drawer gave out a mournful creak
+      which pierced his heart. He even thought of remonstrating with his
+      brother, and trying to prevent him from ruining himself with the Mehudins;
+      but when the time came, he did not dare to do it. Two days later Florent
+      asked for another fifteen hundred francs. Logre had said one evening that
+      things would ripen much faster if they could only get some money. The next
+      day he was enchanted to find these words of his, uttered quite at random,
+      result in the receipt of a little pile of gold, which he promptly
+      pocketed, sniggering as he did so, and his hunch fairly shaking with
+      delight. From that time forward money was constantly being needed: one
+      section wished to hire a room where they could meet, while another was
+      compelled to provide for various needy patriots. Then there were arms and
+      ammunition to be purchased, men to be enlisted, and private police
+      expenses. Florent would have paid for anything. He had bethought himself
+      of Uncle Gradelle&rsquo;s treasure, and recalled La Normande&rsquo;s advice. So he
+      made repeated calls upon Lisa&rsquo;s secretaire, being merely kept in check by
+      the vague fear with which his sister-in-law&rsquo;s grave face inspired him.
+      Never, thought he, could he have spent his money in a holier cause. Logre
+      now manifested the greatest enthusiasm, and wore the most wonderful
+      rose-coloured neckerchiefs and the shiniest of varnished boots, the sight
+      of which made Lacaille glower blackly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That makes three thousand francs in seven days,&rdquo; Lisa remarked to Quenu.
+      &ldquo;What do you think of that? A pretty state of affairs, isn&rsquo;t it? If he
+      goes on at this rate his fifty thousand francs will last him barely four
+      months. And yet it took old Gradelle forty years to put his fortune
+      together!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all your own fault!&rdquo; cried Quenu. &ldquo;There was no occasion for you to
+      say anything to him about the money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa gave her husband a severe glance. &ldquo;It is his own,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;and he
+      is entitled to take it all. It&rsquo;s not the giving him the money that vexes
+      me, but the knowledge that he must make a bad use of it. I tell you again,
+      as I have been telling you for a long time past, all this must come to an
+      end.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do whatever you like; I won&rsquo;t prevent you,&rdquo; at last exclaimed the pork
+      butcher, who was tortured by his cupidity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He still loved his brother; but the thought of fifty thousand francs
+      squandered in four months was agony to him. As for his wife, after all
+      Mademoiselle Saget&rsquo;s chattering she guessed what became of the money. The
+      old maid having ventured to refer to the inheritance, Lisa had taken
+      advantage of the opportunity to let the neighbourhood know that Florent
+      was drawing his share, and spending it after his own fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was on the following day that the story of the strips of red material
+      impelled Lisa to take definite actin. For a few moments she remained
+      struggling with herself whilst gazing at the depressed appearance of the
+      shop. The sides of pork hung all around in a sullen fashion, and Mouton,
+      seated beside a bowl of fat, displayed the ruffled coat and dim eyes of a
+      cat who no longer digests his meals in peace. Thereupon Lisa called to
+      Augustine and told her to attend to the counter, and she herself went up
+      to Florent&rsquo;s room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she entered it, she received quite a shock. The bed, hitherto so
+      spotless, was quite ensanguined by a bundle of long red scarves dangling
+      down to the floor. On the mantelpiece, between the gilt cardboard boxes
+      and the old pomatum-pots, were several red armlets and clusters of red
+      cockades, looking like pools of blood. And hanging from every nail and peg
+      against the faded grey wallpaper were pieces of bunting, square flags&mdash;yellow,
+      blue, green, and black&mdash;in which Lisa recognised the distinguishing
+      banners of the twenty sections. The childish simplicity of the room seemed
+      quite scared by all this revolutionary decoration. The aspect of guileless
+      stupidity which the shop girl had left behind her, the white innocence of
+      the curtains and furniture, now glared as with the reflection of a fire;
+      while the photograph of Auguste and Augustine looked white with terror.
+      Lisa walked round the room, examining the flags, the armlets, and the
+      scarves, without touching any of them, as though she feared that the
+      dreadful things might burn her. She was reflecting that she had not been
+      mistaken, that it was indeed on these and similar things that Florent&rsquo;s
+      money had been spent. And to her this seemed an utter abomination, an
+      incredibility which set her whole being surging with indignation. To think
+      that her money, that money which had been so honestly earned, was being
+      squandered to organise and defray the expenses of an insurrection!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stood there, gazing at the expanded blossoms of the pomegranate on the
+      balcony&mdash;blossoms which seemed to her like an additional supply of
+      crimson cockades&mdash;and listening to the sharp notes of the chaffinch,
+      which resembled the echo of a distant fusillade. And then it struck her
+      that the insurrection might break out the next day, or perhaps that very
+      evening. She fancied she could see the banners streaming in the air and
+      the scarves advancing in line, while a sudden roll of drums broke on her
+      ear. Then she hastily went downstairs again, without even glancing at the
+      papers which were lying on the table. She stopped on the first floor, went
+      into her own room, and dressed herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this critical emergency Lisa arranged her hair with scrupulous care and
+      perfect calmness. She was quite resolute; not a quiver of hesitation
+      disturbed her; but a sterner expression than usual had come into her eyes.
+      As she fastened her black silk dress, straining the waistband with all the
+      strength of her fingers, she recalled Abbe Roustan&rsquo;s words; and she
+      questioned herself, and her conscience answered that she was going to
+      fulfil a duty. By the time she drew her broidered shawl round her broad
+      shoulders, she felt that she was about to perform a deed of high morality.
+      She put on a pair of dark mauve gloves, secured a thick veil to her
+      bonnet; and before leaving the room she double-locked the secretaire, with
+      a hopeful expression on her face which seemed to say that that much
+      worried piece of furniture would at last be able to sleep in peace again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu was exhibiting his white paunch at the shop door when his wife came
+      down. He was surprised to see her going out in full dress at ten o&rsquo;clock
+      in the morning. &ldquo;Hallo! Where are you off to?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pretended that she was going out with Madame Taboureau, and added that
+      she would call at the Gaite Theatre to buy some tickets. Quenu hurried
+      after her to tell her to secure some front seats, so that they might be
+      able to see well. Then, as he returned to the shop, Lisa made her way to
+      the cab-stand opposite St. Eustache, got into a cab, pulled down the
+      blinds, and told the driver to go to the Gaite Theatre. She felt afraid of
+      being followed. When she had booked two seats, however, she directed the
+      cabman to drive her to the Palais de Justice. There, in front of the gate,
+      she discharged him, and then quietly made her way through the halls and
+      corridors to the Prefecture of Police.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She soon lost herself in a noisy crowd of police officers and gentlemen in
+      long frock-coats, but at last gave a man half a franc to guide her to the
+      Prefect&rsquo;s rooms. She found, however, that the Prefect only received such
+      persons as came with letters of audience; and she was shown into a small
+      apartment, furnished after the style of a boarding-house parlour. A fat,
+      bald-headed official, dressed in black from head to foot, received her
+      there with sullen coldness. What was her business? he inquired. Thereupon
+      she raised her veil, gave her name, and told her story, clearly and
+      distinctly, without a pause. The bald man listened with a weary air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are this man&rsquo;s sister-in-law, are you not?&rdquo; he inquired, when she had
+      finished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; Lisa candidly replied. &ldquo;We are honest, straight-forward people, and
+      I am anxious that my husband should not be compromised.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The official shrugged his shoulders, as though to say that the whole
+      affair was a great nuisance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know,&rdquo; he said impatiently, &ldquo;that I have been pestered with this
+      business for more than a year past? Denunciation after denunciation has
+      been sent to me, and I am being continually goaded and pressed to take
+      action. You will understand that if I haven&rsquo;t done so as yet, it is
+      because I prefer to wait. We have good reasons for our conduct in the
+      matter. Stay, now, here are the papers relating to it. I&rsquo;ll let you see
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He laid before her an immense collection of papers in a blue wrapper. Lisa
+      turned them over. They were like detached chapters of the story she had
+      just been relating. The commissaires of police at Havre, Rouen, and Vernon
+      notified Florent&rsquo;s arrival within their respective jurisdictions. Then
+      came a report which announced that he had taken up his residence with the
+      Quenu-Gradelles. Next followed his appointment at the markets, an account
+      of his mode of life, the spending of his evenings at Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s;
+      not a detail was deficient. Lisa, quite astounded as she was, noticed that
+      the reports were in duplicate, so that they must have emanated from two
+      different sources. And at last she came upon a pile of letters, anonymous
+      letters of every shape, and in every description of handwriting. They
+      brought her amazement to a climax. In one letter she recognised the
+      villainous hand of Mademoiselle Saget, denouncing the people who met in
+      the little sanctum at Lebigre&rsquo;s. On a large piece of greasy paper she
+      identified the heavy pot-hooks of Madame Lecoeur; and there was also a
+      sheet of cream-laid note-paper, ornamented with a yellow pansy, and
+      covered with the scrawls of La Sarriette and Monsieur Jules. These two
+      letters warned the Government to beware of Gavard. Farther on Lisa
+      recognised the coarse style of old Madame Mehudin, who in four pages of
+      almost indecipherable scribble repeated all the wild stories about Florent
+      that circulated in the markets. However, what startled her more than
+      anything else was the discovery of a bill-head of her own establishment,
+      with the inscription <i>Quenu-Gradelle, Pork Butcher</i>, on its face,
+      whilst on the back of it Auguste had penned a denunciation of the man whom
+      he looked upon as an obstacle to his marriage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The official had acted upon a secret idea in placing these papers before
+      her. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t recognise any of these handwritings, do you?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; she stammered, rising from her seat, quite oppressed by what she had
+      just learned; and she hastily pulled down her veil again to conceal the
+      blush of confusion which was rising to her cheeks. Her silk dress rustled,
+      and her dark gloves disappeared beneath her heavy shawl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, madame,&rdquo; said the bald man with a faint smile, &ldquo;your information
+      comes a little late. But I promise you that your visit shall not be
+      forgotten. And tell your husband not to stir. It is possible that
+      something may happen soon that&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not complete his sentence, but, half rising from his armchair, made
+      a slight bow to Lisa. It was a dismissal, and she took her leave. In the
+      ante-room she caught sight of Logre and Monsieur Lebigre, who hastily
+      turned their faces away; but she was more disturbed than they were. She
+      went her way through the halls and along the corridors, feeling as if she
+      were in the clutches of this system of police which, it now seemed to her,
+      saw and knew everything. At last she came out upon the Place Dauphine.
+      When she reached the Quai de l&rsquo;Horloge she slackened her steps, and felt
+      refreshed by the cool breeze blowing from the Seine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She now had a keen perception of the utter uselessness of what she had
+      done. Her husband was in no danger whatever; and this thought, whilst
+      relieving her, left her a somewhat remorseful feeling. She was exasperated
+      with Auguste and the women who had put her in such a ridiculous position.
+      She walked on yet more slowly, watching the Seine as it flowed past.
+      Barges, black with coal-dust, were floating down the greenish water; and
+      all along the bank anglers were casting their lines. After all, it was not
+      she who had betrayed Florent. This reflection suddenly occurred to her and
+      astonished her. Would she have been guilty of a wicked action, then, if
+      she had been his betrayer? She was quite perplexed; surprised at the
+      possibility of her conscience having deceived her. Those anonymous letters
+      seemed extremely base. She herself had gone openly to the authorities,
+      given her name, and saved innocent people from being compromised. Then at
+      the sudden thought of old Gradelle&rsquo;s fortune she again examined herself,
+      and felt ready to throw the money into the river if such a course should
+      be necessary to remove the blight which had fallen on the pork shop. No,
+      she was not avaricious, she was sure she wasn&rsquo;t; it was no thought of
+      money that had prompted her in what she had just done. As she crossed the
+      Pont au Change she grew quite calm again, recovering all her superb
+      equanimity. On the whole, it was much better, she felt, that others should
+      have anticipated her at the Prefecture. She would not have to deceive
+      Quenu, and she would sleep with an easier conscience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you booked the seats?&rdquo; Quenu asked her when she returned home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He wanted to see the tickets, and made Lisa explain to him the exact
+      position the seats occupied in the dress-circle. Lisa had imagined that
+      the police would make a descent upon the house immediately after receiving
+      her information, and her proposal to go to the theatre had only been a
+      wily scheme for getting Quenu out of the way while the officers were
+      arresting Florent. She had contemplated taking him for an outing in the
+      afternoon&mdash;one of those little jaunts which they occasionally allowed
+      themselves. They would then drive in an open cab to the Bois de Boulogne,
+      dine at a restaurant, and amuse themselves for an hour or two at some cafe
+      concern. But there was no need to go out now, she thought; so she spent
+      the rest of the day behind her counter, with a rosy glow on her face, and
+      seeming brighter and gayer, as though she were recovering from some
+      indisposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, I told you it was fresh air you wanted!&rdquo; exclaimed Quenu. &ldquo;Your
+      walk this morning has brightened you up wonderfully!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, indeed,&rdquo; she said after a pause, again assuming her look of severity;
+      &ldquo;the streets of Paris are not at all healthy places.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening they went to the Gaite to see the performance of &ldquo;La Grace
+      de Dieu.&rdquo; Quenu, in a frock-coat and drab gloves, with his hair carefully
+      pomatumed and combed, was occupied most of the time in hunting for the
+      names of the performers in the programme. Lisa looked superb in her low
+      dress as she rested her hands in their tight-fitting white gloves on the
+      crimson velvet balustrade. They were both of them deeply affected by the
+      misfortunes of Marie. The commander, they thought, was certainly a
+      desperate villain; while Pierrot made them laugh from the first moment of
+      his appearance on the stage. But at last Madame Quenu cried. The departure
+      of the child, the prayer in the maiden&rsquo;s chamber, the return of the poor
+      mad creature, moistened her eyes with gentle tears, which she brushed away
+      with her handkerchief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, the pleasure which the evening afforded her turned into a feeling
+      of triumph when she caught sight of La Normande and her mother sitting in
+      the upper gallery. She thereupon puffed herself out more than ever, sent
+      Quenu off to the refreshment bar for a box of caramels, and began to play
+      with her fan, a mother-of-pearl fan, elaborately gilt. The fish-girl was
+      quite crushed; and bent her head down to listen to her mother, who was
+      whispering to her. When the performance was over and beautiful Lisa and
+      the beautiful Norman met in the vestibule they exchanged a vague smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent had dined early at Monsieur Lebigre&rsquo;s that day. He was expecting
+      Logre, who had promised to introduce to him a retired sergeant, a capable
+      man, with whom they were to discuss the plan of attack upon the Palais
+      Bourbon and the Hotel de Ville. The night closed in, and the fine rain,
+      which had begun to fall in the afternoon, shrouded the vast markets in a
+      leaden gloom. They loomed darkly against the copper-tinted sky, while
+      wisps of murky cloud skimmed by almost on a level with the roofs, looking
+      as though they were caught and torn by the points of the
+      lightning-conductors. Florent felt depressed by the sight of the muddy
+      streets, and the streaming yellowish rain which seemed to sweep the
+      twilight away and extinguish it in the mire. He watched the crowds of
+      people who had taken refuge on the foot-pavements of the covered ways, the
+      umbrellas flitting past in the downpour, and the cabs that dashed with
+      increased clatter and speed along the wellnigh deserted roads. Presently
+      there was a rift in the clouds; and a red glow arose in the west. Then a
+      whole army of street-sweepers came into sight at the end of the Rue
+      Montmartre, driving a lake of liquid mud before them with their brooms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Logre did not turn up with the sergeant; Gavard had gone to dine with some
+      friends at Batignolles, and so Florent was reduced to spending the evening
+      alone with Robine. He had all the talking to himself, and ended by feeling
+      very low-spirited. His companion merely wagged his beard, and stretched
+      out his hand every quarter of an hour to raise his glass of beer to his
+      lips. At last Florent grew so bored that he went off to bed. Robine,
+      however, though left to himself, still lingered there, contemplating his
+      glass with an expression of deep thought. Rose and the waiter, who had
+      hoped to shut up early, as the coterie of politicians was absent, had to
+      wait a long half hour before he at last made up his mind to leave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Florent got to his room, he felt afraid to go to bed. He was
+      suffering from one of those nervous attacks which sometimes plunged him
+      into horrible nightmares until dawn. On the previous day he had been to
+      Clamart to attend the funeral of Monsieur Verlaque, who had died after
+      terrible sufferings; and he still felt sad at the recollection of the
+      narrow coffin which he had seen lowered into the earth. Nor could he
+      banish from his mind the image of Madame Verlaque, who, with a tearful
+      voice, though there was not a tear in her eyes, kept following him and
+      speaking to him about the coffin, which was not paid for, and of the cost
+      of the funeral, which she was quite at a loss about, as she had not a
+      copper in the place, for the druggist, on hearing of her husband&rsquo;s death
+      on the previous day, had insisted upon his bill being paid. So Florent had
+      been obliged to advance the money for the coffin and other funeral
+      expenses, and had even given the gratuities to the mutes. Just as he was
+      going away, Madame Verlaque looked at him with such a heartbroken
+      expression that he left her twenty francs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now Monsieur Verlaque&rsquo;s death worried him very much. It affected his
+      situation in the markets. He might lose his berth, or perhaps be formally
+      appointed inspector. In either case he foresaw vexatious complications
+      which might arouse the suspicions of the police. He would have been
+      delighted if the insurrection could have broken out the very next day, so
+      that he might at once have tossed the laced cap of his inspectorship into
+      the streets. With his mind full of harassing thoughts like these, he
+      stepped out upon the balcony, as though soliciting of the warm night some
+      whiff of air to cool his fevered brow. The rain had laid the wind, and a
+      stormy heat still reigned beneath the deep blue, cloudless heavens. The
+      markets, washed by the downpour, spread out below him, similar in hue to
+      the sky, and, like the sky, studded with the yellow stars of their gas
+      lamps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leaning on the iron balustrade, Florent recollected that sooner or later
+      he would certainly be punished for having accepted the inspectorship. It
+      seemed to lie like a stain on his life. He had become an official of the
+      Prefecture, forswearing himself, serving the Empire in spite of all the
+      oaths he had taken in his exile. His anxiety to please Lisa, the
+      charitable purpose to which he had devoted the salary he received, the
+      just and scrupulous manner in which he had always struggled to carry out
+      his duties, no longer seemed to him valid excuses for his base abandonment
+      of principle. If he had suffered in the midst of all that sleek fatness,
+      he had deserved to suffer. And before him arose a vision of the evil year
+      which he had just spent, his persecution by the fish-wives, the sickening
+      sensations he had felt on close, damp days, the continuous indigestion
+      which had afflicted his delicate stomach, and the latent hostility which
+      was gathering strength against him. All these things he now accepted as
+      chastisement. That dull rumbling of hostility and spite, the cause of
+      which he could not divine, must forebode some coming catastrophe before
+      whose approach he already stooped, with the shame of one who knows there
+      is a transgression that he must expiate. Then he felt furious with himself
+      as he thought of the popular rising he was preparing; and reflected that
+      he was no longer unsullied enough to achieve success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In how many dreams he had indulged in that lofty little room, with his
+      eyes wandering over the spreading roofs of the market pavilions! They
+      usually appeared to him like grey seas that spoke to him of far-off
+      countries. On moonless nights they would darken and turn into stagnant
+      lakes of black and pestilential water. But on bright nights they became
+      shimmering fountains of light, the moonbeams streaming over both tiers
+      like water, gliding along the huge plates of zinc, and flowing over the
+      edges of the vast superposed basins. Then frosty weather seemed to turn
+      these roofs into rigid ice, like the Norwegian bays over which skaters
+      skim; while the warm June nights lulled them into deep sleep. One December
+      night, on opening his window, he had seen them white with snow, so
+      lustrously white that they lighted up the coppery sky. Unsullied by a
+      single footstep, they then stretched out like the lonely plains of the Far
+      North, where never a sledge intrudes. Their silence was beautiful, their
+      soft peacefulness suggestive of innocence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And at each fresh aspect of the ever-changing panorama before him, Florent
+      yielded to dreams which were now sweet, now full of bitter pain. The snow
+      calmed him; the vast sheet of whiteness seemed to him like a veil of
+      purity thrown over the filth of the markets. The bright, clear nights, the
+      shimmering moonbeams, carried him away into the fairy-land of story-books.
+      It was only the dark, black nights, the burning nights of June, when he
+      beheld, as it were, a miasmatic marsh, the stagnant water of a dead and
+      accursed sea, that filled him with gloom and grief; and then ever the same
+      dreadful visions haunted his brain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The markets were always there. He could never open the window and rest his
+      elbows on the balustrade without having them before him, filling the
+      horizon. He left the pavilions in the evening only to behold their endless
+      roofs as he went to bed. They shut him off from the rest of Paris,
+      ceaselessly intruded their huge bulk upon him, entered into every hour of
+      his life. That night again horrible fancies came to him, fancies
+      aggravated by the vague forebodings of evil which distressed him. The rain
+      of the afternoon had filled the markets with malodorous dampness, and as
+      they wallowed there in the centre of the city, like some drunken man
+      lying, after his last bottle, under the table, they cast all their foul
+      breath into his face. He seemed to see a thick vapour rising up from each
+      pavilion. In the distance the meat and tripe markets reeked with the
+      sickening steam of blood; nearer in, the vegetable and fruit pavilions
+      diffused the odour of pungent cabbages, rotten apples, and decaying
+      leaves; the butter and cheese exhaled a poisonous stench; from the fish
+      market came a sharp, fresh gust; while from the ventilator in the tower of
+      the poultry pavilion just below him, he could see a warm steam issuing, a
+      fetid current rising in coils like the sooty smoke from a factory chimney.
+      And all these exhalations coalesced above the roofs, drifted towards the
+      neighbouring houses, and spread themselves out in a heavy cloud which
+      stretched over the whole of Paris. It was as though the markets were
+      bursting within their tight belt of iron, were beating the slumber of the
+      gorged city with the stertorous fumes of their midnight indigestion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, on the footway down below Florent presently heard a sound of
+      voices, the laughter of happy folks. Then the door of the passage was
+      closed noisily. It was Quenu and Lisa coming home from the theatre.
+      Stupefied and intoxicated, as it were, by the atmosphere he was breathing,
+      Florent thereupon left the balcony, his nerves still painfully excited by
+      the thought of the tempest which he could feel gathering round his head.
+      The source of his misery was yonder, in those markets, heated by the day&rsquo;s
+      excesses. He closed the window with violence, and left them wallowing in
+      the darkness, naked and perspiring beneath the stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A week later, Florent thought that he would at last be able to proceed to
+      action. A sufficiently serious outburst of public dissatisfaction
+      furnished an opportunity for launching his insurrectionary forces upon
+      Paris. The Corps Legislatif, whose members had lately shown great variance
+      of opinion respecting certain grants to the Imperial family, was now
+      discussing a bill for the imposition of a very unpopular tax, at which the
+      lower orders had already begun to growl. The Ministry, fearing a defeat,
+      was straining every nerve. It was probable, thought Florent, that no
+      better pretext for a rising would for a long time present itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning, at daybreak, he went to reconnoitre the neighbourhood of the
+      Palais Bourbon. He forgot all about his duties as inspector, and lingered
+      there, studying the approaches of the palace, till eight o&rsquo;clock, without
+      ever thinking that his absence would revolutionise the fish market. He
+      perambulated all the surrounding streets, the Rue de Lille, the Rue de
+      l&rsquo;Universite, the Rue de Bourgogne, the Rue Saint Dominique, and even
+      extended his examination to the Esplanade des Invalides, stopping at
+      certain crossways, and measuring distances as he walked along. Then, on
+      coming back to the Quai d&rsquo;Orsay, he sat down on the parapet, and
+      determined that the attack should be made simultaneously from all sides.
+      The contingents from the Gros-Caillou district should arrive by way of the
+      Champ de Mars; the sections from the north of Paris should come down by
+      the Madeleine; while those from the west and the south would follow the
+      quays, or make their way in small detachments through the then narrow
+      streets of the Faubourg Saint Germain. However, the other side of the
+      river, the Champs Elysees, with their open avenues, caused him some
+      uneasiness; for he foresaw that cannon would be stationed there to sweep
+      the quays. He thereupon modified several details of his plan, and marked
+      down in a memorandum-book the different positions which the several
+      sections should occupy during the combat. The chief attack, he concluded,
+      must certainly be made from the Rue de Bourgogne and the Rue de
+      l&rsquo;Universite, while a diversion might be effected on the side of the
+      river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst he thus pondered over his plans the eight o&rsquo;clock sun, warming the
+      nape of his neck, shone gaily on the broad footways, and gilded the
+      columns of the great structure in front of him. In imagination he already
+      saw the contemplated battle; clusters of men clinging round those columns,
+      the gates burst open, the peristyle invaded; and then scraggy arms
+      suddenly appearing high aloft and planting a banner there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he slowly went his way homewards again with his gaze fixed upon
+      the ground. But all at once a cooing sound made him look up, and he saw
+      that he was passing through the garden of the Tuileries. A number of
+      wood-pigeons, bridling their necks, were strutting over a lawn near by.
+      Florent leant for a moment against the tub of an orange-tree, and looked
+      at the grass and the pigeons steeped in sunshine. Right ahead under the
+      chestnut-trees all was black. The garden was wrapped in a warm silence,
+      broken only by the distant rumbling which came from behind the railings of
+      the Rue de Rivoli. The scent of all the greenery affected Florent,
+      reminding him of Madame Francois. However, a little girl ran past,
+      trundling a hoop, and alarmed the pigeons. They flew off, and settled in a
+      row on the arm of a marble statue of an antique wrestler standing in the
+      middle of the lawn, and once more, but with less vivacity, they began to
+      coo and bridle their necks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Florent was returning to the markets by way of the Rue Vauvilliers, he
+      heard Claude Lantier calling to him. The artist was going down into the
+      basement of the poultry pavilion. &ldquo;Come with me!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking
+      for that brute Marjolin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent followed, glad to forget his thoughts and to defer his return to
+      the fish market for a little longer. Claude told him that his friend
+      Marjolin now had nothing further to wish for: he had become an utter
+      animal. Claude entertained an idea of making him pose on all-fours in
+      future. Whenever he lost his temper over some disappointing sketch he came
+      to spend whole hours in the idiot&rsquo;s company, never speaking, but striving
+      to catch his expression when he laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be feeding his pigeons, I dare say,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;but unfortunately I
+      don&rsquo;t know whereabouts Monsieur Gavard&rsquo;s storeroom is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They groped about the cellar. In the middle of it some water was trickling
+      from a couple of taps in the dim gloom. The storerooms here are reserved
+      for pigeons exclusively, and all along the trellising they heard faint
+      cooings, like the hushed notes of birds nestling under the leaves when
+      daylight is departing. Claude began to laugh as he heard it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It sounds as though all the lovers in Paris were embracing each other
+      inside here, doesn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo; he exclaimed to his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, they could not find a single storeroom open, and were beginning
+      to think that Marjolin could not be in the cellar, when a sound of loud,
+      smacking kisses made them suddenly halt before a door which stood slightly
+      ajar. Claude pulled it open and beheld Marjolin, whom Cadine was kissing,
+      whilst he, a mere dummy, offered his face without feeling the slightest
+      thrill at the touch of her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, so this is your little game, is it?&rdquo; said Claude with a laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; replied Cadine, quite unabashed, &ldquo;he likes being kissed, because he
+      feels afraid now in the dim light. You do feel frightened, don&rsquo;t you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Like the idiot he was, Marjolin stroked his face with his hands as though
+      trying to find the kisses which the girl had just printed there. And he
+      was beginning to stammer out that he was afraid, when Cadine continued:
+      &ldquo;And, besides, I came to help him; I&rsquo;ve been feeding the pigeons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent looked at the poor creatures. All along the shelves were rows of
+      lidless boxes, in which pigeons, showing their motley plumage, crowded
+      closely on their stiffened legs. Every now and then a tremor ran along the
+      moving mass; and then the birds settled down again, and nothing was heard
+      but their confused, subdued notes. Cadine had a saucepan near her; she
+      filled her mouth with the water and tares which it contained, and then,
+      taking up the pigeons one by one, shot the food down their throats with
+      amazing rapidity. The poor creatures struggled and nearly choked, and
+      finally fell down in the boxes with swimming eyes, intoxicated, as it
+      were, by all the food which they were thus forced to swallow.[*]
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] This is the customary mode of fattening pigeons at the
+     Paris markets. The work is usually done by men who make a
+     specialty of it, and are called <i>gaveurs</i>.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor creatures!&rdquo; exclaimed Claude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, so much the worse for them,&rdquo; said Cadine, who had now finished. &ldquo;They
+      are much nicer eating when they&rsquo;ve been well fed. In a couple of hours or
+      so all those over yonder will be given a dose of salt water. That makes
+      their flesh white and tender. Then two hours afterwards they&rsquo;ll be killed.
+      If you would like to see the killing, there are some here which are quite
+      ready. Marjolin will settle their account for them in a jiffy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Marjolin carried away a box containing some fifty pigeons, and Claude and
+      Florent followed him. Squatting upon the ground near one of the
+      water-taps, he placed the box by his side. Then he laid a framework of
+      slender wooden bars on the top of a kind of zinc trough, and forthwith
+      began to kill the pigeons. His knife flashed rapidly in his fingers, as he
+      seized the birds by the wings, stunned them by a blow on the head from the
+      knife-handle, and then thrust the point of the blade into their throats.
+      They quivered for an instant, and ruffled their feathers as Marjolin laid
+      them in a row, with their heads between the wooden bars above the zinc
+      trough, into which their blood fell drop by drop. He repeated each
+      different movement with the regularity of clockwork, the blows from the
+      knife-handle falling with a monotonous tick-tack as he broke the birds&rsquo; 
+      skulls, and his hand working backwards and forwards like a pendulum as he
+      took up the living pigeons on one side and laid them down dead on the
+      other. Soon, moreover, he worked with increasing rapidity, gloating over
+      the massacre with glistening eyes, squatting there like a huge delighted
+      bull-dog enjoying the sight of slaughtered vermin. &ldquo;Tick-tack! Tick-tack!&rdquo;
+       whilst his tongue clucked as an accompaniment to the rhythmical movements
+      of his knife. The pigeons hung down like wisps of silken stuff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you enjoy that, don&rsquo;t you, you great stupid?&rdquo; exclaimed Cadine. &ldquo;How
+      comical those pigeons look when they bury their heads in their shoulders
+      to hide their necks! They&rsquo;re horrid things, you know, and would give one
+      nasty bites if they got the chance.&rdquo; Then she laughed more loudly at
+      Marjolin&rsquo;s increasing, feverish haste; and added: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve killed them
+      sometimes myself, but I can&rsquo;t get on as quickly as he does. One day he
+      killed a hundred in ten minutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wooden frame was nearly full; the blood could be heard falling into
+      the zinc trough; and as Claude happened to turn round he saw Florent
+      looking so pale that he hurriedly led him away. When they got above-ground
+      again he made him sit down on a step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, what&rsquo;s the matter with you?&rdquo; he exclaimed, tapping him on the
+      shoulder. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re fainting away like a woman!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the smell of the cellar,&rdquo; murmured Florent, feeling a little ashamed
+      of himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth was, however, that those pigeons, which were forced to swallow
+      tares and salt water, and then had their skulls broken and their throats
+      slit, had reminded him of the wood-pigeons of the Tuileries gardens,
+      strutting over the green turf, with their satiny plumage flashing
+      iridescently in the sunlight. He again heard them cooing on the arm of the
+      marble wrestler amidst the hushed silence of the garden, while children
+      trundled their hoops in the deep gloom of the chestnuts. And then, on
+      seeing that big fair-haired animal massacring his boxful of birds,
+      stunning them with the handle of his knife and driving its point into
+      their throats, in the depths of that foul-smelling cellar, he had felt
+      sick and faint, his legs had almost given way beneath him, while his
+      eyelids quivered tremulously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you&rsquo;d never do for a soldier!&rdquo; Claude said to him when he recovered
+      from his faintness. &ldquo;Those who sent you to Cayenne must have been very
+      simple-minded folks to fear such a man as you! Why, my good fellow, if
+      ever you do put yourself at the head of a rising, you won&rsquo;t dare to fire a
+      shot. You&rsquo;ll be too much afraid of killing somebody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent got up without making any reply. He had become very gloomy, his
+      face was furrowed by deep wrinkles; and he walked off, leaving Claude to
+      go back to the cellar alone. As he made his way towards the fish market
+      his thoughts returned to his plan of attack, to the levies of armed men
+      who were to invade the Palais Bourbon. Cannon would roar from the Champs
+      Elysees; the gates would be burst open; blood would stain the steps, and
+      men&rsquo;s brains would bespatter the pillars. A vision of the fight passed
+      rapidly before him; and he beheld himself in the midst of it, deadly pale,
+      and hiding his face in his hands, not daring to look around him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he was crossing the Rue du Pont Neuf he fancied he espied Auguste&rsquo;s
+      pale face peering round the corner of the fruit pavilion. The assistant
+      seemed to be watching for someone, and his eyes were starting from his
+      head with an expression of intense excitement. Suddenly, however, he
+      vanished and hastened back to the pork shop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter with him?&rdquo; thought Florent. &ldquo;Is he frightened of me, I
+      wonder?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Some very serious occurrences had taken place that morning at the
+      Quenu-Gradelles&rsquo;. Soon after daybreak, Auguste, breathless with
+      excitement, had awakened his mistress to tell her that the police had come
+      to arrest Monsieur Florent. And he added, with stammering incoherence,
+      that the latter had gone out, and that he must have done so with the
+      intention of escaping. Lisa, careless of appearances, at once hurried up
+      to her brother-in-law&rsquo;s room in her dressing-wrapper, and took possession
+      of La Normande&rsquo;s photograph, after glancing round to see if there was
+      anything lying about that might compromise herself and Quenu. As she was
+      making her way downstairs again, she met the police agents on the first
+      floor. The commissary requested her to accompany them to Florent&rsquo;s room,
+      where, after speaking to her for a moment in a low tone, he installed
+      himself with his men, bidding her open the shop as usual so as to avoid
+      giving the alarm to anyone. The trap was set.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lisa&rsquo;s only worry in the matter was the terrible blow that the arrest
+      would prove to poor Quenu. She was much afraid that if he learned that the
+      police were in the house, he would spoil everything by his tears; so she
+      made Auguste swear to observe the most rigid silence on the subject. Then
+      she went back to her room, put on her stays, and concocted some story for
+      the benefit of Quenu, who was still drowsy. Half an hour later she was
+      standing at the door of the shop with all her usual neatness of
+      appearance, her hair smooth and glossy, and her face glowing rosily.
+      Auguste was quietly setting out the window. Quenu came for a moment on to
+      the footway, yawning slightly, and ridding himself of all sleepiness in
+      the fresh morning air. There was nothing to indicate the drama that was in
+      preparation upstairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commissary himself, however, gave the alarm to the neighbourhood by
+      paying a domiciliary visit to the Mehudins&rsquo; abode in the Rue Pirouette. He
+      was in possession of the most precise information. In the anonymous
+      letters which had been sent to the Prefecture, all sorts of statements
+      were made respecting Florent&rsquo;s alleged intrigue with the beautiful Norman.
+      Perhaps, thought the commissary, he had now taken refuge with her; and so,
+      accompanied by two of his men, he proceeded to knock at the door in the
+      name of the law. The Mehudins had only just got up. The old woman opened
+      the door in a fury; but suddenly calmed down and began to smile when she
+      learned the business on hand. She seated herself and fastened her clothes,
+      while declaring to the officers: &ldquo;We are honest folks here, and have
+      nothing to be afraid of. You can search wherever you like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However, as La Normande delayed to open the door of her room, the
+      commissary told his men to break it open. The young woman was scarcely
+      clad when the others entered, and this unceremonious invasion, which she
+      could not understand, fairly exasperated her. She flushed crimson from
+      anger rather than from shame, and seemed as though she were about to fly
+      at the officers. The commissary, at the sight, stepped forward to protect
+      his men, repeating in his cold voice: &ldquo;In the name of the law! In the name
+      of the law!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon La Normande threw herself upon a chair, and burst into a wild
+      fit of hysterical sobbing at finding herself so powerless. She was quite
+      at a loss to understand what these men wanted with her. The commissary,
+      however, had noticed how scantily she was clad, and taking a shawl from a
+      peg, he flung it over her. Still she did not wrap it round her, but only
+      sobbed the more bitterly as she watched the men roughly searching the
+      apartment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what have I done?&rdquo; she at last stammered out. &ldquo;What are you looking
+      for here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon the commissary pronounced the name of Florent; and La Normande,
+      catching sight of the old woman, who was standing at the door, cried out:
+      &ldquo;Oh, the wretch! This is her doing!&rdquo; and she rushed at her mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She would have struck her if she had reached her; but the police agents
+      held her back, and forcibly wrapped her in the shawl. Meanwhile, she
+      struggled violently, and exclaimed in a choking voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you take me for? That Florent has never been in this room, I tell
+      you. There was nothing at all between us. People are always trying to
+      injure me in the neighbourhood; but just let anyone come here and say
+      anything before my face, and then you&rsquo;ll see! You&rsquo;ll lock me up
+      afterwards, I dare say, but I don&rsquo;t mind that! Florent, indeed! What a
+      lie! What nonsense!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This flood of words seemed to calm her; and her anger now turned against
+      Florent, who was the cause of all the trouble. Addressing the commissary,
+      she sought to justify herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not know his real character, sir,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;He had such a mild
+      manner that he deceived us all. I was unwilling to believe all I heard,
+      because I know people are so malicious. He only came here to give lessons
+      to my little boy, and went away directly they were over. I gave him a meal
+      here now and again, that&rsquo;s true and sometimes made him a present of a fine
+      fish. That&rsquo;s all. But this will be a warning to me, and you won&rsquo;t catch me
+      showing the same kindness to anyone again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But hasn&rsquo;t he given you any of his papers to take care of?&rdquo; asked the
+      commissary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh no, indeed! I swear it. I&rsquo;d give them up to you at once if he had.
+      I&rsquo;ve had quite enough of this, I can tell you! It&rsquo;s no joke to see you
+      tossing all my things about and ferreting everywhere in this way. Oh! you
+      may look; there&rsquo;s nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The officers, who examined every article of furniture, now wished to enter
+      the little closet where Muche slept. The child had been awakened by the
+      noise, and for the last few moments he had been crying bitterly, as though
+      he imagined that he was going to be murdered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is my boy&rsquo;s room,&rdquo; said La Normande, opening the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muche, quite naked, ran up and threw his arms round his mother&rsquo;s neck. She
+      pacified him, and laid him down in her own bed. The officers came out of
+      the little room again almost immediately, and the commissary had just made
+      up his mind to retire, when the child, still in tears, whispered in his
+      mother&rsquo;s ear: &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll take my copy-books. Don&rsquo;t let them have my
+      copy-books.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes; that&rsquo;s true,&rdquo; cried La Normande; &ldquo;there are some copy-books.
+      Wait a moment, gentlemen, and I&rsquo;ll give them to you. I want you to see
+      that I&rsquo;m not hiding anything from you. Then, you&rsquo;ll find some of his
+      writing inside these. You&rsquo;re quite at liberty to hang him as far as I&rsquo;m
+      concerned; you won&rsquo;t find me trying to cut him down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon she handed Muche&rsquo;s books and the copies set by Florent to the
+      commissary. But at this the boy sprang angrily out of bed, and began to
+      scratch and bite his mother, who put him back again with a box on the
+      ears. Then he began to bellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the midst of the uproar, Mademoiselle Saget appeared on the threshold,
+      craning her neck forward. Finding all the doors open, she had come in to
+      offer her services to old Madame Mehudin. She spied about and listened,
+      and expressed extreme pity for these poor women, who had no one to defend
+      them. The commissary, however, had begun to read the copies with a grave
+      air. The frequent repetition of such words as &ldquo;tyrannically,&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;liberticide,&rdquo; &ldquo;unconstitutional,&rdquo; and &ldquo;revolutionary&rdquo; made him frown; and
+      on reading the sentence, &ldquo;When the hour strikes, the guilty shall fall,&rdquo;
+       he tapped his fingers on the paper and said: &ldquo;This is very serious, very
+      serious indeed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon he gave the books to one of his men, and went off. Claire, who
+      had hitherto not shown herself, now opened her door, and watched the
+      police officers go down the stairs. And afterwards she came into her
+      sister&rsquo;s bedroom, which she had not entered for a year. Mademoiselle Saget
+      appeared to be on the best of terms with La Normande, and was hanging over
+      her in a caressing way, bringing the shawl forward to cover her the
+      better, and listening to her angry indignation with an expression of the
+      deepest sympathy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wretched coward!&rdquo; exclaimed Claire, planting herself in front of her
+      sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      La Normande sprang up, quivering with anger, and let the shawl fall to the
+      floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you&rsquo;ve been playing the spy, have you?&rdquo; she screamed. &ldquo;Dare to repeat
+      what you&rsquo;ve just said!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wretched coward!&rdquo; repeated Claire, in still more insulting tones than
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon La Normande struck Claire with all her force; and in return
+      Claire, turning terribly pale, sprang upon her sister and dug her nails
+      into her neck. They struggled together for a moment or two, tearing at
+      each other&rsquo;s hair and trying to choke one another. Claire, fragile though
+      she was, pushed La Normande backward with such tremendous violence that
+      they both fell against the wardrobe, smashing the mirror on its front.
+      Muche was roaring, and old Madame Mehudin called to Mademoiselle Saget to
+      come and help her separate the sisters. Claire, however, shook herself
+      free.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Coward! Coward!&rdquo; she cried; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll go and tell the poor fellow that it is
+      you who have betrayed him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her mother, however, blocked the doorway, and would not let her pass,
+      while La Normande seized her from behind, and then, Mademoiselle Saget
+      coming to the assistance of the other two, the three of them dragged
+      Claire into her bedroom and locked the door upon her, in spite of all her
+      frantic resistance. In her rage she tried to kick the door down, and
+      smashed everything in the room. Soon afterwards, however, nothing could be
+      heard except a furious scratching, the sound of metal scarping at the
+      plaster. The girl was trying to loosen the door hinges with the points of
+      her scissors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She would have murdered me if she had had a knife,&rdquo; said La Normande,
+      looking about for her clothes, in order to dress herself. &ldquo;She&rsquo;ll be doing
+      something dreadful, you&rsquo;ll see, one of these days, with that jealousy of
+      hers! We mustn&rsquo;t let her get out on any account: she&rsquo;d bring the whole
+      neighbourhood down upon us!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget went off in all haste. She reached the corner of the
+      Rue Pirouette just as the commissary of police was re-entering the side
+      passage of the Quenu-Gradelles&rsquo; house. She grasped the situation at once,
+      and entered the shop with such glistening eyes that Lisa enjoined silence
+      by a gesture which called her attention to the presence of Quenu, who was
+      hanging up some pieces of salt pork. As soon as he had returned to the
+      kitchen, the old maid in a low voice described the scenes that had just
+      taken place at the Mehudins&rsquo;. Lisa, as she bent over the counter, with her
+      hand resting on a dish of larded veal, listened to her with the happy face
+      of one who triumphs. Then, as a customer entered the shop, and asked for a
+      couple of pig&rsquo;s trotters, Lisa wrapped them up, and handed them over with
+      a thoughtful air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For my own part, I bear La Normande no ill-will,&rdquo; she said to
+      Mademoiselle Saget, when they were alone again. &ldquo;I used to be very fond of
+      her, and have always been sorry that other people made mischief between
+      us. The proof that I&rsquo;ve no animosity against her is here in this
+      photograph, which I saved from falling into the hands of the police, and
+      which I&rsquo;m quite ready to give her back if she will come and ask me for it
+      herself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She took the photograph out of her pocket as she spoke. Mademoiselle Saget
+      scrutinised it and sniggered as she read the inscription, &ldquo;Louise, to her
+      dear friend Florent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure you&rsquo;ll be acting wisely,&rdquo; she said in her cutting voice.
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;d do better to keep it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no,&rdquo; replied Lisa; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m anxious for all this silly nonsense to come
+      to an end. To-day is the day of reconciliation. We&rsquo;ve had enough
+      unpleasantness, and the neighbourhood&rsquo;s now going to be quiet and peaceful
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, shall I go and tell La Normande that you are expecting her?&rdquo;
+       asked the old maid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I shall be very glad if you will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget then made her way back to the Rue Pirouette, and
+      greatly frightened the fish-girl by telling her that she had just seen her
+      photograph in Lisa&rsquo;s pocket. She could not, however, at once prevail upon
+      her to comply with her rival&rsquo;s terms. La Normande propounded conditions of
+      her own. She would go, but Madame Quenu must come to the door of the shop
+      to receive her. Thus the old maid was obliged to make another couple of
+      journeys between the two rivals before their meeting could be
+      satisfactorily arranged. At last, however, to her great delight, she
+      succeeded in negotiating the peace which was destined to cause so much
+      talk and excitement. As she passed Claire&rsquo;s door for the last time she
+      still heard the sound of the scissors scraping away at the plaster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she had at last carried a definite reply to Madame Quenu,
+      Mademoiselle Saget hurried off to find Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette;
+      and all three of them took up their position on the footway at the corner
+      of the fish market, just in front of the pork shop. Here they would be
+      certain to have a good view of every detail of the meeting. They felt
+      extremely impatient, and while pretending to chat together kept an anxious
+      look-out in the direction of the Rue Pirouette, along which La Normande
+      must come. The news of the reconciliation was already travelling through
+      the markets, and while some saleswomen stood up behind their stalls trying
+      to get a view of what was taking place, others, still more inquisitive,
+      actually left their places and took up a position in the covered way.
+      Every eye in the markets was directed upon the pork shop; the whole
+      neighbourhood was on the tip-toe of expectation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a very solemn affair. When La Normande at last turned the corner of
+      the Rue Pirouette the excitement was so great that the women held their
+      breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has got her diamonds on,&rdquo; murmured La Sarriette.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just look how she stalks along,&rdquo; added Madame Lecoeur; &ldquo;the stuck-up
+      creature!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The beautiful Norman was, indeed, advancing with the mien of a queen who
+      condescends to make peace. She had made a most careful toilet, frizzing
+      her hair and turning up a corner of her apron to display her cashmere
+      skirt. She had even put on a new and rich lace bow. Conscious that the
+      whole market was staring at her, she assumed a still haughtier air as she
+      approached the pork shop. When she reached the door she stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s beautiful Lisa&rsquo;s turn,&rdquo; remarked Mademoiselle Saget. &ldquo;Mind you
+      pay attention.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beautiful Lisa smilingly quitted her counter. She crossed the shop-floor
+      at a leisurely pace, and came and offered her hand to the beautiful
+      Norman. She also was smartly dressed, with her dazzling linen and
+      scrupulous neatness. A murmur ran through the crowd of fish-wives, all
+      their heads gathered close together, and animated chatter ensued. The two
+      women had gone inside the shop, and the <i>crepines</i> in the window
+      prevented them from being clearly seen. However, they seemed to be
+      conversing affectionately, addressing pretty compliments to one another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See!&rdquo; suddenly exclaimed Mademoiselle Saget, &ldquo;the beautiful Norman&rsquo;s
+      buying something! What is it she&rsquo;s buying? It&rsquo;s a chitterling, I believe!
+      Ah! Look! look! You didn&rsquo;t see it, did you? Well, beautiful Lisa just gave
+      her the photograph; she slipped it into her hand with the chitterling.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fresh salutations were then seen to pass between the two women; and the
+      beautiful Lisa, exceeding even the courtesies which had been agreed upon,
+      accompanied the beautiful Norman to the footway. There they stood laughing
+      together, exhibiting themselves to the neighbourhood like a couple of good
+      friends. The markets were quite delighted; and the saleswomen returned to
+      their stalls, declaring that everything had passed off extremely well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget, however, detained Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette. The
+      drama was not over yet. All three kept their eyes fixed on the house
+      opposite with such keen curiosity that they seemed trying to penetrate the
+      very walls. To pass the time away they once more began to talk of the
+      beautiful Norman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She&rsquo;s without a lover now,&rdquo; remarked Madame Lecoeur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! she&rsquo;s got Monsieur Lebigre,&rdquo; replied La Sarriette, with a laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But surely Monsieur Lebigre won&rsquo;t have anything more to say to her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget shrugged her shoulders. &ldquo;Ah, you don&rsquo;t know him,&rdquo; she
+      said. &ldquo;He won&rsquo;t care a straw about all this business. He knows what he&rsquo;s
+      about, and La Normande is rich. They&rsquo;ll come together in a couple of
+      months, you&rsquo;ll see. Old Madame Mehudin&rsquo;s been scheming to bring about
+      their marriage for a long time past.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, anyway,&rdquo; retorted the butter dealer, &ldquo;the commissary found Florent
+      at her lodgings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, indeed; I&rsquo;m sure I never told you that. The long spindle-shanks
+      had gone way,&rdquo; replied the old maid. She paused to take a breath; then
+      resumed in an indignant tone, &ldquo;What distressed me most was to hear of all
+      the abominable things that the villain had taught little Muche. You&rsquo;d
+      really never believe it. There was a whole bundle of papers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What sort of abominable things?&rdquo; asked La Sarriette with interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, all kinds of filth. The commissary said there was quite sufficient
+      there to hang him. The fellow&rsquo;s a perfect monster! To go and demoralise a
+      child! Why, it&rsquo;s almost past believing! Little Muche is certainly a scamp,
+      but that&rsquo;s no reason why he should be given over to the &lsquo;Reds,&rsquo; is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not,&rdquo; assented the two others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;However, all these mysterious goings-on will come to an end now. You
+      remember my telling you once that there was some strange goings-on at the
+      Quenus&rsquo;? Well, you see, I was right in my conclusions, wasn&rsquo;t I? Thank
+      God, however, the neighbourhood will now be able to breathe easily. It was
+      high time strong steps were taken, for things had got to such a pitch that
+      one actually felt afraid of being murdered in broad daylight. There was no
+      pleasure in life. All the dreadful stories and reports one heard were
+      enough to worry one to death. And it was all owing to that man, that
+      dreadful Florent. Now beautiful Lisa and the beautiful Norman have
+      sensibly made friends again. It was their duty to do so for the sake of
+      the peace and quietness of us all. Everything will go on satisfactorily
+      now, you&rsquo;ll find. Ah! there&rsquo;s poor Monsieur Quenu laughing yonder!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu had again come on to the footway, and was joking with Madame
+      Taboureau&rsquo;s little servant. He seemed quite gay and skittish that morning.
+      He took hold of the little servant&rsquo;s hands, and squeezed her fingers so
+      tightly, in the exuberance of his spirits, that he made her cry out. Lisa
+      had the greatest trouble to get him to go back into the kitchen. She was
+      impatiently pacing about the shop, fearing lest Florent should make his
+      appearance; and she called to her husband to come away, dreading a meeting
+      between him and his brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She&rsquo;s getting quite vexed,&rdquo; said Mademoiselle Saget. &ldquo;Poor Monsieur
+      Quenu, you see, knows nothing at all about what&rsquo;s taking place. Just look
+      at him there, laughing like a child! Madame Taboureau, you know, said that
+      she should have nothing more to do with the Quenus if they persisted in
+      bringing themselves into discredit by keeping that Florent with them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, now, I suppose, they will stick to the fortune,&rdquo; remarked Madame
+      Lecoeur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no, indeed, my dear. The other one has had his share already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really? How do you know that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s clear enough, that is!&rdquo; replied the old maid after a momentary
+      hesitation, but without giving any proof of her assertions. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s had even
+      more than his share. The Quenus will be several thousand francs out of
+      pocket. Money flies, you know, when a man has such vices as he has. I dare
+      say you don&rsquo;t know that there was another woman mixed up in it all. Yes,
+      indeed, old Madame Verlaque, the wife of the former inspector; you know
+      the sallow-faced thing well enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The others protested that it surely wasn&rsquo;t possible. Why, Madame Verlaque
+      was positively hideous!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! do you think me a liar?&rdquo; cried Mademoiselle Saget, with angry
+      indignation. &ldquo;Why, her letters to him have been found, a whole pile of
+      letters, in which she asks for money, ten and twenty francs at a time.
+      There&rsquo;s no doubt at all about it. I&rsquo;m quite certain in my own mind that
+      they killed the husband between them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      La Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur were convinced; but they were beginning to
+      get very impatient. They had been waiting on the footway for more than an
+      hour, and feared that somebody might be robbing their stalls during their
+      long absence. So Mademoiselle Saget began to give them some further
+      interesting information to keep them from going off. Florent could not
+      have taken to flight, said she; he was certain to return, and it would be
+      very interesting to see him arrested. Then she went on to describe the
+      trap that had been laid for him, while Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette
+      continued scrutinising the house from top to bottom, keeping watch upon
+      every opening, and at each moment expecting to see the hats of the
+      detectives appear at one of the doors or windows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who would ever imagine, now, that the place was full of police?&rdquo; observed
+      the butter dealer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! they&rsquo;re in the garret at the top,&rdquo; said the old maid. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve left
+      the window open, you see, just as they found it. Look! I think I can see
+      one of them hiding behind the pomegranate on the balcony.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The others excitedly craned out their necks, but could see nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, no, it&rsquo;s only a shadow,&rdquo; continued Mademoiselle Saget. &ldquo;The little
+      curtains even are perfectly still. The detectives must be sitting down in
+      the room, and keeping quiet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at that moment the women caught sight of Gavard coming out of the
+      fish market with a thoughtful air. They looked at him with glistening
+      eyes, without speaking. They had drawn close to one another, and stood
+      there rigid in their drooping skirts. The poultry dealer came up to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you seen Florent go by?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They replied that they had not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to speak to him at once,&rdquo; continued Gavard. &ldquo;He isn&rsquo;t in the fish
+      market. He must have gone up to his room. But you would have seen him,
+      though, if he had.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The women had turned rather pale. They still kept looking at each other
+      with a knowing expression, their lips twitching slightly every now and
+      then. &ldquo;We have only been here some five minutes, said Madame Lecoeur
+      unblushingly, as her brother-in-law still stood hesitating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, I&rsquo;ll go upstairs and see. I&rsquo;ll risk the five flights,&rdquo;
+       rejoined Gavard with a laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      La Sarriette stepped forward as though she wished to detain him, but her
+      aunt took hold of her arm and drew her back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him alone, you big simpleton!&rdquo; she whispered. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the best thing
+      that can happen to him. It&rsquo;ll teach him to treat us with respect in
+      future.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He won&rsquo;t say again that I ate tainted meat,&rdquo; muttered Mademoiselle Saget
+      in a low tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They said nothing more. La Sarriette was very red; but the two others
+      still remained quite yellow. But they now averted their heads, feeling
+      confused by each other&rsquo;s looks, and at a loss what to do with their hands,
+      which they buried beneath their aprons. Presently their eyes instinctively
+      came back to the house, penetrating the walls, as it were, following
+      Gavard in his progress up the stairs. When they imagined that he had
+      entered Florent&rsquo;s room they again exchanged furtive glances. La Sarriette
+      laughed nervously. All at once they fancied they could see the window
+      curtains moving, and this led them to believe that a struggle was taking
+      place. But the house-front remained as tranquil as ever in the sunshine;
+      and another quarter of an hour of unbroken quietness passed away, during
+      which the three women&rsquo;s nervous excitement became more and more intense.
+      They were beginning to feel quite faint when a man hurriedly came out of
+      the passage and ran off to get a cab. Five minutes later Gavard appeared,
+      followed by two police officers. Lisa, who had stepped out on to the
+      footway on observing the cab, hastily hurried back into the shop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gavard was very pale. The police had searched him upstairs, and had
+      discovered the revolver and cartridge case in his possession. Judging by
+      the commissary&rsquo;s stern expression on hearing his name, the poultry dealer
+      deemed himself lost. This was a terrible ending to his plotting that had
+      never entered into his calculations. The Tuileries would never forgive
+      him! His legs gave way beneath him as though the firing party was already
+      awaiting him outside. When he got into the street, however, his vanity
+      lent him sufficient strength to walk erect; and he even managed to force a
+      smile, as he knew the market people were looking at him. They should see
+      him die bravely, he resolved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, La Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur rushed up to him and anxiously
+      inquired what was the matter; and the butter dealer began to cry, while La
+      Sarriette embraced her uncle, manifesting the deepest emotion. As Gavard
+      held her clasped in his arms, he slipped a key into her hand, and
+      whispered in her ear: &ldquo;Take everything, and burn the papers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he got into the cab with the same mien as he would have ascended the
+      scaffold. As the vehicle disappeared round the corner of the Rue Pierre
+      Lescot, Madame Lecoeur observed La Sarriette trying to hide the key in her
+      pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s of no use you trying that little game on me, my dear,&rdquo; she
+      exclaimed, clenching her teeth; &ldquo;I saw him slip it into your hand. As true
+      as there&rsquo;s a God in Heaven, I&rsquo;ll go to the gaol and tell him everything,
+      if you don&rsquo;t treat me properly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I shall treat you properly, aunt, dear,&rdquo; replied La Sarriette,
+      with an embarrassed smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, then, let us go to his rooms at once. It&rsquo;s of no use to give
+      the police time to poke their dirty hands in the cupboards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mademoiselle Saget, who had been listening with gleaming eyes, followed
+      them, running along in the rear as quickly as her short legs could carry
+      her. She had no thought, now, of waiting for Florent. From the Rue
+      Rambuteau to the Rue de la Cossonnerie she manifested the most humble
+      obsequiousness, and volunteered to explain matters to Madame Leonce, the
+      doorkeeper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see, we&rsquo;ll see,&rdquo; the butter dealer curtly replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, on reaching the house a preliminary parley&mdash;as Mademoiselle
+      Saget had opined&mdash;proved to be necessary. Madame Leonce refused to
+      allow the women to go up to her tenant&rsquo;s room. She put on an expression of
+      severe austerity, and seemed greatly shocked by the sight of La
+      Sarriette&rsquo;s loosely fastened fichu. However, after the old maid had
+      whispered a few words to her and she was shown the key, she gave way. When
+      they got upstairs she surrendered the rooms and furniture to the others
+      article by article, apparently as heartbroken as if she had been compelled
+      to show a party of burglars the place where her own money was secreted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, take everything and have done with it!&rdquo; she cried at last,
+      throwing herself into an arm-chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      La Sarriette was already eagerly trying the key in the locks of different
+      closets. Madame Lecoeur, all suspicion, pressed her so closely that she
+      exclaimed: &ldquo;Really, aunt, you get in my way. Do leave my arms free, at any
+      rate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At last they succeeded in opening a wardrobe opposite the window, between
+      the fireplace and the bed. And then all four women broke into
+      exclamations. On the middle shelf lay some ten thousand francs in gold,
+      methodically arranged in little piles. Gavard, who had prudently deposited
+      the bulk of his fortune in the hands of a notary, had kept this sum by him
+      for the purposes of the coming outbreak. He had been wont to say with
+      great solemnity that his contribution to the revolution was quite ready.
+      The fact was that he had sold out certain stock, and every night took an
+      intense delight in contemplating those ten thousand francs, gloating over
+      them, and finding something quite roysterous and insurrectional in their
+      appearance. Sometimes when he was in bed he dreamed that a fight was going
+      on in the wardrobe; he could hear guns being fired there, paving-stones
+      being torn up and piled into barricades, and voices shouting in clamorous
+      triumph; and he said to himself that it was his money fighting against the
+      Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      La Sarriette, however, had stretched out her hands with a cry of delight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Paws off, little one!&rdquo; exclaimed Madame Lecoeur in a hoarse voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she stood there in the reflection of the gold, she looked yellower than
+      ever&mdash;her face discoloured by biliousness, her eyes glowing
+      feverishly from the liver complaint which was secretly undermining her.
+      Behind her Mademoiselle Saget on tip-toe was gazing ecstatically into the
+      wardrobe, and Madame Leonce had now risen from her seat, and was growling
+      sulkily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My uncle said I was to take everything,&rdquo; declared the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And am I to have nothing, then; I who have done so much for him?&rdquo; cried
+      the doorkeeper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Lecoeur was almost choking with excitement. She pushed the others
+      away, and clung hold of the wardrobe, screaming: &ldquo;It all belongs to me! I
+      am his nearest relative. You are a pack of thieves, you are! I&rsquo;d rather
+      throw it all out of the window than see you have it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then silence fell, and they all four stood glowering at each other. The
+      kerchief that La Sarriette wore over her breast was now altogether
+      unfastened, and she displayed her bosom heaving with warm life, her moist
+      red lips, her rosy nostrils. Madame Lecoeur grew still more sour as she
+      saw how lovely the girl looked in the excitement of her longing desire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; she said in a lower tone, &ldquo;we won&rsquo;t fight about it. You are his
+      niece, and I&rsquo;ll divide the money with you. We will each take a pile in
+      turn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon they pushed the other two aside. The butter dealer took the
+      first pile, which at once disappeared within her skirts. Then La Sarriette
+      took a pile. They kept a close watch upon one another, ready to fight at
+      the slightest attempt at cheating. Their fingers were thrust forward in
+      turn, the hideous knotted fingers of the aunt and the white fingers of the
+      niece, soft and supple as silk. Slowly they filled their pockets. When
+      there was only one pile left, La Sarriette objected to her aunt taking it,
+      as she had commenced; and she suddenly divided it between Mademoiselle
+      Saget and Madame Leonce, who had watched them pocket the gold with
+      feverish impatience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Much obliged to you!&rdquo; snarled the doorkeeper. &ldquo;Fifty francs for having
+      coddled him up with tisane and broth! The old deceiver told me he had no
+      relatives!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before locking the wardrobe up again, Madame Lecoeur searched it
+      thoroughly from top to bottom. It contained all the political works which
+      were forbidden admission into the country, the pamphlets printed at
+      Brussels, the scandalous histories of the Bonapartes, and the foreign
+      caricatures ridiculing the Emperor. One of Gavard&rsquo;s greatest delights was
+      to shut himself up with a friend, and show him all these compromising
+      things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He told me that I was to burn all the papers,&rdquo; said La Sarriette.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, nonsense! we&rsquo;ve no fire, and it would take up too long. The police
+      will soon be here! We must get out of this!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They all four hastened off; but they had not reached the bottom of the
+      stairs before the police met them, and made Madame Leonce return with them
+      upstairs. The three others, making themselves as small as possible,
+      hurriedly escaped into the street. They walked away in single file at a
+      brisk pace; the aunt and niece considerably incommoded by the weight of
+      their drooping pockets. Mademoiselle Saget had kept her fifty francs in
+      her closed fist, and remained deep in thought, brooding over a plan for
+      extracting something more from the heavy pockets in front of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she exclaimed, as they reached the corner of the fish market, &ldquo;we&rsquo;ve
+      got here at a lucky moment. There&rsquo;s Florent yonder, just going to walk
+      into the trap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent, indeed, was just then returning to the markets after his
+      prolonged perambulation. He went into his office to change his coat, and
+      then set about his daily duties, seeing that the marble slabs were
+      properly washed, and slowly strolling along the alleys. He fancied that
+      the fish-wives looked at him in a somewhat strange manner; they chuckled
+      too, and smiled significantly as he passed them. Some new vexation, he
+      thought, was in store for him. For some time past those huge, terrible
+      women had not allowed him a day&rsquo;s peace. However, as he passed the
+      Mehudins&rsquo; stall he was very much surprised to hear the old woman address
+      him in a honeyed tone: &ldquo;There&rsquo;s just been a gentleman inquiring for you,
+      Monsieur Florent; a middle-aged gentleman. He&rsquo;s gone to wait for you in
+      your room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the old fish-wife, who was squatting, all of a heap, on her chair,
+      spoke these words, she felt such a delicious thrill of satisfied vengeance
+      that her huge body fairly quivered. Florent, still doubtful, glanced at
+      the beautiful Norman; but the young woman, now completely reconciled with
+      her mother, turned on her tap and slapped her fish, pretending not to hear
+      what was being said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are quite sure?&rdquo; said Florent to Mother Mehudin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, indeed. Isn&rsquo;t that so, Louise?&rdquo; said the old woman in a shriller
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent concluded that it must be some one who wanted to see him about the
+      great business, and he resolved to go up to his room. He was just about to
+      leave the pavilion, when, happening to turn round, he observed the
+      beautiful Norman watching him with a grave expression on her face. Then he
+      passed in front of the three gossips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you notice that there&rsquo;s no one in the pork shop?&rdquo; remarked
+      Mademoiselle Saget. &ldquo;Beautiful Lisa&rsquo;s not the woman to compromise
+      herself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The shop was, indeed, quite empty. The front of the house was still bright
+      with sunshine; the building looked like some honest, prosperous pile
+      guilelessly warming itself in the morning rays. Up above, the pomegranate
+      on the balcony was in full bloom. As Florent crossed the roadway he gave a
+      friendly nod to Logre and Monsieur Lebigre, who appeared to be enjoying
+      the fresh air on the doorstep of the latter&rsquo;s establishment. They returned
+      his greeting with a smile. Florent was then about to enter the
+      side-passage, when he fancied he saw Auguste&rsquo;s pale face hastily vanishing
+      from its dark and narrow depths. Thereupon he turned back and glanced into
+      the shop to make sure that the middle-aged gentleman was not waiting for
+      him there. But he saw no one but Mouton, who sat on a block displaying his
+      double chin and bristling whiskers, and gazed at him defiantly with his
+      great yellow eyes. And when he had at last made up his mind to enter the
+      passage, Lisa&rsquo;s face appeared behind the little curtain of a glazed door
+      at the back of the shop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A hush had fallen over the fish market. All the huge paunches and bosoms
+      held their breath, waiting till Florent should disappear from sight. Then
+      there was an uproarious outbreak; and the bosoms heaved wildly and the
+      paunches nearly burst with malicious delight. The joke had succeeded.
+      Nothing could be more comical. As old Mother Mehudin vented her merriment
+      she shook and quivered like a wine-skin that is being emptied. Her story
+      of the middle-aged gentleman went the round of the market, and the
+      fish-wives found it extremely amusing. At last the long spindle-shanks was
+      collared, and they would no longer always have his miserable face and
+      gaol-bird&rsquo;s expression before their eyes. They all wished him a pleasant
+      journey, and trusted that they might get a handsome fellow for their next
+      inspector. And in their delight they rushed about from one stall to
+      another, and felt inclined to dance round their marble slabs like a lot of
+      holiday-making schoolgirls. The beautiful Norman, however, watched this
+      outbreak of joy in a rigid attitude, not daring to move for fear she
+      should burst into tears; and she kept her hands pressed upon a big skate
+      to cool her feverish excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see how those Mehudins turn their backs upon him now that he&rsquo;s come
+      to grief,&rdquo; said Madame Lecoeur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, and they&rsquo;re quite right too,&rdquo; replied Mademoiselle Saget. &ldquo;Besides,
+      matters are settled now, my dear, and we&rsquo;re to have no more disputes.
+      You&rsquo;ve every reason to be satisfied; leave the others to act as they
+      please.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s only the old woman who is laughing,&rdquo; La Sarriette remarked; &ldquo;La
+      Normande looks anything but happy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, upstairs in his bedroom, Florent allowed himself to be taken as
+      unresistingly as a sheep. The police officers sprang roughly upon him,
+      expecting, no doubt, that they would meet with a desperate resistance. He
+      quietly begged them to leave go of him; and then sat down on a chair while
+      they packed up his papers, and the red scarves, armlets, and banners. He
+      did not seem at all surprised at this ending; indeed, it was something of
+      a relief to him, though he would not frankly confess it. But he suffered
+      acutely at thought of the bitter hatred which had sent him into that room;
+      he recalled Auguste&rsquo;s pale face and the sniggering looks of the
+      fish-wives; he bethought himself of old Madame Mehudin&rsquo;s words, La
+      Normande&rsquo;s silence, and the empty shop downstairs. The markets were
+      leagued against him, he reflected; the whole neighbourhood had conspired
+      to hand him over to the police. The mud of those greasy streets had risen
+      up all around to overwhelm him!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And amidst all the round faces which flitted before his mind&rsquo;s eye there
+      suddenly appeared that of Quenu, and a spasm of mortal agony contracted
+      his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, get along downstairs!&rdquo; exclaimed one of the officers, roughly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent rose and proceeded to go downstairs. When he reached the second
+      floor he asked to be allowed to return; he had forgotten something, he
+      said. But the officers refused to let him go back, and began to hustle him
+      forward. Then he besought them to let him return to his room again, and
+      even offered them the money he had in his pocket. Two of them at last
+      consented to return with him, threatening to blow his brains out should he
+      attempt to play them any trick; and they drew their revolvers out of their
+      pockets as they spoke. However, on reaching his room once more Florent
+      simply went straight to the chaffinch&rsquo;s cage, took the bird out of it,
+      kissed it between its wings, and set it at liberty. He watched it fly away
+      through the open window, into the sunshine, and alight, as though giddy,
+      on the roof of the fish market. Then it flew off again and disappeared
+      over the markets in the direction of the Square des Innocents. For a
+      moment longer Florent remained face to face with the sky, the free and
+      open sky; and he thought of the wood-pigeons cooing in the garden of the
+      Tuileries, and of those other pigeons down in the market cellars with
+      their throats slit by Marjolin&rsquo;s knife. Then he felt quite broken, and
+      turned and followed the officers, who were putting their revolvers back
+      into their pockets as they shrugged their shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On reaching the bottom of the stairs, Florent stopped before the door
+      which led into the kitchen. The commissary, who was waiting for him there,
+      seemed almost touched by his gentle submissiveness, and asked him: &ldquo;Would
+      you like to say good-bye to your brother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment Florent hesitated. He looked at the door. A tremendous noise
+      of cleavers and pans came from the kitchen. Lisa, with the design of
+      keeping her husband occupied, had persuaded him to make the black-puddings
+      in the morning instead of in the evening, as was his wont. The onions were
+      simmering on the fire, and over all the noisy uproar Florent could hear
+      Quenu&rsquo;s joyous voice exclaiming, &ldquo;Ah, dash it all, the pudding will be
+      excellent, that it will! Auguste, hand me the fat!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Florent thanked the commissary, but refused his offer. He was afraid to
+      return any more into that warm kitchen, reeking with the odour of boiling
+      onions, and so he went on past the door, happy in the thought that his
+      brother knew nothing of what had happened to him, and hastening his steps
+      as if to spare the establishment all further worry. However, on emerging
+      into the open sunshine of the street he felt a touch of shame, and got
+      into the cab with bent back and ashen face. He was conscious that the fish
+      market was gazing at him in triumph; it seemed to him, indeed, as though
+      the whole neighbourhood had gathered there to rejoice at his fall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a villainous expression he&rsquo;s got!&rdquo; said Mademoiselle Saget.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, indeed, he looks just like a thief caught with his hand in
+      somebody&rsquo;s till,&rdquo; added Madame Lecoeur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I once saw a man guillotined who looked exactly like he does,&rdquo; asserted
+      La Sarriette, showing her white teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stepped forward, lengthened their necks, and tried to see into the
+      cab. Just as it was starting, however, the old maid tugged sharply at the
+      skirts of her companions, and pointed to Claire, who was coming round the
+      corner of the Rue Pirouette, looking like a mad creature, with her hair
+      loose and her nails bleeding. She had at last succeeded in opening her
+      door. When she discovered that she was too late, and that Florent was
+      being taken off, she darted after the cab, but checked herself almost
+      immediately with a gesture of impotent rage, and shook her fists at the
+      receding wheels. Then, with her face quite crimson beneath the fine
+      plaster dust with which she was covered, she ran back again towards the
+      Rue Pirouette.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had he promised to marry her, eh?&rdquo; exclaimed La Sarriette, laughing. &ldquo;The
+      silly fool must be quite cracked.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Little by little the neighbourhood calmed down, though throughout the day
+      groups of people constantly assembled and discussed the events of the
+      morning. The pork shop was the object of much inquisitive curiosity. Lisa
+      avoided appearing there, and left the counter in charge of Augustine. In
+      the afternoon she felt bound to tell Quenu of what had happened, for fear
+      the news might cause him too great a shock should he hear it from some
+      gossiping neighbour. She waited till she was alone with him in the
+      kitchen, knowing that there he was always most cheerful, and would weep
+      less than if he were anywhere else. Moreover, she communicated her tidings
+      with all sorts of motherly precautions. Nevertheless, as soon as he knew
+      the truth he fell on the chopping-block, and began to cry like a calf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, now, my poor dear, don&rsquo;t give way like that; you&rsquo;ll make yourself
+      quite ill,&rdquo; exclaimed Lisa, taking him in her arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His tears were inundating his white apron, the whole of his massive,
+      torpid form quivered with grief. He seemed to be sinking, melting away.
+      When he was at last able to speak, he stammered: &ldquo;Oh, you don&rsquo;t know how
+      good he was to me when we lived together in the Rue Royer-Collard! He did
+      everything. He swept the room and cooked the meals. He loved me as though
+      I were his own child; and after his day&rsquo;s work he used to come back
+      splashed with mud, and so tired that he could scarcely move, while I
+      stayed warm and comfortable in the house, and had nothing to do but eat.
+      And now they&rsquo;re going to shoot him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this Lisa protested, saying that he would certainly not be shot. But
+      Quenu only shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t loved him half as much as I ought to have done,&rdquo; he continued.
+      &ldquo;I can see that very well now. I had a wicked heart, and I hesitated about
+      giving him his half of the money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I offered it to him a dozen times and more!&rdquo; Lisa interrupted. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      sure we&rsquo;ve nothing to reproach ourselves with.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, I know that you are everything that is good, and that you would
+      have given him every copper. But I hesitated, I didn&rsquo;t like to part with
+      it; and now it will be a sorrow to me for the rest of my life. I shall
+      always think that if I&rsquo;d shared the fortune with him he wouldn&rsquo;t have gone
+      wrong a second time. Oh, yes; it&rsquo;s my fault! It is I who have driven him
+      to this.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Lisa, expostulating still more gently, assured him that he had
+      nothing to blame himself for, and even expressed some pity for Florent.
+      But he was really very culpable, she said, and if he had had more money he
+      would probably have perpetrated greater follies. Gradually she gave her
+      husband to understand that it was impossible matters could have had any
+      other termination, and that now everything would go on much better. Quenu
+      was still weeping, wiping his cheeks with his apron, trying to suppress
+      his sobs to listen to her, and then breaking into a wilder fit of tears
+      than before. His fingers had mechanically sought a heap of sausage-meat
+      lying on the block, and he was digging holes in it, and roughly kneading
+      it together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how unwell you were feeling, you know,&rdquo; Lisa continued. &ldquo;It was all
+      because our life had got so shifted out of its usual course. I was very
+      anxious, though I didn&rsquo;t tell you so, at seeing you getting so low.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, wasn&rsquo;t I?&rdquo; he murmured, ceasing to sob for a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the business has been quite under a cloud this year. It was as though
+      a spell had been cast on it. Come, now, don&rsquo;t take on so; you&rsquo;ll see that
+      everything will look up again now. You must take care of yourself, you
+      know, for my sake and your daughter&rsquo;s. You have duties to us as well as to
+      others, remember.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Quenu was now kneading the sausage-meat more gently. Another burst of
+      emotion was thrilling him, but it was a softer emotion, which was already
+      bringing a vague smile to his grief-stricken face. Lisa felt that she had
+      convinced him, and she turned and called to Pauline, who was playing in
+      the shop, and sat her on Quenu&rsquo;s knee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell your father, Pauline, that he ought not to give way like this. Ask
+      him nicely not to go on distressing us so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The child did as she was told, and their fat, sleek forms united in a
+      general embrace. They all three looked at one another, already feeling
+      cured of that twelve months&rsquo; depression from which they had but just
+      emerged. Their big, round faces smiled, and Lisa softly repeated, &ldquo;And
+      after all, my dear, there are only we three, you know, only we three.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Two months later Florent was again sentenced to transportation. The affair
+      caused a great stir. The newspapers published all possible details, and
+      gave portraits of the accused, sketches of the banners and scarves, and
+      plans of the places where the conspirators had met. For a fortnight
+      nothing but the great plot of the central markets was talked of in Paris.
+      The police kept on launching more and more alarming reports, and it was at
+      last even declared that the whole of the Montmartre Quarter was
+      undermined. The excitement in the Corps Legislatif was so intense that the
+      members of the Centre and the Right forgot their temporary disagreement
+      over the Imperial Grant Bill, and became reconciled. And then by an
+      overwhelming majority they voted the unpopular tax, of which even the
+      lower classes, in the panic which was sweeping over the city, dared no
+      longer complain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The trial lasted a week. Florent was very much surprised at the number of
+      accomplices with which he found himself credited. Out of the twenty and
+      more who were placed in the dock with him, he knew only some six or seven.
+      After the sentence of the court had been read, he fancied he could see
+      Robine&rsquo;s innocent-looking hat and back going off quietly through the
+      crowd. Logre was acquitted, as was also Lacaille; Alexandre was sentenced
+      to two years&rsquo; imprisonment for his child-like complicity in the
+      conspiracy; while as for Gavard, he, like Florent, was condemned to
+      transportation. This was a heavy blow, which quite crushed him amidst the
+      final enjoyment that he derived from those lengthy proceedings in which he
+      had managed to make himself so conspicuous. He was paying very dearly for
+      the way in which he had vented the spirit of perpetual opposition peculiar
+      to the Paris shopkeeping classes. Two big tears coursed down his scared
+      face&mdash;the face of a white-haired child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then one morning in August, amidst the busy awakening of the markets,
+      Claude Lantier, sauntering about in the thick of the arriving vegetables,
+      with his waist tightly girded by his red sash, came to grasp Madame
+      Francois&rsquo;s hand close by Saint Eustache. She was sitting on her carrots
+      and turnips, and her long face looked very sad. The artist, too, was
+      gloomy, notwithstanding the bright sun which was already softening the
+      deep-green velvet of the mountains of cabbages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it&rsquo;s all over now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They are sending him back again. He&rsquo;s
+      already on his way to Brest, I believe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Madame Francois made a gesture of mute grief. Then she gently waved her
+      hand around, and murmured in a low voice; &ldquo;Ah, it is all Paris&rsquo;s doing,
+      this villainous Paris!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, not quite that; but I know whose doing it is, the contemptible
+      creatures!&rdquo; exclaimed Claude, clenching his fists. &ldquo;Do you know, Madame
+      Francois, there was nothing too ridiculous for those fellows in the court
+      to say! Why, they even went ferreting in a child&rsquo;s copy-books! That great
+      idiot of a Public Prosecutor made a tremendous fuss over them, and ranted
+      about the respect due to children, and the wickedness of demagogical
+      education! It makes me quite sick to think of it all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A shudder of disgust shook him, and then, burying himself more deeply in
+      his discoloured cloak, he resumed: &ldquo;To think of it! A man who was as
+      gentle as a girl! Why, I saw him turn quite faint at seeing a pigeon
+      killed! I couldn&rsquo;t help smiling with pity when I saw him between two
+      gendarmes. Ah, well, we shall never see him again! He won&rsquo;t come back this
+      time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He ought to have listened to me,&rdquo; said Madame Francois, after a pause,
+      &ldquo;and have come to live at Nanterre with my fowls and rabbits. I was very
+      fond of him, you see, for I could tell that he was a good-hearted fellow.
+      Ah, we might have been so happy together! It&rsquo;s a sad pity. Well, we must
+      bear it as best we can, Monsieur Claude. Come and see me one of these
+      days. I&rsquo;ll have an omelet ready for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her eyes were dim with tears; but all at once she sprang up like a brave
+      woman who bears her sorrows with fortitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she exclaimed, &ldquo;here&rsquo;s old Mother Chantemesse coming to buy some
+      turnips of me. The fat old lady&rsquo;s as sprightly as ever!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude went off, and strolled about the footways. The dawn had risen in
+      the white sheaf of light at the end of the Rue Rambuteau; and the sun, now
+      level with the house-tops, was diffusing rosy rays which already fell in
+      warm patches on the pavements. Claude was conscious of a gay awakening in
+      the huge resonant markets&mdash;indeed, all over the neighbourhood&mdash;crowded
+      with piles of food. It was like the joy that comes after cure, the mirth
+      of folks who are at last relieved of a heavy weight which has been pulling
+      them down. He saw La Sarriette displaying a gold chain and singing amidst
+      her plums and strawberries, while she playfully pulled the moustaches of
+      Monsieur Jules, who was arrayed in a velvet jacket. He also caught sight
+      of Madame Lecoeur and Mademoiselle Saget passing along one of the covered
+      ways, and looking less sallow than usual&mdash;indeed, almost rosy&mdash;as
+      they laughed like bosom friends over some amusing story. In the fish
+      market, old Madame Mehudin, who had returned to her stall, was slapping
+      her fish, abusing customers, and snubbing the new inspector, a
+      presumptuous young man whom she had sworn to spank; while Claire,
+      seemingly more languid and indolent than ever, extended her hands, blue
+      from immersion in the water of her tanks, to gather together a great heap
+      of edible snails, shimmering with silvery slime. In the tripe market
+      Auguste and Augustine, with the foolish expression of newly-married
+      people, had just been purchasing some pigs&rsquo; trotters, and were starting
+      off in a trap for their pork shop at Montrouge. Then, as it was now eight
+      o&rsquo;clock and already quite warm, Claude, on again coming to the Rue
+      Rambuteau, perceived Muche and Pauline playing at horses. Muche was
+      crawling along on all-fours, while Pauline sat on his back, and clung to
+      his hair to keep herself from falling. However, a moving shadow which fell
+      from the eaves of the market roof made Claude look up; and he then espied
+      Cadine and Marjolin aloft, kissing and warming themselves in the sunshine,
+      parading their loves before the whole neighbourhood like a pair of
+      light-hearted animals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Claude shook his fist at them. All this joyousness down below and on high
+      exasperated him. He reviled the Fat; the Fat, he declared, had conquered
+      the Thin. All around him he could see none but the Fat protruding their
+      paunches, bursting with robust health, and greeting with delight another
+      day of gorging and digestion. And a last blow was dealt to him by the
+      spectacle which he perceived on either hand as he halted opposite the Rue
+      Pirouette.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On his right, the beautiful Norman, or the beautiful Madame Lebigre, as
+      she was now called, stood at the door of her shop. Her husband had at
+      length been granted the privilege of adding a State tobacco agency[*] to
+      his wine shop, a long-cherished dream of his which he had finally been
+      able to realise through the great services he had rendered to the
+      authorities. And to Claude the beautiful Madame Lebigre looked superb,
+      with her silk dress and her frizzed hair, quite ready to take her seat
+      behind her counter, whither all the gentlemen in the neighbourhood flocked
+      to buy their cigars and packets of tobacco. She had become quite
+      distinguished, quite the lady. The shop behind her had been newly painted,
+      with borders of twining vine-branches showing against a soft background;
+      the zinc-plated wine-counter gleamed brightly, and in the tall mirror the
+      flasks of liqueurs set brighter flashes of colour than ever. And the
+      mistress of all these things stood smiling radiantly at the bright
+      sunshine.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [*] Most readers will remember that the tobacco trade is a
+     State monopoly in France. The retail tobacconists are merely
+     Government agents.&mdash;Translator.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Then, on Claude&rsquo;s left, the beautiful Lisa blocked up the doorway of her
+      shop as she stood on the threshold. Never before had her linen shone with
+      such dazzling whiteness; never had her serene face and rosy cheeks
+      appeared in a more lustrous setting of glossy locks. She displayed the
+      deep calmness of repletion, a massive tranquillity unruffled even by a
+      smile. She was a picture of absolute quietude, of perfect felicity, not
+      only cloudless but lifeless, the simple felicity of basking in the warm
+      atmosphere. Her tightly stretched bodice seemed to be still digesting the
+      happiness of yesterday; while her dimpled hands, hidden in the folds of
+      her apron, did not even trouble to grasp at the happiness of to-day,
+      certain as they were that it would come of itself. And the shop-window at
+      her side seemed to display the same felicity. It had recovered from its
+      former blight; the tongues lolled out, red and healthy; the hams had
+      regained their old chubbiness of form; the festoons of sausages no longer
+      wore that mournful air which had so greatly distressed Quenu. Hearty
+      laughter, accompanied by a jubilant clattering of pans, sounded from the
+      kitchen in the rear. The whole place again reeked with fat health. The
+      flitches of bacon and the sides of pork that hung against the marble
+      showed roundly like paunches, triumphant paunches, whilst Lisa, with her
+      imposing breadth of shoulders and dignity of mien, bade the markets good
+      morning with those big eyes of hers which so clearly bespoke a gross
+      feeder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, the two women bowed to each other. Beautiful Madame Lebigre and
+      beautiful Madame Quenu exchanged a friendly salute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then Claude, who had certainly forgotten to dine on the previous day,
+      was thrilled with anger at seeing them standing there, looking so healthy
+      and well-to-do with their buxom bosoms; and tightening his sash, he
+      growled in a tone of irritation:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What blackguards respectable people are!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fat and the Thin, by Emile Zola
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fat and the Thin, by Emile Zola
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Fat and the Thin
+
+Author: Emile Zola
+
+Translator: Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
+
+Release Date: April 22, 2006 [EBook #5744]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAT AND THE THIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dagny; John Bickers
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FAT AND THE THIN
+
+(LE VENTRE DE PARIS)
+
+By Emile Zola
+
+
+
+Translated, With An Introduction, By Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
+
+
+     Let me have men about me that are fat:
+     Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights:
+     Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
+     He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
+     SHAKESPEARE: _Julius Caesar_, act i, sc. 2.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+"THE FAT AND THE THIN," or, to use the French title, "Le Ventre de
+Paris," is a story of life in and around those vast Central Markets
+which form a distinctive feature of modern Paris. Even the reader who
+has never crossed the Channel must have heard of the Parisian _Halles_,
+for much has been written about them, not only in English books on
+the French metropolis, but also in English newspapers, magazines, and
+reviews; so that few, I fancy, will commence the perusal of the present
+volume without having, at all events, some knowledge of its subject
+matter.
+
+The Paris markets form such a world of their own, and teem at certain
+hours of the day and night with such exuberance of life, that it was
+only natural they should attract the attention of a novelist like M.
+Zola, who, to use his own words, delights "in any subject in which vast
+masses of people can be shown in motion." Mr. Sherard tells us[*] that
+the idea of "Le Ventre de Paris" first occurred to M. Zola in 1872, when
+he used continually to take his friend Paul Alexis for a ramble through
+the Halles. I have in my possession, however, an article written by
+M. Zola some five or six years before that time, and in this one can
+already detect the germ of the present work; just as the motif of
+another of M. Zola's novels, "La Joie de Vivre," can be traced to a
+short story written for a Russian review.
+
+[*] _Emile Zola: a Biographical and Critical Study_, by Robert
+Harborough Sherard, pp. 103, 104. London, Chatto & Windus, 1893.
+
+Similar instances are frequently to be found in the writings of English
+as well as French novelists, and are, of course, easily explained. A
+young man unknown to fame, and unable to procure the publication of a
+long novel, often contents himself with embodying some particular idea
+in a short sketch or story, which finds its way into one or another
+periodical, where it lies buried and forgotten by everybody--excepting
+its author. Time goes by, however, the writer achieves some measure of
+success, and one day it occurs to him to elaborate and perfect that old
+idea of his, only a faint _apercu_ of which, for lack of opportunity, he
+had been able to give in the past. With a little research, no doubt, an
+interesting essay might be written on these literary resuscitations; but
+if one except certain novelists who are so deficient in ideas that they
+continue writing and rewriting the same story throughout their lives, it
+will, I think, be generally found that the revivals in question are due
+to some such reason as that given above.
+
+It should be mentioned that the article of M. Zola's young days to which
+I have referred is not one on market life in particular, but one on
+violets. It contains, however, a vigorous, if brief, picture of the
+Halles in the small hours of the morning, and is instinct with that
+realistic descriptive power of which M. Zola has since given so many
+proofs. We hear the rumbling and clattering of the market carts, we see
+the piles of red meat, the baskets of silvery fish, the mountains of
+vegetables, green and white; in a few paragraphs the whole market world
+passes in kaleidoscopic fashion before our eyes by the pale, dancing
+light of the gas lamps and the lanterns. Several years after the paper
+I speak of was published, when M. Zola began to issue "Le Ventre
+de Paris," M. Tournachon, better known as Nadar, the aeronaut and
+photographer, rushed into print to proclaim that the realistic novelist
+had simply pilfered his ideas from an account of the Halles which he
+(Tournachon) had but lately written. M. Zola, as is so often his wont,
+scorned to reply to this charge of plagiarism; but, had he chosen, he
+could have promptly settled the matter by producing his own forgotten
+article.
+
+At the risk of passing for a literary ghoul, I propose to exhume some
+portion of the paper in question, as, so far as translation can avail,
+it will show how M. Zola wrote and what he thought in 1867. After the
+description of the markets to which I have alluded, there comes the
+following passage:--
+
+
+I was gazing at the preparations for the great daily orgy of Paris when
+I espied a throng of people bustling suspiciously in a corner. A few
+lanterns threw a yellow light upon this crowd. Children, women, and men
+with outstretched hands were fumbling in dark piles which extended along
+the footway. I thought that those piles must be remnants of meat sold
+for a trifling price, and that all those wretched people were rushing
+upon them to feed. I drew near, and discovered my mistake. The heaps
+were not heaps of meat, but heaps of violets. All the flowery poesy of
+the streets of Paris lay there, on that muddy pavement, amidst mountains
+of food. The gardeners of the suburbs had brought their sweet-scented
+harvests to the markets and were disposing of them to the hawkers. From
+the rough fingers of their peasant growers the violets were passing to
+the dirty hands of those who would cry them in the streets. At winter
+time it is between four and six o'clock in the morning that the flowers
+of Paris are thus sold at the Halles. Whilst the city sleeps and its
+butchers are getting all ready for its daily attack of indigestion, a
+trade in poetry is plied in dark, dank corners. When the sun rises the
+bright red meat will be displayed in trim, carefully dressed joints, and
+the violets, mounted on bits of osier, will gleam softly within their
+elegant collars of green leaves. But when they arrive, in the dark
+night, the bullocks, already ripped open, discharge black blood, and
+the trodden flowers lie prone upon the footways. . . . I noticed just in
+front of me one large bunch which had slipped off a neighbouring mound
+and was almost bathing in the gutter. I picked it up. Underneath, it
+was soiled with mud; the greasy, fetid sewer water had left black stains
+upon the flowers. And then, gazing at these exquisite daughters of our
+gardens and our woods, astray amidst all the filth of the city, I began
+to ponder. On what woman's bosom would those wretched flowerets open
+and bloom? Some hawker would dip them in a pail of water, and of all the
+bitter odours of the Paris mud they would retain but a slight pungency,
+which would remain mingled with their own sweet perfume. The water would
+remove their stains, they would pale somewhat, and become a joy both for
+the smell and for the sight. Nevertheless, in the depths of each corolla
+there would still remain some particle of mud suggestive of impurity.
+And I asked myself how much love and passion was represented by all
+those heaps of flowers shivering in the bleak wind. To how many loving
+ones, and how many indifferent ones, and how many egotistical ones,
+would all those thousands and thousands of violets go! In a few hours'
+time they would be scattered to the four corners of Paris, and for a
+paltry copper the passers-by would purchase a glimpse and a whiff of
+springtide in the muddy streets.
+
+
+Imperfect as the rendering may be, I think that the above passage
+will show that M. Zola was already possessed of a large amount of his
+acknowledged realistic power at the early date I have mentioned. I
+should also have liked to quote a rather amusing story of a priggish
+Philistine who ate violets with oil and vinegar, strongly peppered, but
+considerations of space forbid; so I will pass to another passage, which
+is of more interest and importance. Both French and English critics have
+often contended that although M. Zola is a married man, he knows
+very little of women, as there has virtually never been any _feminine
+romance_ in his life. There are those who are aware of the contrary,
+but whose tongues are stayed by considerations of delicacy and respect.
+Still, as the passage I am now about to reproduce is signed and
+acknowledged as fact by M. Zola himself, I see no harm in slightly
+raising the veil from a long-past episode in the master's life:--
+
+
+The light was rising, and as I stood there before that footway
+transformed into a bed of flowers my strange night-fancies gave place to
+recollections at once sweet and sad. I thought of my last excursion to
+Fontenay-aux-Roses, with the loved one, the good fairy of my twentieth
+year. Springtime was budding into birth, the tender foliage gleamed
+in the pale April sunshine. The little pathway skirting the hill was
+bordered by large fields of violets. As one passed along, a strong
+perfume seemed to penetrate one and make one languid. _She_ was leaning
+on my arm, faint with love from the sweet odour of the flowers. A
+whiteness hovered over the country-side, little insects buzzed in the
+sunshine, deep silence fell from the heavens, and so low was the sound
+of our kisses that not a bird in all the hedges showed sign of fear.
+At a turn of the path we perceived some old bent women, who with dry,
+withered hands were hurriedly gathering violets and throwing them into
+large baskets. She who was with me glanced longingly at the flowers, and
+I called one of the women. "You want some violets?" said she. "How much?
+A pound?"
+
+God of Heaven! She sold her flowers by the pound! We fled in deep
+distress. It seemed as though the country-side had been transformed into
+a huge grocer's shop. . . . Then we ascended to the woods of Verrieres,
+and there, in the grass, under the soft, fresh foliage, we found some
+tiny violets which seemed to be dreadfully afraid, and contrived to
+hide themselves with all sorts of artful ruses. During two long hours
+I scoured the grass and peered into every nook, and as soon as ever I
+found a fresh violet I carried it to her. She bought it of me, and
+the price that I exacted was a kiss. . . . And I thought of all those
+things, of all that happiness, amidst the hubbub of the markets of
+Paris, before those poor dead flowers whose graveyard the footway had
+become. I remembered my good fairy, who is now dead and gone, and the
+little bouquet of dry violets which I still preserve in a drawer. When I
+returned home I counted their withered stems: there were twenty of them,
+and over my lips there passed the gentle warmth of my loved one's twenty
+kisses.
+
+
+And now from violets I must, with a brutality akin to that which M.
+Zola himself displays in some of his transitions, pass to very different
+things, for some time back a well-known English poet and essayist wrote
+of the present work that it was redolent of pork, onions, and cheese.
+To one of his sensitive temperament, with a muse strictly nourished on
+sugar and water, such gross edibles as pork and cheese and onions were
+peculiarly offensive. That humble plant the onion, employed to flavour
+wellnigh every savoury dish, can assuredly need no defence; in most
+European countries, too, cheese has long been known as the poor man's
+friend; whilst as for pork, apart from all other considerations, I can
+claim for it a distinct place in English literature. A greater essayist
+by far than the critic to whom I am referring, a certain Mr. Charles
+Lamb, of the India House, has left us an immortal page on the origin of
+roast pig and crackling. And, when everything is considered, I should
+much like to know why novels should be confined to the aspirations of
+the soul, and why they should not also treat of the requirements of
+our physical nature? From the days of antiquity we have all known what
+befell the members when, guided by the brain, they were foolish enough
+to revolt against the stomach. The latter plays a considerable part not
+only in each individual organism, but also in the life of the world.
+Over and over again--I could adduce a score of historical examples--it
+has thwarted the mightiest designs of the human mind. We mortals are
+much addicted to talking of our minds and our souls and treating our
+bodies as mere dross. But I hold--it is a personal opinion--that in the
+vast majority of cases the former are largely governed by the last. I
+conceive, therefore, that a novel which takes our daily sustenance as
+one of its themes has the best of all _raisons d'etre_. A foreign writer
+of far more consequence and ability than myself--Signor Edmondo de
+Amicis--has proclaimed the present book to be "one of the most original
+and happiest inventions of French genius," and I am strongly inclined to
+share his opinion.
+
+It should be observed that the work does not merely treat of the
+provisioning of a great city. That provisioning is its _scenario_; but
+it also embraces a powerful allegory, the prose song of "the eternal
+battle between the lean of this world and the fat--a battle in which, as
+the author shows, the latter always come off successful. It is, too, in
+its way an allegory of the triumph of the fat bourgeois, who lives well
+and beds softly, over the gaunt and Ishmael artist--an allegory which
+M. Zola has more than once introduced into his pages, another notable
+instance thereof being found in 'Germinal,' with the fat, well-fed
+Gregoires on the one hand, and the starving Maheus on the other."
+
+From this quotation from Mr. Sherard's pages it will be gathered that M.
+Zola had a distinct social aim in writing this book. Wellnigh the
+whole social question may, indeed, be summed up in the words "food and
+comfort"; and in a series of novels like "Les Rougon-Macquart," dealing
+firstly with different conditions and grades of society, and, secondly,
+with the influence which the Second Empire exercised on France, the
+present volume necessarily had its place marked out from the very first.
+
+Mr. Sherard has told us of all the labour which M. Zola expended on
+the preparation of the work, of his multitudinous visits to the Paris
+markets, his patient investigation of their organism, and his keen
+artistic interest in their manifold phases of life. And bred as I was
+in Paris, a partaker as I have been of her exultations and her woes they
+have always had for me a strong attraction. My memory goes back to the
+earlier years of their existence, and I can well remember many of the
+old surroundings which have now disappeared. I can recollect the last
+vestiges of the antique _piliers_, built by Francis I, facing the Rue de
+la Tonnellerie. Paul Niquet's, with its "bowel-twisting brandy" and
+its crew of drunken ragpickers, was certainly before my time; but I can
+readily recall Baratte's and Bordier's and all the folly and prodigality
+which raged there; I knew, too, several of the noted thieves' haunts
+which took the place of Niquet's, and which one was careful never to
+enter without due precaution. And then, when the German armies were
+beleaguering Paris, and two millions of people were shut off from the
+world, I often strolled to the Halles to view their strangely altered
+aspect. The fish pavilion, of which M. Zola has so much to say, was bare
+and deserted. The railway drays, laden with the comestible treasures of
+the ocean, no longer thundered through the covered ways. At the most one
+found an auction going on in one or another corner, and a few Seine eels
+or gudgeons fetching wellnigh their weight in gold. Then, in the butter
+and cheese pavilions, one could only procure some nauseous melted fat,
+while in the meat department horse and mule and donkey took the place
+of beef and veal and mutton. Mule and donkey were very scarce, and
+commanded high prices, but both were of better flavour than horse; mule,
+indeed, being quite a delicacy. I also well remember a stall at which
+dog was sold, and, hunger knowing no law, I once purchased, cooked,
+and ate a couple of canine cutlets which cost me two francs apiece. The
+flesh was pinky and very tender, yet I would not willingly make such a
+repast again. However, peace and plenty at last came round once more,
+the Halles regained their old-time aspect, and in the years which
+followed I more than once saw the dawn rise slowly over the mounds of
+cabbages, carrots, leeks, and pumpkins, even as M. Zola describes in the
+following pages. He has, I think, depicted with remarkable accuracy and
+artistic skill the many varying effects of colour that are produced
+as the climbing sun casts its early beams on the giant larder and its
+masses of food--effects of colour which, to quote a famous saying of the
+first Napoleon, show that "the markets of Paris are the Louvre of the
+people" in more senses than one.
+
+The reader will bear in mind that the period dealt with by the author
+in this work is that of 1857-60, when the new Halles Centrales were
+yet young, and indeed not altogether complete. Still, although many old
+landmarks have long since been swept away, the picture of life in all
+essential particulars remained the same. Prior to 1860 the limits of
+Paris were the so-called _boulevards exterieurs_, from which a girdle of
+suburbs, such as Montmartre, Belleville, Passy, and Montrouge, extended
+to the fortifications; and the population of the city was then only
+1,400,000 souls. Some of the figures which will be found scattered
+through M. Zola's work must therefore be taken as applying entirely to
+the past.
+
+Nowadays the amount of business transacted at the Halles has very
+largely increased, in spite of the multiplication of district markets.
+Paris seems to have an insatiable appetite, though, on the other hand,
+its cuisine is fast becoming all simplicity. To my thinking, few more
+remarkable changes have come over the Parisians of recent years than
+this change of diet. One by one great restaurants, formerly renowned for
+particular dishes and special wines, have been compelled through lack
+of custom to close their doors; and this has not been caused so much by
+inability to defray the cost of high feeding as by inability to indulge
+in it with impunity in a physical sense. In fact, Paris has become a
+city of impaired digestions, which nowadays seek the simplicity without
+the heaviness of the old English cuisine; and, should things continue
+in their present course, I fancy that Parisians anxious for high feeding
+will ultimately have to cross over to our side of the Channel.
+
+These remarks, I trust, will not be considered out of place in an
+introduction to a work which to no small extent treats of the appetite
+of Paris. The reader will find that the characters portrayed by M. Zola
+are all types of humble life, but I fail to see that their circumstances
+should render them any the less interesting. A faithful portrait of a
+shopkeeper, a workman, or a workgirl is artistically of far more value
+than all the imaginary sketches of impossible dukes and good and wicked
+baronets in which so many English novels abound. Several of M.
+Zola's personages seem to me extremely lifelike--Gavard, indeed, is a
+_chef-d'oeuvre_ of portraiture: I have known many men like him; and no
+one who lived in Paris under the Empire can deny the accuracy with
+which the author has delineated his hero Florent, the dreamy and hapless
+revolutionary caught in the toils of others. In those days, too, there
+was many such a plot as M. Zola describes, instigated by agents like
+Logre and Lebigre, and allowed to mature till the eve of an election or
+some other important event which rendered its exposure desirable for the
+purpose of influencing public opinion. In fact, in all that relates to
+the so-called "conspiracy of the markets," M. Zola, whilst changing time
+and place to suit the requirements of his story, has simply followed
+historical lines. As for the Quenus, who play such prominent parts
+in the narrative, the husband is a weakling with no soul above his
+stewpans, whilst his wife, the beautiful Lisa, in reality wears the
+breeches and rules the roast. The manner in which she cures Quenu of his
+political proclivities, though savouring of persuasiveness rather than
+violence, is worthy of the immortal Mrs. Caudle: Douglas Jerrold might
+have signed a certain lecture which she administers to her astounded
+helpmate. Of Pauline, the Quenus' daughter, we see but little in the
+story, but she becomes the heroine of another of M. Zola's novels, "La
+Joie de Vivre," and instead of inheriting the egotism of her parents,
+develops a passionate love and devotion for others. In a like way Claude
+Lantier, Florent's artist friend and son of Gervaise of the "Assommoir,"
+figures more particularly in "L'Oeuvre," which tells how his painful
+struggle for fame resulted in madness and suicide. With reference to the
+beautiful Norman and the other fishwives and gossips scattered through
+the present volume, and those genuine types of Parisian _gaminerie_,
+Muche, Marjolin, and Cadine, I may mention that I have frequently
+chastened their language in deference to English susceptibilities,
+so that the story, whilst retaining every essential feature, contains
+nothing to which exception can reasonably be taken.
+
+E. A. V.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FAT AND THE THIN
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Amidst the deep silence and solitude prevailing in the avenue several
+market gardeners' carts were climbing the slope which led towards Paris,
+and the fronts of the houses, asleep behind the dim lines of elms on
+either side of the road, echoed back the rhythmical jolting of the
+wheels. At the Neuilly bridge a cart full of cabbages and another full
+of peas had joined the eight waggons of carrots and turnips coming
+down from Nanterre; and the horses, left to themselves, had continued
+plodding along with lowered heads, at a regular though lazy pace, which
+the ascent of the slope now slackened. The sleeping waggoners, wrapped
+in woollen cloaks, striped black and grey, and grasping the reins
+slackly in their closed hands, were stretched at full length on their
+stomachs atop of the piles of vegetables. Every now and then, a gas
+lamp, following some patch of gloom, would light up the hobnails of a
+boot, the blue sleeve of a blouse, or the peak of a cap peering out
+of the huge florescence of vegetables--red bouquets of carrots, white
+bouquets of turnips, and the overflowing greenery of peas and cabbages.
+
+And all along the road, and along the neighbouring roads, in front and
+behind, the distant rumbling of vehicles told of the presence of similar
+contingents of the great caravan which was travelling onward through the
+gloom and deep slumber of that matutinal hour, lulling the dark city to
+continued repose with its echoes of passing food.
+
+Madame Francois's horse, Balthazar, an animal that was far too fat,
+led the van. He was plodding on, half asleep and wagging his ears, when
+suddenly, on reaching the Rue de Longchamp, he quivered with fear and
+came to a dead stop. The horses behind, thus unexpectedly checked, ran
+their heads against the backs of the carts in front of them, and the
+procession halted amidst a clattering of bolts and chains and the oaths
+of the awakened waggoners. Madame Francois, who sat in front of her
+vehicle, with her back to a board which kept her vegetables in position,
+looked down; but, in the dim light thrown to the left by a small square
+lantern, which illuminated little beyond one of Balthazar's sheeny
+flanks, she could distinguish nothing.
+
+"Come, old woman, let's get on!" cried one of the men, who had raised
+himself to a kneeling position amongst his turnips; "it's only some
+drunken sot."
+
+Madame Francois, however, had bent forward and on her right hand had
+caught sight of a black mass, lying almost under the horse's hoofs, and
+blocking the road.
+
+"You wouldn't have us drive over a man, would you?" said she, jumping to
+the ground.
+
+It was indeed a man lying at full length upon the road, with his arms
+stretched out and his face in the dust. He seemed to be remarkably tall,
+but as withered as a dry branch, and the wonder was that Balthazar
+had not broken him in half with a blow from his hoof. Madame Francois
+thought that he was dead; but on stooping and taking hold of one of his
+hands, she found that it was quite warm.
+
+"Poor fellow!" she murmured softly.
+
+The waggoners, however, were getting impatient.
+
+"Hurry up, there!" said the man kneeling amongst the turnips, in a
+hoarse voice. "He's drunk till he can hold no more, the hog! Shove him
+into the gutter."
+
+Meantime, the man on the road had opened his eyes. He looked at Madame
+Francois with a startled air, but did not move. She herself now thought
+that he must indeed be drunk.
+
+"You mustn't stop here," she said to him, "or you'll get run over and
+killed. Where were you going?"
+
+"I don't know," replied the man in a faint voice.
+
+Then, with an effort and an anxious expression, he added: "I was going
+to Paris; I fell down, and don't remember any more."
+
+Madame Francois could now see him more distinctly, and he was truly a
+pitiable object, with his ragged black coat and trousers, through the
+rents in which you could espy his scraggy limbs. Underneath a black
+cloth cap, which was drawn low over his brows, as though he were afraid
+of being recognised, could be seen two large brown eyes, gleaming with
+peculiar softness in his otherwise stern and harassed countenance. It
+seemed to Madame Francois that he was in far too famished a condition to
+have got drunk.
+
+"And what part of Paris were you going to?" she continued.
+
+The man did not reply immediately. This questioning seemed to distress
+him. He appeared to be thinking the matter over, but at last said
+hesitatingly, "Over yonder, towards the markets."
+
+He had now, with great difficulty, got to his feet again, and seemed
+anxious to resume his journey. But Madame Francois noticed that he
+tottered, and clung for support to one of the shafts of her waggon.
+
+"Are you tired?" she asked him.
+
+"Yes, very tired," he replied.
+
+Then she suddenly assumed a grumpy tone, as though displeased, and,
+giving him a push, exclaimed: "Look sharp, then, and climb into my cart.
+You've made us lose a lot of time. I'm going to the markets, and I'll
+turn you out there with my vegetables."
+
+Then, as the man seemed inclined to refuse her offer, she pushed him up
+with her stout arms, and bundled him down upon the turnips and carrots.
+
+"Come, now, don't give us any more trouble," she cried angrily. "You are
+quite enough to provoke one, my good fellow. Don't I tell you that
+I'm going to the markets? Sleep away up there. I'll wake you when we
+arrive."
+
+She herself then clambered into the cart again, and settled herself with
+her back against the board, grasping the reins of Balthazar, who started
+off drowsily, swaying his ears once more. The other waggons followed,
+and the procession resumed its lazy march through the darkness, whilst
+the rhythmical jolting of the wheels again awoke the echoes of the
+sleepy house fronts, and the waggoners, wrapped in their cloaks, dozed
+off afresh. The one who had called to Madame Francois growled out as he
+lay down: "As if we'd nothing better to do than pick up every drunken
+sot we come across! You're a scorcher, old woman!"
+
+The waggons rumbled on, and the horses picked their own way, with
+drooping heads. The stranger whom Madame Francois had befriended was
+lying on his stomach, with his long legs lost amongst the turnips which
+filled the back part of the cart, whilst his face was buried amidst the
+spreading piles of carrot bunches. With weary, extended arms he clutched
+hold of his vegetable couch in fear of being thrown to the ground by one
+of the waggon's jolts, and his eyes were fixed on the two long lines of
+gas lamps which stretched away in front of him till they mingled with a
+swarm of other lights in the distance atop of the slope. Far away on the
+horizon floated a spreading, whitish vapour, showing where Paris slept
+amidst the luminous haze of all those flamelets.
+
+"I come from Nanterre, and my name's Madame Francois," said the market
+gardener presently. "Since my poor man died I go to the markets every
+morning myself. It's a hard life, as you may guess. And who are you?"
+
+"My name's Florent, I come from a distance," replied the stranger, with
+embarrassment. "Please excuse me, but I'm really so tired that it is
+painful to me to talk."
+
+He was evidently unwilling to say anything more, and so Madame Francois
+relapsed into silence, and allowed the reins to fall loosely on the
+back of Balthazar, who went his way like an animal acquainted with every
+stone of the road.
+
+Meantime, with his eyes still fixed upon the far-spreading glare of
+Paris, Florent was pondering over the story which he had refused to
+communicate to Madame Francois. After making his escape from Cayenne,
+whither he had been transported for his participation in the resistance
+to Louis Napoleon's Coup d'Etat, he had wandered about Dutch Guiana
+for a couple of years, burning to return to France, yet dreading the
+Imperial police. At last, however, he once more saw before him the
+beloved and mighty city which he had so keenly regretted and so ardently
+longed for. He would hide himself there, he told himself, and again lead
+the quiet, peaceable life that he had lived years ago. The police would
+never be any the wiser; and everyone would imagine, indeed, that he
+had died over yonder, across the sea. Then he thought of his arrival at
+Havre, where he had landed with only some fifteen francs tied up in a
+corner of his handkerchief. He had been able to pay for a seat in
+the coach as far as Rouen, but from that point he had been forced to
+continue his journey on foot, as he had scarcely thirty sous left of his
+little store. At Vernon his last copper had gone in bread. After that he
+had no clear recollection of anything. He fancied that he could remember
+having slept for several hours in a ditch, and having shown the papers
+with which he had provided himself to a gendarme; however, he had only a
+very confused idea of what had happened. He had left Vernon without any
+breakfast, seized every now and then with hopeless despair and raging
+pangs which had driven him to munch the leaves of the hedges as he
+tramped along. A prey to cramp and fright, his body bent, his sight
+dimmed, and his feet sore, he had continued his weary march, ever drawn
+onwards in a semi-unconscious state by a vision of Paris, which, far,
+far away, beyond the horizon, seemed to be summoning him and waiting for
+him.
+
+When he at length reached Courbevoie, the night was very dark. Paris,
+looking like a patch of star-sprent sky that had fallen upon the black
+earth, seemed to him to wear a forbidding aspect, as though angry at his
+return. Then he felt very faint, and his legs almost gave way beneath
+him as he descended the hill. As he crossed the Neuilly bridge he
+sustained himself by clinging to the parapet, and bent over and looked
+at the Seine rolling inky waves between its dense, massy banks. A red
+lamp on the water seemed to be watching him with a sanguineous eye.
+And then he had to climb the hill if he would reach Paris on its summit
+yonder. The hundreds of leagues which he had already travelled were
+as nothing to it. That bit of a road filled him with despair. He would
+never be able, he thought, to reach yonder light crowned summit. The
+spacious avenue lay before him with its silence and its darkness, its
+lines of tall trees and low houses, its broad grey footwalks, speckled
+with the shadows of overhanging branches, and parted occasionally by the
+gloomy gaps of side streets. The squat yellow flames of the gas lamps,
+standing erect at regular intervals, alone imparted a little life to the
+lonely wilderness. And Florent seemed to make no progress; the avenue
+appeared to grow ever longer and longer, to be carrying Paris away into
+the far depths of the night. At last he fancied that the gas lamps, with
+their single eyes, were running off on either hand, whisking the road
+away with them; and then, overcome by vertigo, he stumbled and fell on
+the roadway like a log.
+
+Now he was lying at ease on his couch of greenery, which seemed to him
+soft as a feather bed. He had slightly raised his head so as to keep his
+eyes on the luminous haze which was spreading above the dark roofs which
+he could divine on the horizon. He was nearing his goal, carried along
+towards it, with nothing to do but to yield to the leisurely jolts of
+the waggon; and, free from all further fatigue, he now only suffered
+from hunger. Hunger, indeed, had once more awoke within him with
+frightful and wellnigh intolerable pangs. His limbs seemed to have
+fallen asleep; he was only conscious of the existence of his stomach,
+horribly cramped and twisted as by a red-hot iron. The fresh odour of
+the vegetables, amongst which he was lying, affected him so keenly that
+he almost fainted away. He strained himself against that piled-up
+mass of food with all his remaining strength, in order to compress his
+stomach and silence its groans. And the nine other waggons behind him,
+with their mountains of cabbages and peas, their piles of artichokes,
+lettuces, celery, and leeks, seemed to him to be slowly overtaking him,
+as though to bury him whilst he was thus tortured by hunger beneath
+an avalanche of food. Presently the procession halted, and there was a
+sound of deep voices. They had reached the barriers, and the municipal
+customs officers were examining the waggons. A moment later Florent
+entered Paris, in a swoon, lying atop of the carrots, with clenched
+teeth.
+
+"Hallow! You up there!" Madame Francois called out sharply.
+
+And as the stranger made no attempt to move, she clambered up and shook
+him. Florent rose to a sitting posture. He had slept and no longer felt
+the pangs of hunger, but was dizzy and confused.
+
+"You'll help me to unload, won't you?" Madame Francois said to him, as
+she made him get down.
+
+He helped her. A stout man with a felt hat on his head and a badge in
+the top buttonhole of his coat was striking the ground with a stick and
+grumbling loudly:
+
+"Come, come, now, make haste! You must get on faster than that! Bring
+the waggon a little more forward. How many yards' standing have you?
+Four, isn't it?"
+
+Then he gave a ticket to Madame Francois, who took some coppers out of a
+little canvas bag and handed them to him; whereupon he went off to vent
+his impatience and tap the ground with his stick a little further away.
+Madame Francois took hold of Balthazar's bridle and backed him so as to
+bring the wheels of the waggon close to the footway. Then, having marked
+out her four yards with some wisps of straw, after removing the back of
+the cart, she asked Florent to hand her the vegetables bunch by bunch.
+She arranged them sort by sort on her standing, setting them out
+artistically, the "tops" forming a band of greenery around each pile;
+and it was with remarkable rapidity that she completed her show, which,
+in the gloom of early morning, looked like some piece of symmetrically
+coloured tapestry. When Florent had handed her a huge bunch of parsley,
+which he had found at the bottom of the cart, she asked him for still
+another service.
+
+"It would be very kind of you," said she, "if you would look after my
+goods while I put the horse and cart up. I'm only going a couple of
+yards, to the Golden Compasses, in the Rue Montorgueil."
+
+Florent told her that she might make herself easy. He preferred to
+remain still, for his hunger had revived since he had begun to move
+about. He sat down and leaned against a heap of cabbages beside Madame
+Francois's stock. He was all right there, he told himself, and would
+not go further afield, but wait. His head felt empty, and he had no very
+clear notion as to where he was. At the beginning of September it
+is quite dark in the early morning. Around him lighted lanterns were
+flitting or standing stationary in the depths of the gloom. He was
+sitting on one side of a broad street which he did not recognise; it
+stretched far away into the blackness of the night. He could make
+out nothing plainly, excepting the stock of which he had been left in
+charge. All around him along the market footways rose similar piles of
+goods. The middle of the roadway was blocked by huge grey tumbrels,
+and from one end of the street to the other a sound of heavy breathing
+passed, betokening the presence of horses which the eye could not
+distinguish.
+
+Shouts and calls, the noise of falling wood, or of iron chains slipping
+to the ground, the heavy thud of loads of vegetables discharged from the
+waggons, and the grating of wheels as the carts were backed against the
+footways, filled the yet sonorous awakening, whose near approach could
+be felt and heard in the throbbing gloom. Glancing over the pile of
+cabbages behind him. Florent caught sight of a man wrapped like a parcel
+in his cloak, and snoring away with his head upon some baskets of plums.
+Nearer to him, on his left, he could distinguish a lad, some ten years
+old, slumbering between two heaps of endive, with an angelic smile on
+his face. And as yet there seemed to be nothing on that pavement that
+was really awake except the lanterns waving from invisible arms, and
+flitting and skipping over the sleep of the vegetables and human beings
+spread out there in heaps pending the dawn. However, what surprised
+Florent was the sight of some huge pavilions on either side of the
+street, pavilions with lofty roofs that seemed to expand and soar out of
+sight amidst a swarm of gleams. In his weakened state of mind he fancied
+he beheld a series of enormous, symmetrically built palaces, light and
+airy as crystal, whose fronts sparkled with countless streaks of light
+filtering through endless Venetian shutters. Gleaming between the
+slender pillar shafts these narrow golden bars seemed like ladders of
+light mounting to the gloomy line of the lower roofs, and then soaring
+aloft till they reached the jumble of higher ones, thus describing the
+open framework of immense square halls, where in the yellow flare of the
+gas lights a multitude of vague, grey, slumbering things was gathered
+together.
+
+At last Florent turned his head to look about him, distressed at not
+knowing where he was, and filled with vague uneasiness by the sight of
+that huge and seemingly fragile vision. And now, as he raised his eyes,
+he caught sight of the luminous dial and the grey massive pile of Saint
+Eustache's Church. At this he was much astonished. He was close to Saint
+Eustache, yet all was novel to him.
+
+However, Madame Francois had come back again, and was engaged in a
+heated discussion with a man who carried a sack over his shoulder and
+offered to buy her carrots for a sou a bunch.
+
+"Really, now, you are unreasonable, Lacaille!" said she. "You know quite
+well that you will sell them again to the Parisians at four and five
+sous the bunch. Don't tell me that you won't! You may have them for two
+sous the bunch, if you like."
+
+Then, as the man went off, she continued: "Upon my word, I believe some
+people think that things grow of their own accord! Let him go and find
+carrots at a sou the bunch elsewhere, tipsy scoundrel that he is! He'll
+come back again presently, you'll see."
+
+These last remarks were addressed to Florent. And, seating herself by
+his side, Madame Francois resumed: "If you've been a long time away from
+Paris, you perhaps don't know the new markets. They haven't been built
+for more than five years at the most. That pavilion you see there beside
+us is the flower and fruit market. The fish and poultry markets are
+farther away, and over there behind us come the vegetables and the
+butter and cheese. There are six pavilions on this side, and on the
+other side, across the road, there are four more, with the meat and
+the tripe stalls. It's an enormous place, but it's horribly cold in the
+winter. They talk about pulling down the houses near the corn market to
+make room for two more pavilions. But perhaps you know all this?"
+
+"No, indeed," replied Florent; "I've been abroad. And what's the name of
+that big street in front of us?"
+
+"Oh, that's a new street. It's called the Rue du Pont Neuf. It
+leads from the Seine through here to the Rue Montmartre and the Rue
+Montorgueil. You would soon have recognized where you were if it had
+been daylight."
+
+Madame Francois paused and rose, for she saw a woman heading down to
+examine her turnips. "Ah, is that you, Mother Chantemesse?" she said in
+a friendly way.
+
+Florent meanwhile glanced towards the Rue Montorgueil. It was there
+that a body of police officers had arrested him on the night of December
+4.[*] He had been walking along the Boulevard Montmartre at about two
+o'clock, quietly making his way through the crowd, and smiling at the
+number of soldiers that the Elysee had sent into the streets to awe the
+people, when the military suddenly began making a clean sweep of the
+thoroughfare, shooting folks down at close range during a quarter of an
+hour. Jostled and knocked to the ground, Florent fell at the corner
+of the Rue Vivienne and knew nothing further of what happened, for the
+panic-stricken crowd, in their wild terror of being shot, trampled over
+his body. Presently, hearing everything quiet, he made an attempt to
+rise; but across him there lay a young woman in a pink bonnet, whose
+shawl had slipped aside, allowing her chemisette, pleated in little
+tucks, to be seen. Two bullets had pierced the upper part of her bosom;
+and when Florent gently removed the poor creature to free his legs,
+two streamlets of blood oozed from her wounds on to his hands. Then he
+sprang up with a sudden bound, and rushed madly away, hatless and with
+his hands still wet with blood. Until evening he wandered about the
+streets, with his head swimming, ever seeing the young woman lying
+across his legs with her pale face, her blue staring eyes, her distorted
+lips, and her expression of astonishment at thus meeting death so
+suddenly. He was a shy, timid fellow. Albeit thirty years old he had
+never dared to stare women in the face; and now, for the rest of his
+life, he was to have that one fixed in his heart and memory. He felt as
+though he had lost some loved one of his own.
+
+[*] 1851. Two days after the Coup d'Etat.--Translator.
+
+In the evening, without knowing how he had got there, still dazed and
+horrified as he was by the terrible scenes of the afternoon, he had
+found himself at a wine shop in the Rue Montorgueil, where several men
+were drinking and talking of throwing up barricades. He went away with
+them, helped them to tear up a few paving-stones, and seated himself on
+the barricade, weary with his long wandering through the streets, and
+reflecting that he would fight when the soldiers came up. However, he
+had not even a knife with him, and was still bareheaded. Towards eleven
+o'clock he dozed off, and in his sleep could see the two holes in the
+dead woman's white chemisette glaring at him like eyes reddened by tears
+and blood. When he awoke he found himself in the grasp of four police
+officers, who were pummelling him with their fists. The men who had
+built the barricade had fled. The police officers treated him with still
+greater violence, and indeed almost strangled him when they noticed that
+his hands were stained with blood. It was the blood of the young woman.
+
+Florent raised his eyes to the luminous dial of Saint Eustache with his
+mind so full of these recollections that he did not notice the position
+of the pointers. It was, however, nearly four o'clock. The markets were
+as yet wrapped in sleep. Madame Francois was still talking to old Madame
+Chantemesse, both standing and arguing about the price of turnips, and
+Florent now called to mind how narrowly he had escaped being shot over
+yonder by the wall of Saint Eustache. A detachment of gendarmes had just
+blown out the brains of five unhappy fellows caught at a barricade in
+the Rue Greneta. The five corpses were lying on the footway, at a spot
+where he thought he could now distinguish a heap of rosy radishes. He
+himself had escaped being shot merely because the policemen only carried
+swords. They took him to a neighbouring police station and gave the
+officer in charge a scrap of paper, on which were these words written
+in pencil: "Taken with blood-stained hands. Very dangerous." Then he had
+been dragged from station to station till the morning came. The scrap of
+paper accompanied him wherever he went. He was manacled and guarded as
+though he were a raving madman. At the station in the Rue de la Lingerie
+some tipsy soldiers wanted to shoot him; and they had already lighted a
+lantern with that object when the order arrived for the prisoners to be
+taken to the depot of the Prefecture of Police. Two days afterwards he
+found himself in a casemate of the fort of Bicetre. Ever since then he
+had been suffering from hunger. He had felt hungry in the casemate, and
+the pangs of hunger had never since left him. A hundred men were pent in
+the depths of that cellar-like dungeon, where, scarce able to breathe,
+they devoured the few mouthfuls of bread that were thrown to them, like
+so many captive wild beasts.
+
+When Florent was brought before an investigating magistrate, without
+anyone to defend him, and without any evidence being adduced, he was
+accused of belonging to a secret society; and when he swore that this
+was untrue, the magistrate produced the scrap of paper from amongst the
+documents before him: "Taken with blood-stained hands. Very dangerous."
+That was quite sufficient. He was condemned to transportation. Six weeks
+afterwards, one January night, a gaoler awoke him and locked him up in
+a courtyard with more than four hundred other prisoners. An hour later
+this first detachment started for the pontoons and exile, handcuffed and
+guarded by a double file of gendarmes with loaded muskets. They crossed
+the Austerlitz bridge, followed the line of the boulevards, and so
+reached the terminus of the Western Railway line. It was a joyous
+carnival night. The windows of the restaurants on the boulevards
+glittered with lights. At the top of the Rue Vivienne, just at the spot
+where he ever saw the young woman lying dead--that unknown young woman
+whose image he always bore with him--he now beheld a large carriage in
+which a party of masked women, with bare shoulders and laughing voices,
+were venting their impatience at being detained, and expressing their
+horror of that endless procession of convicts. The whole of the way from
+Paris to Havre the prisoners never received a mouthful of bread or a
+drink of water. The officials had forgotten to give them their rations
+before starting, and it was not till thirty-six hours afterwards, when
+they had been stowed away in the hold of the frigate _Canada_, that they
+at last broke their fast.
+
+No, Florent had never again been free from hunger. He recalled all the
+past to mind, but could not recollect a single hour of satiety. He had
+become dry and withered; his stomach seemed to have shrunk; his skin
+clung to his bones. And now that he was back in Paris once more, he
+found it fat and sleek and flourishing, teeming with food in the midst
+of the darkness. He had returned to it on a couch of vegetables; he
+lingered in its midst encompassed by unknown masses of food which still
+and ever increased and disquieted him. Had that happy carnival night
+continued throughout those seven years, then? Once again he saw the
+glittering windows on the boulevards, the laughing women, the luxurious,
+greedy city which he had quitted on that far-away January night; and it
+seemed to him that everything had expanded and increased in harmony
+with those huge markets, whose gigantic breathing, still heavy from the
+indigestion of the previous day, he now began to hear.
+
+Old Mother Chantemesse had by this time made up her mind to buy a dozen
+bunches of turnips. She put them in her apron, which she held closely
+pressed to her person, thus making herself look yet more corpulent than
+she was; and for some time longer she lingered there, still gossiping in
+a drawling voice. When at last she went away, Madame Francois again sat
+down by the side of Florent.
+
+"Poor old Mother Chantemesse!" she said; "she must be at least
+seventy-two. I can remember her buying turnips of my father when I was
+a mere chit. And she hasn't a relation in the world; no one but a young
+hussy whom she picked up I don't know where and who does nothing but
+bring her trouble. Still, she manages to live, selling things by the
+ha'p'orth and clearing her couple of francs profit a day. For my own
+part, I'm sure that I could never spend my days on the foot-pavement in
+this horrid Paris! And she hasn't even any relations here!"
+
+"You have some relations in Paris, I suppose?" she asked presently,
+seeing that Florent seemed disinclined to talk.
+
+Florent did not appear to hear her. A feeling of distrust came back to
+him. His head was teeming with old stories of the police, stories of
+spies prowling about at every street corner, and of women selling the
+secrets which they managed to worm out of the unhappy fellows they
+deluded. Madame Francois was sitting close beside him and certainly
+looked perfectly straightforward and honest, with her big calm face,
+above which was bound a black and yellow handkerchief. She seemed about
+five and thirty years of age, and was somewhat stoutly built, with a
+certain hardy beauty due to her life in the fresh air. A pair of black
+eyes, which beamed with kindly tenderness, softened the more masculine
+characteristics of her person. She certainly was inquisitive, but her
+curiosity was probably well meant.
+
+"I've a nephew in Paris," she continued, without seeming at all offended
+by Florent's silence. "He's turned out badly though, and has enlisted.
+It's a pleasant thing to have somewhere to go to and stay at, isn't it?
+I dare say there's a big surprise in store for your relations when they
+see you. But it's always a pleasure to welcome one of one's own people
+back again, isn't it?"
+
+She kept her eyes fixed upon him while she spoke, doubtless
+compassionating his extreme scragginess; fancying, too, that there was
+a "gentleman" inside those old black rags, and so not daring to slip a
+piece of silver into his hand. At last, however, she timidly murmured:
+"All the same, if you should happen just at present to be in want of
+anything----"
+
+But Florent checked her with uneasy pride. He told her that he had
+everything he required, and had a place to go to. She seemed quite
+pleased to hear this, and, as though to tranquillise herself concerning
+him, repeated several times: "Well, well, in that case you've only got
+to wait till daylight."
+
+A large bell at the corner of the fruit market, just over Florent's
+head, now began to ring. The slow regular peals seemed to gradually
+dissipate the slumber that yet lingered all around. Carts were still
+arriving, and the shouts of the waggoners, the cracking of their whips,
+and the grinding of the paving-stones beneath the iron-bound wheels and
+the horses' shoes sounded with an increasing din. The carts could now
+only advance by a series of spasmodic jolts, and stretched in a long
+line, one behind the other, till they were lost to sight in the distant
+darkness, whence a confused roar ascended.
+
+Unloading was in progress all along the Rue du Pont Neuf, the vehicles
+being drawn up close to the edge of the footways, while their teams
+stood motionless in close order as at a horse fair. Florent felt
+interested in one enormous tumbrel which was piled up with magnificent
+cabbages, and had only been backed to the kerb with the greatest
+difficulty. Its load towered above the lofty gas lamp whose bright light
+fell full upon the broad leaves which looked like pieces of dark green
+velvet, scalloped and goffered. A young peasant girl, some sixteen years
+old, in a blue linen jacket and cap, had climbed on to the tumbrel,
+where, buried in the cabbages to her shoulders, she took them one by one
+and threw them to somebody concealed in the shade below. Every now and
+then the girl would slip and vanish, overwhelmed by an avalanche of
+the vegetables, but her rosy nose soon reappeared amidst the teeming
+greenery, and she broke into a laugh while the cabbages again flew down
+between Florent and the gas lamp. He counted them mechanically as they
+fell. When the cart was emptied he felt worried.
+
+The piles of vegetables on the pavement now extended to the verge of the
+roadway. Between the heaps, the market gardeners left narrow paths to
+enable people to pass along. The whole of the wide footway was covered
+from end to end with dark mounds. As yet, in the sudden dancing gleams
+of light from the lanterns, you only just espied the luxuriant fulness
+of the bundles of artichokes, the delicate green of the lettuces, the
+rosy coral of the carrots, and dull ivory of the turnips. And these
+gleams of rich colour flitted along the heaps, according as the lanterns
+came and went. The footway was now becoming populated: a crowd of people
+had awakened, and was moving hither and thither amidst the vegetables,
+stopping at times, and chattering and shouting. In the distance a loud
+voice could be heard crying, "Endive! who's got endive?" The gates of
+the pavilion devoted to the sale of ordinary vegetables had just been
+opened; and the retail dealers who had stalls there, with white caps on
+their heads, fichus knotted over their black jackets, and skirts pinned
+up to keep them from getting soiled, now began to secure their stock for
+the day, depositing their purchases in some huge porters' baskets placed
+upon the ground. Between the roadway and the pavilion these baskets were
+to be seen coming and going on all sides, knocking against the
+crowded heads of the bystanders, who resented the pushing with coarse
+expressions, whilst all around was a clamour of voices growing hoarse
+by prolonged wrangling over a sou or two. Florent was astonished by
+the calmness of the female market gardeners, with bandanas and bronzed
+faces, displayed amidst all this garrulous bargaining of the markets.
+
+Behind him, on the footway of the Rue Rambuteau, fruit was being sold.
+Hampers and low baskets covered with canvas or straw stood there in long
+lines, a strong odour of over-ripe mirabelle plums was wafted hither and
+thither. At last a subdued and gentle voice, which he had heard for some
+time past, induced him to turn his head, and he saw a charming darksome
+little woman sitting on the ground and bargaining.
+
+"Come now, Marcel," said she, "you'll take a hundred sous, won't you?"
+
+The man to whom she was speaking was closely wrapped in his cloak and
+made no reply; however, after a silence of five minutes or more, the
+young woman returned to the charge.
+
+"Come now, Marcel; a hundred sous for that basket there, and four francs
+for the other one; that'll make nine francs altogether."
+
+Then came another interval.
+
+"Well, tell me what you will take."
+
+"Ten francs. You know that well enough already; I told you so before.
+But what have you done with your Jules this morning, La Sarriette?"
+
+The young woman began to laugh as she took a handful of small change out
+of her pocket.
+
+"Oh," she replied, "Jules is still in bed. He says that men were not
+intended to work."
+
+She paid for the two baskets, and carried them into the fruit pavilion,
+which had just been opened. The market buildings still retained their
+gloom-wrapped aspect of airy fragility, streaked with the thousand lines
+of light that gleamed from the venetian shutters. People were beginning
+to pass along the broad covered streets intersecting the pavilions, but
+the more distant buildings still remained deserted amidst the increasing
+buzz of life on the footways. By Saint Eustache the bakers and wine
+sellers were taking down their shutters, and the ruddy shops, with their
+gas lights flaring, showed like gaps of fire in the gloom in which the
+grey house-fronts were yet steeped. Florent noticed a baker's shop on
+the left-hand side of the Rue Montorgueil, replete and golden with its
+last baking, and fancied he could scent the pleasant smell of the hot
+bread. It was now half past four.
+
+Madame Francois by this time had disposed of nearly all her stock. She
+had only a few bunches of carrots left when Lacaille once more made his
+appearance with his sack.
+
+"Well," said he, "will you take a sou now?"
+
+"I knew I should see you again," the good woman quietly answered. "You'd
+better take all I have left. There are seventeen bunches."
+
+"That makes seventeen sous."
+
+"No; thirty-four."
+
+At last they agreed to fix the price at twenty-five sous. Madame
+Francois was anxious to be off.
+
+"He'd been keeping his eye upon me all the time," she said to Florent,
+when Lacaille had gone off with the carrots in his sack. "That old rogue
+runs things down all over the markets, and he often waits till the last
+peal of the bell before spending four sous in purchase. Oh, these Paris
+folk! They'll wrangle and argue for an hour to save half a sou, and then
+go off and empty their purses at the wine shop."
+
+Whenever Madame Francois talked of Paris she always spoke in a tone of
+disdain, and referred to the city as though it were some ridiculous,
+contemptible, far-away place, in which she only condescended to set foot
+at nighttime.
+
+"There!" she continued, sitting down again, beside Florent, on some
+vegetables belonging to a neighbour, "I can get away now."
+
+Florent bent his head. He had just committed a theft. When Lacaille
+went off he had caught sight of a carrot lying on the ground, and having
+picked it up he was holding it tightly in his right hand. Behind him
+were some bundles of celery and bunches of parsley were diffusing
+pungent odours which painfully affected him.
+
+"Well, I'm off now!" said Madame Francois.
+
+However, she felt interested in this stranger, and could divine that
+he was suffering there on that foot-pavement, from which he had never
+stirred. She made him fresh offers of assistance, but he again refused
+them, with a still more bitter show of pride. He even got up and
+remained standing to prove that he was quite strong again. Then, as
+Madame Francois turned her head away, he put the carrot to his mouth.
+But he had to remove it for a moment, in spite of the terrible longing
+which he felt to dig his teeth into it; for Madame Francois turned round
+again and looking him full in the face, began to question him with
+her good-natured womanly curiosity. Florent, to avoid speaking, merely
+answered by nods and shakes of the head. Then, slowly and gently, he
+began to eat the carrot.
+
+The worthy woman was at last on the point of going off, when a powerful
+voice exclaimed close beside her, "Good morning, Madame Francois."
+
+The speaker was a slim young man, with big bones and a big head. His
+face was bearded, and he had a very delicate nose and narrow sparkling
+eyes. He wore on his head a rusty, battered, black felt hat, and was
+buttoned up in an immense overcoat, which had once been of a soft
+chestnut hue, but which rain had discoloured and streaked with
+long greenish stains. Somewhat bent, and quivering with a nervous
+restlessness which was doubtless habitual with him, he stood there in a
+pair of heavy laced shoes, and the shortness of his trousers allowed a
+glimpse of his coarse blue hose.
+
+"Good morning, Monsieur Claude," the market gardener replied cheerfully.
+"I expected you, you know, last Monday, and, as you didn't come, I've
+taken care of your canvas for you. I've hung it up on a nail in my
+room."
+
+"You are really very kind, Madame Francois. I'll go to finish that study
+of mine one of these days. I wasn't able to go on Monday. Has your big
+plum tree still got all its leaves?"
+
+"Yes, indeed."
+
+"I wanted to know, because I mean to put it in a corner of the picture.
+It will come in nicely by the side of the fowl house. I have been
+thinking about it all the week. What lovely vegetables are in the market
+this morning! I came down very early, expecting a fine sunrise effect
+upon all these heaps of cabbages."
+
+With a wave of the arm he indicated the footway.
+
+"Well, well, I must be off now," said Madame Francois. "Good-bye for the
+present. We shall meet again soon, I hope, Monsieur Claude."
+
+However, as she turned to go, she introduced Florent to the young
+artist.
+
+"This gentleman, it seems, has just come from a distance," said she.
+"He feels quite lost in your scampish Paris. I dare say you might be of
+service to him."
+
+Then she at last took her departure, feeling pleased at having left the
+two men together. Claude looked at Florent with a feeling of interest.
+That tall, slight, wavy figure seemed to him original. Madame Francois's
+hasty presentation was in his eyes quite sufficient, and he addressed
+Florent with the easy familiarity of a lounger accustomed to all sorts
+of chance encounters.
+
+"I'll accompany you," he said; "which way are you going?"
+
+Florent felt ill at ease; he was not wont to unbosom himself so readily.
+However, ever since his arrival in Paris, a question had been trembling
+on his lips, and now he ventured to ask it, with the evident fear of
+receiving an unfavourable reply.
+
+"Is the Rue Pirouette still in existence?"
+
+"Oh, yes," answered the artist. "A very curious corner of old Paris
+is the Rue Pirouette. It twists and turns like a dancing girl, and the
+houses bulge out like pot-bellied gluttons. I've made an etching of it
+that isn't half bad. I'll show it to you when you come to see me. Is it
+to the Rue Pirouette that you want to go?"
+
+Florent, who felt easier and more cheerful now that he knew the street
+still existed, declared that he did not want to go there; in fact, he
+did not want to go anywhere in particular. All his distrust awoke into
+fresh life at Claude's insistence.
+
+"Oh! never mind," said the artist, "let's go to the Rue Pirouette all
+the same. It has such a fine colour at night time. Come along; it's only
+a couple of yards away."
+
+Florent felt constrained to follow him, and the two men walked off, side
+by side, stepping over the hampers and vegetables like a couple of old
+friends. On the footway of the Rue Rambuteau there were some immense
+heaps of cauliflowers, symmetrically piled up like so many cannonballs.
+The soft-white flowers spread out like huge roses in the midst of their
+thick green leaves, and the piles had something of the appearance
+of bridal bouquets ranged in a row in colossal flower stands. Claude
+stopped in front of them, venting cries of admiration.
+
+Then, on turning into the Rue Pirouette, which was just opposite,
+he pointed out each house to his companion, and explained his views
+concerning it. There was only a single gas lamp, burning in a corner.
+The buildings, which had settled down and swollen, threw their
+pent-houses forward in such wise as to justify Claude's allusion to
+pot-bellied gluttons, whilst their gables receded, and on either side
+they clung to their neighbours for support. Three or four, however,
+standing in gloomy recesses, appeared to be on the point of toppling
+forward. The solitary gas lamp illumined one which was snowy with a
+fresh coat of whitewash, suggesting some flabby broken-down old dowager,
+powdered and bedaubed in the hope of appearing young. Then the others
+stretched away into the darkness, bruised, dented, and cracked,
+greeny with the fall of water from their roofs, and displaying such
+an extraordinary variety of attitudes and tints that Claude could not
+refrain from laughing as he contemplated them.
+
+Florent, however, came to stand at the corner of the rue de Mondetour,
+in front of the last house but one on the left. Here the three floors,
+each with two shutterless windows, having little white curtains closely
+drawn, seemed wrapped in sleep; but, up above, a light could be seen
+flitting behind the curtains of a tiny gable casement. However, the
+sight of the shop beneath the pent-house seemed to fill Florent with the
+deepest emotion. It was kept by a dealer in cooked vegetables, and was
+just being opened. At its far end some metal pans were glittering, while
+on several earthen ones in the window there was a display of cooked
+spinach and endive, reduced to a paste and arranged in conical mounds
+from which customers were served with shovel-like carvers of white
+metal, only the handles of which were visible. This sight seemed to
+rivet Florent to the ground with surprise. He evidently could not
+recognize the place. He read the name of the shopkeeper, Godeboeuf,
+which was painted on a red sign board up above, and remained quite
+overcome by consternation. His arms dangling beside him, he began to
+examine the cooked spinach, with the despairing air of one on whom some
+supreme misfortune falls.
+
+However, the gable casement was now opened, and a little old woman
+leaned out of it, and looked first at the sky and then at the markets in
+the distance.
+
+"Ah, Mademoiselle Saget is an early riser," exclaimed Claude, who had
+just raised his head. And, turning to his companion, he added: "I once
+had an aunt living in that house. It's a regular hive of tittle-tattle!
+Ah, the Mehudins are stirring now, I see. There's a light on the second
+floor."
+
+Florent would have liked to question his companion, but the latter's
+long discoloured overcoat give him a disquieting appearance. So without
+a word Florent followed him, whilst he went on talking about the
+Mehudins. These Mehudins were fish-girls, it seemed; the older one was a
+magnificent creature, while the younger one, who sold fresh-water
+fish, reminded Claude of one of Murillo's virgins, whenever he saw her
+standing with her fair face amidst her carps and eels.
+
+From this Claude went on to remark with asperity that Murillo painted
+like an ignoramus. But all at once he stopped short in the middle of the
+street.
+
+"Come!" he exclaimed, "tell me where it is that you want to go."
+
+"I don't want to go anywhere just at present," replied Florent in
+confusion. "Let's go wherever you like."
+
+Just as they were leaving the Rue Pirouette, some one called to Claude
+from a wine shop at the corner of the street. The young man went in,
+dragging Florent with him. The shutters had been taken down on one side
+only, and the gas was still burning in the sleepy atmosphere of the
+shop. A forgotten napkin and some cards that had been used in the
+previous evening's play were still lying on the tables; and the fresh
+breeze that streamed in through the open doorway freshened the close,
+warm vinous air. The landlord, Monsieur Lebigre, was serving his
+customers. He wore a sleeved waistcoat, and his fat regular features,
+fringed by an untidy beard, were still pale with sleep. Standing in
+front of the counter, groups of men, with heavy, tired eyes, were
+drinking, coughing, and spitting, whilst trying to rouse themselves
+by the aid of white wine and brandy. Amongst them Florent recognised
+Lacaille, whose sack now overflowed with various sorts of vegetables.
+He was taking his third dram with a friend, who was telling him a long
+story about the purchase of a hamper of potatoes.[*] When he had emptied
+his glass, he went to chat with Monsieur Lebigre in a little glazed
+compartment at the end of the room, where the gas had not yet been
+lighted.
+
+     [*] At the Paris central markets potatoes are sold by the
+     hamper, not by the sack as in England.--Translator.
+
+"What will you take?" Claude asked of Florent.
+
+He had on entering grasped the hand of the person who had called out
+to him. This was a market porter,[*] a well-built young man of two and
+twenty at the most. His cheeks and chin were clean-shaven, but he wore
+a small moustache, and looked a sprightly, strapping fellow with his
+broad-brimmed hat covered with chalk, and his wool-worked neck-piece,
+the straps falling from which tightened his short blue blouse. Claude,
+who called him Alexandre, patted his arms, and asked him when they were
+going to Charentonneau again. Then they talked about a grand excursion
+they had made together in a boat on the Marne, when they had eaten a
+rabbit for supper in the evening.
+
+     [*] _Fort_ is the French term, literally "a strong man," as
+     every market porter needs to be.--Translator.
+
+"Well, what will you take?" Claude again asked Florent.
+
+The latter looked at the counter in great embarrassment. At one end of
+it some stoneware pots, encircled with brass bands and containing punch
+and hot wine, were standing over the short blue flames of a gas stove.
+Florent at last confessed that a glass of something warm would be
+welcome. Monsieur Lebigre thereupon served them with three glasses of
+punch. In a basket near the pots were some smoking hot rolls which had
+only just arrived. However, as neither of the others took one, Florent
+likewise refrained, and drank his punch. He felt it slipping down into
+his empty stomach, like a steam of molten lead. It was Alexandre who
+paid for the "shout."
+
+"He's a fine fellow, that Alexandre!" said Claude, when he and Florent
+found themselves alone again on the footway of the Rue Rambuteau. "He's
+a very amusing companion to take into the country. He's fond of showing
+his strength. And then he's so magnificently built! I have seen him
+stripped. Ah, if I could only get him to pose for me in the nude out in
+the open air! Well, we'll go and take a turn through the markets now, if
+you like."
+
+Florent followed, yielding entirely to his new friend's guidance. A
+bright glow at the far end of the Rue Rambuteau announced the break of
+day. The far-spreading voice of the markets was become more sonorous,
+and every now and then the peals of a bell ringing in some distant
+pavilion mingled with the swelling, rising clamour. Claude and Florent
+entered one of the covered streets between the fish and poultry
+pavilions. Florent raised his eyes and looked at the lofty vault
+overhead, the inner timbers of which glistened amidst a black lacework
+of iron supports. As he turned into the great central thoroughfare he
+pictured himself in some strange town, with its various districts and
+suburbs, promenades and streets, squares and cross-roads, all suddenly
+placed under shelter on a rainy day by the whim of some gigantic power.
+The deep gloom brooding in the hollows of the roofs multiplied, as it
+were, the forest of pillars, and infinitely increased the number of the
+delicate ribs, railed galleries, and transparent shutters. And over
+the phantom city and far away into the depths of the shade, a teeming,
+flowering vegetation of luxuriant metal-work, with spindle-shaped stems
+and twining knotted branches, covered the vast expanse as with the
+foliage of some ancient forest. Several departments of the markets
+still slumbered behind their closed iron gates. The butter and poultry
+pavilions displayed rows of little trellised stalls and long alleys,
+which lines of gas lights showed to be deserted. The fish market,
+however, had just been opened, and women were flitting to and fro
+amongst the white slabs littered with shadowy hampers and cloths. Among
+the vegetables and fruit and flowers the noise and bustle were gradually
+increasing. The whole place was by degree waking up, from the popular
+quarter where the cabbages are piled at four o'clock in the morning,
+to the lazy and wealthy district which only hangs up its pullets and
+pheasants when the hands of the clock point to eight.
+
+The great covered alleys were now teeming with life. All along the
+footways on both sides of the road there were still many market
+gardeners, with other small growers from the environs of Paris,
+who displayed baskets containing their "gatherings" of the previous
+evening--bundles of vegetables and clusters of fruit. Whilst the crowd
+incessantly paced hither and thither, vehicles barred the road; and
+Florent, in order to pass them, had to press against some dingy sacks,
+like coal-sacks in appearance, and so numerous and heavy that the
+axle-trees of the vans bent beneath them. They were quite damp, and
+exhaled a fresh odour of seaweed. From a rent low down in the side of
+one of them a black stream of big mussels was trickling.
+
+Florent and Claude had now to pause at every step. The fish was arriving
+and one after another the drays of the railway companies drove up laden
+with wooden cages full of the hampers and baskets that had come by train
+from the sea coast. And to get out of the way of the fish drays, which
+became more and more numerous and disquieting, the artist and Florent
+rushed amongst the wheels of the drays laden with butter and eggs and
+cheese, huge yellow vehicles bearing coloured lanterns, and drawn by
+four horses. The market porters carried the cases of eggs, and baskets
+of cheese and butter, into the auction pavilion, where clerks were
+making entries in note books by the light of the gas.
+
+Claude was quite charmed with all this uproar, and forgot everything to
+gaze at some effect of light, some group of blouses, or the picturesque
+unloading of a cart. At last they extricated themselves from the crowd,
+and as they continued on their way along the main artery they presently
+found themselves amidst an exquisite perfume which seemed to be
+following them. They were in the cut-flower market. All over the
+footways, to the right and left, women were seated in front of large
+rectangular baskets full of bunches of roses, violets, dahlias, and
+marguerites. At times the clumps darkened and looked like splotches
+of blood, at others they brightened into silvery greys of the softest
+tones. A lighted candle, standing near one basket, set amidst the
+general blackness quite a melody of colour--the bright variegations
+of marguerites, the blood-red crimson of dahlias, the bluey purple of
+violets, and the warm flesh tints of roses. And nothing could have
+been sweeter or more suggestive of springtide than this soft breath of
+perfume encountered on the footway, on emerging from the sharp odours of
+the fish market and the pestilential smell of the butter and the cheese.
+
+Claude and Florent turned round and strolled about, loitering among the
+flowers. They halted with some curiosity before several women who were
+selling bunches of fern and bundles of vine-leaves, neatly tied up in
+packets of five and twenty. Then they turned down another covered alley,
+which was almost deserted, and where their footsteps echoed as though
+they had been walking through a church. Here they found a little cart,
+scarcely larger than a wheelbarrow, to which was harnessed a diminutive
+donkey, who, no doubt, felt bored, for at sight of them he began braying
+with such prolonged and sonorous force that the vast roofing of the
+markets fairly trembled. Then the horses began to neigh in reply, there
+was a sound of pawing and tramping, a distant uproar, which swelled,
+rolled along, then died away.
+
+Meantime, in the Rue Berger in front of them, Claude and Florent
+perceived a number of bare, frontless, salesmen's shops, where, by the
+light of flaring gas jets, they could distinguish piles of hampers and
+fruit, enclosed by three dirty walls which were covered with addition
+sums in pencil. And the two wanderers were still standing there,
+contemplating this scene, when they noticed a well-dressed woman huddled
+up in a cab which looked quite lost and forlorn in the block of carts as
+it stealthily made its way onwards.
+
+"There's Cinderella coming back without her slippers," remarked Claude
+with a smile.
+
+They began chatting together as they went back towards the markets.
+Claude whistled as he strolled along with his hands in his pockets,
+and expatiated on his love for this mountain of food which rises every
+morning in the very centre of Paris. He prowled about the footways night
+after night, dreaming of colossal still-life subjects, paintings of an
+extraordinary character. He had even started on one, having his friend
+Marjolin and that jade Cadine to pose for him; but it was hard work to
+paint those confounded vegetables and fruit and fish and meat--they were
+all so beautiful! Florent listened to the artist's enthusiastic talk
+with a void and hunger-aching stomach. It did not seem to occur to
+Claude that all those things were intended to be eaten. Their charm for
+him lay in their colour. Suddenly, however, he ceased speaking and, with
+a gesture that was habitual to him, tightened the long red sash which he
+wore under his green-stained coat.
+
+And then with a sly expression he resumed:
+
+"Besides, I breakfast here, through my eyes, at any rate, and that's
+better than getting nothing at all. Sometimes, when I've forgotten to
+dine on the previous day, I treat myself to a perfect fit of indigestion
+in the morning by watching the carts arrive here laden with all sorts
+of good things. On such mornings as those I love my vegetables more than
+ever. Ah! the exasperating part, the rank injustice of it all, is that
+those rascally Philistines really eat these things!"
+
+Then he went on to tell Florent of a supper to which a friend had
+treated him at Baratte's on a day of affluence. They had partaken of
+oysters, fish, and game. But Baratte's had sadly fallen, and all the
+carnival life of the old Marche des Innocents was now buried. In place
+thereof they had those huge central markets, that colossus of ironwork,
+that new and wonderful town. Fools might say what they liked; it was the
+embodiment of the spirit of the times. Florent, however, could not
+at first make out whether he was condemning the picturesqueness of
+Baratte's or its good cheer.
+
+But Claude next began to inveigh against romanticism. He preferred his
+piles of vegetables, he said, to the rags of the middle ages; and he
+ended by reproaching himself with guilty weakness in making an etching
+of the Rue Pirouette. All those grimy old places ought to be levelled
+to the ground, he declared, and modern houses ought to be built in their
+stead.
+
+"There!" he exclaimed, coming to a halt, "look at the corner of the
+footway yonder! Isn't that a picture readymade, ever so much more human
+and natural than all their confounded consumptive daubs?"
+
+Along the covered way women were now selling hot soup and coffee. At one
+corner of the foot-pavement a large circle of customers clustered round
+a vendor of cabbage soup. The bright tin caldron, full of broth, was
+steaming over a little low stove, through the holes of which came the
+pale glow of the embers. From a napkin-lined basket the woman took some
+thin slices of bread and dropped them into yellow cups; then with a
+ladle she filled the cups with liquor. Around her were saleswomen neatly
+dressed, market gardeners in blouses, porters with coats soiled by the
+loads they had carried, poor ragged vagabonds--in fact, all the early
+hungry ones of the markets, eating, and scalding their mouths, and
+drawing back their chins to avoid soiling them with the drippings from
+their spoons. The delighted artist blinked, and sought a point of view
+so as to get a good ensemble of the picture. That cabbage soup, however,
+exhaled a very strong odour. Florent, for his part, turned his head
+away, distressed by the sight of the full cups which the customers
+emptied in silence, glancing around them the while like suspicious
+animals. As the woman began serving a fresh customer, Claude himself was
+affected by the odorous steam of the soup, which was wafted full in his
+face.
+
+He again tightened his sash, half amused and half annoyed. Then resuming
+his walk, and alluding to the punch paid for by Alexandre, he said to
+Florent in a low voice:
+
+"It's very odd, but have you ever noticed that although a man can always
+find somebody to treat him to something to drink, he can never find a
+soul who will stand him anything to eat?"
+
+The dawn was now rising. The houses on the Boulevard de Sebastopol at
+the end of the Rue de la Cossonnerie were still black; but above the
+sharp line of their slate roofs a patch of pale blue sky, circumscribed
+by the arch-pieces of the covered way, showed like a gleaming half-moon.
+Claude, who had been bending over some grated openings on a level with
+the ground, through which a glimpse could be obtained of deep cellars
+where gas lights glimmered, now glanced up into the air between the
+lofty pillars, as though scanning the dark roofs which fringed the clear
+sky. Then he halted again, with his eyes fixed on one of the light iron
+ladders which connect the superposed market roofs and give access from
+one to the other. Florent asked him what he was seeking there.
+
+"I'm looking for that scamp of a Marjolin," replied the artist. "He's
+sure to be in some guttering up there, unless, indeed, he's been
+spending the night in the poultry cellars. I want him to give me a
+sitting."
+
+Then he went on to relate how a market saleswoman had found his friend
+Marjolin one morning in a pile of cabbages, and how Marjolin had grown
+up in all liberty on the surrounding footways. When an attempt had been
+made to send him to school he had fallen ill, and it had been necessary
+to bring him back to the markets. He knew every nook and corner of them,
+and loved them with a filial affection, leading the agile life of a
+squirrel in that forest of ironwork. He and Cadine, the hussy whom
+Mother Chantemesse had picked up one night in the old Market of the
+Innocents, made a pretty couple--he, a splendid foolish fellow, as
+glowing as a Rubens, with a ruddy down on his skin which attracted the
+sunlight; and she, slight and sly, with a comical phiz under her tangle
+of black curly hair.
+
+Whilst talking Claude quickened his steps, and soon brought his
+companion back to Saint Eustache again. Florent, whose legs were once
+more giving way, dropped upon a bench near the omnibus office. The
+morning air was freshening. At the far end of the Rue Rambuteau rosy
+gleams were streaking the milky sky, which higher up was slashed by
+broad grey rifts. Such was the sweet balsamic scent of this dawn, that
+Florent for a moment fancied himself in the open country, on the brow of
+a hill. But behind the bench Claude pointed out to him the many aromatic
+herbs and bulbs on sale. All along the footway skirting the tripe
+market there were, so to say, fields of thyme and lavender, garlic and
+shallots; and round the young plane-trees on the pavement the vendors
+had twined long branches of laurel, forming trophies of greenery. The
+strong scent of the laurel leaves prevailed over every other odour.
+
+At present the luminous dial of Saint Eustache was paling as a
+night-light does when surprised by the dawn. The gas jets in the wine
+shops in the neighbouring streets went out one by one, like stars
+extinguished by the brightness. And Florent gazed at the vast markets
+now gradually emerging from the gloom, from the dreamland in which
+he had beheld them, stretching out their ranges of open palaces.
+Greenish-grey in hue, they looked more solid now, and even more colossal
+with their prodigious masting of columns upholding an endless expanse
+of roofs. They rose up in geometrically shaped masses; and when all the
+inner lights had been extinguished and the square uniform buildings were
+steeped in the rising dawn, they seemed typical of some gigantic modern
+machine, some engine, some caldron for the supply of a whole people,
+some colossal belly, bolted and riveted, built up of wood and glass and
+iron, and endowed with all the elegance and power of some mechanical
+motive appliance working there with flaring furnaces, and wild,
+bewildering revolutions of wheels.
+
+Claude, however, had enthusiastically sprung on to the bench, and stood
+upon it. He compelled his companion to admire the effect of the dawn
+rising over the vegetables. There was a perfect sea of these extending
+between the two clusters of pavilions from Saint Eustache to the Rue des
+Halles. And in the two open spaces at either end the flood of greenery
+rose to even greater height, and quite submerged the pavements. The dawn
+appeared slowly, softly grey in hue, and spreading a light water-colour
+tint over everything. These surging piles akin to hurrying waves, this
+river of verdure rushing along the roadway like an autumn torrent,
+assumed delicate shadowy tints--tender violet, blush-rose, and greeny
+yellow, all the soft, light hues which at sunrise make the sky look like
+a canopy of shot silk. And by degrees, as the fires of dawn rose higher
+and higher at the far end of the Rue Rambuteau, the mass of vegetation
+grew brighter and brighter, emerging more and more distinctly from the
+bluey gloom that clung to the ground. Salad herbs, cabbage-lettuce,
+endive, and succory, with rich soil still clinging to their roots,
+exposed their swelling hearts; bundles of spinach, bundles of sorrel,
+clusters of artichokes, piles of peas and beans, mounds of cos-lettuce,
+tied round with straws, sounded every note in the whole gamut of
+greenery, from the sheeny lacquer-like green of the pods to the
+deep-toned green of the foliage; a continuous gamut with ascending and
+descending scales which died away in the variegated tones of the heads
+of celery and bundles of leeks. But the highest and most sonorous notes
+still came from the patches of bright carrots and snowy turnips, strewn
+in prodigious quantities all along the markets and lighting them up with
+the medley of their two colours.
+
+At the crossway in the Rue des Halles cabbages were piled up in
+mountains; there were white ones, hard and compact as metal balls, curly
+savoys, whose great leaves made them look like basins of green bronze,
+and red cabbages, which the dawn seemed to transform into superb masses
+of bloom with the hue of wine-lees, splotched with dark purple and
+carmine. At the other side of the markets, at the crossway near Saint
+Eustache, the end of the Rue Rambuteau was blocked by a barricade of
+orange-hued pumpkins, sprawling with swelling bellies in two superposed
+rows. And here and there gleamed the glistening ruddy brown of a hamper
+of onions, the blood-red crimson of a heap of tomatoes, the quiet yellow
+of a display of marrows, and the sombre violet of the fruit of the
+eggplant; while numerous fat black radishes still left patches of gloom
+amidst the quivering brilliance of the general awakening.
+
+Claude clapped his hands at the sight. He declared that those
+"blackguard vegetables" were wild, mad, sublime! He stoutly maintained
+that they were not yet dead, but, gathered in the previous evening,
+waited for the morning sun to bid him good-bye from the flag-stones
+of the market. He could observe their vitality, he declared, see their
+leaves stir and open as though their roots were yet firmly and warmly
+embedded in well-manured soil. And here, in the markets, he added, he
+heard the death-rattle of all the kitchen gardens of the environs of
+Paris.
+
+A crowd of white caps, loose black jackets, and blue blouses was
+swarming in the narrow paths between the various piles. The big baskets
+of the market porters passed along slowly, above the heads of the
+throng. Retail dealers, costermongers, and greengrocers were making
+their purchases in haste. Corporals and nuns clustered round the
+mountains of cabbages, and college cooks prowled about inquisitively, on
+the look-out for good bargains. The unloading was still going on;
+heavy tumbrels, discharging their contents as though these were so many
+paving-stones, added more and more waves to the sea of greenery which
+was now beating against the opposite footways. And from the far end of
+the Rue du Pont Neuf fresh rows of carts were still and ever arriving.
+
+"What a fine sight it is!" exclaimed Claude in an ecstasy of enthusiasm.
+
+Florent was suffering keenly. He fancied that all this was some
+supernatural temptation, and, unwilling to look at the markets any
+longer, turned towards Saint Eustache, a side view of which he obtained
+from the spot where he now stood. With its roses, and broad arched
+windows, its bell-turret, and roofs of slate, it looked as though
+painted in sepia against the blue of the sky. He fixed his eyes at last
+on the sombre depths of the Rue Montorgueil, where fragments of
+gaudy sign boards showed conspicuously, and on the corner of the Rue
+Montmartre, where there were balconies gleaming with letters of gold.
+And when he again glanced at the cross-roads, his gaze was solicited by
+other sign boards, on which such inscriptions as "Druggist and Chemist,"
+"Flour and Grain" appeared in big red and black capital letters upon
+faded backgrounds. Near these corners, houses with narrow windows were
+now awakening, setting amidst the newness and airiness of the Rue du
+Pont Neuf a few of the yellow ancient facades of olden Paris. Standing
+at the empty windows of the great drapery shop at the corner of the
+Rue Rambuteau a number of spruce-looking counter-jumpers in their shirt
+sleeves, with snowy-white wristbands and tight-fitting pantaloons,
+were "dressing" their goods. Farther away, in the windows of the severe
+looking, barrack-like Guillot establishment, biscuits in gilt wrappers
+and fancy cakes on glass stands were tastefully set out. All the shops
+were now open; and workmen in white blouses, with tools under their
+arms, were hurrying along the road.
+
+Claude had not yet got down from the bench. He was standing on tiptoe in
+order to see the farther down the streets. Suddenly, in the midst of the
+crowd which he overlooked, he caught sight of a fair head with long wavy
+locks, followed by a little black one covered with curly tumbled hair.
+
+"Hallo, Marjolin! Hallo, Cadine!" he shouted; and then, as his voice was
+drowned by the general uproar, he jumped to the ground and started off.
+But all at once, recollecting that he had left Florent behind him, he
+hastily came back. "I live at the end of the Impasse des Bourdonnais,"
+he said rapidly. "My name's written in chalk on the door, Claude
+Lantier. Come and see the etching of the Rue Pirouette."
+
+Then he vanished. He was quite ignorant of Florent's name, and, after
+favouring him with his views on art, parted from him as he had met him,
+at the roadside.
+
+Florent was now alone, and at first this pleased him. Ever since Madame
+Francoise had picked him up in the Avenue de Neuilly he had been
+coming and going in a state of pain fraught somnolence which had quite
+prevented him from forming any definite ideas of his surroundings. Now
+at last he was at liberty to do what he liked, and he tried to shake
+himself free from that intolerable vision of teeming food by which he
+was pursued. But his head still felt empty and dizzy, and all that he
+could find within him was a kind of vague fear. The day was now growing
+quite bright, and he could be distinctly seen. He looked down at his
+wretched shabby coat and trousers. He buttoned the first, dusted the
+latter, and strove to make a bit of a toilet, fearing lest those black
+rags of his should proclaim aloud whence he had come. He was seated in
+the middle of the bench, by the side of some wandering vagabonds who
+had settled themselves there while waiting for the sunrise. The
+neighbourhood of the markets is a favourite spot with vagrants in the
+small hours of the morning. However, two constables, still in night
+uniform, with cloaks and _kepis_, paced up and down the footway side by
+side, their hands resting behind their backs; and every time they passed
+the bench they glanced at the game which they scented there. Florent
+felt sure that they recognised him, and were consulting together about
+arresting him. At this thought his anguish of mind became extreme. He
+felt a wild desire to get up and run away; but he did not dare to do
+so, and was quite at a loss as to how he might take himself off. The
+repeated glances of the constables, their cold, deliberate scrutiny
+caused him the keenest torture. At length he rose from the bench, making
+a great effort to restrain himself from rushing off as quickly as his
+long legs could carry him; and succeeded in walking quietly away, though
+his shoulders quivered in the fear he felt of suddenly feeling the rough
+hands of the constables clutching at his collar from behind.
+
+He had now only one thought, one desire, which was to get away from
+the markets as quickly as possible. He would wait and make his
+investigations later on, when the footways should be clear. The three
+streets which met here--the Rue Montmartre, Rue Montorgueil, and Rue
+Turbigo--filled him with uneasiness. They were blocked by vehicles of
+all kinds, and their footways were crowded with vegetables. Florent went
+straight along as far as the Rue Pierre Lescot, but there the cress and
+the potato markets seemed to him insuperable obstacles. So he resolved
+to take the Rue Rambuteau. On reaching the Boulevard de Sebastopol,
+however, he came across such a block of vans and carts and waggonettes
+that he turned back and proceeded along the Rue Saint Denis. Then he got
+amongst the vegetables once more. Retail dealers had just set up their
+stalls, formed of planks resting on tall hampers; and the deluge of
+cabbages and carrots and turnips began all over again. The markets were
+overflowing. Florent tried to make his escape from this pursuing
+flood which ever overtook him in his flight. He tried the Rue de la
+Cossonnerie, the Rue Berger, the Square des Innocents, the Rue de
+la Ferronnerie, and the Rue des Halles. And at last he came to a
+standstill, quite discouraged and scared at finding himself unable to
+escape from the infernal circle of vegetables, which now seemed to dance
+around him, twining clinging verdure about his legs.
+
+The everlasting stream of carts and horses stretched away as far as the
+Rue de Rivoli and the Place de l'Hotel de Ville. Huge vans were carrying
+away supplies for all the greengrocers and fruiterers of an entire
+district; _chars-a-bancs_ were starting for the suburbs with straining,
+groaning sides. In the Rue de Pont Neuf Florent got completely
+bewildered. He stumbled upon a crowd of hand-carts, in which numerous
+costermongers were arranging their purchases. Amongst them he recognised
+Lacaille, who went off along the Rue Saint Honore, pushing a barrow of
+carrots and cauliflowers before him. Florent followed him, in the hope
+that he would guide him out of the mob. The pavement was now quite
+slippery, although the weather was dry, and the litter of artichoke
+stalks, turnip tops, and leaves of all kinds made walking somewhat
+dangerous. Florent stumbled at almost every step. He lost sight of
+Lacaille in the Rue Vauvilliers, and on approaching the corn market
+he again found the streets barricaded with vehicles. Then he made no
+further attempt to struggle; he was once more in the clutch of the
+markets, and their stream of life bore him back. Slowly retracing his
+steps, he presently found himself by Saint Eustache again.
+
+He now heard the loud continuous rumbling of the waggons that were
+setting out from the markets. Paris was doling out the daily food of its
+two million inhabitants. These markets were like some huge central organ
+beating with giant force, and sending the blood of life through every
+vein of the city. The uproar was akin to that of colossal jaws--a mighty
+sound to which each phase of the provisioning contributed, from the
+whip-cracking of the larger retail dealers as they started off for the
+district markets to the dragging pit-a-pat of the old shoes worn by the
+poor women who hawked their lettuces in baskets from door to door.
+
+Florent turned into a covered way on the left, intersecting the group of
+four pavilions whose deep silent gloom he had remarked during the night.
+He hoped that he might there find a refuge, discover some corner in
+which he could hide himself. But these pavilions were now as busy, as
+lively as the others. Florent walked on to the end of the street. Drays
+were driving up at a quick trot, crowding the market with cages full of
+live poultry, and square hampers in which dead birds were stowed in deep
+layers. On the other side of the way were other drays from which porters
+were removing freshly killed calves, wrapped in canvas, and laid at full
+length in baskets, whence only the four bleeding stumps of their legs
+protruded. There were also whole sheep, and sides and quarters of beef.
+Butchers in long white aprons marked the meat with a stamp, carried it
+off, weighted it, and hung it up on hooks in the auction room. Florent,
+with his face close to the grating, stood gazing at the rows of hanging
+carcasses, at the ruddy sheep and oxen and paler calves, all streaked
+with yellow fat and sinews, and with bellies yawning open. Then he
+passed along the sidewalk where the tripe market was held, amidst the
+pallid calves' feet and heads, the rolled tripe neatly packed in boxes,
+the brains delicately set out in flat baskets, the sanguineous livers,
+and purplish kidneys. He checked his steps in front of some long
+two-wheeled carts, covered with round awnings, and containing sides of
+pork hung on each side of the vehicle over a bed of straw. Seen from
+the back end, the interiors of the carts looked like recesses of some
+tabernacle, like some taper-lighted chapel, such was the glow of all the
+bare flesh they contained. And on the beds of straw were lines of tin
+cans, full of the blood that had trickled from the pigs. Thereupon
+Florent was attacked by a sort of rage. The insipid odour of the meat,
+the pungent smell of the tripe exasperated him. He made his way out of
+the covered road, preferring to return once more to the footwalk of the
+Rue de Pont Neuf.
+
+He was enduring perfect agony. The shiver of early morning came upon
+him; his teeth chattered, and he was afraid of falling to the ground and
+finding himself unable to rise again. He looked about, but could see no
+vacant place on any bench. Had he found one he would have dropped
+asleep there, even at the risk of being awakened by the police. Then, as
+giddiness nearly blinded him, he leaned for support against a tree,
+with his eyes closed and his ears ringing. The raw carrot, which he had
+swallowed almost without chewing, was torturing his stomach, and the
+glass of punch which he had drunk seemed to have intoxicated him. He was
+indeed intoxicated with misery, weariness, and hunger. Again he felt a
+burning fire in the pit of the stomach, to which he every now and then
+carried his hands, as though he were trying to stop up a hole through
+which all his life was oozing away. As he stood there he fancied that
+the foot-pavement rocked beneath him; and thinking that he might perhaps
+lessen his sufferings by walking, he went straight on through the
+vegetables again. He lost himself among them. He went along a narrow
+footway, turned down another, was forced to retrace his steps, bungled
+in doing so, and once more found himself amidst piles of greenery. Some
+heaps were so high that people seemed to be walking between walls
+of bundles and bunches. Only their heads slightly overtopped these
+ramparts, and passed along showing whitely or blackly according to the
+colour of their hats or caps; whilst the huge swinging baskets, carried
+aloft on a level with the greenery, looked like osier boats floating on
+a stagnant, mossy lake.
+
+Florent stumbled against a thousand obstacles--against porters taking up
+their burdens, and saleswomen disputing in rough tones. He slipped over
+the thick bed of waste leaves and stumps which covered the footway, and
+was almost suffocated by the powerful odour of crushed verdure. At last
+he halted in a sort of confused stupor, and surrendered to the pushing
+of some and the insults of others; and then he became a mere waif, a
+piece of wreckage tossed about on the surface of that surging sea.
+
+He was fast losing all self-respect, and would willingly have begged.
+The recollection of his foolish pride during the night exasperated him.
+If he had accepted Madame Francois's charity, if he had not felt such
+idiotic fear of Claude, he would not now have been stranded there
+groaning in the midst of these cabbages. And he was especially angry
+with himself for not having questioned the artist when they were in the
+Rue Pirouette. Now, alas! he was alone and deserted, liable to die in
+the streets like a homeless dog.
+
+For the last time he raised his eyes and looked at the markets. At
+present they were glittering in the sun. A broad ray was pouring through
+the covered road from the far end, cleaving the massy pavilions with an
+arcade of light, whilst fiery beams rained down upon the far expanse of
+roofs. The huge iron framework grew less distinct, assumed a bluey hue,
+became nothing but a shadowy silhouette outlined against the flaming
+flare of the sunrise. But up above a pane of glass took fire, drops of
+light trickled down the broad sloping zinc plates to the gutterings; and
+then, below, a tumultuous city appeared amidst a haze of dancing golden
+dust. The general awakening had spread, from the first start of the
+market gardeners snoring in their cloaks, to the brisk rolling of the
+food-laden railway drays. And the whole city was opening its iron gates,
+the footways were humming, the pavilions roaring with life. Shouts and
+cries of all kinds rent the air; it was as though the strain, which
+Florent had heard gathering force in the gloom ever since four in the
+morning, had now attained its fullest volume. To the right and left, on
+all sides indeed, the sharp cries accompanying the auction sales sounded
+shrilly like flutes amidst the sonorous bass roar of the crowd. It was
+the fish, the butter, the poultry, and the meat being sold.
+
+The pealing of bells passed through the air, imparting a quiver to the
+buzzing of the opening markets. Around Florent the sun was setting the
+vegetables aflame. He no longer perceived any of those soft water-colour
+tints which had predominated in the pale light of early morning. The
+swelling hearts of the lettuces were now gleaming brightly, the scales
+of greenery showed forth with wondrous vigour, the carrots glowed
+blood-red, the turnips shone as if incandescent in the triumphant
+radiance of the sun.
+
+On Florent's left some waggons were discharging fresh loads of cabbages.
+He turned his eyes, and away in the distance saw carts yet streaming out
+of the Rue Turbigo. The tide was still and ever rising. He had felt
+it about his ankles, then on a level with his stomach, and now it was
+threatening to drown him altogether. Blinded and submerged, his ears
+buzzing, his stomach overpowered by all that he had seen, he asked for
+mercy; and wild grief took possession of him at the thought of dying
+there of starvation in the very heart of glutted Paris, amidst the
+effulgent awakening of her markets. Big hot tears started from his eyes.
+
+Walking on, he had now reached one of the larger alleys. Two women, one
+short and old, the other tall and withered, passed him, talking together
+as they made their way towards the pavilions.
+
+"So you've come to do your marketing, Mademoiselle Saget?" said the tall
+withered woman.
+
+"Well, yes, Madame Lecoeur, if you can give it such a name as marketing.
+I'm a lone woman, you know, and live on next to nothing. I should have
+liked a small cauliflower, but everything is so dear. How is butter
+selling to-day?"
+
+"At thirty-four sous. I have some which is first rate. Will you come and
+look at it?"
+
+"Well, I don't know if I shall want any to-day; I've still a little lard
+left."
+
+Making a supreme effort, Florent followed these two women. He
+recollected having heard Claude name the old one--Mademoiselle
+Saget--when they were in the Rue Pirouette; and he made up his mind
+to question her when she should have parted from her tall withered
+acquaintance.
+
+"And how's your niece?" Mademoiselle Saget now asked.
+
+"Oh, La Sarriette does as she likes," Madame Lecoeur replied in a bitter
+tone. "She's chosen to set up for herself and her affairs no longer
+concern me. When her lovers have beggared her, she needn't come to me
+for any bread."
+
+"And you were so good to her, too! She ought to do well this year; fruit
+is yielding big profits. And your brother-in-law, how is he?"
+
+"Oh, he----"
+
+Madame Lecoeur bit her lips, and seemed disinclined to say anything
+more.
+
+"Still the same as ever, I suppose?" continued Mademoiselle Saget. "He's
+a very worthy man. Still, I once heard it said that he spent his money
+in such a way that--"
+
+"But does anyone know how he spends his money?" interrupted Madame
+Lecoeur, with much asperity. "He's a miserly niggard, a scurvy fellow,
+that's what I say! Do you know, mademoiselle, he'd see me die of
+starvation rather than lend me five francs! He knows quite well that
+there's nothing to be made out of butter this season, any more than
+out of cheese and eggs; whereas he can sell as much poultry as ever he
+chooses. But not once, I assure you, not once has he offered to help me.
+I am too proud, as you know, to accept any assistance from him; still it
+would have pleased me to have had it offered."
+
+"Ah, by the way, there he is, your brother-in-law!" suddenly exclaimed
+Mademoiselle Saget, lowering her voice.
+
+The two women turned and gazed at a man who was crossing the road to
+enter the covered way close by.
+
+"I'm in a hurry," murmured Madame Lecoeur. "I left my stall without
+anyone to look after it; and, besides, I don't want to speak to him."
+
+However, Florent also had mechanically turned round and glanced at the
+individual referred to. This was a short, squarely-built man, with a
+cheery look and grey, close-cut brush-like hair. Under each arm he was
+carrying a fat goose, whose head hung down and flapped against his legs.
+And then all at once Florent made a gesture of delight. Forgetting his
+fatigue, he ran after the man, and, overtaking him, tapped him on the
+shoulder.
+
+"Gavard!" he exclaimed.
+
+The other raised his head and stared with surprise at Florent's tall
+black figure, which he did not at first recognise. Then all at once:
+"What! is it you?" he cried, as if overcome with amazement. "Is it
+really you?"
+
+He all but let his geese fall, and seemed unable to master his surprise.
+On catching sight, however, of his sister-in-law and Mademoiselle Saget,
+who were watching the meeting at a distance, he began to walk on again.
+
+"Come along; don't let us stop here," he said. "There are too many eyes
+and tongues about."
+
+When they were in the covered way they began to chat. Florent related
+how he had gone to the Rue Pirouette, at which Gavard seemed much amused
+and laughed heartily. Then he told Florent that his brother Quenu had
+moved from that street and had reopened his pork shop close by, in the
+Rue Rambuteau, just in front of the markets. And afterwards he was again
+highly amused to hear that Florent had been wandering about all that
+morning with Claude Lantier, an odd kind of fish, who, strangely enough,
+said he, was Madame Quenu's nephew. Thus chatting, Gavard was on the
+point of taking Florent straight to the pork shop, but, on hearing that
+he had returned to France with false papers, he suddenly assumed all
+sorts of solemn and mysterious airs, and insisted upon walking some
+fifteen paces in front of him, to avoid attracting attention. After
+passing through the poultry pavilion, where he hung his geese up in his
+stall, he began to cross the Rue Rambuteau, still followed by Florent;
+and then, halting in the middle of the road, he glanced significantly
+towards a large and well-appointed pork shop.
+
+The sun was obliquely enfilading the Rue Rambuteau, lighting up the
+fronts of the houses, in the midst of which the Rue Pirouette formed a
+dark gap. At the other end the great pile of Saint Eustache glittered
+brightly in the sunlight like some huge reliquary. And right through
+the crowd, from the distant crossway, an army of street-sweepers was
+advancing in file down the road, the brooms swishing rhythmically,
+while scavengers provided with forks pitched the collected refuse into
+tumbrels, which at intervals of a score of paces halted with a noise
+like the chattering of broken pots. However, all Florent's attention was
+concentrated on the pork shop, open and radiant in the rising sun.
+
+It stood very near the corner of the Rue Pirouette and provided quite
+a feast for the eyes. Its aspect was bright and smiling, touches of
+brilliant colour showing conspicuously amidst all the snowy marble. The
+sign board, on which the name of QUENU-GRADELLE glittered in fat
+gilt letters encircled by leaves and branches painted on a soft-hued
+background, was protected by a sheet of glass. On two panels, one on
+each side of the shop-front, and both, like the board above, covered
+with glass, were paintings representing various chubby little cupids
+playing amidst boars' heads, pork chops and strings of sausages; and
+these latter still-life subjects, embellished with scrolls and bows,
+had been painted in such soft tones that the uncooked pork which they
+represented had the pinkiness of raspberry jam. Within this pleasing
+framework arose the window display, arranged upon a bed of fine
+blue-paper shavings. Here and there fern-leaves, tastefully disposed,
+changed the plates which they encircled into bouquets fringed with
+foliage. There was a wealth of rich, luscious, melting things. Down
+below, quite close to the window, jars of preserved sausage-meat were
+interspersed with pots of mustard. Above these were some small, plump,
+boned hams. Golden with their dressings of toasted bread-crumbs, and
+adorned at the knuckles with green rosettes. Next came the larger
+dishes, some containing preserved Strasburg tongues, enclosed in
+bladders coloured a bright red and varnished, so that they looked quite
+sanguineous beside the pale sausages and trotters; then there were
+black-puddings coiled like harmless snakes, healthy looking chitterlings
+piled up two by two; Lyons sausages in little silver copes that made
+them look like choristers; hot pies, with little banner-like tickets
+stuck in them; big hams, and great glazed joints of veal and pork, whose
+jelly was as limpid as sugar-candy. In the rear were other dishes and
+earthen pans in which meat, minced and sliced, slumbered beneath lakes
+of melted fat. And betwixt the various plates and dishes, jars and
+bottle of sauce, cullis, stock and preserved truffles, pans of _foie
+gras_ and boxes of sardines and tunny-fish were strewn over the bed of
+paper shavings. A box of creamy cheeses, and one of edible snails, the
+apertures of whose shells were dressed with butter and parsley, had been
+placed carelessly at either corner. Finally, from a bar overhead strings
+of sausages and saveloys of various sizes hung down symmetrically like
+cords and tassels; while in the rear fragments of intestinal membranes
+showed like lacework, like some _guipure_ of white flesh. And on the
+highest tier in this sanctuary of gluttony, amidst the membranes and
+between two bouquets of purple gladioli, the window stand was crowned
+by a small square aquarium, ornamented with rock-work, and containing a
+couple of gold-fish, which were continually swimming round it.
+
+Florent's whole body thrilled at the sight. Then he perceived a woman
+standing in the sunlight at the door of the shop. With her prosperous,
+happy look in the midst of all those inviting things she added to the
+cherry aspect of the place. She was a fine woman and quite blocked the
+doorway. Still, she was not over stout, but simply buxom, with the full
+ripeness of her thirty years. She had only just risen, yet her glossy
+hair was already brushed smooth and arranged in little flat bands over
+her temples, giving her an appearance of extreme neatness. She had the
+fine skin, the pinky-white complexion common to those whose life is
+spent in an atmosphere of raw meat and fat. There was a touch of gravity
+about her demeanour, her movements were calm and slow; what mirth or
+pleasure she felt she expressed by her eyes, her lips retaining all
+their seriousness. A collar of starched linen encircled her neck, white
+sleevelets reached to her elbows, and a white apron fell even over the
+tips of her shoes, so that you saw but little of her black cashmere
+dress, which clung tightly to her well-rounded shoulders and swelling
+bosom. The sun rays poured hotly upon all the whiteness she displayed.
+However, although her bluish-black hair, her rosy face, and bright
+sleeves and apron were steeped in the glow of light, she never once
+blinked, but enjoyed her morning bath of sunshine with blissful
+tranquillity, her soft eyes smiling the while at the flow and riot of
+the markets. She had the appearance of a very worthy woman.
+
+"That is your brother's wife, your sister-in-law, Lisa," Gavard said to
+Florent.
+
+He had saluted her with a slight inclination of the head. Then he darted
+along the house passage, continuing to take the most minute precautions,
+and unwilling to let Florent enter the premises through the shop, though
+there was no one there. It was evident that he felt great pleasure in
+dabbling in what he considered to be a compromising business.
+
+"Wait here," he said, "while I go to see whether your brother is alone.
+You can come in when I clap my hands."
+
+Thereupon he opened a door at the end of the passage. But as soon as
+Florent heard his brother's voice behind it, he sprang inside at a
+bound. Quenu, who was much attached to him, threw his arms round his
+neck, and they kissed each other like children.
+
+"Ah! dash it all! Is it really you, my dear fellow?" stammered the pork
+butcher. "I never expected to see you again. I felt sure you were dead!
+Why, only yesterday I was saying to Lisa, 'That poor fellow, Florent!'"
+
+However, he stopped short, and popping his head into the shop, called
+out, "Lisa! Lisa!" Then turning towards a little girl who had crept into
+a corner, he added, "Pauline, go and find your mother."
+
+The little one did not stir, however. She was an extremely fine
+child, five years of age, with a plump chubby face, bearing a strong
+resemblance to that of the pork butcher's wife. In her arms she was
+holding a huge yellow cat, which had cheerfully surrendered itself to
+her embrace, with its legs dangling downwards; and she now squeezed
+it tightly with her little arms, as if she were afraid that yonder
+shabby-looking gentleman might rob her of it.
+
+Lisa, however, leisurely made her appearance.
+
+"Here is my brother Florent!" exclaimed Quenu.
+
+Lisa addressed him as "Monsieur," and gave him a kindly welcome. She
+scanned him quietly from head to foot, without evincing any disagreeable
+surprise. Merely a faint pout appeared for a moment on her lips. Then,
+standing by, she began to smile at her husband's demonstrations of
+affection. Quenu, however, at last recovered his calmness, and noticing
+Florent's fleshless, poverty-stricken appearance, exclaimed: "Ah, my
+poor fellow, you haven't improved in your looks since you were over
+yonder. For my part, I've grown fat; but what would you have!"
+
+He had indeed grown fat, too fat for his thirty years. He seemed to be
+bursting through his shirt and apron, through all the snowy-white linen
+in which he was swathed like a huge doll. With advancing years his
+clean-shaven face had become elongated, assuming a faint resemblance to
+the snout of one of those pigs amidst whose flesh his hands worked and
+lived the whole day through. Florent scarcely recognised him. He had now
+seated himself, and his glance turned from his brother to handsome Lisa
+and little Pauline. They were all brimful of health, squarely built,
+sleek, in prime condition; and in their turn they looked at Florent with
+the uneasy astonishment which corpulent people feel at the sight of a
+scraggy person. The very cat, whose skin was distended by fat, dilated
+its yellow eyes and scrutinised him with an air of distrust.
+
+"You'll wait till we have breakfast, won't you?" asked Quenu. "We have
+it early, at ten o'clock."
+
+A penetrating odour of cookery pervaded the place; and Florent looked
+back upon the terrible night which he had just spent, his arrival
+amongst the vegetables, his agony in the midst of the markets, the
+endless avalanches of food from which he had just escaped. And then in a
+low tone and with a gentle smile he responded:
+
+"No; I'm really very hungry, you see."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Florent had just begun to study law in Paris when his mother died. She
+lived at Le Vigan, in the department of the Gard, and had taken for
+her second husband one Quenu, a native of Yvetot in Normandy, whom some
+sub-prefect had transplanted to the south and then forgotten there. He
+had remained in employment at the sub-prefecture, finding the country
+charming, the wine good, and the women very amiable. Three years after
+his marriage he had been carried off by a bad attack of indigestion,
+leaving as sole legacy to his wife a sturdy boy who resembled him. It
+was only with very great difficulty that the widow could pay the college
+fees of Florent, her elder son, the issue of her first marriage. He
+was a very gentle youth, devoted to his studies, and constantly won the
+chief prizes at school. It was upon him that his mother lavished all her
+affection and based all her hopes. Perhaps, in bestowing so much love on
+this slim pale youth, she was giving evidence of her preference for her
+first husband, a tender-hearted, caressing Provencal, who had loved
+her devotedly. Quenu, whose good humour and amiability had at first
+attracted her, had perhaps displayed too much self-satisfaction, and
+shown too plainly that he looked upon himself as the main source
+of happiness. At all events she formed the opinion that her
+younger son--and in southern families younger sons are still often
+sacrificed--would never do any good; so she contented herself with
+sending him to a school kept by a neighbouring old maid, where the lad
+learned nothing but how to idle his time away. The two brothers grew up
+far apart from each other, as though they were strangers.
+
+When Florent arrived at Le Vigan his mother was already buried. She had
+insisted upon having her illness concealed from him till the very last
+moment, for fear of disturbing his studies. Thus he found little Quenu,
+who was then twelve years old, sitting and sobbing alone on a table in
+the middle of the kitchen. A furniture dealer, a neighbour, gave him
+particulars of his mother's last hours. She had reached the end of her
+resources, had killed herself by the hard work which she had undertaken
+to earn sufficient money that her elder son might continue his legal
+studies. To her modest trade in ribbons, the profits of which were but
+small, she had been obliged to add other occupations, which kept her
+up very late at night. Her one idea of seeing Florent established as an
+advocate, holding a good position in the town, had gradually caused her
+to become hard and miserly, without pity for either herself or others.
+Little Quenu was allowed to wander about in ragged breeches, and in
+blouses from which the sleeves were falling away. He never dared to
+serve himself at table, but waited till he received his allowance of
+bread from his mother's hands. She gave herself equally thin slices, and
+it was to the effects of this regimen that she had succumbed, in deep
+despair at having failed to accomplish her self-allotted task.
+
+This story made a most painful impression upon Florent's tender nature,
+and his sobs wellnigh choked him. He took his little half brother in his
+arms, held him to his breast, and kissed him as though to restore to him
+the love of which he had unwittingly deprived him. Then he looked at the
+lad's gaping shoes, torn sleeves, and dirty hands, at all the manifest
+signs of wretchedness and neglect. And he told him that he would take
+him away, and that they would both live happily together. The next day,
+when he began to inquire into affairs, he felt afraid that he would not
+be able to keep sufficient money to pay for the journey back to Paris.
+However, he was determined to leave Le Vigan at any cost. He was
+fortunately able to sell the little ribbon business, and this enabled
+him to discharge his mother's debts, for despite her strictness in money
+matters she had gradually run up bills. Then, as there was nothing left,
+his mother's neighbour, the furniture dealer, offered him five hundred
+francs for her chattels and stock of linen. It was a very good bargain
+for the dealer, but the young man thanked him with tears in his eyes.
+He bought his brother some new clothes, and took him away that same
+evening.
+
+On his return to Paris he gave up all thought of continuing to attend
+the Law School, and postponed every ambitious project. He obtained a
+few pupils, and established himself with little Quenu in the Rue Royer
+Collard, at the corner of the Rue Saint Jacques, in a big room which he
+furnished with two iron bedsteads, a wardrobe, a table, and four chairs.
+He now had a child to look after, and this assumed paternity was very
+pleasing to him. During the earlier days he attempted to give the lad
+some lessons when he returned home in the evening, but Quenu was an
+unwilling pupil. He was dull of understanding, and refused to learn,
+bursting into tears and regretfully recalling the time when his mother
+had allowed him to run wild in the streets. Florent thereupon stopped
+his lessons in despair, and to console the lad promised him a holiday of
+indefinite length. As an excuse for his own weakness he repeated that he
+had not brought his brother to Paris to distress him. To see him grow up
+in happiness became his chief desire. He quite worshipped the boy, was
+charmed with his merry laughter, and felt infinite joy in seeing him
+about him, healthy and vigorous, and without a care. Florent for his
+part remained very slim and lean in his threadbare coat, and his face
+began to turn yellow amidst all the drudgery and worry of teaching; but
+Quenu grew up plump and merry, a little dense, indeed, and scarce able
+to read or write, but endowed with high spirits which nothing could
+ruffle, and which filled the big gloomy room in the Rue Royer Collard
+with gaiety.
+
+Years, meantime, passed by. Florent, who had inherited all his mother's
+spirit of devotion, kept Quenu at home as though he were a big, idle
+girl. He did not even suffer him to perform any petty domestic duties,
+but always went to buy the provisions himself, and attended to the
+cooking and other necessary matters. This kept him, he said, from
+indulging in his own bad thoughts. He was given to gloominess, and
+fancied that he was disposed to evil. When he returned home in the
+evening, splashed with mud, and his head bowed by the annoyances to
+which other people's children had subjected him, his heart melted
+beneath the embrace of the sturdy lad whom he found spinning his top
+on the tiled flooring of the big room. Quenu laughed at his brother's
+clumsiness in making omelettes, and at the serious fashion in which he
+prepared the soup-beef and vegetables. When the lamp was extinguished,
+and Florent lay in bed, he sometimes gave way to feelings of sadness. He
+longed to resume his legal studies, and strove to map out his duties in
+such wise as to secure time to follow the programme of the faculty.
+He succeeded in doing this, and was then perfectly happy. But a slight
+attack of fever, which confined him to his room for a week, made such a
+hole in his purse, and caused him so much alarm, that he abandoned all
+idea of completing his studies. The boy was now getting a big
+fellow, and Florent took a post as teacher in a school in the Rue de
+l'Estrapade, at a salary of eighteen hundred francs per annum. This
+seemed like a fortune to him. By dint of economy he hoped to be able to
+amass a sum of money which would set Quenu going in the world. When the
+lad reached his eighteenth year Florent still treated him as though he
+were a daughter for whom a dowry must be provided.
+
+However, during his brother's brief illness Quenu himself had made
+certain reflections. One morning he proclaimed his desire to work,
+saying that he was now old enough to earn his own living. Florent was
+deeply touched at this. Just opposite, on the other side of the street,
+lived a working watchmaker whom Quenu, through the curtainless window,
+could see leaning over a little table, manipulating all sorts of
+delicate things, and patiently gazing at them through a magnifying glass
+all day long. The lad was much attracted by the sight, and declared that
+he had a taste for watchmaking. At the end of a fortnight, however, he
+became restless, and began to cry like a child of ten, complaining
+that the work was too complicated, and that he would never be able to
+understand all the silly little things that enter into the construction
+of a watch.
+
+His next whim was to be a locksmith; but this calling he found too
+fatiguing. In a couple of years he tried more than ten different trades.
+Florent opined that he acted rightly, that it was wrong to take up a
+calling one did not like. However, Quenu's fine eagerness to work for
+his living strained the resources of the little establishment very
+seriously. Since he had begun flitting from one workshop to another
+there had been a constant succession of fresh expenses; money had gone
+in new clothes, in meals taken away from home, and in the payment of
+footings among fellow workmen. Florent's salary of eighteen hundred
+francs was no longer sufficient, and he was obliged to take a couple
+of pupils in the evenings. For eight years he had continued to wear the
+same old coat.
+
+However, the two brothers had made a friend. One side of the house in
+which they lived overlooked the Rue Saint Jacques, where there was a
+large poultry-roasting establishment[*] kept by a worthy man called
+Gavard, whose wife was dying from consumption amidst an atmosphere
+redolent of plump fowls. When Florent returned home too late to cook a
+scrap of meat, he was in the habit of laying out a dozen sous or so on
+a small portion of turkey or goose at this shop. Such days were feast
+days. Gavard in time grew interested in this tall, scraggy customer,
+learned his history, and invited Quenu into his shop. Before long the
+young fellow was constantly to be found there. As soon as his brother
+left the house he came downstairs and installed himself at the rear
+of the roasting shop, quite enraptured with the four huge spits which
+turned with a gentle sound in front of the tall bright flames.
+
+     [*] These rotisseries, now all but extinct, were at one time
+     a particular feature of the Parisian provision trade. I can
+     myself recollect several akin to the one described by M.
+     Zola. I suspect that they largely owed their origin to the
+     form and dimensions of the ordinary Parisian kitchen stove,
+     which did not enable people to roast poultry at home in a
+     convenient way. In the old French cuisine, moreover, roast
+     joints of meat were virtually unknown; roasting was almost
+     entirely confined to chickens, geese, turkeys, pheasants,
+     etc.; and among the middle classes people largely bought
+     their poultry already cooked of the _rotisseur_, or else
+     confided it to him for the purpose of roasting, in the same
+     way as our poorer classes still send their joints to the
+     baker's. Roasting was also long looked upon in France as a
+     very delicate art. Brillat-Savarin, in his famous
+     _Physiologie du Gout_, lays down the dictum that "A man may
+     become a cook, but is born a _rotisseur_."--Translator.
+
+The broad copper bands of the fireplace glistened brightly, the poultry
+steamed, the fat bubbled melodiously in the dripping-pan, and the spits
+seemed to talk amongst themselves and to address kindly words to Quenu,
+who, with a long ladle, devoutly basted the golden breasts of the fat
+geese and turkeys. He would stay there for hours, quite crimson in the
+dancing glow of the flames, and laughing vaguely, with a somewhat stupid
+expression, at the birds roasting in front of him. Indeed, he did
+not awake from this kind of trance until the geese and turkeys were
+unspitted. They were placed on dishes, the spits emerged from their
+carcasses smoking hot, and a rich gravy flowed from either end and
+filled the shop with a penetrating odour. Then the lad, who, standing
+up, had eagerly followed every phase of the dishing, would clap his
+hands and begin to talk to the birds, telling them that they were very
+nice, and would be eaten up, and that the cats would have nothing but
+their bones. And he would give a start of delight whenever Gavard handed
+him a slice of bread, which he forthwith put into the dripping-pan that
+it might soak and toast there for half an hour.
+
+It was in this shop, no doubt, that Quenu's love of cookery took its
+birth. Later on, when he had tried all sorts of crafts, he returned,
+as though driven by fate, to the spits and the poultry and the savoury
+gravy which induces one to lick one's fingers. At first he was afraid
+of vexing his brother, who was a small eater and spoke of good fare with
+the disdain of a man who is ignorant of it; but afterwards, on seeing
+that Florent listened to him when he explained the preparation of some
+very elaborate dish, he confessed his desires and presently found a
+situation at a large restaurant. From that time forward the life of the
+two brothers was settled. They continued to live in the room in the Rue
+Royer Collard, whither they returned every evening; the one glowing and
+radiant from his hot fire, the other with the depressed countenance of
+a shabby, impecunious teacher. Florent still wore his old black coat, as
+he sat absorbed in correcting his pupils' exercises; while Quenu, to
+put himself more at ease, donned his white apron, cap, and jacket, and,
+flitting about in front of the stove, amused himself by baking some
+dainty in the oven. Sometimes they smiled at seeing themselves thus
+attired, the one all in black, the other all in white. These different
+garbs, one bright and the other sombre, seemed to make the big room half
+gay and half mournful. Never, however, was there so much harmony in a
+household marked by such dissimilarity. Though the elder brother grew
+thinner and thinner, consumed by the ardent temperament which he had
+inherited from his Provencal father, and the younger one waxed fatter
+and fatter like a true son of Normandy, they loved each other in the
+brotherhood they derived from their mother--a mother who had been all
+devotion.
+
+They had a relation in Paris, a brother of their mother's, one Gradelle,
+who was in business as a pork butcher in the Rue Pirouette, near
+the central markets. He was a fat, hard-hearted, miserly fellow, and
+received his nephews as though they were starving paupers the first time
+they paid him a visit. They seldom went to see him afterwards. On
+his nameday Quenu would take him a bunch of flowers, and receive a
+half-franc piece in return for it. Florent's proud and sensitive nature
+suffered keenly when Gradelle scrutinised his shabby clothes with the
+anxious, suspicious glance of a miser apprehending a request for a
+dinner, or the loan of a five-franc piece. One day, however, it occurred
+to Florent in all artlessness to ask his uncle to change a hundred-franc
+note for him, and after this the pork butcher showed less alarm at sight
+of the lads, as he called them. Still, their friendship got no further
+than these infrequent visits.
+
+These years were like a long, sweet, sad dream to Florent. As they
+passed he tasted to the full all the bitter joys of self-sacrifice. At
+home, in the big room, life was all love and tenderness; but out in the
+world, amidst the humiliations inflicted on him by his pupils, and
+the rough jostling of the streets, he felt himself yielding to wicked
+thoughts. His slain ambitions embittered him. It was long before he
+could bring himself to bow to his fate, and accept with equanimity the
+painful lot of a poor, plain, commonplace man. At last, to guard against
+the temptations of wickedness, he plunged into ideal goodness, and
+sought refuge in a self-created sphere of absolute truth and justice. It
+was then that he became a republican, entering into the republican idea
+even as heart-broken girls enter a convent. And not finding a republic
+where sufficient peace and kindliness prevailed to lull his troubles to
+sleep, he created one for himself. He took no pleasure in books. All
+the blackened paper amidst which he lived spoke of evil-smelling
+class-rooms, of pellets of paper chewed by unruly schoolboys, of long,
+profitless hours of torture. Besides, books only suggested to him a
+spirit of mutiny and pride, whereas it was of peace and oblivion that he
+felt most need. To lull and soothe himself with the ideal imaginings, to
+dream that he was perfectly happy, and that all the world would likewise
+become so, to erect in his brain the republican city in which he would
+fain have lived, such now became his recreation, the task, again and
+again renewed, of all his leisure hours. He no longer read any books
+beyond those which his duties compelled him to peruse; he preferred
+to tramp along the Rue Saint Jacques as far as the outer boulevards,
+occasionally going yet a greater distance and returning by the Barriere
+d'Italie; and all along the road, with his eyes on the Quartier
+Mouffetard spread out at his feet, he would devise reforms of great
+moral and humanitarian scope, such as he thought would change that city
+of suffering into an abode of bliss. During the turmoil of February
+1848, when Paris was stained with blood he became quite heartbroken, and
+rushed from one to another of the public clubs demanding that the blood
+which had been shed should find atonement in "the fraternal embrace
+of all republicans throughout the world." He became one of those
+enthusiastic orators who preached revolution as a new religion, full of
+gentleness and salvation. The terrible days of December 1851, the days
+of the Coup d'Etat, were required to wean him from his doctrines of
+universal love. He was then without arms; allowed himself to be captured
+like a sheep, and was treated as though he were a wolf. He awoke from
+his sermon on universal brotherhood to find himself starving on the cold
+stones of a casemate at Bicetre.
+
+Quenu, when two and twenty, was distressed with anguish when his brother
+did not return home. On the following day he went to seek his corpse at
+the cemetery of Montmartre, where the bodies of those shot down on the
+boulevards had been laid out in a line and covered with straw, from
+beneath which only their ghastly heads projected. However, Quenu's
+courage failed him, he was blinded by his tears, and had to pass twice
+along the line of corpses before acquiring the certainty that Florent's
+was not among them. At last, at the end of a long and wretched week, he
+learned at the Prefecture of Police that his brother was a prisoner. He
+was not allowed to see him, and when he pressed the matter the police
+threatened to arrest him also. Then he hastened off to his uncle
+Gradelle, whom he looked upon as a person of importance, hoping that he
+might be able to enlist his influence in Florent's behalf. But Gradelle
+waxed wrathful, declared that Florent deserved his fate, that he ought
+to have known better than to have mixed himself up with those rascally
+republicans. And he even added that Florent was destined to turn out
+badly, that it was written on his face.
+
+Quenu wept copiously and remained there, almost choked by his sobs. His
+uncle, a little ashamed of his harshness, and feeling that he ought to
+do something for him, offered to receive him into his house. He wanted
+an assistant, and knew that his nephew was a good cook. Quenu was so
+much alarmed by the mere thought of going back to live alone in the
+big room in the Rue Royer Collard, that then and there he accepted
+Gradelle's offer. That same night he slept in his uncle's house, in
+a dark hole of a garret just under the room, where there was scarcely
+space for him to lie at full length. However, he was less wretched there
+than he would have been opposite his brother's empty couch.
+
+He succeeded at length in obtaining permission to see Florent; but on
+his return from Bicetre he was obliged to take to his bed. For nearly
+three weeks he lay fever-stricken, in a stupefied, comatose state.
+Gradelle meantime called down all sorts of maledictions on his
+republican nephew; and one morning, when he heard of Florent's departure
+for Cayenne, he went upstairs, tapped Quenu on the hands, awoke him, and
+bluntly told him the news, thereby bringing about such a reaction that
+on the following day the young man was up and about again. His grief
+wore itself out, and his soft flabby flesh seemed to absorb his tears.
+A month later he laughed again, and then grew vexed and unhappy with
+himself for having been merry; but his natural light-heartedness soon
+gained the mastery, and he laughed afresh in unconscious happiness.
+
+He now learned his uncle's business, from which he derived even more
+enjoyment than from cookery. Gradelle told him, however, that he must
+not neglect his pots and pans, that it was rare to find a pork butcher
+who was also a good cook, and that he had been lucky in serving in a
+restaurant before coming to the shop. Gradelle, moreover, made full use
+of his nephew's acquirements, employed him to cook the dinners sent out
+to certain customers, and placed all the broiling, and the preparation
+of pork chops garnished with gherkins in his special charge. As the
+young man was of real service to him, he grew fond of him after his
+own fashion, and would nip his plump arms when he was in a good humour.
+Gradelle had sold the scanty furniture of the room in the Rue Royer
+Collard and retained possession of the proceeds--some forty francs or
+so--in order, said he, to prevent the foolish lad, Quenu, from making
+ducks and drakes of the cash. After a time, however, he allowed his
+nephew six francs a month a pocket-money.
+
+Quenu now became quite happy, in spite of the emptiness of his purse and
+the harshness with which he was occasionally treated. He liked to have
+life doled out to him; Florent had treated him too much like an indolent
+girl. Moreover, he had made a friend at his uncle's. Gradelle, when his
+wife died, had been obliged to engage a girl to attend to the shop, and
+had taken care to choose a healthy and attractive one, knowing that a
+good-looking girl would set off his viands and help to tempt custom.
+Amongst his acquaintances was a widow, living in the Rue Cuvier, near
+the Jardin des Plantes, whose deceased husband had been postmaster at
+Plassans, the seat of a sub-prefecture in the south of France. This
+lady, who lived in a very modest fashion on a small annuity, had brought
+with her from Plassans a plump, pretty child, whom she treated as her
+own daughter. Lisa, as the young one was called, attended upon her with
+much placidity and serenity of disposition. Somewhat seriously inclined,
+she looked quite beautiful when she smiled. Indeed, her great charm came
+from the exquisite manner in which she allowed this infrequent smile
+of hers to escape her. Her eyes then became most caressing, and her
+habitual gravity imparted inestimable value to these sudden, seductive
+flashes. The old lady had often said that one of Lisa's smiles would
+suffice to lure her to perdition.
+
+When the widow died she left all her savings, amounting to some ten
+thousand francs, to her adopted daughter. For a week Lisa lived alone in
+the Rue Cuvier; it was there that Gradelle came in search of her. He had
+become acquainted with her by often seeing her with her mistress when
+the latter called on him in the Rue Pirouette; and at the funeral
+she had struck him as having grown so handsome and sturdy that he had
+followed the hearse all the way to the cemetery, though he had not
+intended to do so. As the coffin was being lowered into the grave, he
+reflected what a splendid girl she would be for the counter of a pork
+butcher's shop. He thought the matter over, and finally resolved to
+offer her thirty francs a month, with board and lodging. When he made
+this proposal, Lisa asked for twenty-four hours to consider it. Then
+she arrived one morning with a little bundle of clothes, and her ten
+thousand francs concealed in the bosom of her dress. A month later the
+whole place belonged to her; she enslaved Gradelle, Quenu, and even the
+smallest kitchen-boy. For his part, Quenu would have cut off his fingers
+to please her. When she happened to smile, he remained rooted to the
+floor, laughing with delight as he gazed at her.
+
+Lisa was the eldest daughter of the Macquarts of Plassans, and her
+father was still alive.[*] But she said that he was abroad, and never
+wrote to him. Sometimes she just dropped a hint that her mother, now
+deceased, had been a hard worker, and that she took after her. She
+worked, indeed, very assiduously. However, she sometimes added that
+the worthy woman had slaved herself to death in striving to support her
+family. Then she would speak of the respective duties of husband and
+wife in such a practical though modest fashion as to enchant Quenu. He
+assured her that he fully shared her ideas. These were that everyone,
+man or woman, ought to work for his or her living, that everyone was
+charged with the duty of achieving personal happiness, that great harm
+was done by encouraging habits of idleness, and that the presence of so
+much misery in the world was greatly due to sloth. This theory of hers
+was a sweeping condemnation of drunkenness, of all the legendary loafing
+ways of her father Macquart. But, though she did not know it, there was
+much of Macquart's nature in herself. She was merely a steady, sensible
+Macquart with a logical desire for comfort, having grasped the truth
+of the proverb that as you make your bed so you lie on it. To sleep in
+blissful warmth there is no better plan than to prepare oneself a soft
+and downy couch; and to the preparation of such a couch she gave all
+her time and all her thoughts. When no more than six years old she
+had consented to remain quietly on her chair the whole day through on
+condition that she should be rewarded with a cake in the evening.
+
+[*] See M. Zola's novel, _The Fortune of the Rougons_.--Translator
+
+At Gradelle's establishment Lisa went on leading the calm, methodical
+life which her exquisite smiles illumined. She had not accepted the pork
+butcher's offer at random. She reckoned upon finding a guardian in him;
+with the keen scent of those who are born lucky she perhaps foresaw that
+the gloomy shop in the Rue Pirouette would bring her the comfortable
+future she dreamed of--a life of healthy enjoyment, and work without
+fatigue, each hour of which would bring its own reward. She attended to
+her counter with the quiet earnestness with which she had waited upon
+the postmaster's widow; and the cleanliness of her aprons soon became
+proverbial in the neighbourhood. Uncle Gradelle was so charmed with this
+pretty girl that sometimes, as he was stringing his sausages, he would
+say to Quenu: "Upon my word, if I weren't turned sixty, I think I should
+be foolish enough to marry her. A wife like she'd make is worth her
+weight in gold to a shopkeeper, my lad."
+
+Quenu himself was growing still fonder of her, though he laughed merrily
+one day when a neighbour accused him of being in love with Lisa. He was
+not worried with love-sickness. The two were very good friends, however.
+In the evening they went up to their bedrooms together. Lisa slept in a
+little chamber adjoining the dark hole which the young man occupied.
+She had made this room of hers quite bright by hanging it with muslin
+curtains. The pair would stand together for a moment on the landing,
+holding their candles in their hands, and chatting as they unlocked
+their doors. Then, as they closed them, they said in friendly tones:
+
+"Good night, Mademoiselle Lisa."
+
+"Good night, Monsieur Quenu."
+
+As Quenu undressed himself he listened to Lisa making her own
+preparations. The partition between the two rooms was very thin. "There,
+she is drawing her curtains now," he would say to himself; "what can she
+be doing, I wonder, in front of her chest of drawers? Ah! she's sitting
+down now and taking off her shoes. Now she's blown her candle out. Well,
+good night. I must get to sleep"; and at times, when he heard her bed
+creak as she got into it, he would say to himself with a smile, "Dash
+it all! Mademoiselle Lisa is no feather." This idea seemed to amuse him,
+and presently he would fall asleep thinking about the hams and salt pork
+that he had to prepare the next morning.
+
+This state of affairs went on for a year without causing Lisa a single
+blush or Quenu a moment's embarrassment. When the girl came into the
+kitchen in the morning at the busiest moment of the day's work, they
+grasped hands over the dishes of sausage-meat. Sometimes she helped him,
+holding the skins with her plump fingers while he filled them with meat
+and fat. Sometimes, too, with the tips of their tongues they just tasted
+the raw sausage-meat, to see if it was properly seasoned. She was able
+to give Quenu some useful hints, for she knew of many favourite southern
+recipes, with which he experimented with much success. He was often
+aware that she was standing behind his shoulder, prying into the pans.
+If he wanted a spoon or a dish, she would hand it to him. The heat of
+the fire would bring their blood to their skins; still, nothing in
+the world would have induced the young man to cease stirring the fatty
+_bouillis_ which were thickening over the fire while the girl stood
+gravely by him, discussing the amount of boiling that was necessary.
+In the afternoon, when the shop lacked customers, they quietly chatted
+together for hours at a time. Lisa sat behind the counter, leaning back,
+and knitting in an easy, regular fashion; while Quenu installed himself
+on a big oak block, dangling his legs and tapping his heels against the
+wood. They got on wonderfully well together, discussing all sorts of
+subjects, generally cookery, and then Uncle Gradelle and the neighbours.
+Lisa also amused the young man with stories, just as though he were a
+child. She knew some very pretty ones--some miraculous legends, full of
+lambs and little angels, which she narrated in a piping voice, with all
+her wonted seriousness. If a customer happened to come in, she saved
+herself the trouble of moving by asking Quenu to get the required pot of
+lard or box of snails. And at eleven o'clock they went slowly up to
+bed as on the previous night. As they closed their doors, they calmly
+repeated the words:
+
+"Good night, Mademoiselle Lisa."
+
+"Good night, Monsieur Quenu."
+
+One morning Uncle Gradelle was struck dead by apoplexy while preparing
+a galantine. He fell forward, with his face against the chopping-block.
+Lisa did not lose her self-possession. She remarked that the dead man
+could not be left lying in the middle of the kitchen, and had the body
+removed into a little back room where Gradelle had slept. Then she
+arranged with the assistants what should be said. It must be given out
+that the master had died in his bed; otherwise the whole district would
+be disgusted, and the shop would lose its customers. Quenu helped to
+carry the dead man away, feeling quite confused, and astonished at
+being unable to shed any tears. Presently, however, he and Lisa cried
+together. Quenu and his brother Florent were the sole heirs. The gossips
+of the neighbourhood credited old Gradelle with the possession of a
+considerable fortune. However, not a single crown could be discovered.
+Lisa seemed very restless and uneasy. Quenu noticed how pensive she
+became, how she kept on looking around her from morning till night, as
+though she had lost something. At last she decided to have a thorough
+cleaning of the premises, declaring that people were beginning to talk,
+that the story of the old man's death had got about, and that it was
+necessary they should make a great show of cleanliness. One afternoon,
+after remaining in the cellar for a couple of hours, whither she herself
+had gone to wash the salting-tubs, she came up again, carrying something
+in her apron. Quenu was just then cutting up a pig's fry. She waited
+till he had finished, talking awhile in an easy, indifferent fashion.
+But there was an unusual glitter in her eyes, and she smiled her most
+charming smile as she told him that she wanted to speak to him. She led
+the way upstairs with seeming difficulty, impeded by what she had in her
+apron, which was strained almost to bursting.
+
+By the time she reached the third floor she found herself short of
+breath, and for a moment was obliged to lean against the balustrade.
+Quenu, much astonished, followed her into her bedroom without saying a
+word. It was the first time she had ever invited him to enter it. She
+closed the door, and letting go the corners of her apron, which her
+stiffened fingers could no longer hold up, she allowed a stream of gold
+and silver coins to flow gently upon her bed. She had discovered Uncle
+Gradelle's treasure at the bottom of a salting-tub. The heap of money
+made a deep impression in the softy downy bed.
+
+Lisa and Quenu evinced a quiet delight. They sat down on the edge of the
+bed, Lisa at the head and Quenu at the foot, on either side of the heap
+of coins, and they counted the money out upon the counterpane, so as to
+avoid making any noise. There were forty thousand francs in gold, and
+three thousand francs in silver, whilst in a tin box they found bank
+notes to the value of forty-two thousand francs. It took them two hours
+to count up the treasure. Quenu's hands trembled slightly, and it was
+Lisa who did most of the work.
+
+They arranged the gold on the pillow in little heaps, leaving the silver
+in the hollow depression of the counterpane. When they had ascertained
+the total amount--eighty-five thousand francs, to them an enormous
+sum--they began to chat. And their conversation naturally turned upon
+their future, and they spoke of their marriage, although there had never
+been any previous mention of love between them. But this heap of money
+seemed to loosen their tongues. They had gradually seated themselves
+further back on the bed, leaning against the wall, beneath the white
+muslin curtains; and as they talked together, their hands, playing with
+the heap of silver between them, met, and remained linked amidst
+the pile of five-franc pieces. Twilight surprised them still sitting
+together. Then, for the first time, Lisa blushed at finding the young
+man by her side. For a few moments, indeed, although not a thought of
+evil had come to them, they felt much embarrassed. Then Lisa went to
+get her own ten thousand francs. Quenu wanted her to put them with his
+uncle's savings. He mixed the two sums together, saying with a laugh
+that the money must be married also. Then it was agreed that Lisa should
+keep the hoard in her chest of drawers. When she had locked it up they
+both quietly went downstairs. They were now practically husband and
+wife.
+
+The wedding took place during the following month. The neighbours
+considered the match a very natural one, and in every way suitable. They
+had vaguely heard the story of the treasure, and Lisa's honesty was the
+subject of endless eulogy. After all, said the gossips, she might well
+have kept the money herself, and not have spoken a word to Quenu about
+it; if she had spoken, it was out of pure honesty, for no one had seen
+her find the hoard. She well deserved, they added, that Quenu should
+make her his wife. That Quenu, by the way, was a lucky fellow; he
+wasn't a beauty himself, yet he had secured a beautiful wife, who had
+disinterred a fortune for him. Some even went so far as to whisper that
+Lisa was a simpleton for having acted as she had done; but the young
+woman only smiled when people speaking to her vaguely alluded to all
+these things. She and her husband lived on as previously, in happy
+placidity and quiet affection. She still assisted him as before, their
+hands still met amidst the sausage-meat, she still glanced over his
+shoulder into the pots and pans, and still nothing but the great fire in
+the kitchen brought the blood to their cheeks.
+
+However, Lisa was a woman of practical common sense, and speedily saw
+the folly of allowing eighty-five thousand francs to lie idle in a chest
+of drawers. Quenu would have willingly stowed them away again at the
+bottom of the salting-tub until he had gained as much more, when they
+could have retired from business and have gone to live at Suresnes, a
+suburb to which both were partial. Lisa, however, had other ambitions.
+The Rue Pirouette did not accord with her ideas of cleanliness, her
+craving for fresh air, light, and healthy life. The shop where Uncle
+Gradelle had accumulated his fortune, sou by sou, was a long, dark
+place, one of those suspicious looking pork butchers' shops of the old
+quarters of the city, where the well-worn flagstones retain a strong
+odour of meat in spite of constant washings. Now the young woman longed
+for one of those bright modern shops, ornamented like a drawing-room,
+and fringing the footway of some broad street with windows of
+crystalline transparence. She was not actuated by any petty ambition to
+play the fine lady behind a stylish counter, but clearly realised that
+commerce in its latest development needed elegant surroundings. Quenu
+showed much alarm the first time his wife suggested that they ought to
+move and spend some of their money in decorating a new shop. However,
+Lisa only shrugged her shoulders and smiled at finding him so timorous.
+
+One evening, when night was falling and the shop had grown dark, Quenu
+and Lisa overheard a woman of the neighbourhood talking to a friend
+outside their door.
+
+"No, indeed! I've given up dealing with them," said she. "I wouldn't buy
+a bit of black-pudding from them now on any account. They had a dead man
+in their kitchen, you know."
+
+Quenu wept with vexation. The story of Gradelle's death in the kitchen
+was clearly getting about; and his nephew began to blush before his
+customers when he saw them sniffing his wares too closely. So, of his
+own accord, he spoke to his wife of her proposal to take a new shop.
+Lisa, without saying anything, had already been looking out for other
+premises, and had found some, admirably situated, only a few yards
+away, in the Rue Rambuteau. The immediate neighbourhood of the central
+markets, which were being opened just opposite, would triple their
+business, and make their shop known all over Paris.
+
+Quenu allowed himself to be drawn into a lavish expenditure of money; he
+laid out over thirty thousand francs in marble, glass, and gilding.
+Lisa spent hours with the workmen, giving her views about the slightest
+details. When she was at last installed behind the counter, customers
+arrived in a perfect procession, merely for the sake of examining the
+shop. The inside walls were lined from top to bottom with white marble.
+The ceiling was covered with a huge square mirror, framed by a broad
+gilded cornice, richly ornamented, whilst from the centre hung a crystal
+chandelier with four branches. And behind the counter, and on the left,
+and at the far end of the shop were other mirrors, fitted between the
+marble panels and looking like doors opening into an infinite series
+of brightly lighted halls, where all sorts of appetising edibles were
+displayed. The huge counter on the right hand was considered a very fine
+piece of work. At intervals along the front were lozenge-shaped panels
+of pinky marble. The flooring was of tiles, alternately white and pink,
+with a deep red fretting as border. The whole neighbourhood was proud
+of the shop, and no one again thought of referring to the kitchen in
+the Rue Pirouette, where a man had died. For quite a month women stopped
+short on the footway to look at Lisa between the saveloys and bladders
+in the window. Her white and pink flesh excited as much admiration as
+the marbles. She seemed to be the soul, the living light, the healthy,
+sturdy idol of the pork trade; and thenceforth one and all baptised her
+"Lisa the beauty."
+
+To the right of the shop was the dining-room, a neat looking apartment
+containing a sideboard, a table, and several cane-seated chairs of light
+oak. The matting on the floor, the wallpaper of a soft yellow tint, the
+oil-cloth table-cover, coloured to imitate oak, gave the room a somewhat
+cold appearance, which was relieved only by the glitter of a brass
+hanging lamp, suspended from the ceiling, and spreading its big shade
+of transparent porcelain over the table. One of the dining-room doors
+opened into the huge square kitchen, at the end of which was a small
+paved courtyard, serving for the storage of lumber--tubs, barrels
+and pans, and all kinds of utensils not in use. To the left of the
+water-tap, alongside the gutter which carried off the greasy water,
+stood pots of faded flowers, removed from the shop window, and slowly
+dying.
+
+Business was excellent. Quenu, who had been much alarmed by the initial
+outlay, now regarded his wife with something like respect, and told his
+friends that she had "a wonderful head." At the end of five years they
+had nearly eighty thousand francs invested in the State funds. Lisa
+would say that they were not ambitious, that they had no desire to pile
+up money too quickly, or else she would have enabled her husband to
+gain hundreds and thousands of francs by prompting him to embark in the
+wholesale pig trade. But they were still young, and had plenty of
+time before them; besides, they didn't care about a rough, scrambling
+business, but preferred to work at their ease, and enjoy life, instead
+of wearing themselves out with endless anxieties.
+
+"For instance," Lisa would add in her expansive moments, "I have, you
+know, a cousin in Paris. I never see him, as the two families have
+fallen out. He has taken the name of Saccard,[*] on account of certain
+matters which he wants to be forgotten. Well, this cousin of mine, I'm
+told, makes millions and millions of francs; but he gets no enjoyment
+out of life. He's always in a state of feverish excitement, always
+rushing hither and thither, up to his neck in all sorts of worrying
+business. Well, it's impossible, isn't it, for such a man to eat his
+dinner peaceably in the evening? We, at any rate, can take our meals
+comfortably, and make sure of what we eat, and we are not harassed by
+worries as he is. The only reason why people should care for money
+is that money's wanted for one to live. People like comfort; that's
+natural. But as for making money simply for the sake of making it, and
+giving yourself far more trouble and anxiety to gain it than you can
+ever get pleasure from it when it's gained, why, as for me, I'd rather
+sit still and cross my arms. And besides, I should like to see all those
+millions of my cousin's. I can't say that I altogether believe in
+them. I caught sight of him the other day in his carriage. He was quite
+yellow, and looked ever so sly. A man who's making money doesn't have
+that kind of expression. But it's his business, and not mine. For our
+part, we prefer to make merely a hundred sous at a time, and to get a
+hundred sous' worth of enjoyment out of them."
+
+[*] See M. Zola's novel, _Money_.
+
+The household was undoubtedly thriving. A daughter had been born to the
+young couple during their first year of wedlock, and all three of
+them looked blooming. The business went on prosperously, without any
+laborious fatigue, just as Lisa desired. She had carefully kept free of
+any possible source of trouble or anxiety, and the days went by in an
+atmosphere of peaceful, unctuous prosperity. Their home was a nook of
+sensible happiness--a comfortable manger, so to speak, where father,
+mother, and daughter could grow sleek and fat. It was only Quenu who
+occasionally felt sad, through thinking of his brother Florent. Up to
+the year 1856 he had received letters from him at long intervals. Then
+no more came, and he had learned from a newspaper that three convicts
+having attempted to escape from the Ile du Diable, had been drowned
+before they were able to reach the mainland. He had made inquiries
+at the Prefecture of Police, but had not learnt anything definite; it
+seemed probable that his brother was dead. However, he did not lose
+all hope, though months passed without any tidings. Florent, in the
+meantime, was wandering about Dutch Guiana, and refrained from writing
+home as he was ever in hope of being able to return to France. Quenu at
+last began to mourn for him as one mourns for those whom one has been
+unable to bid farewell. Lisa had never known Florent, but she spoke
+very kindly whenever she saw her husband give way to his sorrow; and
+she evinced no impatience when for the hundredth time or so he began to
+relate stories of his early days, of his life in the big room in the
+Rue Royer Collard, the thirty-six trades which he had taken up one after
+another, and the dainties which he had cooked at the stove, dressed all
+in white, while Florent was dressed all in black. To such talk as this,
+indeed, she listened placidly, with a complacency which never wearied.
+
+It was into the midst of all this happiness, ripening after careful
+culture, that Florent dropped one September morning just as Lisa was
+taking her matutinal bath of sunshine, and Quenu, with his eyes still
+heavy with sleep, was lazily applying his fingers to the congealed fat
+left in the pans from the previous evening. Florent's arrival caused
+a great commotion. Gavard advised them to conceal the "outlaw," as
+he somewhat pompously called Florent. Lisa, who looked pale, and more
+serious than was her wont, at last took him to the fifth floor, where
+she gave him the room belonging to the girl who assisted her in the
+shop. Quenu had cut some slices of bread and ham, but Florent was
+scarcely able to eat. He was overcome by dizziness and nausea, and went
+to bed, where he remained for five days in a state of delirium,
+the outcome of an attack of brain-fever, which fortunately received
+energetic treatment. When he recovered consciousness he perceived Lisa
+sitting by his bedside, silently stirring some cooling drink in a cup.
+As he tried to thank her, she told him that he must keep perfectly
+quiet, and that they could talk together later on. At the end of another
+three days Florent was on his feet again. Then one morning Quenu went up
+to tell him that Lisa awaited them in her room on the first floor.
+
+Quenu and his wife there occupied a suite of three rooms and a
+dressing-room. You first passed through an antechamber, containing
+nothing but chairs, and then a small sitting-room, whose furniture,
+shrouded in white covers, slumbered in the gloom cast by the Venetian
+shutters, which were always kept closed so as to prevent the light blue
+of the upholstery from fading. Then came the bedroom, the only one of
+the three which was really used. It was very comfortably furnished in
+mahogany. The bed, bulky and drowsy of aspect in the depths of the
+damp alcove, was really wonderful, with its four mattresses, its four
+pillows, its layers of blankets, and its corpulent _edredon_. It was
+evidently a bed intended for slumber. A mirrored wardrobe, a washstand
+with drawers, a small central table with a worked cover, and several
+chairs whose seats were protected by squares of lace, gave the room an
+aspect of plain but substantial middle-class luxury. On the left-hand
+wall, on either side of the mantelpiece, which was ornamented with some
+landscape-painted vases mounted on bronze stands, and a gilt timepiece
+on which a figure of Gutenberg, also gilt, stood in an attitude of
+deep thought, hung portraits in oils of Quenu and Lisa, in ornate
+oval frames. Quenu had a smiling face, while Lisa wore an air of grave
+propriety; and both were dressed in black and depicted in flattering
+fashion, their features idealised, their skins wondrously smooth,
+their complexions soft and pinky. A carpet, in the Wilton style, with
+a complicated pattern of roses mingling with stars, concealed the
+flooring; while in front of the bed was a fluffy mat, made out of long
+pieces of curly wool, a work of patience at which Lisa herself had
+toiled while seated behind her counter. But the most striking object
+of all in the midst of this array of new furniture was a great square,
+thick-set secretaire, which had been re-polished in vain, for the cracks
+and notches in the marble top and the scratches on the old mahogany
+front, quite black with age, still showed plainly. Lisa had desired to
+retain this piece of furniture, however, as Uncle Gradelle had used it
+for more than forty years. It would bring them good luck, she said. It's
+metal fastenings were truly something terrible, it's lock was like that
+of a prison gate, and it was so heavy that it could scarcely be moved.
+
+When Florent and Quenu entered the room they found Lisa seated at the
+lowered desk of the secretaire, writing and putting down figures in a
+big, round, and very legible hand. She signed to them not to disturb
+her, and the two men sat down. Florent looked round the room, and
+notably at the two portraits, the bed and the timepiece, with an air of
+surprise.
+
+"There!" at last exclaimed Lisa, after having carefully verified a whole
+page of calculations. "Listen to me now; we have an account to render to
+you, my dear Florent."
+
+It was the first time that she had so addressed him. However, taking up
+the page of figures, she continued: "Your Uncle Gradelle died without
+leaving a will. Consequently you and your brother are his sole heirs. We
+now have to hand your share over to you."
+
+"But I do not ask you for anything!" exclaimed Florent, "I don't wish
+for anything!"
+
+Quenu had apparently been in ignorance of his wife's intentions. He
+turned rather pale and looked at her with an expression of displeasure.
+Of course, he certainly loved his brother dearly; but there was no
+occasion to hurl his uncle's money at him in this way. There would have
+been plenty of time to go into the matter later on.
+
+"I know very well, my dear Florent," continued Lisa, "that you did not
+come back with the intention of claiming from us what belongs to you;
+but business is business, you know, and we had better get things settled
+at once. Your uncle's savings amounted to eighty-five thousand francs. I
+have therefore put down forty-two thousand five hundred to your credit.
+See!"
+
+She showed him the figures on the sheet of paper.
+
+"It is unfortunately not so easy to value the shop, plant,
+stock-in-trade, and goodwill. I have only been able to put down
+approximate amounts, but I don't think I have underestimated anything.
+Well, the total valuation which I have made comes to fifteen thousand
+three hundred and ten francs; your half of which is seven thousand six
+hundred and fifty-five francs, so that your share amounts, in all, to
+fifty thousand one hundred and fifty-five francs. Please verify it for
+yourself, will you?"
+
+She had called out the figures in a clear, distinct voice, and she now
+handed the paper to Florent, who was obliged to take it.
+
+"But the old man's business was certainly never worth fifteen thousand
+francs!" cried Quenu. "Why, I wouldn't have given ten thousand for it!"
+
+He had ended by getting quite angry with his wife. Really, it was absurd
+to carry honesty to such a point as that! Had Florent said one word
+about the business? No, indeed, he had declared that he didn't wish for
+anything.
+
+"The business was worth fifteen thousand three hundred and ten francs,"
+Lisa re-asserted, calmly. "You will agree with me, my dear Florent, that
+it is quite unnecessary to bring a lawyer into our affairs. It is for us
+to arrange the division between ourselves, since you have now turned up
+again. I naturally thought of this as soon as you arrived; and, while
+you were in bed with the fever, I did my best to draw up this little
+inventory. It contains, as you see, a fairly complete statement of
+everything. I have been through our old books, and have called up my
+memory to help me. Read it aloud, and I will give you any additional
+information you may want."
+
+Florent ended by smiling. He was touched by this easy and, as it were,
+natural display of probity. Placing the sheet of figures on the young
+woman's knee, he took hold of her hand and said, "I am very glad, my
+dear Lisa, to hear that you are prosperous, but I will not take your
+money. The heritage belongs to you and my brother, who took care of my
+uncle up to the last. I don't require anything, and I don't intend to
+hamper you in carrying on your business."
+
+Lisa insisted, and even showed some vexation, while Quenu gnawed his
+thumbs in silence to restrain himself.
+
+"Ah!" resumed Florent with a laugh, "if Uncle Gradelle could hear you,
+I think he'd come back and take the money away again. I was never a
+favourite of his, you know."
+
+"Well, no," muttered Quenu, no longer able to keep still, "he certainly
+wasn't over fond of you."
+
+Lisa, however, still pressed the matter. She did not like to have money
+in her secretaire that did not belong to her; it would worry her, said
+she; the thought of it would disturb her peace. Thereupon Florent, still
+in a joking way, proposed to invest his share in the business. Moreover,
+said he, he did not intend to refuse their help; he would, no doubt, be
+unable to find employment all at once; and then, too, he would need a
+complete outfit, for he was scarcely presentable.
+
+"Of course," cried Quenu, "you will board and lodge with us, and we will
+buy you all that you want. That's understood. You know very well that we
+are not likely to leave you in the streets, I hope!"
+
+He was quite moved now, and even felt a trifle ashamed of the alarm he
+had experienced at the thought of having to hand over a large amount of
+money all at once. He began to joke, and told his brother that he would
+undertake to fatten him. Florent gently shook his hand; while Lisa
+folded up the sheet of figures and put it away in a drawer of the
+secretaire.
+
+"You are wrong," she said by way of conclusion. "I have done what I was
+bound to do. Now it shall be as you wish. But, for my part, I should
+never have had a moment's peace if I had not put things before you. Bad
+thoughts would quite upset me."
+
+They then began to speak of another matter. It would be necessary to
+give some reason for Florent's presence, and at the same time avoid
+exciting the suspicion of the police. He told them that in order to
+return to France he had availed himself of the papers of a poor fellow
+who had died in his arms at Surinam from yellow fever. By a singular
+coincidence this young fellow's Christian name was Florent.
+
+Florent Laquerriere, to give him his name in full, had left but one
+relation in Paris, a female cousin, and had been informed of her death
+while in America. Nothing could therefore be easier than for Quenu's
+half brother to pass himself off as the man who had died at Surinam.
+Lisa offered to take upon herself the part of the female cousin. They
+then agreed to relate that their cousin Florent had returned from
+abroad, where he had failed in his attempts to make a fortune, and that
+they, the Quenu-Gradelles, as they were called in the neighbourhood, had
+received him into their house until he could find suitable employment.
+When this was all settled, Quenu insisted upon his brother making
+a thorough inspection of the rooms, and would not spare him the
+examination of a single stool. Whilst they were in the bare looking
+chamber containing nothing but chairs, Lisa pushed open a door, and
+showing Florent a small dressing room, told him that the shop girl
+should sleep in it, so that he could retain the bedroom on the fifth
+floor.
+
+In the evening Florent was arrayed in new clothes from head to foot.
+He had insisted upon again having a black coat and black trousers, much
+against the advice of Quenu, upon whom black had a depressing effect.
+No further attempts were made to conceal his presence in the house, and
+Lisa told the story which had been planned to everyone who cared to
+hear it. Henceforth Florent spent almost all his time on the premises,
+lingering on a chair in the kitchen or leaning against the marble-work
+in the shop. At meal times Quenu plied him with food, and evinced
+considerable vexation when he proved such a small eater and left half
+the contents of his liberally filled plate untouched. Lisa had resumed
+her old life, evincing a kindly tolerance of her brother-in-law's
+presence, even in the morning, when he somewhat interfered with the
+work. Then she would momentarily forget him, and on suddenly perceiving
+his black form in front of her give a slight start of surprise,
+followed, however, by one of her sweet smiles, lest he might feel at
+all hurt. This skinny man's disinterestedness had impressed her, and she
+regarded him with a feeling akin to respect, mingled with vague fear.
+Florent had for his part only felt that there was great affection around
+him.
+
+When bedtime came he went upstairs, a little wearied by his lazy day,
+with the two young men whom Quenu employed as assistants, and who slept
+in attics adjoining his own. Leon, the apprentice, was barely fifteen
+years of age. He was a slight, gentle looking lad, addicted to stealing
+stray slices of ham and bits of sausages. These he would conceal under
+his pillow, eating them during the night without any bread. Several
+times at about one o'clock in the morning Florent almost fancied that
+Leon was giving a supper-party; for he heard low whispering followed by
+a sound of munching jaws and rustling paper. And then a rippling girlish
+laugh would break faintly on the deep silence of the sleeping house like
+the soft trilling of a flageolet.
+
+The other assistant, Auguste Landois, came from Troyes. Bloated with
+unhealthy fat, he had too large a head, and was already bald, although
+only twenty-eight years of age. As he went upstairs with Florent on the
+first evening, he told him his story in a confused, garrulous way. He
+had at first come to Paris merely for the purpose of perfecting himself
+in the business, intending to return to Troyes, where his cousin,
+Augustine Landois, was waiting for him, and there setting up for himself
+as a pork butcher. He and she had had the game godfather and bore
+virtually the same Christian name. However, he had grown ambitious; and
+now hoped to establish himself in business in Paris by the aid of the
+money left him by his mother, which he had deposited with a notary
+before leaving Champagne.
+
+Auguste had got so far in his narrative when the fifth floor was
+reached; however, he still detained Florent, in order to sound the
+praises of Madame Quenu, who had consented to send for Augustine Landois
+to replace an assistant who had turned out badly. He himself was now
+thoroughly acquainted with his part of the business, and his cousin was
+perfecting herself in shop management. In a year or eighteen months they
+would be married, and then they would set up on their own account in
+some populous corner of Paris, at Plaisance most likely. They were in no
+great hurry, he added, for the bacon trade was very bad that year.
+Then he proceeded to tell Florent that he and his cousin had been
+photographed together at the fair of St. Ouen, and he entered the attic
+to have another look at the photograph, which Augustine had left on
+the mantelpiece, in her desire that Madame Quenu's cousin should have a
+pretty room. Auguste lingered there for a moment, looking quite livid
+in the dim yellow light of his candle, and casting his eyes around the
+little chamber which was still full of memorials of the young girl.
+Next, stepping up to the bed, he asked Florent if it was comfortable.
+His cousin slept below now, said he, and would be better there in the
+winter, for the attics were very cold. Then at last he went off, leaving
+Florent alone with the bed, and standing in front of the photograph.
+As shown on the latter Auguste looked like a sort of pale Quenu, and
+Augustine like an immature Lisa.
+
+Florent, although on friendly terms with the assistants, petted by his
+brother, and cordially treated by Lisa, presently began to feel very
+bored. He had tried, but without success, to obtain some pupils;
+moreover, he purposely avoided the students' quarter for fear of being
+recognised. Lisa gently suggested to him that he had better try to
+obtain a situation in some commercial house, where he could take charge
+of the correspondence and keep the books. She returned to this subject
+again and again, and at last offered to find a berth for him herself.
+She was gradually becoming impatient at finding him so often in her way,
+idle, and not knowing what to do with himself. At first this impatience
+was merely due to the dislike she felt of people who do nothing but
+cross their arms and eat, and she had no thought of reproaching him for
+consuming her substance.
+
+"For my own part," she would say to him, "I could never spend the whole
+day in dreamy lounging. You can't have any appetite for your meals. You
+ought to tire yourself."
+
+Gavard, also, was seeking a situation for Florent, but in a very
+extraordinary and most mysterious fashion. He would have liked to find
+some employment of a dramatic character, or in which there should be a
+touch of bitter irony, as was suitable for an outlaw. Gavard was a man
+who was always in opposition. He had just completed his fiftieth year,
+and he boasted that he had already passed judgment on four Governments.
+He still contemptuously shrugged his shoulders at the thought of Charles
+X, the priests and nobles and other attendant rabble, whom he had helped
+to sweep away. Louis Philippe, with his bourgeois following, had been an
+imbecile, and he could tell how the citizen-king had hoarded his coppers
+in a woollen stocking. As for the Republic of '48, that had been a
+mere farce, the working classes had deceived him; however, he no longer
+acknowledged that he had applauded the Coup d'Etat, for he now looked
+upon Napoleon III as his personal enemy, a scoundrel who shut himself
+up with Morny and others to indulge in gluttonous orgies. He was never
+weary of holding forth upon this subject. Lowering his voice a little,
+he would declare that women were brought to the Tuileries in closed
+carriages every evening, and that he, who was speaking, had one night
+heard the echoes of the orgies while crossing the Place du Carrousel. It
+was Gavard's religion to make himself as disagreeable as possible to any
+existing Government. He would seek to spite it in all sorts of ways,
+and laugh in secret for several months at the pranks he played. To begin
+with, he voted for candidates who would worry the Ministers at the Corps
+Legislatif. Then, if he could rob the revenue, or baffle the police, and
+bring about a row of some kind or other, he strove to give the affair as
+much of an insurrectionary character as possible. He told a great many
+lies, too; set himself up as being a very dangerous man; talked as
+though "the satellites of the Tuileries" were well acquainted with him
+and trembled at the sight of him; and asserted that one half of them
+must be guillotined, and the other half transported, the next time there
+was "a flare-up." His violent political creed found food in boastful,
+bragging talk of this sort; he displayed all the partiality for a
+lark and a rumpus which prompts a Parisian shopkeeper to take down
+his shutters on a day of barricade-fighting to get a good view of the
+corpses of the slain. When Florent returned from Cayenne, Gavard opined
+that he had got hold of a splendid chance for some abominable trick, and
+bestowed much thought upon the question of how he might best vent his
+spleen on the Emperor and Ministers and everyone in office, down to the
+very lowest police constable.
+
+Gavard's manners with Florent were altogether those of a man tasting
+some forbidden pleasure. He contemplated him with blinking eyes, lowered
+his voice even when making the most trifling remark, and grasped his
+hand with all sorts of masonic flummery. He had at last lighted upon
+something in the way of an adventure; he had a friend who was really
+compromised, and could, without falsehood speak of the dangers he
+incurred. He undoubtedly experienced a secret alarm at the sight of
+this man who had returned from transportation, and whose fleshlessness
+testified to the long sufferings he had endured; however, this touch of
+alarm was delightful, for it increased his notion of his own importance,
+and convinced him that he was really doing something wonderful in
+treating a dangerous character as a friend. Florent became a sort of
+sacred being in his eyes: he swore by him alone, and had recourse to his
+name whenever arguments failed him and he wanted to crush the Government
+once and for all.
+
+Gavard had lost his wife in the Rue Saint Jacques some months after the
+Coup d'Etat; however, he had kept on his roasting shop till 1856. At
+that time it was reported that he had made large sums of money by going
+into partnership with a neighbouring grocer who had obtained a contract
+for supplying dried vegetables to the Crimean expeditionary corps. The
+truth was, however, that, having sold his shop, he lived on his income
+for a year without doing anything. He himself did not care to talk
+about the real origin of his fortune, for to have revealed it would have
+prevented him from plainly expressing his opinion of the Crimean War,
+which he referred to as a mere adventurous expedition, "undertaken
+simply to consolidate the throne and to fill certain persons' pockets."
+At the end of a year he had grown utterly weary of life in his bachelor
+quarters. As he was in the habit of visiting the Quenu-Gradelles almost
+daily, he determined to take up his residence nearer to them, and came
+to live in the Rue de la Cossonnerie. The neighbouring markets, with
+their noisy uproar and endless chatter, quite fascinated him; and he
+decided to hire a stall in the poultry pavilion, just for the purpose
+of amusing himself and occupying his idle hours with all the gossip.
+Thenceforth he lived amidst ceaseless tittle-tattle, acquainted with
+every little scandal in the neighbourhood, his head buzzing with
+the incessant yelping around him. He blissfully tasted a thousand
+titillating delights, having at last found his true element, and bathing
+in it, with the voluptuous pleasure of a carp swimming in the sunshine.
+Florent would sometimes go to see him at his stall. The afternoons were
+still very warm. All along the narrow alleys sat women plucking
+poultry. Rays of light streamed in between the awnings, and in the
+warm atmosphere, in the golden dust of the sunbeams, feathers fluttered
+hither and thither like dancing snowflakes. A trail of coaxing calls and
+offers followed Florent as he passed along. "Can I sell you a fine duck,
+monsieur?" "I've some very fine fat chickens here, monsieur; come and
+see!" "Monsieur! monsieur, do just buy this pair of pigeons!" Deafened
+and embarrassed he freed himself from the women, who still went on
+plucking as they fought for possession of him; and the fine down flew
+about and wellnigh choked him, like hot smoke reeking with the strong
+odour of the poultry. At last, in the middle of the alley, near the
+water-taps, he found Gavard ranting away in his shirt-sleeves, in front
+of his stall, with his arms crossed over the bib of his blue apron. He
+reigned there, in a gracious, condescending way, over a group of ten or
+twelve women. He was the only male dealer in that part of the market.
+He was so fond of wagging his tongue that he had quarrelled with five or
+six girls whom he had successively engaged to attend to his stall, and
+had now made up his mind to sell his goods himself, naively explaining
+that the silly women spent the whole blessed day in gossiping, and that
+it was beyond his power to manage them. As someone, however, was still
+necessary to supply his place whenever he absented himself he took in
+Marjolin, who was prowling about, after attempting in turn all the petty
+market callings.
+
+Florent sometimes remained for an hour with Gavard, amazed by his
+ceaseless flow of chatter, and his calm serenity and assurance amid the
+crowd of petticoats. He would interrupt one woman, pick a quarrel with
+another ten stalls away, snatch a customer from a third, and make as
+much noise himself as his hundred and odd garrulous neighbours, whose
+incessant clamour kept the iron plates of the pavilion vibrating
+sonorously like so many gongs.
+
+The poultry dealer's only relations were a sister-in-law and a niece.
+When his wife died, her eldest sister, Madame Lecoeur, who had become
+a widow about a year previously, had mourned for her in an exaggerated
+fashion, and gone almost every evening to tender consolation to the
+bereaved husband. She had doubtless cherished the hope that she might
+win his affection and fill the yet warm place of the deceased. Gavard,
+however, abominated lean women; and would, indeed, only stroke such
+cats and dogs as were very fat; so that Madame Lecoeur, who was long and
+withered, failed in her designs.
+
+With her feelings greatly hurt, furious at the ex-roaster's five-franc
+pieces eluding her grasp, she nurtured great spite against him. He
+became the enemy to whom she devoted all her time. When she saw him
+set up in the markets only a few yards away from the pavilion where she
+herself sold butter and eggs and cheese, she accused him of doing so
+simply for the sake of annoying her and bringing her bad luck. From that
+moment she began to lament, and turned so yellow and melancholy that she
+indeed ended by losing her customers and getting into difficulties. She
+had for a long time kept with her the daughter of one of her sisters,
+a peasant woman who had sent her the child and then taken no further
+trouble about it.
+
+This child grew up in the markets. Her surname was Sarriet, and so she
+soon became generally known as La Sarriette. At sixteen years of age she
+had developed into such a charming sly-looking puss that gentlemen came
+to buy cheeses at her aunt's stall simply for the purpose of ogling her.
+She did not care for the gentlemen, however; with her dark hair, pale
+face, and eyes glistening like live embers, her sympathies were with the
+lower ranks of the people. At last she chose as her lover a young man
+from Menilmontant who was employed by her aunt as a porter. At twenty
+she set up in business as a fruit dealer with the help of some funds
+procured no one knew how; and thenceforth Monsieur Jules, as her lover
+was called, displayed spotless hands, a clean blouse, and a velvet cap;
+and only came down to the market in the afternoon, in his slippers.
+They lived together on the third storey of a large house in the Rue
+Vauvilliers, on the ground floor of which was a disreputable cafe.
+
+Madame Lecoeur's acerbity of temper was brought to a pitch by what she
+called La Sarriette's ingratitude, and she spoke of the girl in the most
+violent and abusive language. They broke off all intercourse, the aunt
+fairly exasperated, and the niece and Monsieur Jules concocting stories
+about the aunt, which the young man would repeat to the other dealers
+in the butter pavilion. Gavard found La Sarriette very entertaining,
+and treated her with great indulgence. Whenever they met he would
+good-naturedly pat her cheeks.
+
+One afternoon, whilst Florent was sitting in his brother's shop, tired
+out with the fruitless pilgrimages he had made during the morning in
+search of work, Marjolin made his appearance there. This big lad,
+who had the massiveness and gentleness of a Fleming, was a protege of
+Lisa's. She would say that there was no evil in him; that he was
+indeed a little bit stupid, but as strong as a horse, and particularly
+interesting from the fact that nobody knew anything of his parentage. It
+was she who had got Gavard to employ him.
+
+Lisa was sitting behind the counter, feeling annoyed by the sight of
+Florent's muddy boots which were soiling the pink and white tiles of the
+flooring. Twice already had she risen to scatter sawdust about the shop.
+However, she smiled at Marjolin as he entered.
+
+"Monsieur Gavard," began the young man, "has sent me to ask--"
+
+But all at once he stopped and glanced round; then in a lower voice he
+resumed: "He told me to wait till there was no one with you, and then to
+repeat these words, which he made me learn by heart: 'Ask them if there
+is no danger, and if I can come and talk to them of the matter they know
+about.'"
+
+"Tell Monsieur Gavard that we are expecting him," replied Lisa, who was
+quite accustomed to the poultry dealer's mysterious ways.
+
+Marjolin, however, did not go away; but remained in ecstasy before the
+handsome mistress of the shop, contemplating her with an expression of
+fawning humility.
+
+Touched, as it were, by this mute adoration, Lisa spoke to him again.
+
+"Are you comfortable with Monsieur Gavard?" she asked. "He's not an
+unkind man, and you ought to try to please him."
+
+"Yes, Madame Lisa."
+
+"But you don't behave as you should, you know. Only yesterday I saw you
+clambering about the roofs of the market again; and, besides, you are
+constantly with a lot of disreputable lads and lasses. You ought to
+remember that you are a man now, and begin to think of the future."
+
+"Yes, Madame Lisa."
+
+However, Lisa had to get up to wait upon a lady who came in and wanted
+a pound of pork chops. She left the counter and went to the block at
+the far end of the shop. Here, with a long, slender knife, she cut three
+chops in a loin of pork; and then, raising a small cleaver with her
+strong hand, dealt three sharp blows which separated the chops from
+the loin. At each blow she dealt, her black merino dress rose slightly
+behind her, and the ribs of her stays showed beneath her tightly
+stretched bodice. She slowly took up the chops and weighed them with an
+air of gravity, her eyes gleaming and her lips tightly closed.
+
+When the lady had gone, and Lisa perceived Marjolin still full of
+delight at having seen her deal those three clean, forcible blows with
+the cleaver, she at once called out to him, "What! haven't you gone
+yet?"
+
+He thereupon turned to go, but she detained him for a moment longer.
+
+"Now, don't let me see you again with that hussy Cadine," she said. "Oh,
+it's no use to deny it! I saw you together this morning in the tripe
+market, watching men breaking the sheep's heads. I can't understand
+what attraction a good-looking young fellow like you can find in such a
+slipshod slattern as Cadine. Now then, go and tell Monsieur Gavard that
+he had better come at once, while there's no one about."
+
+Marjolin thereupon went off in confusion, without saying a word.
+
+Handsome Lisa remained standing behind her counter, with her head turned
+slightly in the direction of her markets, and Florent gazed at her in
+silence, surprised to see her looking so beautiful. He had never looked
+at her properly before; indeed, he did not know the right way to look at
+a woman. He now saw her rising above the viands on the counter. In front
+of her was an array of white china dishes, containing long Arles and
+Lyons sausages, slices of which had already been cut off, with tongues
+and pieces of boiled pork; then a pig's head in a mass of jelly; an open
+pot of preserved sausage-meat, and a large box of sardines disclosing a
+pool of oil. On the right and left, upon wooden platters, were mounds
+of French and Italian brawn, a common French ham, of a pinky hue, and a
+Yorkshire ham, whose deep red lean showed beneath a broad band of fat.
+There were other dishes too, round ones and oval ones, containing spiced
+tongue, truffled galantine, and a boar's head stuffed with pistachio
+nuts; while close to her, in reach of her hand, stood some yellow
+earthen pans containing larded veal, _pate de foie gras_, and hare-pie.
+
+As there were no signs of Gavard's coming, she arranged some fore-end
+bacon upon a little marble shelf at the end of the counter, put the jars
+of lard and dripping back into their places, wiped the plates of each
+pair of scales, and saw to the fire of the heater, which was getting
+low. Then she turned her head again, and gazed in silence towards
+the markets. The smell of all the viands ascended around her, she was
+enveloped, as it were, by the aroma of truffles. She looked beautifully
+fresh that afternoon. The whiteness of all the dishes was supplemented
+by that of her sleevelets and apron, above which appeared her plump
+neck and rosy cheeks, which recalled the soft tones of the hams and the
+pallor of all the transparent fat.
+
+As Florent continued to gaze at her he began to feel intimidated,
+disquieted by her prim, sedate demeanour; and in lieu of openly looking
+at her he ended by glancing surreptitiously in the mirrors around the
+shop, in which her back and face and profile could be seen. The mirror
+on the ceiling, too, reflected the top of her head, with its tightly
+rolled chignon and the little bands lowered over her temples. There
+seemed, indeed, to be a perfect crowd of Lisas, with broad shoulders,
+powerful arms, and round, full bosoms. At last Florent checked his
+roving eyes, and let them rest on a particularly pleasing side view of
+the young woman as mirrored between two pieces of pork. From the hooks
+running along the whole line of mirrors and marbles hung sides of pork
+and bands of larding fat; and Lisa, with her massive neck, rounded hips,
+and swelling bosom seen in profile, looked like some waxwork queen in
+the midst of the dangling fat and meat. However, she bent forward and
+smiled in a friendly way at the two gold-fish which were ever and ever
+swimming round the aquarium in the window.
+
+Gavard entered the shop. With an air of great importance he went to
+fetch Quenu from the kitchen. Then he seated himself upon a small
+marble-topped table, while Florent remained on his chair and Lisa behind
+the counter; Quenu meantime leaning his back against a side of pork.
+And thereupon Gavard announced that he had at last found a situation for
+Florent. They would be vastly amused when they heard what it was, and
+the Government would be nicely caught.
+
+But all at once he stopped short, for a passing neighbour, Mademoiselle
+Saget, having seen such a large party gossiping together at the
+Quenu-Gradelles', had opened the door and entered the shop. Carrying
+her everlasting black ribbonless straw hat, which appropriately cast a
+shadow over her prying white face, she saluted the men with a slight bow
+and Lisa with a sharp smile.
+
+She was an acquaintance of the family, and still lived in the house
+in the Rue Pirouette where she had resided for the last forty years,
+probably on a small private income; but of that she never spoke. She
+had, however, one day talked of Cherbourg, mentioning that she had been
+born there. Nothing further was ever known of her antecedents. All her
+conversation was about other people; she could tell the whole story of
+their daily lives, even to the number of things they sent to be
+washed each month; and she carried her prying curiosity concerning her
+neighbours' affairs so far as to listen behind their doors and open
+their letters. Her tongue was feared from the Rue Saint Denis to the
+Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and from the Rue Saint Honore to the Rue
+Mauconseil. All day long she went ferreting about with her empty bag,
+pretending that she was marketing, but in reality buying nothing, as her
+sole purpose was to retail scandal and gossip, and keep herself fully
+informed of every trifling incident that happened. Indeed, she had
+turned her brain into an encyclopaedia brimful of every possible
+particular concerning the people of the neighbourhood and their homes.
+
+Quenu had always accused her of having spread the story of his Uncle
+Gradelle's death on the chopping-block, and had borne her a grudge ever
+since. She was extremely well posted in the history of Uncle Gradelle
+and the Quenus, and knew them, she would say, by heart. For the last
+fortnight, however, Florent's arrival had greatly perplexed her, filled
+her, indeed, with a perfect fever of curiosity. She became quite ill
+when she discovered any unforeseen gap in her information. And yet she
+could have sworn that she had seen that tall lanky fellow somewhere or
+other before.
+
+She remained standing in front of the counter, examining the dishes one
+after another, and saying in a shrill voice:
+
+"I hardly know what to have. When the afternoon comes I feel quite
+famished for my dinner, and then, later on, I don't seem able to fancy
+anything at all. Have you got a cutlet rolled in bread-crumbs left,
+Madame Quenu?"
+
+Without waiting for a reply, she removed one of the covers of the
+heater. It was that of the compartment reserved for the chitterlings,
+sausages, and black-puddings. However, the chafing-dish was quite cold,
+and there was nothing left but one stray forgotten sausage.
+
+"Look under the other cover, Mademoiselle Saget," said Lisa. "I believe
+there's a cutlet there."
+
+"No, it doesn't tempt me," muttered the little old woman, poking her
+nose under the other cover, however, all the same. "I felt rather a
+fancy for one, but I'm afraid a cutlet would be rather too heavy in the
+evening. I'd rather have something, too, that I need not warm."
+
+While speaking she had turned towards Florent and looked at him; then
+she looked at Gavard, who was beating a tattoo with his finger-tips
+on the marble table. She smiled at them, as though inviting them to
+continue their conversation.
+
+"Wouldn't a little piece of salt pork suit you?" asked Lisa.
+
+"A piece of salt pork? Yes, that might do."
+
+Thereupon she took up the fork with plated handle, which was lying at
+the edge of the dish, and began to turn all the pieces of pork about,
+prodding them, lightly tapping the bones to judge of their thickness,
+and minutely scrutinising the shreds of pinky meat. And as she turned
+them over she repeated, "No, no; it doesn't tempt me."
+
+"Well, then, have a sheep's tongue, or a bit of brawn, or a slice of
+larded veal," suggested Lisa patiently.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget, however, shook her head. She remained there for
+a few minutes longer, pulling dissatisfied faces over the different
+dishes; then, seeing that the others were determined to remain silent,
+and that she would not be able to learn anything, she took herself off.
+
+"No; I rather felt a fancy for a cutlet rolled in bread-crumbs," she
+said as she left the shop, "but the one you have left is too fat. I must
+come another time."
+
+Lisa bent forward to watch her through the sausage-skins hanging in the
+shop-front, and saw her cross the road and enter the fruit market.
+
+"The old she-goat!" growled Gavard.
+
+Then, as they were now alone again, he began to tell them of the
+situation he had found for Florent. A friend of his, he said, Monsieur
+Verlaque, one of the fish market inspectors, was so ill that he was
+obliged to take a rest; and that very morning the poor man had told
+him that he should be very glad to find a substitute who would keep his
+berth open for him in case he should recover.
+
+"Verlaque, you know, won't last another six months," added Gavard, "and
+Florent will keep the place. It's a splendid idea, isn't it? And it will
+be such a take-in for the police! The berth is under the Prefecture, you
+know. What glorious fun to see Florent getting paid by the police, eh?"
+
+He burst into a hearty laugh; the idea struck him as so extremely
+comical.
+
+"I won't take the place," Florent bluntly replied. "I've sworn I'll
+never accept anything from the Empire, and I would rather die of
+starvation than serve under the Prefecture. It is quite out of the
+question, Gavard, quite so!"
+
+Gavard seemed somewhat put out on hearing this. Quenu had lowered his
+head, while Lisa, turning round, looked keenly at Florent, her neck
+swollen, her bosom straining her bodice almost to bursting point. She
+was just going to open her mouth when La Sarriette entered the shop, and
+there was another pause in the conversation.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed La Sarriette with her soft laugh, "I'd almost
+forgotten to get any bacon fat. Please, Madame Quenu, cut me a dozen
+thin strips--very thin ones, you know; I want them for larding larks.
+Jules has taken it into his head to eat some larks. Ah! how do you do,
+uncle?"
+
+She filled the whole shop with her dancing skirts and smiled brightly at
+everyone. Her face looked fresh and creamy, and on one side her hair was
+coming down, loosened by the wind which blew through the markets. Gavard
+grasped her hands, while she with merry impudence resumed: "I'll bet
+that you were talking about me just as I came in. Tell me what you were
+saying, uncle."
+
+However, Lisa now called to her, "Just look and tell me if this is thin
+enough."
+
+She was cutting the strips of bacon fat with great care on a piece of
+board in front of her. Then as she wrapped them up she inquired, "Can I
+give you anything else?"
+
+"Well, yes," replied La Sarriette; "since I'm about it, I think I'll
+have a pound of lard. I'm awfully fond of fried potatoes; I can make a
+breakfast off a penn'orth of potatoes and a bunch of radishes. Yes, I'll
+have a pound of lard, please, Madame Quenu."
+
+Lisa placed a sheet of stout paper in the pan of the scales. Then she
+took the lard out of a jar under the shelves with a boxwood spatula,
+gently adding small quantities to the fatty heap, which began to melt
+and run slightly. When the plate of the scale fell, she took up the
+paper, folded it, and rapidly twisted the ends with her finger-tips.
+
+"That makes twenty-four sous," she said; "the bacon is six sous--thirty
+sous altogether. There's nothing else you want, is there?"
+
+"No," said La Sarriette, "nothing." She paid her money, still laughing
+and showing her teeth, and staring the men in the face. Her grey skirt
+was all awry, and her loosely fastened red neckerchief allowed a little
+of her white bosom to appear. Before she went away she stepped up to
+Gavard again, and pretending to threaten him exclaimed: "So you won't
+tell me what you were talking about as I came in? I could see you
+laughing from the street. Oh, you sly fellow! Ah! I sha'n't love you any
+longer!"
+
+Then she left the shop and ran across the road.
+
+"It was Mademoiselle Saget who sent her here," remarked handsome Lisa
+drily.
+
+Then silence fell again for some moments. Gavard was dismayed at
+Florent's reception of his proposal. Lisa was the first to speak. "It
+was wrong of you to refuse the post, Florent," she said in the most
+friendly tones. "You know how difficult it is to find any employment,
+and you are not in a position to be over-exacting."
+
+"I have my reasons," Florent replied.
+
+Lisa shrugged her shoulders. "Come now," said she, "you really can't be
+serious, I'm sure. I can understand that you are not in love with the
+Government, but it would be too absurd to let your opinions prevent
+you from earning your living. And, besides, my dear fellow, the Emperor
+isn't at all a bad sort of man. You don't suppose, do you, that he knew
+you were eating mouldy bread and tainted meat? He can't be everywhere,
+you know, and you can see for yourself that he hasn't prevented us here
+from doing pretty well. You are not at all just; indeed you are not."
+
+Gavard, however, was getting very fidgety. He could not bear to hear
+people speak well of the Emperor.
+
+"No, no, Madame Quenu," he interrupted; "you are going too far. It is a
+scoundrelly system altogether."
+
+"Oh, as for you," exclaimed Lisa vivaciously, "you'll never rest until
+you've got yourself plundered and knocked on the head as the result of
+all your wild talk. Don't let us discuss politics; you would only make
+me angry. The question is Florent, isn't it? Well, for my part, I say
+that he ought to accept this inspectorship. Don't you think so too,
+Quenu?"
+
+Quenu, who had not yet said a word, was very much put out by his wife's
+sudden appeal.
+
+"It's a good berth," he replied, without compromising himself.
+
+Then, amidst another interval of awkward silence, Florent resumed: "I
+beg you, let us drop the subject. My mind is quite made up. I shall
+wait."
+
+"You will wait!" cried Lisa, losing patience.
+
+Two rosy fires had risen to her cheeks. As she stood there, erect, in
+her white apron, with rounded, swelling hips, it was with difficulty
+that she restrained herself from breaking out into bitter words.
+However, the entrance of another person into the shop arrested her
+anger. The new arrival was Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"Can you let me have half a pound of mixed meats at fifty sous the
+pound?" she asked.
+
+She at first pretended not to notice her brother-in-law; but presently
+she just nodded her head to him, without speaking. Then she scrutinised
+the three men from head to foot, doubtless hoping to divine their secret
+by the manner in which they waited for her to go. She could see that she
+was putting them out, and the knowledge of this rendered her yet more
+sour and angular, as she stood there in her limp skirts, with her long,
+spider-like arms bent and her knotted fingers clasped beneath her apron.
+Then, as she coughed slightly, Gavard, whom the silence embarrassed,
+inquired if she had a cold.
+
+She curtly answered in the negative. Her tightly stretched skin was of
+a red-brick colour on those parts of her face where her bones protruded,
+and the dull fire burning in her eyes and scorching their lids testified
+to some liver complaint nurtured by the querulous jealousy of her
+disposition. She turned round again towards the counter, and watched
+each movement made by Lisa as she served her with the distrustful glance
+of one who is convinced that an attempt will be made to defraud her.
+
+"Don't give me any saveloy," she exclaimed; "I don't like it."
+
+Lisa had taken up a slender knife, and was cutting some thin slices
+of sausage. She next passed on to the smoked ham and the common ham,
+cutting delicate slices from each, and bending forward slightly as she
+did so, with her eyes ever fixed on the knife. Her plump rosy hands,
+flitting about the viands with light and gentle touches, seemed to have
+derived suppleness from contact with all the fat.
+
+"You would like some larded veal, wouldn't you?" she asked, bringing a
+yellow pan towards her.
+
+Madame Lecoeur seemed to be thinking the matter over at considerable
+length; however, she at last said that she would have some. Lisa had
+now begun to cut into the contents of the pans, from which she removed
+slices of larded veal and hare _pate_ on the tip of a broad-bladed
+knife. And she deposited each successive slice on the middle of a sheet
+of paper placed on the scales.
+
+"Aren't you going to give me some of the boar's head with pistachio
+nuts?" asked Madame Lecoeur in her querulous voice.
+
+Lisa was obliged to add some of the boar's head. But the butter dealer
+was getting exacting, and asked for two slices of galantine. She was
+very fond of it. Lisa, who was already irritated, played impatiently
+with the handles of the knives, and told her that the galantine was
+truffled, and that she could only include it in an "assortment" at three
+francs the pound. Madame Lecoeur, however, continued to pry into the
+dishes, trying to find something else to ask for. When the "assortment"
+was weighed she made Lisa add some jelly and gherkins to it. The block
+of jelly, shaped like a Savoy cake, shook on its white china dish
+beneath the angry violence of Lisa's hand; and as with her finger-tips
+she took a couple of gherkins from a jar behind the heater, she made the
+vinegar spurt over the sides.
+
+"Twenty-five sous, isn't it?" Madame Lecoeur leisurely inquired.
+
+She fully perceived Lisa's covert irritation, and greatly enjoyed the
+sight of it, producing her money as slowly as possible, as though,
+indeed, her silver had got lost amongst the coppers in her pocket. And
+she glanced askance at Gavard, relishing the embarrassed silence which
+her presence was prolonging, and vowing that she would not go off, since
+they were hiding some trickery or other from her. However, Lisa at
+last put the parcel in her hands, and she was then obliged to make her
+departure. She went away without saying a word, but darting a searching
+glance all round the shop.
+
+"It was that Saget who sent her too!" burst out Lisa, as soon as the old
+woman was gone. "Is the old wretch going to send the whole market here
+to try to find out what we talk about? What a prying, malicious set they
+are! Did anyone ever hear before of crumbed cutlets and 'assortments'
+being bought at five o'clock in the afternoon? But then they'd rack
+themselves with indigestion rather than not find out! Upon my word,
+though, if La Saget sends anyone else here, you'll see the reception
+she'll get. I would bundle her out of the shop, even if she were my own
+sister!"
+
+The three men remained silent in presence of this explosion of anger.
+Gavard had gone to lean over the brass rail of the window-front, where,
+seemingly lost in thought, he began playing with one of the cut-glass
+balusters detached from its wire fastening. Presently, however, he
+raised his head. "Well, for my part," he said, "I looked upon it all as
+an excellent joke."
+
+"Looked upon what as a joke?" asked Lisa, still quivering with
+indignation.
+
+"The inspectorship."
+
+She raised her hands, gave a last glance at Florent, and then sat down
+upon the cushioned bench behind the counter and said nothing further.
+Gavard, however, began to explain his views at length; the drift of his
+argument being that it was the Government which would look foolish in
+the matter, since Florent would be taking its money.
+
+"My dear fellow," he said complacently, "those scoundrels all but
+starved you to death, didn't they? Well, you must make them feed you
+now. It's a splendid idea; it caught my fancy at once!"
+
+Florent smiled, but still persisted in his refusal. Quenu, in the hope
+of pleasing his wife, did his best to find some good arguments. Lisa,
+however, appeared to pay no further attention to them. For the last
+moment or two she had been looking attentively in the direction of the
+markets. And all at once she sprang to her feet again, exclaiming, "Ah!
+it is La Normande that they are sending to play the spy on us now! Well,
+so much the worse for La Normande; she shall pay for the others!"
+
+A tall female pushed the shop door open. It was the handsome fish-girl,
+Louise Mehudin, generally known as La Normande. She was a bold-looking
+beauty, with a delicate white skin, and was almost as plump as Lisa,
+but there was more effrontery in her glance, and her bosom heaved with
+warmer life. She came into the shop with a light swinging step, her gold
+chain jingling on her apron, her bare hair arranged in the latest style,
+and a bow at her throat, a lace bow, which made her one of the most
+coquettish-looking queens of the markets. She brought a vague odour
+of fish with her, and a herring-scale showed like a tiny patch of
+mother-of-pearl near the little finger of one of her hands. She and
+Lisa having lived in the same house in the Rue Pirouette, were intimate
+friends, linked by a touch of rivalry which kept each of them busy
+with thoughts of the other. In the neighbourhood people spoke of "the
+beautiful Norman," just as they spoke of "beautiful Lisa." This brought
+them into opposition and comparison, and compelled each of them to do
+her utmost to sustain her reputation for beauty. Lisa from her counter
+could, by stooping a little, perceive the fish-girl amidst her salmon
+and turbot in the pavilion opposite; and each kept a watch on the
+other. Beautiful Lisa laced herself more tightly in her stays; and the
+beautiful Norman replied by placing additional rings on her fingers and
+additional bows on her shoulders. When they met they were very bland and
+unctuous and profuse in compliments; but all the while their eyes
+were furtively glancing from under their lowered lids, in the hope of
+discovering some flaw. They made a point of always dealing with each
+other, and professed great mutual affection.
+
+"I say," said La Normande, with her smiling air, "it's to-morrow evening
+that you make your black-puddings, isn't it?"
+
+Lisa maintained a cold demeanour. She seldom showed any anger; but when
+she did it was tenacious, and slow to be appeased. "Yes," she replied
+drily, with the tips of her lips.
+
+"I'm so fond of black-puddings, you know, when they come straight out
+of the pot," resumed La Normande. "I'll come and get some of you
+to-morrow."
+
+She was conscious of her rival's unfriendly greeting. However, she
+glanced at Florent, who seemed to interest her; and then, unwilling to
+go off without having the last word, she was imprudent enough to add: "I
+bought some black-pudding of you the day before yesterday, you know, and
+it wasn't quite sweet."
+
+"Not quite sweet!" repeated Lisa, very pale, and her lips quivering.
+
+She might, perhaps, have once more restrained herself, for fear of La
+Normande imagining that she was overcome by envious spite at the
+sight of the lace bow; but the girl, not content with playing the spy,
+proceeded to insult her, and that was beyond endurance. So, leaning
+forward, with her hands clenched on the counter, she exclaimed, in a
+somewhat hoarse voice: "I say! when you sold me that pair of soles
+last week, did I come and tell you, before everybody that they were
+stinking?"
+
+"Stinking! My soles stinking!" cried the fish dealer, flushing scarlet.
+
+For a moment they remained silent, choking with anger, but glaring
+fiercely at each other over the array of dishes. All their honeyed
+friendship had vanished; a word had sufficed to reveal what sharp teeth
+there were behind their smiling lips.
+
+"You're a vulgar, low creature!" cried the beautiful Norman. "You'll
+never catch me setting foot in here again, I can tell you!"
+
+"Get along with you, get along with you," exclaimed beautiful Lisa. "I
+know quite well whom I've got to deal with!"
+
+The fish-girl went off, hurling behind her a coarse expression which
+left Lisa quivering. The whole scene had passed so quickly that the
+three men, overcome with amazement, had not had time to interfere.
+Lisa soon recovered herself, and was resuming the conversation, without
+making any allusion to what had just occurred, when the shop girl,
+Augustine, returned from an errand on which she had been sent. Lisa
+thereupon took Gavard aside, and after telling him to say nothing for
+the present to Monsieur Verlaque, promised that she would undertake to
+convince her brother-in-law in a couple of days' time at the utmost.
+Quenu then returned to his kitchen, while Gavard took Florent off with
+him. And as they were just going into Monsieur Lebigre's to drink a drop
+of vermouth together he called his attention to three women standing in
+the covered way between the fish and poultry pavilions.
+
+"They're cackling together!" he said with an envious air.
+
+The markets were growing empty, and Mademoiselle Saget, Madame Lecoeur,
+and La Sarriette alone lingered on the edge of the footway. The old maid
+was holding forth.
+
+"As I told you before, Madame Lecoeur," said she, "they've always got
+your brother-in-law in their shop. You saw him there yourself just now,
+didn't you?"
+
+"Oh yes, indeed! He was sitting on a table, and seemed quite at home."
+
+"Well, for my part," interrupted La Sarriette, "I heard nothing wrong;
+and I can't understand why you're making such a fuss."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget shrugged her shoulders. "Ah, you're very innocent
+yet, my dear," she said. "Can't you see why the Quenus are always
+attracting Monsieur Gavard to their place? Well, I'll wager that he'll
+leave all he has to their little Pauline."
+
+"You believe that, do you?" cried Madame Lecoeur, white with rage. Then,
+in a mournful voice, as though she had just received some heavy blow,
+she continued: "I am alone in the world, and have no one to take my
+part; he is quite at liberty to do as he pleases. His niece sides with
+him too--you heard her just now. She has quite forgotten all that she
+cost me, and wouldn't stir a hand to help me."
+
+"Indeed, aunt," exclaimed La Sarriette, "you are quite wrong there! It's
+you who've never had anything but unkind words for me."
+
+They became reconciled on the spot, and kissed one another. The niece
+promised that she would play no more pranks, and the aunt swore by
+all she held most sacred that she looked upon La Sarriette as her own
+daughter. Then Mademoiselle Saget advised them as to the steps they
+ought to take to prevent Gavard from squandering his money. And they
+all agreed that the Quenu-Gradelles were very disreputable folks, and
+required closely watching.
+
+"I don't know what they're up to just now," said the old maid, "but
+there's something suspicious going on, I'm sure. What's your opinion,
+now, of that fellow Florent, that cousin of Madame Quenu's?"
+
+The three women drew more closely together, and lowered their voices.
+
+"You remember," said Madame Lecoeur, "that we saw him one morning with
+his boots all split, and his clothes covered with dust, looking just
+like a thief who's been up to some roguery. That fellow quite frightens
+me."
+
+"Well, he's certainly very thin," said La Sarriette, "but he isn't
+ugly."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget was reflecting, and she expressed her thoughts
+aloud. "I've been trying to find out something about him for the last
+fortnight, but I can make nothing of it. Monsieur Gavard certainly knows
+him. I must have met him myself somewhere before, but I can't remember
+where."
+
+She was still ransacking her memory when La Normande swept up to them
+like a whirlwind. She had just left the pork shop.
+
+"That big booby Lisa has got nice manners, I must say!" she cried,
+delighted to be able to relieve herself. "Fancy her telling me that I
+sold nothing but stinking fish! But I gave her as good as she deserved,
+I can tell you! A nice den they keep, with their tainted pig meat which
+poisons all their customers!"
+
+"But what had you been saying to her?" asked the old maid, quite
+frisky with excitement, and delighted to hear that the two women had
+quarrelled.
+
+"I! I'd said just nothing at all--no, not that! I just went into the
+shop and told her very civilly that I'd buy some black-pudding to-morrow
+evening, and then she overwhelmed me with abuse. A dirty hypocrite she
+is, with her saint-like airs! But she'll pay more dearly for this than
+she fancies!"
+
+The three women felt that La Normande was not telling them the truth,
+but this did not prevent them from taking her part with a rush of bad
+language. They turned towards the Rue Rambuteau with insulting mien,
+inventing all sorts of stories about the uncleanliness of the cookery at
+the Quenu's shop, and making the most extraordinary accusations. If the
+Quenus had been detected selling human flesh the women could not have
+displayed more violent and threatening anger. The fish-girl was obliged
+to tell her story three times over.
+
+"And what did the cousin say?" asked Mademoiselle Saget, with wicked
+intent.
+
+"The cousin!" repeated La Normande, in a shrill voice. "Do you really
+believe that he's a cousin? He's some lover or other, I'll wager, the
+great booby!"
+
+The three others protested against this. Lisa's honourability was an
+article of faith in the neighbourhood.
+
+"Stuff and nonsense!" retorted La Normande. "You can never be sure about
+those smug, sleek hypocrites."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget nodded her head as if to say that she was not
+very far from sharing La Normande's opinion. And she softly added:
+"Especially as this cousin has sprung from no one knows where; for it's
+a very doubtful sort of account that the Quenus give of him."
+
+"Oh, he's the fat woman's sweetheart, I tell you!" reaffirmed the
+fish-girl; "some scamp or vagabond picked up in the streets. It's easy
+enough to see it."
+
+"She has given him a complete outfit," remarked Madame Lecoeur. "He must
+be costing her a pretty penny."
+
+"Yes, yes," muttered the old maid; "perhaps you are right. I must really
+get to know something about him."
+
+Then they all promised to keep one another thoroughly informed of
+whatever might take place in the Quenu-Gradelle establishment. The
+butter dealer pretended that she wished to open her brother-in-law's
+eyes as to the sort of places he frequented. However, La Normande's
+anger had by this time toned down, and, a good sort of girl at heart,
+she went off, weary of having talked so much on the matter.
+
+"I'm sure that La Normande said something or other insolent," remarked
+Madame Lecoeur knowingly, when the fish-girl had left them. "It is just
+her way; and it scarcely becomes a creature like her to talk as she did
+of Lisa."
+
+The three women looked at each other and smiled. Then, when Madame
+Lecoeur also had gone off, La Sarriette remarked to Mademoiselle Saget:
+"It is foolish of my aunt to worry herself so much about all these
+affairs. It's that which makes her so thin. Ah! she'd have willingly
+taken Gavard for a husband if she could only have got him. Yet she used
+to beat me if ever a young man looked my way."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget smiled once more. And when she found herself alone,
+and went back towards the Rue Pirouette, she reflected that those three
+cackling hussies were not worth a rope to hang them. She was, indeed,
+a little afraid that she might have been seen with them, and the idea
+somewhat troubled her, for she realised that it would be bad policy to
+fall out with the Quenu-Gradelles, who, after all, were well-to-do folks
+and much esteemed. So she went a little out of her way on purpose to
+call at Taboureau the baker's in the Rue Turbigo--the finest baker's
+shop in the whole neighbourhood. Madame Taboureau was not only an
+intimate friend of Lisa's, but an accepted authority on every subject.
+When it was remarked that "Madame Taboureau had said this," or "Madame
+Taboureau had said that," there was no more to be urged. So the old
+maid, calling at the baker's under pretence of inquiring at what time
+the oven would be hot, as she wished to bring a dish of pears to be
+baked, took the opportunity to eulogise Lisa, and lavish praise upon the
+sweetness and excellence of her black-puddings. Then, well pleased at
+having prepared this moral alibi and delighted at having done what she
+could to fan the flames of a quarrel without involving herself in it,
+she briskly returned home, feeling much easier in her mind, but
+still striving to recall where she had previously seen Madame Quenu's
+so-called cousin.
+
+That same evening, after dinner, Florent went out and strolled for some
+time in one of the covered ways of the markets. A fine mist was rising,
+and a grey sadness, which the gas lights studded as with yellow tears,
+hung over the deserted pavilions. For the first time Florent began to
+feel that he was in the way, and to recognise the unmannerly fashion in
+which he, thin and artless, had tumbled into this world of fat people;
+and he frankly admitted to himself that his presence was disturbing
+the whole neighbourhood, and that he was a source of discomfort to the
+Quenus--a spurious cousin of far too compromising appearance. These
+reflections made him very sad; not, indeed, that they had noticed the
+slightest harshness on the part of his brother or Lisa: it was their
+very kindness, rather, that was troubling him, and he accused himself of
+a lack of delicacy in quartering himself upon them. He was beginning to
+doubt the propriety of his conduct. The recollection of the conversation
+in the shop during the afternoon caused him a vague disquietude. The
+odour of the viands on Lisa's counter seemed to penetrate him; he felt
+himself gliding into nerveless, satiated cowardice. Perhaps he had acted
+wrongly in refusing the inspectorship offered him. This reflection gave
+birth to a stormy struggle in his mind, and he was obliged to brace and
+shake himself before he could recover his wonted rigidity of principles.
+However, a moist breeze had risen, and was blowing along the covered
+way, and he regained some degree of calmness and resolution on being
+obliged to button up his coat. The wind seemingly swept from his clothes
+all the greasy odour of the pork shop, which had made him feel so
+languid.
+
+He was returning home when he met Claude Lantier. The artist, hidden
+in the folds of his greenish overcoat, spoke in a hollow voice full of
+suppressed anger. He was in a passion with painting, declared that it
+was a dog's trade, and swore that he would not take up a brush again as
+long as he lived. That very afternoon he had thrust his foot through a
+study which he had been making of the head of that hussy Cadine.
+
+Claude was subject to these outbursts, the fruit of his inability to
+execute the lasting, living works which he dreamed of. And at such times
+life became an utter blank to him, and he wandered about the streets,
+wrapped in the gloomiest thoughts, and waiting for the morning as for a
+sort of resurrection. He used to say that he felt bright and cheerful in
+the morning, and horribly miserable in the evening.[*] Each of his days
+was a long effort ending in disappointment. Florent scarcely recognised
+in him the careless night wanderer of the markets. They had already met
+again at the pork shop, and Claude, who knew the fugitive's story, had
+grasped his hand and told him that he was a sterling fellow. It was very
+seldom, however, that the artist went to the Quenus'.
+
+     [*] Claude Lantier's struggle for fame is fully described in
+     M. Zola's novel, _L'Oeuvre_ ("His Masterpiece").
+     --Translator.
+
+"Are you still at my aunt's?" he asked. "I can't imagine how you manage
+to exist amidst all that cookery. The places reeks with the smell of
+meat. When I've been there for an hour I feel as though I shouldn't want
+anything to eat for another three days. I ought not to have gone there
+this morning; it was that which made me make a mess of my work."
+
+Then, after he and Florent had taken a few steps in silence, he resumed:
+
+"Ah! the good people! They quite grieve me with their fine health. I had
+thought of painting their portraits, but I've never been able to succeed
+with such round faces, in which there is never a bone. Ah! You wouldn't
+find my aunt Lisa kicking her foot through her pans! I was an idiot to
+have destroyed Cadine's head! Now that I come to think of it, it wasn't
+so very bad, perhaps, after all."
+
+Then they began to talk about Aunt Lisa. Claude said that his mother[*]
+had not seen anything of her for a long time, and he hinted that the
+pork butcher's wife was somewhat ashamed of her sister having married
+a common working man; moreover, she wasn't at all fond of unfortunate
+folks. Speaking of himself, he told Florent that a benevolent gentleman
+had sent him to college, being very pleased with the donkeys and old
+women that he had managed to draw when only eight years old; but the
+good soul had died, leaving him an income of a thousand francs, which
+just saved him from perishing of hunger.
+
+[*] Gervaise, the heroine of the _Assommoir_.
+
+"All the same, I would rather have been a working man," continued
+Claude. "Look at the carpenters, for instance. They are very happy
+folks, the carpenters. They have a table to make, say; well, they make
+it, and then go off to bed, happy at having finished the table, and
+perfectly satisfied with themselves. Now I, on the other hand, scarcely
+get any sleep at nights. All those confounded pictures which I can't
+finish go flying about my brain. I never get anything finished and done
+with--never, never!"
+
+His voice almost broke into a sob. Then he attempted to laugh; and
+afterwards began to swear and pour forth coarse expressions, with the
+cold rage of one who, endowed with a delicate, sensitive mind, doubts
+his own powers, and dreams of wallowing in the mire. He ended by
+squatting down before one of the gratings which admit air into the
+cellars beneath the markets--cellars where the gas is continually kept
+burning. And in the depths below he pointed out Marjolin and Cadine
+tranquilly eating their supper, whilst seated on one of the stone blocks
+used for killing the poultry. The two young vagabonds had discovered a
+means of hiding themselves and making themselves at home in the cellars
+after the doors had been closed.
+
+"What a magnificent animal he is, eh!" exclaimed Claude, with envious
+admiration, speaking of Marjolin. "He and Cadine are happy, at all
+events! All they care for is eating and kissing. They haven't a care
+in the world. Ah, you do quite right, after all, to remain at the pork
+shop; perhaps you'll grow sleek and plump there."
+
+Then he suddenly went off. Florent climbed up to his garret, disturbed
+by Claude's nervous restlessness, which revived his own uncertainty.
+On the morrow, he avoided the pork shop all the morning, and went for
+a long walk on the quays. When he returned to lunch, however, he was
+struck by Lisa's kindliness. Without any undue insistence she again
+spoke to him about the inspectorship, as of something which was well
+worth his consideration. As he listened to her, with a full plate in
+front of him, he was affected, in spite of himself, by the prim comfort
+of his surroundings. The matting beneath his feet seemed very soft;
+the gleams of the brass hanging lamp, the soft, yellow tint of
+the wallpaper, and the bright oak of the furniture filled him with
+appreciation of a life spent in comfort, which disturbed his notions of
+right and wrong. He still, however, had sufficient strength to persist
+in his refusal, and repeated his reasons; albeit conscious of the bad
+taste he was showing in thus ostentatiously parading his animosity and
+obstinacy in such a place. Lisa showed no signs of vexation; on the
+contrary, she smiled, and the sweetness of her smile embarrassed Florent
+far more than her suppressed irritation of the previous evening. At
+dinner the subject was not renewed; they talked solely of the great
+winter saltings, which would keep the whole staff of the establishment
+busily employed.
+
+The evenings were growing cold, and as soon as they had dined they
+retired into the kitchen, where it was very warm. The room was so large,
+too, that several people could sit comfortably at the square central
+table, without in any way impeding the work that was going on. Lighted
+by gas, the walls were coated with white and blue tiles to a height
+of some five or six feet from the floor. On the left was a great iron
+stove, in the three apertures of which were set three large round pots,
+their bottoms black with soot. At the end was a small range, which,
+fitted with an oven and a smoking-place, served for the broiling; and
+up above, over the skimming-spoons, ladles, and long-handled forks, were
+several numbered drawers, containing rasped bread, both fine and coarse,
+toasted crumbs, spices, cloves, nutmegs, and pepper. On the right,
+leaning heavily against the wall, was the chopping-block, a huge mass
+of oak, slashed and scored all over. Attached to it were several
+appliances, an injecting pump, a forcing-machine, and a mechanical
+mincer, which, with their wheels and cranks, imparted to the place an
+uncanny and mysterious aspect, suggesting some kitchen of the infernal
+regions.
+
+Then, all round the walls upon shelves, and even under the tables,
+were iron pots, earthenware pans, dishes, pails, various kinds of tin
+utensils, a perfect battery of deep copper saucepans, and swelling
+funnels, racks of knives and choppers, rows of larding-pins and
+needles--a perfect world of greasy things. In spite of the extreme
+cleanliness, grease was paramount; it oozed forth from between the blue
+and white tiles on the wall, glistened on the red tiles of the flooring,
+gave a greyish glitter to the stove, and polished the edges of the
+chopping-block with the transparent sheen of varnished oak. And, indeed,
+amidst the ever-rising steam, the continuous evaporation from the three
+big pots, in which pork was boiling and melting, there was not a single
+nail from ceiling to floor from which grease did not exude.
+
+The Quenu-Gradelles prepared nearly all their stock themselves. All that
+they procured from outside were the potted meats of celebrated firms,
+with jars of pickles and preserves, sardines, cheese, and edible snails.
+They consequently became very busy after September in filling the
+cellars which had been emptied during the summer. They continued working
+even after the shop had been closed for the night. Assisted by Auguste
+and Leon, Quenu would stuff sausages-skins, prepare hams, melt down
+lard, and salt the different sorts of bacon. There was a tremendous
+noise of cauldrons and cleavers, and the odour of cooking spread through
+the whole house. All this was quite independent of the daily business
+in fresh pork, _pate de fois gras_, hare patty, galantine, saveloys and
+black-puddings.
+
+That evening, at about eleven o'clock, Quenu, after placing a couple of
+pots on the fire in order to melt down some lard, began to prepare the
+black-puddings. Auguste assisted him. At one corner of the square table
+Lisa and Augustine sat mending linen, whilst opposite to them, on the
+other side, with his face turned towards the fireplace, was Florent.
+Leon was mincing some sausage-meat on the oak block in a slow,
+rhythmical fashion.
+
+Auguste first of all went out into the yard to fetch a couple of
+jug-like cans full of pigs' blood. It was he who stuck the animals in
+the slaughter house. He himself would carry away the blood and interior
+portions of the pigs, leaving the men who scalded the carcasses to bring
+them home completely dressed in their carts. Quenu asserted that no
+assistant in all Paris was Auguste' equal as a pig-sticker. The truth
+was that Auguste was a wonderfully keen judge of the quality of the
+blood; and the black-pudding proved good every time that he said such
+would be the case.
+
+"Well, will the black-pudding be good this time?" asked Lisa.
+
+August put down the two cans and slowly answered: "I believe so, Madame
+Quenu; yes, I believe so. I tell it at first by the way the blood flows.
+If it spurts out very gently when I pull out the knife, that's a bad
+sign, and shows that the blood is poor."
+
+"But doesn't that depend on how far the knife has been stuck in?" asked
+Quenu.
+
+A smile came over Auguste's pale face. "No," he replied; "I always let
+four digits of the blade go in; that's the right way to measure. But the
+best sign of all is when the blood runs out and I beat it with my
+hand when it pours into the pail; it ought to be of a good warmth, and
+creamy, without being too thick."
+
+Augustine had put down her needle, and with her eyes raised was now
+gazing at Auguste. On her ruddy face, crowned by wiry chestnut hair,
+there was an expression of profound attention. Lisa and even little
+Pauline were also listening with deep interest.
+
+"Well, I beat it, and beat it, and beat it," continued the young man,
+whisking his hand about as though he were whipping cream. "And then,
+when I take my hand out and look at it, it ought to be greased, as it
+were, by the blood and equally coated all over. And if that's the case,
+anyone can say without fear of mistake that the black-puddings will be
+good."
+
+He remained for a moment in an easy attitude, complacently holding his
+hand in the air. This hand, which spent so much of its time in pails of
+blood, had brightly gleaming nails, and looked very rosy above his white
+sleeve. Quenu had nodded his head in approbation, and an interval
+of silence followed. Leon was still mincing. Pauline, however, after
+remaining thoughtful for a little while, mounted upon Florent's feet
+again, and in her clear voice exclaimed: "I say, cousin, tell me the
+story of the gentleman who was eaten by the wild beasts!"
+
+It was probably the mention of the pig's blood which had aroused in the
+child's mind the recollection of "the gentleman who had been eaten by
+the wild beasts." Florent did not at first understand what she referred
+to, and asked her what gentleman she meant. Lisa began to smile.
+
+"She wants you to tell her," she said, "the story of that unfortunate
+man--you know whom I mean--which you told to Gavard one evening. She
+must have heard you."
+
+At this Florent grew very grave. The little girl got up, and taking the
+big cat in her arms, placed it on his knees, saying that Mouton also
+would like to hear the story. Mouton, however, leapt on to the table,
+where, with rounded back, he remained contemplating the tall, scraggy
+individual who for the last fortnight had apparently afforded him matter
+for deep reflection. Pauline meantime began to grow impatient, stamping
+her feet and insisting on hearing the story.
+
+"Oh, tell her what she wants," said Lisa, as the child persisted and
+became quite unbearable; "she'll leave us in peace then."
+
+Florent remained silent for a moment longer, with his eyes turned
+towards the floor. Then slowly raising his head he let his gaze rest
+first on the two women who were plying their needles, and next on Quenu
+and Auguste, who were preparing the pot for the black-puddings. The gas
+was burning quietly, the stove diffused a gentle warmth, and all the
+grease of the kitchen glistened in an atmosphere of comfort such as
+attends good digestion
+
+Then, taking little Pauline upon his knee, and smiling a sad smile,
+Florent addressed himself to the child as follows[*]:--
+
+     [*] Florent's narrative is not romance, but is based on the
+     statements of several of the innocent victims whom the third
+     Napoleon transported to Cayenne when wading through blood to
+     the power which he so misused.--Translator.
+
+"Once upon a time there was a poor man who was sent away, a long, long
+way off, right across the sea. On the ship which carried him were four
+hundred convicts, and he was thrown among them. He was forced to live
+for five weeks amidst all those scoundrels, dressed like them in coarse
+canvas, and feeding at their mess. Foul insects preyed on him, and
+terrible sweats robbed him of all his strength. The kitchen, the
+bakehouse, and the engine-room made the orlop deck so terribly hot that
+ten of the convicts died from it. In the daytime they were sent up in
+batches of fifty to get a little fresh air from the sea; and as the crew
+of the ship feared them, a couple of cannons were pointed at the little
+bit of deck where they took exercise. The poor fellow was very glad
+indeed when his turn to go up came. His terrible perspiration then
+abated somewhat; still, he could not eat, and felt very ill. During the
+night, when he was manacled again, and the rolling of the ship in the
+rough sea kept knocking him against his companions, he quite broke down,
+and began to cry, glad to be able to do so without being seen."
+
+Pauline was listening with dilated eyes, and her little hands crossed
+primly in front of her.
+
+"But this isn't the story of the gentleman who was eaten by the wild
+beasts," she interrupted. "This is quite a different story; isn't it
+now, cousin?"
+
+"Wait a bit, and you'll see," replied Florent gently. "I shall come
+to the gentleman presently. I'm telling you the whole story from the
+beginning."
+
+"Oh, thank you," murmured the child, with a delighted expression.
+However, she remained thoughtful, evidently struggling with some great
+difficulty to which she could find no explanation. At last she spoke.
+
+"But what had the poor man done," she asked, "that he was sent away and
+put in the ship?"
+
+Lisa and Augustine smiled. They were quite charmed with the child's
+intelligence; and Lisa, without giving the little one a direct reply,
+took advantage of the opportunity to teach her a lesson by telling her
+that naughty children were also sent away in boats like that.
+
+"Oh, then," remarked Pauline judiciously, "perhaps it served my cousin's
+poor man quite right if he cried all night long."
+
+Lisa resumed her sewing, bending over her work. Quenu had not listened.
+He had been cutting some little rounds of onion over a pot placed on the
+fire; and almost at once the onions began to crackle, raising a clear
+shrill chirrup like that of grasshoppers basking in the heat. They gave
+out a pleasant odour too, and when Quenu plunged his great wooden spoon
+into the pot the chirruping became yet louder, and the whole kitchen was
+filled with the penetrating perfume of the onions. Auguste meantime was
+preparing some bacon fat in a dish, and Leon's chopper fell faster
+and faster, and every now and then scraped the block so as to gather
+together the sausage-meat, now almost a paste.
+
+"When they got across the sea," Florent continued, "they took the man to
+an island called the Devil's Island,[*] where he found himself amongst
+others who had been carried away from their own country. They were
+all very unhappy. At first they were kept to hard labour, just like
+convicts. The gendarme who had charge of them counted them three times
+every day, so as to be sure that none were missing. Later on, they were
+left free to do as they liked, being merely locked up at night in a big
+wooden hut, where they slept in hammocks stretched between two bars.
+At the end of the year they went about barefooted, as their boots were
+quite worn out, and their clothes had become so ragged that their flesh
+showed through them. They had built themselves some huts with trunks
+of trees as a shelter against the sun, which is terribly hot in those
+parts; but these huts did not shield them against the mosquitoes, which
+covered them with pimples and swellings during the night. Many of them
+died, and the others turned quite yellow, so shrunken and wretched,
+with their long, unkempt beards, that one could not behold them without
+pity."
+
+     [*] The Ile du Diable. This spot was selected as the place
+     of detention of Captain Dreyfus, the French officer
+     convicted in 1894 of having divulged important military
+     documents to foreign powers.--Translator.
+
+"Auguste, give me the fat," cried Quenu; and when the apprentice had
+handed him the dish he let the pieces of bacon-fat slide gently into the
+pot, and then stirred them with his spoon. A yet denser steam now rose
+from the fireplace.
+
+"What did they give them to eat?" asked little Pauline, who seemed
+deeply interested.
+
+"They gave them maggoty rice and foul meat," answered Florent, whose
+voice grew lower as he spoke. "The rice could scarcely be eaten. When
+the meat was roasted and very well done it was just possible to swallow
+it; but if it was boiled, it smelt so dreadfully that the men had nausea
+and stomach ache."
+
+"I'd rather have lived upon dry bread," said the child, after thinking
+the matter carefully over.
+
+Leon, having finished the mincing, now placed the sausage-meat upon the
+square table in a dish. Mouton, who had remained seated with his eyes
+fixed upon Florent, as though filled with amazement by his story, was
+obliged to retreat a few steps, which he did with a very bad grace. Then
+he rolled himself up, with his nose close to the sausage-meat, and began
+to purr.
+
+Lisa was unable to conceal her disgust and amazement. That foul
+rice, that evil-smelling meat, seemed to her to be scarcely credible
+abominations, which disgraced those who had eaten them as much as it did
+those who had provided them; and her calm, handsome face and round neck
+quivered with vague fear of the man who had lived upon such horrid food.
+
+"No, indeed, it was not a land of delights," Florent resumed, forgetting
+all about little Pauline, and fixing his dreamy eyes upon the steaming
+pot. "Every day brought fresh annoyances--perpetual grinding tyranny,
+the violation of every principle of justice, contempt for all human
+charity, which exasperated the prisoners, and slowly consumed them with
+a fever of sickly rancour. They lived like wild beasts, with the lash
+ceaselessly raised over their backs. Those torturers would have liked to
+kill the poor man--Oh, no; it can never be forgotten; it is impossible!
+Such sufferings will some day claim vengeance."
+
+His voice had fallen, and the pieces of fat hissing merrily in the pot
+drowned it with the sound of their boiling. Lisa, however, heard him,
+and was frightened by the implacable expression which had suddenly come
+over his face; and, recollecting the gentle look which he habitually
+wore, she judged him to be a hypocrite.
+
+Florent's hollow voice had brought Pauline's interest and delight to the
+highest pitch, and she fidgeted with pleasure on his knee.
+
+"But the man?" she exclaimed. "Go on about the man!"
+
+Florent looked at her, and then appeared to remember, and smiled his sad
+smile again.
+
+"The man," he continued, "was weary of remaining on the island, and
+had but one thought--that of making his escape by crossing the sea
+and reaching the mainland, whose white coast line could be seen on the
+horizon in clear weather. But it was no easy matter to escape. It was
+necessary that a raft should be built, and as several of the prisoners
+had already made their escape, all the trees on the island had been
+felled to prevent the others from obtaining timber. The island was,
+indeed, so bare and naked, so scorched by the blazing sun, that life in
+it had become yet more perilous and terrible. However, it occurred to
+the man and two of his companions to employ the timbers of which their
+huts were built; and one evening they put out to sea on some rotten
+beams, which they had fastened together with dry branches. The wind
+carried them towards the coast. Just as daylight was about to appear,
+the raft struck on a sandbank with such violence that the beams were
+severed from their lashings and carried out to sea. The three poor
+fellows were almost engulfed in the sand. Two of them sank in it to
+their waists, while the third disappeared up to his chin, and his
+companions were obliged to pull him out. At last they reached a rock,
+so small that there was scarcely room for them to sit down upon it. When
+the sun rose they could see the coast in front of them, a bar of grey
+cliffs stretching all along the horizon. Two, who knew how to swim,
+determined to reach those cliffs. They preferred to run the risk of
+being drowned at once to that of slowly starving on the rock. But they
+promised their companion that they would return for him when they had
+reached land and had been able to procure a boat."
+
+"Ah, I know now!" cried little Pauline, clapping her hands with glee.
+"It's the story of the gentleman who was eaten by the crabs!"
+
+"They succeeded in reaching the coast," continued Florent, "but it was
+quite deserted; and it was only at the end of four days that they were
+able to get a boat. When they returned to the rock, they found their
+companion lying on his back, dead, and half-eaten by crabs, which were
+still swarming over what remained of his body."[*]
+
+     [*] In deference to the easily shocked feelings of the
+     average English reader I have somewhat modified this
+     passage. In the original M. Zola fully describes the awful
+     appearance of the body.--Translator.
+A murmur of disgust escaped Lisa and Augustine, and a horrified grimace
+passed over the face of Leon, who was preparing the skins for the
+black-puddings. Quenu stopped in the midst of his work and looked
+at Auguste, who seemed to have turned faint. Only little Pauline
+was smiling. In imagination the others could picture those swarming,
+ravenous crabs crawling all over the kitchen, and mingling gruesome
+odours with the aroma of the bacon-fat and onions.
+
+"Give me the blood," cried Quenu, who had not been following the story.
+
+Auguste came up to him with the two cans, from which he slowly
+poured the blood, while Quenu, as it fell, vigorously stirred the
+now thickening contents of the pot. When the cans were emptied, Quenu
+reached up to one of the drawers above the range, and took out some
+pinches of spice. Then he added a plentiful seasoning of pepper.
+
+"They left him there, didn't they," Lisa now asked of Florent, "and
+returned themselves in safety?"
+
+"As they were going back," continued Florent, "the wind changed, and
+they were driven out into the open sea. A wave carried away one of their
+oars, and the water swept so furiously into the boat that their whole
+time was taken up in baling it out with their hands. They tossed about
+in this way in sight of the coast, carried away by squalls and then
+brought back again by the tide, without a mouthful of bread to eat, for
+their scanty stock of provisions had been consumed. This went on for
+three days."
+
+"Three days!" cried Lisa in stupefaction; "three days without food!"
+
+"Yes, three days without food. When the east wind at last brought them
+to shore, one of them was so weak that he lay on the beach the whole
+day. In the evening he died. His companion had vainly attempted to get
+him to chew some leaves which he gathered from the trees."
+
+At this point Augustine broke into a slight laugh. Then, ashamed at
+having done so and not wishing to be considered heartless, she stammered
+out in confusion: "Oh! I wasn't laughing at that. It was Mouton. Do just
+look at Mouton, madame."
+
+Then Lisa in her turn began to smile. Mouton, who had been lying all
+this time with his nose close to the dish of sausage-meat, had probably
+begun to feel distressed and disgusted by the presence of all this food,
+for he had risen and was rapidly scratching the table with his paws as
+though he wanted to bury the dish and its contents. At last, however,
+turning his back to it and lying down on his side, he stretched himself
+out, half closing his eyes and rubbing his head against the table with
+languid pleasure. Then they all began to compliment Mouton. He never
+stole anything, they said, and could be safely left with the meat.
+Pauline related that he licked her fingers and washed her face after
+dinner without trying to bite her.
+
+However, Lisa now came back to the question as to whether it were
+possible to live for three days without food. In her opinion it was not.
+"No," she said, "I can't believe it. No one ever goes three days
+without food. When people talk of a person dying of hunger, it is a mere
+expression. They always get something to eat, more or less. It is only
+the most abandoned wretches, people who are utterly lost----"
+
+She was doubtless going to add, "vagrant rogues," but she stopped short
+and looked at Florent. The scornful pout of her lips and the expression
+of her bright eyes plainly signified that in her belief only villains
+made such prolonged fasts. It seemed to her that a man able to remain
+without food for three days must necessarily be a very dangerous
+character. For, indeed, honest folks never placed themselves in such a
+position.
+
+Florent was now almost stifling. In front of him the stove, into which
+Leon had just thrown several shovelfuls of coal, was snoring like a lay
+clerk asleep in the sun; and the heat was very great. Auguste, who had
+taken charge of the lard melting in the pots, was watching over it in a
+state of perspiration, and Quenu wiped his brow with his sleeve whilst
+waiting for the blood to mix. A drowsiness such as follows gross
+feeding, an atmosphere heavy with indigestion, pervaded the kitchen.
+
+"When the man had buried his comrade in the sand," Florent continued
+slowly, "he walked off alone straight in front of him. Dutch Guiana, in
+which country he now was, is a land of forests intermingled with rivers
+and swamps. The man walked on for more than a week without coming across
+a single human dwelling-place. All around, death seemed to be lurking
+and lying in wait for him. Though his stomach was racked by hunger, he
+often did not dare to eat the bright-coloured fruits which hung from the
+trees; he was afraid to touch the glittering berries, fearing lest they
+should be poisonous. For whole days he did not see a patch of sky, but
+tramped on beneath a canopy of branches, amidst a greenish gloom that
+swarmed with horrible living creatures. Great birds flew over his head
+with a terrible flapping of wings and sudden strange calls resembling
+death groans; apes sprang, wild animals rushed through the thickets
+around him, bending the saplings and bringing down a rain of leaves, as
+though a gale were passing. But it was particularly the serpents that
+turned his blood cold when, stepping upon a matting of moving, withered
+leaves, he caught sight of their slim heads gliding amidst a horrid maze
+of roots. In certain nooks, nooks of dank shadow, swarming colonies
+of reptiles--some black, some yellow, some purple, some striped, some
+spotted, and some resembling withered reeds--suddenly awakened into life
+and wriggled away. At such times the man would stop and look about for
+a stone on which he might take refuge from the soft yielding ground
+into which his feet sank; and there he would remain for hours,
+terror-stricken on espying in some open space near by a boa, who,
+with tail coiled and head erect, swayed like the trunk of a big tree
+splotched with gold.
+
+"At night he used to sleep in the trees, alarmed by the slightest
+rustling of the branches, and fancying that he could hear endless swarms
+of serpents gliding through the gloom. He almost stifled beneath the
+interminable expanse of foliage. The gloomy shade reeked with close,
+oppressive heat, a clammy dankness and pestilential sweat, impregnated
+with the coarse aroma of scented wood and malodorous flowers.
+
+"And when at last, after a long weary tramp, the man made his way out of
+the forest and beheld the sky again, he found himself confronted by wide
+rivers which barred his way. He skirted their banks, keeping a watchful
+eye on the grey backs of the alligators and the masses of drifting
+vegetation, and then, when he came to a less suspicious-looking spot,
+he swam across. And beyond the rivers the forests began again. At other
+times there were vast prairie lands, leagues of thick vegetation, in
+which, at distant intervals, small lakes gleamed bluely. The man then
+made a wide detour, and sounded the ground beneath him before advancing,
+having but narrowly escaped from being swallowed up and buried beneath
+one of those smiling plains which he could hear cracking at each step he
+took. The giant grass, nourished by all the collected humus, concealed
+pestiferous marshes, depths of liquid mud; and amongst the expanses of
+verdure spread over the glaucous immensity to the very horizon there
+were only narrow stretches of firm ground with which the traveller must
+be acquainted if he would avoid disappearing for ever. One night the
+man sank down as far as his waist. At each effort he made to extricate
+himself the mud threatened to rise to his mouth. Then he remained
+quite still for nearly a couple of hours; and when the moon rose he was
+fortunately able to catch hold of a branch of a tree above his head. By
+the time he reached a human dwelling his hands and feet were bruised and
+bleeding, swollen with poisonous stings. He presented such a pitiable,
+famished appearance that those who saw him were afraid of him. They
+tossed him some food fifty yards away from the house, and the master of
+it kept guard over his door with a loaded gun."
+
+Florent stopped, his voice choked by emotion, and his eyes gazing
+blankly before him. For some minutes he had seemed to be speaking to
+himself alone. Little Pauline, who had grown drowsy, was lying in his
+arms with her head thrown back, though striving to keep her wondering
+eyes open. And Quenu, for his part, appeared to be getting impatient.
+
+"Why, you stupid!" he shouted to Leon, "don't you know how to hold a
+skin yet? What do you stand staring at me for? It's the skin you should
+look at, not me! There, hold it like that, and don't move again!"
+
+With his right hand Leon was raising a long string of sausage-skin, at
+one end of which a very wide funnel was inserted; while with his left
+hand he coiled the black-pudding round a metal bowl as fast as Quenu
+filled the funnel with big spoonfuls of the meat. The latter, black and
+steaming, flowed through the funnel, gradually inflating the skin, which
+fell down again, gorged to repletion and curving languidly. As Quenu had
+removed the pot from the range both he and Leon stood out prominently,
+he broad visaged, and the lad slender of profile, in the burning glow
+which cast over their pale faces and white garments a flood of rosy
+light.
+
+Lisa and Augustine watched the filling of the skin with great interest,
+Lisa especially; and she in her turn found fault with Leon because he
+nipped the skin too tightly with his fingers, which caused knots to
+form, she said. When the skin was quite full, Quenu let it slip gently
+into a pot of boiling water; and seemed quite easy in his mind again,
+for now nothing remained but to leave it to boil.
+
+"And the man--go on about the man!" murmured Pauline, opening her eyes,
+and surprised at no longer hearing the narrative.
+
+Florent rocked her on his knee, and resumed his story in a slow,
+murmuring voice, suggestive of that of a nurse singing an infant to
+sleep.
+
+"The man," he said, "arrived at a large town. There he was at first
+taken for an escaped convict, and was kept in prison for several months.
+Then he was released, and turned his hand to all sorts of work. He
+kept accounts and taught children to read, and at one time he was even
+employed as a navvy in making an embankment. He was continually hoping
+to return to his own country. He had saved the necessary amount of money
+when he was attacked by yellow fever. Then, believing him to be dead,
+those about him divided his clothes amongst themselves; so that when he
+at last recovered he had not even a shirt left. He had to begin all over
+again. The man was very weak, and was afraid he might have to remain
+where he was. But at last he was able to get away, and he returned."
+
+His voice had sunk lower and lower, and now died away altogether in a
+final quivering of his lips. The close of the story had lulled little
+Pauline to sleep, and she was now slumbering with her head on Florent's
+shoulder. He held her with one arm, and still gently rocked her on his
+knee. No one seemed to pay any further attention to him, so he remained
+still and quiet where he was, holding the sleeping child.
+
+Now came the tug of war, as Quenu said. He had to remove the
+black-puddings from the pot. In order to avoid breaking them or getting
+them entangled, he coiled them round a thick wooden pin as he drew them
+out, and then carried them into the yard and hung them on screens, where
+they quickly dried. Leon helped him, holding up the drooping ends. And
+as these reeking festoons of black-pudding crossed the kitchen they left
+behind them a trail of odorous steam, which still further thickened the
+dense atmosphere.
+
+Auguste, on his side, after giving a hasty glance at the lard moulds,
+now took the covers off the two pots in which the fat was simmering, and
+each bursting bubble discharged an acrid vapour into the kitchen. The
+greasy haze had been gradually rising ever since the beginning of
+the evening, and now it shrouded the gas and pervaded the whole room,
+streaming everywhere, and veiling the ruddy whiteness of Quenu and his
+two assistants. Lisa and Augustine had risen from their seats; and all
+were panting as though they had eaten too much.
+
+Augustine carried the sleeping Pauline upstairs; and Quenu, who liked to
+fasten up the kitchen himself, gave Auguste and Leon leave to go to
+bed, saying that he would fetch the black-pudding himself. The younger
+apprentice stole off with a very red face, having managed to secrete
+under his shirt nearly a yard of the pudding, which must have almost
+scalded him. Then the Quenus and Florent remained alone, in silence.
+Lisa stood nibbling a little piece of the hot pudding, keeping her
+pretty lips well apart all the while, for fear of burning them, and
+gradually the black compound vanished in her rosy mouth.
+
+"Well," said she, "La Normande was foolish in behaving so rudely; the
+black-pudding's excellent to-day."
+
+However, there was a knock at the passage door, and Gavard, who stayed
+at Monsieur Lebigre's every evening until midnight, came in. He had
+called for a definite answer about the fish inspectorship.
+
+"You must understand," he said, "that Monsieur Verlaque cannot wait any
+longer; he is too ill. So Florent must make up his mind. I have promised
+to give a positive answer early to-morrow."
+
+"Well, Florent accepts," Lisa quietly remarked, taking another nibble at
+some black-pudding.
+
+Florent, who had remained in his chair, overcome by a strange feeling of
+prostration, vainly endeavoured to rise and protest.
+
+"No, no, say nothing," continued Lisa; "the matter is quite settled. You
+have suffered quite enough already, my dear Florent. What you have just
+been telling us is enough to make one shudder. It is time now for you
+to settle down. You belong to a respectable family, you received a good
+education, and it is really not fitting that you should go wandering
+about the highways like a vagrant. At your age childishness is no longer
+excusable. You have been foolish; well, all that will be forgotten
+and forgiven. You will take your place again among those of your own
+class--the class of respectable folks--and live in future like other
+people."
+
+Florent listened in astonishment, quite unable to say a word. Lisa
+was, doubtless, right. She looked so healthy, so serene, that it was
+impossible to imagine that she desired anything but what was proper. It
+was he, with his fleshless body and dark, equivocal-looking countenance,
+who must be in the wrong, and indulging in unrighteous dreams. He could,
+indeed, no longer understand why he had hitherto resisted.
+
+Lisa, however, continued to talk to him with an abundant flow of words,
+as though he were a little boy found in fault and threatened with the
+police. She assumed, indeed, a most maternal manner, and plied him with
+the most convincing reasons. And at last, as a final argument, she said:
+
+"Do it for us, Florent. We occupy a fair position in the neighbourhood
+which obliges us to use a certain amount of circumspection; and, to tell
+you the truth, between ourselves, I'm afraid that people will begin
+to talk. This inspectorship will set everything right; you will be
+somebody; you will even be an honour to us."
+
+Her manner had become caressingly persuasive, and Florent was penetrated
+by all the surrounding plenteousness, all the aroma filling the kitchen,
+where he fed, as it were, on the nourishment floating in the atmosphere.
+He sank into blissful meanness, born of all the copious feeding that
+went on in the sphere of plenty in which he had been living during the
+last fortnight. He felt, as it were, the titillation of forming fat
+which spread slowly all over his body. He experienced the languid
+beatitude of shopkeepers, whose chief concern is to fill their bellies.
+At this late hour of night, in the warm atmosphere of the kitchen, all
+his acerbity and determination melted away. That peaceable evening,
+with the odour of the black-pudding and the lard, and the sight of plump
+little Pauline slumbering on his knee, had so enervated him that he
+found himself wishing for a succession of such evenings--endless ones
+which would make him fat.
+
+However, it was the sight of Mouton that chiefly decided him. Mouton was
+sound asleep, with his stomach turned upwards, one of his paws resting
+on his nose, and his tail twisted over this side, as though to keep him
+warm; and he was slumbering with such an expression of feline happiness
+that Florent, as he gazed at him, murmured: "No, it would be too
+foolish! I accept the berth. Say that I accept it, Gavard."
+
+Then Lisa finished eating her black-pudding, and wiped her fingers on
+the edge of her apron. And next she got her brother-in-law's candle
+ready for him, while Gavard and Quenu congratulated him on his decision.
+It was always necessary for a man to settle down, said they; the
+breakneck freaks of politics did not provide one with food. And,
+meantime, Lisa, standing there with the lighted candle in her hand,
+looked at him with an expression of satisfaction resting on her handsome
+face, placid like that of some sacred cow.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Three days later the necessary formalities were gone through, and
+without demur the police authorities at the Prefecture accepted Florent
+on Monsieur Verlaque's recommendation as his substitute. Gavard, by the
+way, had made it a point to accompany them. When he again found himself
+alone with Florent he kept nudging his ribs with his elbow as they
+walked along together, and laughed, without saying anything, while
+winking his eyes in a jeering way. He seemed to find something very
+ridiculous in the appearance of the police officers whom they met on
+the Quai de l'Horloge, for, as he passed them, he slightly shrugged his
+shoulders and made the grimace of a man seeking to restrain himself from
+laughing in people's faces.
+
+On the following morning Monsieur Verlaque began to initiate the new
+inspector into the duties of his office. It had been arranged that
+during the next few days he should make him acquainted with the
+turbulent sphere which he would have to supervise. Poor Verlaque,
+as Gavard called him was a pale little man, swathed in flannels,
+handkerchiefs, and mufflers. Constantly coughing, he made his way
+through the cool, moist atmosphere, and running waters of the fish
+market, on a pair of scraggy legs like those of a sickly child.
+
+When Florent made his appearance on the first morning, at seven o'clock,
+he felt quite distracted; his eyes were dazed, his head ached with
+all the noise and riot. Retail dealers were already prowling about
+the auction pavilion; clerks were arriving with their ledgers, and
+consigners' agents, with leather bags slung over their shoulders, sat
+on overturned chairs by the salesmen's desks, waiting to receive their
+cash. Fish was being unloaded and unpacked not only in the enclosure,
+but even on the footways. All along the latter were piles of small
+baskets, an endless arrival of cases and hampers, and sacks of mussels,
+from which streamlets of water trickled. The auctioneers' assistants,
+all looking very busy, sprang over the heaps, tore away the straw at
+the tops of the baskets, emptied the latter, and tossed them aside.
+They then speedily transferred their contents in lots to huge wickerwork
+trays, arranging them with a turn of the hand so that they might show
+to the best advantage. And when the large tray-like baskets were all
+set out, Florent could almost fancy that a whole shoal of fish had got
+stranded there, still quivering with life, and gleaming with rosy nacre,
+scarlet coral, and milky pearl, all the soft, pale, sheeny hues of the
+ocean.
+
+The deep-lying forests of seaweed, in which the mysterious life of the
+ocean slumbers, seemed at one haul of the nets to have yielded up all
+they contained. There were cod, keeling, whiting, flounders, plaice,
+dabs, and other sorts of common fish of a dingy grey with whitish
+splotches; there were conger-eels, huge serpent-like creatures, with
+small black eyes and muddy, bluish skins, so slimy that they still
+seemed to be gliding along, yet alive. There were broad flat skate
+with pale undersides edged with a soft red, and superb backs bumpy with
+vertebrae, and marbled down to the tautly stretched ribs of their
+fins with splotches of cinnabar, intersected by streaks of the tint of
+Florentine bronze--a dark medley of colour suggestive of the hues of a
+toad or some poisonous flower. Then, too, there were hideous dog-fish,
+with round heads, widely-gaping mouths like those of Chinese idols, and
+short fins like bats' wings; fit monsters to keep yelping guard over the
+treasures of the ocean grottoes. And next came the finer fish, displayed
+singly on the osier trays; salmon that gleamed like chased silver, every
+scale seemingly outlined by a graving-tool on a polished metal surface;
+mullet with larger scales and coarser markings; large turbot and huge
+brill with firm flesh white like curdled milk; tunny-fish, smooth and
+glossy, like bags of blackish leather; and rounded bass, with widely
+gaping mouths which a soul too large for the body seemed to have rent
+asunder as it forced its way out amidst the stupefaction of death. And
+on all sides there were sole, brown and grey, in pairs; sand-eels, slim
+and stiff, like shavings of pewter; herrings, slightly twisted, with
+bleeding gills showing on their silver-worked skins; fat dories tinged
+with just a suspicion of carmine; burnished mackerel with green-streaked
+backs, and sides gleaming with ever-changing iridescence; and rosy
+gurnets with white bellies, their head towards the centre of the baskets
+and their tails radiating all around, so that they simulated some
+strange florescence splotched with pearly white and brilliant vermilion.
+There were rock mullet, too, with delicious flesh, flushed with the
+pinky tinge peculiar to the Cyprinus family; boxes of whiting with
+opaline reflections; and baskets of smelts--neat little baskets, pretty
+as those used for strawberries, and exhaling a strong scent of violets.
+And meantime the tiny black eyes of the shrimps dotted as with beads
+of jet their soft-toned mass of pink and grey; and spiny crawfish and
+lobsters striped with black, all still alive, raised a grating sound as
+they tried to crawl along with their broken claws.
+
+Florent gave but indifferent attention to Monsieur Verlaque's
+explanations. A flood of sunshine suddenly streamed through the lofty
+glass roof of the covered way, lighting up all these precious colours,
+toned and softened by the waves--the iridescent flesh-tints of the
+shell-fish, the opal of the whiting, the pearly nacre of the mackerel,
+the ruddy gold of the mullets, the plated skins of the herrings, and
+massive silver of the salmon. It was as though the jewel-cases of some
+sea-nymph had been emptied there--a mass of fantastical, undreamt-of
+ornaments, a streaming and heaping of necklaces, monstrous bracelets,
+gigantic brooches, barbaric gems and jewels, the use of which could not
+be divined. On the backs of the skate and the dog-fish you saw, as it
+were, big dull green and purple stones set in dark metal, while the
+slender forms of the sand-eels and the tails and fins of the smelts
+displayed all the delicacy of finely wrought silver-work.
+
+And meantime Florent's face was fanned by a fresh breeze, a sharp, salt
+breeze redolent of the sea. It reminded him of the coasts of Guiana and
+his voyages. He half fancied that he was gazing at some bay left dry by
+the receding tide, with the seaweed steaming in the sun, the bare rocks
+drying, and the beach smelling strongly of the brine. All around him
+the fish in their perfect freshness exhaled a pleasant perfume, that
+slightly sharp, irritating perfume which depraves the appetite.
+
+Monsieur Verlaque coughed. The dampness was affecting him, and he
+wrapped his muffler more closely about his neck.
+
+"Now," said he, "we will pass on to the fresh water fish."
+
+This was in a pavilion beside the fruit market, the last one, indeed, in
+the direction of the Rue Rambuteau. On either side of the space reserved
+for the auctions were large circular stone basins, divided into separate
+compartments by iron gratings. Slender streams of water flowed from
+brass jets shaped like swan's necks; and the compartments were filled
+with swarming colonies of crawfish, black-backed carp ever on the
+move, and mazy tangles of eels, incessantly knotting and unknotting
+themselves. Again was Monsieur Verlaque attacked by an obstinate fit
+of coughing. The moisture of the atmosphere was more insipid here
+than amongst the sea water fish: there was a riverside scent, as of
+sun-warmed water slumbering on a bed of sand.
+
+A great number of crawfishes had arrived from Germany that morning in
+cases and hampers, and the market was also crowded with river fish from
+Holland and England. Several men were unpacking shiny carp from the
+Rhine, lustrous with ruddy metallic hues, their scales resembling
+bronzed _cloisonne_ enamel; and others were busy with huge pike, the
+cruel iron-grey brigands of the waters, who ravenously protruded their
+savage jaws; or with magnificent dark-hued with verdigris. And amidst
+these suggestions of copper, iron, and bronze, the gudgeon and perch,
+the trout, the bleak, and the flat-fish taken in sweep-nets showed
+brightly white, the steel-blue tints of their backs gradually toning
+down to the soft transparency of their bellies. However, it was the
+fat snowy-white barbel that supplied the liveliest brightness in this
+gigantic collection of still life.
+
+Bags of young carp were being gently emptied into the basins. The fish
+spun round, then remained motionless for a moment, and at last shot away
+and disappeared. Little eels were turned out of their hampers in a mass,
+and fell to the bottom of the compartments like tangled knots of snakes;
+while the larger ones--those whose bodies were about as thick as a
+child's arm--raised their heads and slipped of their own accord into the
+water with the supple motion of serpents gliding into the concealment
+of a thicket. And meantime the other fish, whose death agony had
+been lasting all the morning as they lay on the soiled osiers of the
+basket-trays, slowly expired amidst all the uproar of the auctions,
+opening their mouths as though to inhale the moisture of the air, with
+great silent gasps, renewed every few seconds.
+
+However, Monsieur Verlaque brought Florent back to the salt water fish.
+He took him all over the place and gave him the minutest particulars
+about everything. Round the nine salesmen's desks ranged along three
+sides of the pavilion there was now a dense crowd of surging, swaying
+heads, above which appeared the clerks, perched upon high chairs and
+making entries in their ledgers.
+
+"Are all these clerks employed by the salesmen?" asked Florent.
+
+By way of reply Monsieur Verlaque made a detour along the outside
+footway, led him into the enclosure of one of the auctions, and then
+explained the working of the various departments of the big yellow
+office, which smelt strongly of fish and was stained all over
+by drippings and splashings from the hampers. In a little glazed
+compartment up above, the collector of the municipal dues took note of
+the prices realised by the different lots of fish. Lower down, seated
+upon high chairs and with their wrists resting upon little desks, were
+two female clerks, who kept account of the business on behalf of the
+salesmen. At each end of the stone table in front of the office was a
+crier who brought the basket-trays forward in turn, and in a bawling
+voice announced what each lot consisted of; while above him the female
+clerk, pen in hand, waited to register the price at which the lots
+were knocked down. And outside the enclosure, shut up in another little
+office of yellow wood, Monsieur Verlaque showed Florent the cashier, a
+fat old woman, who was ranging coppers and five-franc pierces in piles.
+
+"There is a double control, you see," said Monsieur Verlaque; "the
+control of the Prefecture of the Seine and that of the Prefecture of
+Police. The latter, which licenses the salesmen, claims to have the
+right of supervision over them; and the municipality asserts its right
+to be represented at the transactions as they are subject to taxation."
+
+He went on expatiating at length in his faint cold voice respecting the
+rival claims of the two Prefectures. Florent, however, was paying but
+little heed, his attention being concentrated on a female clerk sitting
+on one of the high chairs just in front of him. She was a tall, dark
+woman of thirty, with big black eyes and an easy calmness of manner, and
+she wrote with outstretched fingers like a girl who had been taught the
+regulation method of the art.
+
+However, Florent's attention was diverted by the yelping of the crier,
+who was just offering a magnificent turbot for sale.
+
+"I've a bid of thirty francs! Thirty francs, now; thirty francs!"
+
+He repeated these words in all sorts of keys, running up and down a
+strange scale of notes full of sudden changes. Humpbacked and with his
+face twisted askew, and his hair rough and disorderly, he wore a great
+blue apron with a bib; and with flaming eyes and outstretched arms he
+cried vociferously: "Thirty-one! thirty-two! thirty-three! Thirty-three
+francs fifty centimes! thirty-three fifty!"
+
+Then he paused to take breath, turning the basket-tray and pushing it
+farther upon the table. The fish-wives bent forward and gently touched
+the turbot with their finger-tips. Then the crier began again with
+renewed energy, hurling his figures towards the buyers with a wave
+of the hand and catching the slightest indication of a fresh bid--the
+raising of a finger, a twist of the eyebrows, a pouting of the lips, a
+wink, and all with such rapidity and such a ceaseless jumble of words
+that Florent, utterly unable to follow him, felt quite disconcerted
+when, in a sing-song voice like that of a priest intoning the final
+words of a versicle, he chanted: "Forty-two! forty-two! The turbot goes
+for forty-two francs."
+
+It was the beautiful Norman who had made the last bid. Florent
+recognised her as she stood in the line of fish-wives crowding against
+the iron rails which surrounded the enclosure. The morning was fresh
+and sharp, and there was a row of tippets above the display of big white
+aprons, covering the prominent bosoms and stomachs and sturdy shoulders.
+With high-set chignon set off with curls, and white and dainty skin,
+the beautiful Norman flaunted her lace bow amidst tangled shocks of
+hair covered with dirty kerchiefs, red noses eloquent of drink,
+sneering mouths, and battered faces suggestive of old pots. And she also
+recognised Madame Quenu's cousin, and was so surprised to see him there
+that she began gossiping to her neighbours about him.
+
+The uproar of voices had become so great that Monsieur Verlaque
+renounced all further attempt to explain matters to Florent. On the
+footway close by, men were calling out the larger fish with
+prolonged shouts, which sounded as though they came from gigantic
+speaking-trumpets; and there was one individual who roared "Mussels!
+Mussels!" in such a hoarse, cracked, clamorous voice that the very roofs
+of the market shook. Some sacks of mussels were turned upside down,
+and their contents poured into hampers, while others were emptied with
+shovels. And there was a ceaseless procession of basket-trays containing
+skate, soles, mackerel, conger-eels, and salmon, carried backwards and
+forwards amidst the ever-increasing cackle and pushing of the fish-women
+as they crowded against the iron rails which creaked with their
+pressure. The humpbacked crier, now fairly on the job, waved his skinny
+arms in the air and protruded his jaws. Presently, seemingly lashed into
+a state of frenzy by the flood of figures that spurted from his lips, he
+sprang upon a stool, where, with his mouth twisted spasmodically and
+his hair streaming behind him, he could force nothing more than
+unintelligible hisses from his parched throat. And in the meantime, up
+above, the collector of municipal dues, a little old man, muffled in
+a collar of imitation astrachan, remained with nothing but his nose
+showing under his black velvet skullcap. And the tall, dark-complexioned
+female clerk, with eyes shining calmly in her face, which had been
+slightly reddened by the cold, sat on her high wooden chair, quietly
+writing, apparently unruffled by the continuous rattle which came from
+the hunchback below her.
+
+"That fellow Logre is wonderful," muttered Monsieur Verlaque with a
+smile. "He is the best crier in the markets. I believe he could make
+people buy boot soles in the belief they were fish!"
+
+Then he and Florent went back into the pavilion. As they again passed
+the spot where the fresh water fish was being sold by auction, and where
+the bidding seemed much quieter, Monsieur Verlaque explained that French
+river fishing was in a bad way.[*] The crier here, a fair, sorry-looking
+fellow, who scarcely moved his arms, was disposing of some lots of eels
+and crawfish in a monotonous voice, while the assistants fished fresh
+supplies out of the stone basins with their short-handled nets.
+
+     [*] M. Zola refers, of course, to the earlier years of the
+     Second Empire. Under the present republican Government,
+     which has largely fostered fish culture, matters have
+     considerably improved.--Translator.
+
+However, the crowd round the salesmen's desks was still increasing.
+Monsieur Verlaque played his part as Florent's instructor in the most
+conscientious manner, clearing the way by means of his elbows, and
+guiding his successor through the busiest parts. The upper-class retail
+dealers were there, quietly waiting for some of the finer fish, or
+loading the porters with their purchases of turbot, tunny, and salmon.
+The street-hawkers who had clubbed together to buy lots of herrings and
+small flat-fish were dividing them on the pavement. There were also some
+people of the smaller middle class, from distant parts of the city, who
+had come down at four o'clock in the morning to buy a really fresh fish,
+and had ended by allowing some enormous lot, costing from forty to fifty
+francs, to be knocked down to them, with the result that they would
+be obliged to spend the whole day in getting their friends and
+acquaintances to take the surplus off their hands. Every now and then
+some violent pushing would force a gap through part of the crowd. A
+fish-wife, who had got tightly jammed, freed herself, shaking her fists
+and pouring out a torrent of abuse. Then a compact mass of people again
+collected, and Florent, almost suffocated, declared that he had seen
+quite enough, and understood all that was necessary.
+
+As Monsieur Verlaque was helping him to extricate himself from the
+crowd, they found themselves face to face with the handsome Norman.
+She remained stock-still in front of them, and with her queenly air
+inquired:
+
+"Well, is it quite settled? You are going to desert us, Monsieur
+Verlaque?"
+
+"Yes, yes," replied the little man; "I am going to take a rest in the
+country, at Clamart. The smell of the fish is bad for me, it seems.
+Here, this is the gentleman who is going to take my place."
+
+So speaking he turned round to introduce Florent to her. The handsome
+Norman almost choked; however, as Florent went off, he fancied he could
+hear her whisper to her neighbours, with a laugh: "Well, we shall have
+some fine fun now, see if we don't!"
+
+The fish-wives had begun to set out their stalls. From all the taps at
+the corners of the marble slabs water was gushing freely; and there was
+a rustling sound all round, like the plashing of rain, a streaming of
+stiff jets of water hissing and spurting. And then, from the lower side
+of the sloping slabs, great drops fell with a softened murmur, splashing
+on the flagstones where a mass of tiny streams flowed along here
+and there, turning holes and depressions into miniature lakes, and
+afterwards gliding in a thousand rills down the slope towards the Rue
+Rambuteau. A moist haze ascended, a sort of rainy dust, bringing fresh
+whiffs of air to Florent's face, whiffs of that salt, pungent sea breeze
+which he remembered so well; while in such fish as was already laid out
+he once more beheld the rosy nacres, gleaming corals, and milky pearls,
+all the rippling colour and glaucous pallidity of the ocean world.
+
+That first morning left him much in doubt; indeed, he regretted that he
+had yielded to Lisa's insistence. Ever since his escape from the greasy
+drowsiness of the kitchen he had been accusing himself of base weakness
+with such violence that tears had almost risen in his eyes. But he did
+not dare to go back on his word. He was a little afraid of Lisa, and
+could see the curl of her lips and the look of mute reproach upon her
+handsome face. He felt that she was too serious a woman to be trifled
+with. However, Gavard happily inspired him with a consoling thought.
+On the evening of the day on which Monsieur Verlaque had conducted him
+through the auction sales, Gavard took him aside and told him, with a
+good deal of hesitation, that "the poor devil" was not at all well off.
+And after various remarks about the scoundrelly Government which ground
+the life out of its servants without allowing them even the means to die
+in comfort, he ended by hinting that it would be charitable on Florent's
+part to surrender a part of his salary to the old inspector. Florent
+welcomed the suggestion with delight. It was only right, he considered,
+for he looked upon himself simply as Monsieur Verlaque's temporary
+substitute; and besides, he himself really required nothing, as he
+boarded and lodged with his brother. Gavard added that he thought if
+Florent gave up fifty francs out of the hundred and fifty which he
+would receive monthly, the arrangement would be everything that could
+be desired; and, lowering his voice, he added that it would not be for
+long, for the poor fellow was consumptive to his very bones. Finally
+it was settled that Florent should see Monsieur Verlaque's wife, and
+arrange matters with her, to avoid any possibility of hurting the old
+man's feelings.
+
+The thought of this kindly action afforded Florent great relief, and he
+now accepted his duties with the object of doing good, thus continuing
+to play the part which he had been fulfilling all his life. However, he
+made the poultry dealer promise that he would not speak of the matter
+to anyone; and as Gavard also felt a vague fear of Lisa, he kept the
+secret, which was really very meritorious in him.
+
+And now the whole pork shop seemed happy. Handsome Lisa manifested the
+greatest friendliness towards her brother-in-law. She took care that he
+went to bed early, so as to be able to rise in good time; she kept his
+breakfast hot for him; and she no longer felt ashamed at being seen
+talking to him on the footway, now that he wore a laced cap. Quenu,
+quite delighted by all these good signs, sat down to table in the
+evening between his wife and brother with a lighter heart than ever.
+They often lingered over dinner till nine o'clock, leaving the shop in
+Augustine's charge, and indulging in a leisurely digestion interspersed
+with gossip about the neighbourhood, and the dogmatic opinions of Lisa
+on political topics; Florent also had to relate how matters had gone in
+the fish market that day. He gradually grew less frigid, and began
+to taste the happiness of a well-regulated existence. There was a
+well-to-do comfort and trimness about the light yellowish dining room
+which had a softening influence upon him as soon as he crossed its
+threshold. Handsome Lisa's kindly attentions wrapped him, as it were, in
+cotton-wool; and mutual esteem and concord reigned paramount.
+
+Gavard, however, considered the Quenu-Gradelles' home to be too drowsy.
+He forgave Lisa her weakness for the Emperor, because, he said, one
+ought never to discuss politics with women, and beautiful Madame
+Quenu was, after all, a very worthy person, who managed her business
+admirably. Nevertheless, he much preferred to spend his evenings at
+Monsieur Lebigre's, where he met a group of friends who shared his own
+opinions. Thus when Florent was appointed to the inspectorship of the
+fish market, Gavard began to lead him astray, taking him off for hours,
+and prompting him to lead a bachelor's life now that he had obtained a
+berth.
+
+Monsieur Lebigre was the proprietor of a very fine establishment, fitted
+up in the modern luxurious style. Occupying the right-hand corner of the
+Rue Pirouette, and looking on to the Rue Rambuteau, it formed, with its
+four small Norwegian pines in green-painted tubs flanking the doorway, a
+worthy pendant to the big pork shop of the Quenu-Gradelles. Through the
+clear glass windows you could see the interior, which was decorated with
+festoons of foliage, vine branches, and grapes, painted on a soft green
+ground. The floor was tiled with large black and white squares. At
+the far end was the yawning cellar entrance, above which rose a spiral
+staircase hung with red drapery, and leading to the billiard-room on the
+first floor. The counter or "bar" on the right looked especially rich,
+and glittered like polished silver. Its zinc-work, hanging with a broad
+bulging border over the sub-structure of white and red marble, edged it
+with a rippling sheet of metal as if it were some high altar laden
+with embroidery. At one end, over a gas stove, stood porcelain pots,
+decorated with circles of brass, and containing punch and hot wine. At
+the other extremity was a tall and richly sculptured marble fountain,
+from which a fine stream of water, so steady and continuous that it
+looked as though it were motionless, flowed into a basin. In the centre,
+edged on three sides by the sloping zinc surface of the counter, was a
+second basin for rinsing and cooling purposes, where quart bottles of
+draught wine, partially empty, reared their greenish necks. Then on the
+counter, to the right and left of this central basin, were batches
+of glasses symmetrically arranged: little glasses for brandy, thick
+tumblers for draught wine, cup glasses for brandied fruits, glasses for
+absinthe, glass mugs for beer, and tall goblets, all turned upside down
+and reflecting the glitter of the counter. On the left, moreover, was a
+metal urn, serving as a receptacle for gratuities; whilst a similar one
+on the right bristled with a fan-like arrangement of coffee spoons.
+
+Monsieur Lebigre was generally to be found enthroned behind his counter
+upon a seat covered with buttoned crimson leather. Within easy reach of
+his hand were the liqueurs in cut-glass decanters protruding from the
+compartments of a stand. His round back rested against a huge mirror
+which completely filled the panel behind him; across it ran two glass
+shelves supporting an array of jars and bottles. Upon one of them the
+glass jars of preserved fruits, cherries, plums, and peaches, stood out
+darkly; while on the other, between symmetrically arranged packets of
+finger biscuits, were bright flasks of soft green and red and yellow
+glass, suggesting strange mysterious liqueurs, or floral extracts of
+exquisite limpidity. Standing on the glass shelf in the white glow of
+the mirror, these flasks, flashing as if on fire, seemed to be suspended
+in the air.
+
+To give his premises the appearance of a cafe, Monsieur Lebigre had
+placed two small tables of bronzed iron and four chairs against the
+wall, in front of the counter. A chandelier with five lights and
+frosted globes hung down from the ceiling. On the left was a round gilt
+timepiece, above a _tourniquet_[*] fixed to the wall. Then at the far
+end came the private "cabinet," a corner of the shop shut off by a
+partition glazed with frosted glass of a small square pattern. In the
+daytime this little room received a dim light from a window that looked
+on to the Rue Pirouette; and in the evening, a gas jet burnt over the
+two tables painted to resemble marble. It was there that Gavard and
+his political friends met each evening after dinner. They looked upon
+themselves as being quite at home there, and had prevailed on the
+landlord to reserve the place for them. When Monsieur Lebigre had closed
+the door of the glazed partition, they knew themselves to be so safely
+screened from intrusion that they spoke quite unreservedly of the great
+"sweep out" which they were fond of discussing. No unprivileged customer
+would have dared to enter.
+
+     [*] This is a kind of dial turning on a pivot, and usually
+     enclosed in a brass frame, from which radiate a few small
+     handles or spokes. Round the face of the dial--usually of
+     paper--are various numerals, and between the face and its
+     glass covering is a small marble or wooden ball. The
+     appliance is used in lieu of dice or coins when two or more
+     customers are "tossing" for drinks. Each in turn sends the
+     dial spinning round, and wins or loses according to the
+     numeral against which the ball rests when the dial stops. As
+     I can find no English name for the appliance, I have thought
+     it best to describe it.--Translator.
+
+On the first day that Gavard took Florent off he gave him some
+particulars of Monsieur Lebigre. He was a good fellow, he said, who
+sometimes came to drink his coffee with them; and, as he had said one
+day that he had fought in '48, no one felt the least constraint in his
+presence. He spoke but little, and seemed rather thick-headed. As the
+gentlemen passed him on their way to the private room they grasped
+his hand in silence across the glasses and bottles. By his side on
+the crimson leather seat behind the counter there was generally a fair
+little woman, whom he had engaged as counter assistant in addition
+to the white-aproned waiter who attended to the tables and the
+billiard-room. The young woman's name was Rose, and she seemed a very
+gentle and submissive being. Gavard, with a wink of his eye, told
+Florent that he fancied Lebigre had a weakness for her. It was she, by
+the way, who waited upon the friends in the private room, coming and
+going, with her happy, humble air, amidst the stormiest political
+discussions.
+
+Upon the day on which the poultry dealer took Florent to Lebigre's to
+present him to his friends, the only person whom the pair found in the
+little room when they entered it was a man of some fifty years of age,
+of a mild and thoughtful appearance. He wore a rather shabby-looking hat
+and a long chestnut-coloured overcoat, and sat, with his chin resting
+on the ivory knob of a thick cane, in front of a glass mug full of beer.
+His mouth was so completely concealed by a vigorous growth of beard that
+his face had a dumb, lipless appearance.
+
+"How are you, Robine?" exclaimed Gavard.
+
+Robine silently thrust out his hand, without making any reply, though
+his eyes softened into a slight smile of welcome. Then he let his chin
+drop on to the knob of his cane again, and looked at Florent over his
+beer. Florent had made Gavard swear to keep his story a secret for fear
+of some dangerous indiscretion; and he was not displeased to observe a
+touch of distrust in the discreet demeanour of the gentleman with the
+heavy beard. However, he was really mistaken in this, for Robine never
+talked more than he did now. He was always the first to arrive, just
+as the clock struck eight; and he always sat in the same corner, never
+letting go his hold of his cane, and never taking off either his hat or
+his overcoat. No one had ever seen him without his hat upon his head. He
+remained there listening to the talk of the others till midnight, taking
+four hours to empty his mug of beer, and gazing successively at the
+different speakers as though he heard them with his eyes. When Florent
+afterwards questioned Gavard about Robine, the poultry dealer spoke of
+the latter as though he held him in high esteem. Robine, he asserted,
+was an extremely clever and able man, and, though he was unable to say
+exactly where he had given proof of his hostility to the established
+order of things, he declared that he was one of the most dreaded of the
+Government's opponents. He lived in the Rue Saint Denis, in rooms
+to which no one as a rule could gain admission. The poultry dealer,
+however, asserted that he himself had once been in them. The wax floors,
+he said, were protected by strips of green linen; and there were covers
+over the furniture, and an alabaster timepiece with columns. He had
+caught a glimpse of the back of a lady, who was just disappearing
+through one doorway as he was entering by another, and had taken her
+to be Madame Robine. She appeared to be an old lady of very genteel
+appearance, with her hair arranged in corkscrew curls; but of this he
+could not be quite certain. No one knew why they had taken up their
+abode amidst all the uproar of a business neighbourhood; for the husband
+did nothing at all, spending his days no one knew how and living on no
+one knew what, though he made his appearance every evening as though he
+were tired but delighted with some excursion into the highest regions of
+politics.
+
+"Well, have you read the speech from the throne?" asked Gavard, taking
+up a newspaper that was lying on the table.
+
+Robine shrugged his shoulders. Just at that moment, however, the door
+of the glazed partition clattered noisily, and a hunchback made his
+appearance. Florent at once recognised the deformed crier of the fish
+market, though his hands were now washed and he was neatly dressed, with
+his neck encircled by a great red muffler, one end of which hung down
+over his hump like the skirt of a Venetian cloak.
+
+"Ah, here's Logre!" exclaimed the poultry dealer. "Now we shall hear
+what he thinks about the speech from the throne."
+
+Logre, however, was apparently furious. To begin with he almost broke
+the pegs off in hanging up his hat and muffler. Then he threw himself
+violently into a chair, and brought his fist down on the table, while
+tossing away the newspaper.
+
+"Do you think I read their fearful lies?" he cried.
+
+Then he gave vent to the anger raging within him. "Did ever anyone
+hear," he cried, "of masters making such fools of their people? For two
+whole hours I've been waiting for my pay! There were ten of us in the
+office kicking our heels there. Then at last Monsieur Manoury arrived
+in a cab. Where he had come from I don't know, and don't care, but I'm
+quite sure it wasn't any respectable place. Those salesmen are all a
+parcel of thieves and libertines! And then, too, the hog actually gave
+me all my money in small change!"
+
+Robine expressed his sympathy with Logre by the slight movement of his
+eyelids. But suddenly the hunchback bethought him of a victim upon whom
+to pour out his wrath. "Rose! Rose!" he cried, stretching his head out
+of the little room.
+
+The young woman quickly responded to the call, trembling all over.
+
+"Well," shouted Logre, "what do you stand staring at me like that for?
+Much good that'll do! You saw me come in, didn't you? Why haven't you
+brought me my glass of black coffee, then?"
+
+Gavard ordered two similar glasses, and Rose made all haste to bring
+what was required, while Logre glared sternly at the glasses and little
+sugar trays as if studying them. When he had taken a drink he seemed to
+grow somewhat calmer.
+
+"But it's Charvet who must be getting bored," he said presently. "He is
+waiting outside on the pavement for Clemence."
+
+Charvet, however, now made his appearance, followed by Clemence. He was
+a tall, scraggy young man, carefully shaved, with a skinny nose and
+thin lips. He lived in the Rue Vavin, behind the Luxembourg, and called
+himself a professor. In politics he was a disciple of Hebert.[*] He
+wore his hair very long, and the collar and lapels of his threadbare
+frock-coat were broadly turned back. Affecting the manner and speech of
+a member of the National Convention, he would pour out such a flood of
+bitter words and make such a haughty display of pedantic learning that
+he generally crushed his adversaries. Gavard was afraid of him, though
+he would not confess it; still, in Charvet's absence he would say that
+he really went too far. Robine, for his part, expressed approval
+of everything with his eyes. Logre sometimes opposed Charvet on the
+question of salaries; but the other was really the autocrat of
+the coterie, having the greatest fund of information and the most
+overbearing manner. For more than ten years he and Clemence had lived
+together as man and wife, in accordance with a previously arranged
+contract, the terms of which were strictly observed by both parties to
+it. Florent looked at the young woman with some little surprise, but at
+last he recollected where he had previously seen her. This was at the
+fish auction. She was, indeed, none other than the tall dark female
+clerk whom he had observed writing with outstretched fingers, after the
+manner of one who had been carefully instructed in the art of holding a
+pen.
+
+     [*] Hebert, as the reader will remember, was the furious
+     demagogue with the foul tongue and poisoned pen who edited
+     the _Pere Duchesne_ at the time of the first French
+     Revolution. We had a revival of his politics and his journal
+     in Paris during the Commune of 1871.--Translator.
+
+Rose made her appearance at the heels of the two newcomers. Without
+saying a word she placed a mug of beer before Charvet and a tray before
+Clemence, who in a leisurely way began to compound a glass of "grog,"
+pouring some hot water over a slice of lemon, which she crushed with
+her spoon, and glancing carefully at the decanter as she poured out
+some rum, so as not to add more of it than a small liqueur glass could
+contain.
+
+Gavard now presented Florent to the company, but more especially to
+Charvet. He introduced them to one another as professors, and very able
+men, who would be sure to get on well together. But it was probable that
+he had already been guilty of some indiscretion, for all the men at once
+shook hands with a tight and somewhat masonic squeeze of each other's
+fingers. Charvet, for his part, showed himself almost amiable; and
+whether he and the others knew anything of Florent's antecedents, they
+at all events indulged in no embarrassing allusions.
+
+"Did Manoury pay you in small change?" Logre asked Clemence.
+
+She answered affirmatively, and produced a roll of francs and another of
+two-franc pieces, and unwrapped them. Charvet watched her, and his eyes
+followed the rolls as she replaced them in her pocket, after counting
+their contents and satisfying herself that they were correct.
+
+"We have our accounts to settle," he said in a low voice.
+
+"Yes, we'll settle up to-night," the young woman replied. "But we
+are about even, I should think. I've breakfasted with you four times,
+haven't I? But I lent you a hundred sous last week, you know."
+
+Florent, surprised at hearing this, discreetly turned his head away.
+Then Clemence slipped the last roll of silver into her pocket, drank a
+little of her grog, and, leaning against the glazed partition, quietly
+settled herself down to listen to the men talking politics. Gavard had
+taken up the newspaper again, and, in tones which he strove to render
+comic, was reading out some passages of the speech from the throne which
+had been delivered that morning at the opening of the Chambers. Charvet
+made fine sport of the official phraseology; there was not a single line
+of it which he did not tear to pieces. One sentence afforded especial
+amusement to them all. It was this: "We are confident, gentlemen,
+that, leaning on your lights[*] and the conservative sentiments of the
+country, we shall succeed in increasing the national prosperity day by
+day."
+
+     [*] In the sense of illumination of mind. It has been
+     necessary to give a literal translation of this phrase to
+     enable the reader to realise the point of subsequent
+     witticisms in which Clemence and Gavard indulge.
+     --Translator.
+
+Logre rose up and repeated this sentence, and by speaking through his
+nose succeeded fairly well in mimicking the Emperor's drawling voice.
+
+"It's lovely, that prosperity of his; why, everyone's dying of hunger!"
+said Charvet.
+
+"Trade is shocking," asserted Gavard.
+
+"And what in the name of goodness is the meaning of anybody 'leaning on
+lights'?" continued Clemence, who prided herself upon literary culture.
+
+Robine himself even allowed a faint laugh to escape from the depths of
+his beard. The discussion began to grow warm. The party fell foul of
+the Corps Legislatif, and spoke of it with great severity. Logre did not
+cease ranting, and Florent found him the same as when he cried the fish
+at the auctions--protruding his jaws and hurling his words forward with
+a wave of the arm, whilst retaining the crouching attitude of a snarling
+dog. Indeed, he talked politics in just the same furious manner as he
+offered a tray full of soles for sale.
+
+Charvet, on the other hand, became quieter and colder amidst the smoke
+of the pipes and the fumes of the gas which were now filling the little
+den; and his voice assumed a dry incisive tone, sharp like a guillotine
+blade, while Robine gently wagged his head without once removing his
+chin from the ivory knob of his cane. However, some remark of Gavard's
+led the conversation to the subject of women.
+
+"Woman," declared Charvet drily, "is the equal of man; and, that being
+so, she ought not to inconvenience him in the management of his life.
+Marriage is a partnership, in which everything should be halved. Isn't
+that so, Clemence?"
+
+"Clearly so," replied the young woman, leaning back with her head
+against the wall and gazing into the air.
+
+However, Florent now saw Lacaille, the costermonger, and Alexandre, the
+porter, Claude Lantier's friend, come into the little room. In the past
+these two had long remained at the other table in the sanctum; they did
+not belong to the same class as the others. By the help of politics,
+however, their chairs had drawn nearer, and they had ended by forming
+part of the circle. Charvet, in whose eyes they represented "the
+people," did his best to indoctrinate them with his advanced political
+theories, while Gavard played the part of the shopkeeper free from
+all social prejudices by clinking glasses with them. Alexandre was
+a cheerful, good-humoured giant, with the manner of a big merry lad.
+Lacaille, on the other hand, was embittered; his hair was already
+grizzling; and, bent and wearied by his ceaseless perambulations through
+the streets of Paris, he would at times glance loweringly at the placid
+figure of Robine, and his sound boots and heavy coat.
+
+That evening both Lacaille and Alexandre called for a liqueur glass of
+brandy, and then the conversation was renewed with increased warmth and
+excitement, the party being now quite complete. A little later,
+while the door of the cabinet was left ajar, Florent caught sight of
+Mademoiselle Saget standing in front of the counter. She had taken a
+bottle from under her apron, and was watching Rose as the latter poured
+into it a large measureful of black-currant syrup and a smaller one
+of brandy. Then the bottle disappeared under the apron again, and
+Mademoiselle Saget, with her hands out of sight, remained talking in the
+bright glow of the counter, face to face with the big mirror, in which
+the flasks and bottles of liqueurs were reflected like rows of Venetian
+lanterns. In the evening all the metal and glass of the establishment
+helped to illuminate it with wonderful brilliancy. The old maid,
+standing there in her black skirts, looked almost like some big strange
+insect amidst all the crude brightness. Florent noticed that she was
+trying to inveigle Rose into a conversation, and shrewdly suspected that
+she had caught sight of him through the half open doorway. Since he
+had been on duty at the markets he had met her at almost every step,
+loitering in one or another of the covered ways, and generally in the
+company of Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette. He had noticed also that
+the three women stealthily examined him, and seemed lost in amazement
+at seeing him installed in the position of inspector. That evening,
+however, Rose was no doubt loath to enter into conversation with the old
+maid, for the latter at last turned round, apparently with the intention
+of approaching Monsieur Lebigre, who was playing piquet with a customer
+at one of the bronzed tables. Creeping quietly along, Mademoiselle
+Saget had at last managed to install herself beside the partition of the
+cabinet, when she was observed by Gavard, who detested her.
+
+"Shut the door, Florent!" he cried unceremoniously. "We can't even be by
+ourselves, it seems!"
+
+When midnight came and Lacaille went away he exchanged a few whispered
+words with Monsieur Lebigre, and as the latter shook hands with him he
+slipped four five-franc pieces into his palm, without anyone noticing
+it. "That'll make twenty-two francs that you'll have to pay to-morrow,
+remember," he whispered in his ear. "The person who lends the money
+won't do it for less in future. Don't forget, too, that you owe three
+days' truck hire. You must pay everything off."
+
+Then Monsieur Lebigre wished the friends good night. He was very sleepy
+and should sleep well, he said, with a yawn which revealed his big
+teeth, while Rose gazed at him with an air of submissive humility.
+However, he gave her a push, and told her to go and turn out the gas in
+the little room.
+
+On reaching the pavement, Gavard stumbled and nearly fell. And being in
+a humorous vein, he thereupon exclaimed: "Confound it all! At any rate,
+I don't seem to be leaning on anybody's lights."
+
+This remark seemed to amuse the others, and the party broke up. A little
+later Florent returned to Lebigre's, and indeed he became quite attached
+to the "cabinet," finding a seductive charm in Robine's contemplative
+silence, Logre's fiery outbursts, and Charvet's cool venom. When he went
+home, he did not at once retire to bed. He had grown very fond of his
+attic, that girlish bedroom, where Augustine had left scraps of ribbons,
+souvenirs, and other feminine trifles lying about. There still remained
+some hair-pins on the mantelpiece, with gilt cardboard boxes of buttons
+and lozenges, cutout pictures, and empty pomade pots that retained an
+odour of jasmine. Then there were some reels of thread, needles, and
+a missal lying by the side of a soiled Dream-book in the drawer of
+the rickety deal table. A white summer dress with yellow spots
+hung forgotten from a nail; while upon the board which served as a
+toilet-table a big stain behind the water-jug showed where a bottle of
+bandoline had been overturned. The little chamber, with its narrow iron
+bed, its two rush-bottomed chairs, and its faded grey wallpaper,
+was instinct with innocent simplicity. The plain white curtains, the
+childishness suggested by the cardboard boxes and the Dream-book, and
+the clumsy coquetry which had stained the walls, all charmed Florent and
+brought him back to dreams of youth. He would have preferred not to
+have known that plain, wiry-haired Augustine, but to have been able to
+imagine that he was occupying the room of a sister, some bright sweet
+girl of whose budding womanhood every trifle around him spoke.
+
+Yet another pleasure which he took was to lean out of the garret window
+at nighttime. In front of it was a narrow ledge of roof, enclosed by
+an iron railing, and forming a sort of balcony, on which Augustine had
+grown a pomegranate in a box. Since the nights had turned cold, Florent
+had brought the pomegranate indoors and kept it by the foot of his bed
+till morning. He would linger for a few minutes by the open window,
+inhaling deep draughts of the sharp fresh air which was wafted up from
+the Seine, over the housetops of the Rue de Rivoli. Below him the roofs
+of the markets spread confusedly in a grey expanse, like slumbering
+lakes on whose surface the furtive reflection of a pane of glass gleamed
+every now and then like a silvery ripple. Farther away the roofs of the
+meat and poultry pavilions lay in deeper gloom, and became mere masses
+of shadow barring the horizon. Florent delighted in the great stretch of
+open sky in front of him, in that spreading expanse of the markets which
+amidst all the narrow city streets brought him a dim vision of some
+strip of sea coast, of the still grey waters of a bay scarce quivering
+from the roll of the distant billows. He used to lose himself in dreams
+as he stood there; each night he conjured up the vision of some fresh
+coast line. To return in mind to the eight years of despair which he had
+spent away from France rendered him both very sad and very happy. Then
+at last, shivering all over, he would close the window. Often, as he
+stood in front of the fireplace taking off his collar, the photograph of
+Auguste and Augustine would fill him with disquietude. They seemed to be
+watching him as they stood there, hand in hand, smiling faintly.
+
+Florent's first few weeks at the fish market were very painful to him.
+The Mehudins treated him with open hostility, which infected the whole
+market with a spirit of opposition. The beautiful Norman intended to
+revenge herself on the handsome Lisa, and the latter's cousin seemed a
+victim ready to hand.
+
+The Mehudins came from Rouen. Louise's mother still related how she had
+first arrived in Paris with a basket of eels. She had ever afterwards
+remained in the fish trade. She had married a man employed in the Octroi
+service, who had died leaving her with two little girls. It was she who
+by her full figure and glowing freshness had won for herself in earlier
+days the nickname of "the beautiful Norman," which her eldest daughter
+had inherited. Now five and sixty years of age, Madame Mehudin had
+become flabby and shapeless, and the damp air of the fish market had
+rendered her voice rough and hoarse, and given a bluish tinge to her
+skin. Sedentary life had made her extremely bulky, and her head was
+thrown backwards by the exuberance of her bosom. She had never been
+willing to renounce the fashions of her younger days, but still wore
+the flowered gown, the yellow kerchief, and turban-like head-gear of
+the classic fish-wife, besides retaining the latter's loud voice and
+rapidity of gesture as she stood with her hands on her hips, shouting
+out the whole abusive vocabulary of her calling.
+
+She looked back regretfully to the old Marche des Innocents, which the
+new central markets had supplanted. She would talk of the ancient rights
+of the market "ladies," and mingle stories of fisticuffs exchanged with
+the police with reminiscences of the visits she had paid the Court in
+the time of Charles X and Louis Philippe, dressed in silk, and carrying
+a bouquet of flowers in her hand. Old Mother Mehudin, as she was now
+generally called, had for a long time been the banner-bearer of the
+Sisterhood of the Virgin at St. Leu. She would relate that in the
+processions in the church there she had worn a dress and cap of tulle
+trimmed with satin ribbons, whilst holding aloft in her puffy fingers
+the gilded staff of the richly-fringed silk standard on which the figure
+of the Holy Mother was embroidered.
+
+According to the gossip of the neighbourhood, the old woman had made a
+fairly substantial fortune, though the only signs of it were the massive
+gold ornaments with which she loaded her neck and arms and bosom on
+important occasions. Her two daughters got on badly together as they
+grew up. The younger one, Claire, an idle, fair-complexioned girl,
+complained of the ill-treatment which she received from her sister
+Louise, protesting, in her languid voice, that she could never submit to
+be the other's servant. As they would certainly have ended by coming
+to blows, their mother separated them. She gave her stall in the fish
+market to Louise, while Claire, whom the smell of the skate and the
+herrings affected in the lungs, installed herself among the fresh water
+fish. And from that time the old mother, although she pretended to
+have retired from business altogether, would flit from one stall to the
+other, still interfering in the selling of the fish, and causing her
+daughters continual annoyance by the foul insolence with which she would
+at times speak to customers.
+
+Claire was a fantastical creature, very gentle in her manner, and yet
+continually at loggerheads with others. People said that she invariably
+followed her own whimsical inclinations. In spite of her dreamy, girlish
+face she was imbued with a nature of silent firmness, a spirit of
+independence which prompted her to live apart; she never took things
+as other people did, but would one day evince perfect fairness, and the
+next day arrant injustice. She would sometimes throw the market into
+confusion by suddenly increasing or lowering the prices at her stall,
+without anyone being able to guess her reason for doing so. She
+herself would refuse to explain her motive. By the time she reached her
+thirtieth year, her delicate physique and fine skin, which the water
+of the tanks seemed to keep continually fresh and soft, her small,
+faintly-marked face and lissome limbs would probably become heavy,
+coarse, and flabby, till she would look like some faded saint that had
+stepped from a stained-glass window into the degrading sphere of the
+markets. At twenty-two, however, Claire, in the midst of her carp and
+eels, was, to use Claude Lantier's expression, a Murillo. A Murillo,
+that is, whose hair was often in disorder, who wore heavy shoes and
+clumsily cut dresses, which left her without any figure. But she was
+free from all coquetry, and she assumed an air of scornful contempt when
+Louise, displaying her bows and ribbons, chaffed her about her clumsily
+knotted neckerchiefs. Moreover, she was virtuous; it was said that the
+son of a rich shopkeeper in the neighbourhood had gone abroad in despair
+at having failed to induce her to listen to his suit.
+
+Louise, the beautiful Norman, was of a different nature. She had been
+engaged to be married to a clerk in the corn market; but a sack of flour
+falling upon the young man had broken his back and killed him. Not very
+long afterwards Louise had given birth to a boy. In the Mehudins' circle
+of acquaintance she was looked upon as a widow; and the old fish-wife
+in conversation would occasionally refer to the time when her son-in-law
+was alive.
+
+The Mehudins were a power in the markets. When Monsieur Verlaque had
+finished instructing Florent in his new duties, he advised him to
+conciliate certain of the stall-holders, if he wished his life to be
+endurable; and he even carried his sympathy so far as to put him in
+possession of the little secrets of the office, such as the various
+little breaches of rule that it was necessary to wink at, and those
+at which he would have to feign stern displeasure; and also the
+circumstances under which he might accept a small present. A market
+inspector is at once a constable and a magistrate; he has to maintain
+proper order and cleanliness, and settle in a conciliatory spirit
+all disputes between buyers and sellers. Florent, who was of a weak
+disposition put on an artificial sternness when he was obliged to
+exercise his authority, and generally over-acted his part. Moreover, his
+gloomy, pariah-like face and bitterness of spirit, the result of long
+suffering, were against him.
+
+The beautiful Norman's idea was to involve him in some quarrel or other.
+She had sworn that he would not keep his berth a fortnight. "That fat
+Lisa's much mistaken," said she one morning on meeting Madame Lecoeur,
+"if she thinks that she's going to put people over us. We don't want
+such ugly wretches here. That sweetheart of hers is a perfect fright!"
+
+After the auctions, when Florent commenced his round of inspection,
+strolling slowly through the dripping alleys, he could plainly see the
+beautiful Norman watching him with an impudent smile on her face. Her
+stall, which was in the second row on the left, near the fresh water
+fish department faced the Rue Rambuteau. She would turn round, however,
+and never take her eyes off her victim whilst making fun of him with
+her neighbours. And when he passed in front of her, slowly examining the
+slabs, she feigned hilarious merriment, slapped her fish with her hand,
+and turned her jets of water on at full stream, flooding the pathway.
+Nevertheless Florent remained perfectly calm.
+
+At last, one morning as was bound to happen, war broke out. As Florent
+reached La Normande's stall that day an unbearable stench assailed
+his nostrils. On the marble slab, in addition to part of a magnificent
+salmon, showing its soft roseate flesh, there lay some turbots of creamy
+whiteness, a few conger-eels pierced with black pins to mark their
+divisions, several pairs of soles, and some bass and red mullet--in
+fact, quite a display of fresh fish. But in the midst of it, amongst
+all these fish whose eyes still gleamed and whose gills were of a bright
+crimson, there lay a huge skate of a ruddy tinge, splotched with dark
+stains--superb, indeed, with all its strange colourings. Unfortunately,
+it was rotten; its tail was falling off and the ribs of its fins were
+breaking through the skin.
+
+"You must throw that skate away," said Florent as he came up.
+
+The beautiful Norman broke into a slight laugh. Florent raised his eyes
+and saw her standing before him, with her back against the bronze lamp
+post which lighted the stalls in her division. She had mounted upon
+a box to keep her feet out of the damp, and appeared very tall as he
+glanced at her. She looked also handsomer than usual, with her
+hair arranged in little curls, her sly face slightly bent, her lips
+compressed, and her hands showing somewhat too rosily against her big
+white apron. Florent had never before seen her decked with so much
+jewellery. She had long pendants in her ears, a chain round her neck, a
+brooch in her dress body, and quite a collection of rings on two fingers
+of her left hand and one of her right.
+
+As she still continued to look slyly at Florent, without making any
+reply, the latter continued: "Do you hear? You must remove that skate."
+
+He had not yet noticed the presence of old Madame Mehudin, who sat all
+of a heap on a chair in a corner. She now got up, however, and, with her
+fists resting on the marble slap, insolently exclaimed: "Dear me! And
+why is she to throw her skate away? You won't pay her for it, I'll bet!"
+
+Florent immediately understood the position. The women at the other
+stalls began to titter, and he felt that he was surrounded by covert
+rebellion, which a word might cause to blaze forth. He therefore
+restrained himself, and in person drew the refuse-pail from under the
+stall and dropped the skate into it. Old Madame Mehudin had already
+stuck her hands on her hips, while the beautiful Norman, who had not
+spoken a word, burst into another malicious laugh as Florent strode
+sternly away amidst a chorus of jeers, which he pretended not to hear.
+
+Each day now some new trick was played upon him, and he was obliged to
+walk through the market alleys as warily as though he were in a hostile
+country. He was splashed with water from the sponges employed to
+cleanse the slabs; he stumbled and almost fell over slippery refuse
+intentionally spread in his way; and even the porters contrived to run
+their baskets against the nape of his neck. One day, moreover, when two
+of the fish-wives were quarrelling, and he hastened up to prevent them
+coming to blows, he was obliged to duck in order to escape being slapped
+on either cheek by a shower of little dabs which passed over his head.
+There was a general outburst of laughter on this occasion, and Florent
+always believed that the two fish-wives were in league with the
+Mehudins. However, his old-time experiences as a teacher had endowed
+him with angelic patience, and he was able to maintain a magisterial
+coolness of manner even when anger was hotly rising within him, and
+his whole being quivered with a sense of humiliation. Still, the young
+scamps of the Rue de l'Estrapade had never manifested the savagery
+of these fish-wives, the cruel tenacity of these huge females, whose
+massive figures heaved and shook with a giant-like joy whenever he fell
+into any trap. They stared him out of countenance with their red faces;
+and in the coarse tones of their voices and the impudent gesture of
+their hands he could read volumes of filthy abuse levelled at himself.
+Gavard would have been quite in his element amidst all these petticoats,
+and would have freely cuffed them all round; but Florent, who had
+always been afraid of women, gradually felt overwhelmed as by a sort
+of nightmare in which giant women, buxom beyond all imagination,
+danced threateningly around him, shouting at him in hoarse voices and
+brandishing bare arms, as massive as any prize-fighter's.
+
+Amongst this hoard of females, however, Florent had one friend. Claire
+unhesitatingly declared that the new inspector was a very good fellow.
+When he passed in front of her, pursued by the coarse abuse of the
+others, she gave him a pleasant smile, sitting nonchalantly behind her
+stall, with unruly errant locks of pale hair straying over her neck and
+her brow, and the bodice of her dress pinned all askew. He also often
+saw her dipping her hands into her tanks, transferring the fish from
+one compartment to another, and amusing herself by turning on the brass
+taps, shaped like little dolphins with open mouths, from which the water
+poured in streamlets. Amidst the rustling sound of the water she had
+some of the quivering grace of a girl who has just been bathing and has
+hurriedly slipped on her clothes.
+
+One morning she was particularly amiable. She called the inspector to
+her to show him a huge eel which had been the wonder of the market
+when exhibited at the auction. She opened the grating, which she had
+previously closed over the basin in whose depths the eel seemed to be
+lying sound asleep.
+
+"Wait a moment," she said, "and I'll show it to you."
+
+Then she gently slipped her bare arm into the water; it was not a very
+plump arm, and its veins showed softly blue beneath its satiny skin. As
+soon as the eel felt her touch, it rapidly twisted round, and seemed to
+fill the narrow trough with its glistening greenish coils. And directly
+it had settled down to rest again Claire once more stirred it with her
+fingertips.
+
+"It is an enormous creature," Florent felt bound to say. "I have rarely
+seen such a fine one."
+
+Claire thereupon confessed to him that she had at first been frightened
+of eels; but now she had learned how to tighten her grip so that they
+could not slip away. From another compartment she took a smaller one,
+which began to wriggle both with head and tail, as she held it about
+the middle in her closed fist. This made her laugh. She let it go, then
+seized another and another, scouring the basin and stirring up the whole
+heap of snaky-looking creatures with her slim fingers.
+
+Afterwards she began to speak of the slackness of trade. The hawkers on
+the foot-pavement of the covered way did the regular saleswomen a great
+deal of injury, she said. Meantime her bare arm, which she had not
+wiped, was glistening and dripping with water. Big drops trickled from
+each finger.
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed suddenly, "I must show you my carp, too!"
+
+She now removed another grating, and, using both hands, lifted out a
+large carp, which began to flap its tail and gasp. It was too big to be
+held conveniently, so she sought another one. This was smaller, and she
+could hold it with one hand, but the latter was forced slightly open
+by the panting of the sides each time that the fish gasped. To amuse
+herself it occurred to Claire to pop the tip of her thumb into the
+carp's mouth whilst it was dilated. "It won't bite," said she with her
+gentle laugh; "it's not spiteful. No more are the crawfishes; I'm not
+the least afraid of them."
+
+She plunged her arm into the water again, and from a compartment full
+of a confused crawling mass brought up a crawfish that had caught her
+little finger in its claws. She gave the creature a shake, but it no
+doubt gripped her too tightly, for she turned very red, and snapped off
+its claw with a quick, angry gesture, though still continuing to smile.
+
+"By the way," she continued quickly, to conceal her emotion, "I wouldn't
+trust myself with a pike; he'd cut off my fingers like a knife."
+
+She thereupon showed him some big pike arranged in order of size upon
+clean scoured shelves, beside some bronze-hued tench and little heaps of
+gudgeon. Her hands were now quite slimy with handling the carp, and as
+she stood there in the dampness rising from the tanks, she held them
+outstretched over the dripping fish on the stall. She seemed enveloped
+by an odour of spawn, that heavy scent which rises from among the reeds
+and water-lilies when the fish, languid in the sunlight, discharge their
+eggs. Then she wiped her hands on her apron, still smiling the placid
+smile of a girl who knew nothing of passion in that quivering atmosphere
+of the frigid loves of the river.
+
+The kindliness which Claire showed to Florent was but a slight
+consolation to him. By stopping to talk to the girl he only drew upon
+himself still coarser jeers from the other stallkeepers. Claire shrugged
+her shoulders, and said that her mother was an old jade, and her sister
+a worthless creature. The injustice of the market folk towards the new
+inspector filled her with indignation. The war between them, however,
+grew more bitter every day. Florent had serious thoughts of resigning
+his post; indeed, he would not have retained it for another twenty-four
+hours if he had not been afraid that Lisa might imagine him to be a
+coward. He was frightened of what she might say and what she might
+think. She was naturally well aware of the contest which was going on
+between the fish-wives and their inspector; for the whole echoing market
+resounded with it, and the entire neighbourhood discussed each fresh
+incident with endless comments.
+
+"Ah, well," Lisa would often say in the evening, after dinner, "I'd soon
+bring them to reason if I had anything to do with them! Why, they are a
+lot of dirty jades that I wouldn't touch with the tip of my finger! That
+Normande is the lowest of the low! I'd soon crush her, that I would! You
+should really use your authority, Florent. You are wrong to behave as
+you do. Put your foot down, and they'll all come to their senses very
+quickly, you'll see."
+
+A terrible climax was presently reached. One morning the servant of
+Madame Taboureau, the baker, came to the market to buy a brill; and
+the beautiful Norman, having noticed her lingering near her stall for
+several minutes, began to make overtures to her in a coaxing way: "Come
+and see me; I'll suit you," she said. "Would you like a pair of soles,
+or a fine turbot?"
+
+Then as the servant at last came up, and sniffed at a brill with that
+dissatisfied pout which buyers assume in the hope of getting what they
+want at a lower price, La Normande continued:
+
+"Just feel the weight of that, now," and so saying she laid the brill,
+wrapped in a sheet of thick yellow paper, on the woman's open palm.
+
+The servant, a mournful little woman from Auvergne, felt the weight of
+the brill, and examined its gills, still pouting, and saying not a word.
+
+"And how much do you want for it?" she asked presently, in a reluctant
+tone.
+
+"Fifteen francs," replied La Normande.
+
+At this the servant hastily laid the brill on the stall again, and
+seemed anxious to hurry away, but the other detained her. "Wait a
+moment," said she. "What do you offer?"
+
+"No, no, I can't take it. It is much too dear."
+
+"Come, now, make me an offer."
+
+"Well, will you take eight francs?"
+
+Old Madame Mehudin, who was there, suddenly seemed to wake up, and
+broke out into a contemptuous laugh. Did people think that she and her
+daughter stole the fish they sold? "Eight francs for a brill that size!"
+she exclaimed. "You'll be wanting one for nothing next, to use as a
+cooling plaster!"
+
+Meantime La Normande turned her head away, as though greatly offended.
+However, the servant came back twice and offered nine francs; and
+finally she increased her bid to ten.
+
+"All right, come on, give me your money!" cried the fish-girl, seeing
+that the woman was now really going away.
+
+The servant took her stand in front of the stall and entered into a
+friendly gossip with old Madame Mehudin. Madame Taboureau, she said, was
+so exacting! She had got some people coming to dinner that evening, some
+cousins from Blois a notary and his wife. Madame Taboureau's family,
+she added, was a very respectable one, and she herself, although only a
+baker, had received an excellent education.
+
+"You'll clean it nicely for me, won't you?" added the woman, pausing in
+her chatter.
+
+With a jerk of her finger La Normande had removed the fish's entrails
+and tossed them into a pail. Then she slipped a corner of her apron
+under its gills to wipe away a few grains of sand. "There, my dear," she
+said, putting the fish into the servant's basket, "you'll come back to
+thank me."
+
+Certainly the servant did come back a quarter of an hour afterwards,
+but it was with a flushed, red face. She had been crying, and her little
+body was trembling all over with anger. Tossing the brill on to the
+marble slab, she pointed to a broad gash in its belly that reached the
+bone. Then a flood of broken words burst from her throat, which was
+still contracted by sobbing: "Madame Taboureau won't have it. She says
+she couldn't put it on her table. She told me, too, that I was an idiot,
+and let myself be cheated by anyone. You can see for yourself that the
+fish is spoilt. I never thought of turning it round; I quite trusted
+you. Give me my ten francs back."
+
+"You should look at what you buy," the handsome Norman calmly observed.
+
+And then, as the servant was just raising her voice again, old Madame
+Mehudin got up. "Just you shut up!" she cried. "We're not going to take
+back a fish that's been knocking about in other people's houses. How do
+we know that you didn't let it fall and damage it yourself?"
+
+"I! I damage it!" The little servant was choking with indignation. "Ah!
+you're a couple of thieves!" she cried, sobbing bitterly. "Yes, a couple
+of thieves! Madame Taboureau herself told me so!"
+
+Matters then became uproarious. Boiling over with rage and brandishing
+their fists, both mother and daughter fairly exploded; while the poor
+little servant, quite bewildered by their voices, the one hoarse and
+the other shrill, which belaboured her with insults as though they were
+battledores and she a shuttlecock, sobbed on more bitterly than ever.
+
+"Be off with you! Your Madame Taboureau would like to be half as fresh
+as that fish is! She'd like us to sew it up for her, no doubt!"
+
+"A whole fish for ten francs! What'll she want next!"
+
+Then came coarse words and foul accusations. Had the servant been
+the most worthless of her sex she could not have been more bitterly
+upbraided.
+
+Florent, whom the market keeper had gone to fetch, made his appearance
+when the quarrel was at its hottest. The whole pavilion seemed to be
+in a state of insurrection. The fish-wives, who manifest the keenest
+jealousy of each other when the sale of a penny herring is in question,
+display a united front when a quarrel arises with a buyer. They sang the
+popular old ditty, "The baker's wife has heaps of crowns, which cost her
+precious little"; they stamped their feet, and goaded the Mehudins
+as though the latter were dogs which they were urging on to bite and
+devour. And there were even some, having stalls at the other end of
+the alley, who rushed up wildly, as though they meant to spring at the
+chignon of the poor little woman, she meantime being quite submerged by
+the flood of insulting abuse poured upon her.
+
+"Return mademoiselle her ten francs," said Florent sternly, when he had
+learned what had taken place.
+
+But old Madame Mehudin had her blood up. "As for you, my little man,"
+quoth she, "go to blazes! Here, that's how I'll return the ten francs!"
+
+As she spoke, she flung the brill with all her force at the head of
+Madame Taboureau's servant, who received it full in the face. The blood
+spurted from her nose, and the brill, after adhering for a moment to
+her cheeks, fell to the ground and burst with a flop like that of a wet
+clout. This brutal act threw Florent into a fury. The beautiful Norman
+felt frightened and recoiled, as he cried out: "I suspend you for a
+week, and I will have your licence withdrawn. You hear me?"
+
+Then, as the other fish-wives were still jeering behind him, he turned
+round with such a threatening air that they quailed like wild beasts
+mastered by the tamer, and tried to assume an expression of innocence.
+When the Mehudins had returned the ten francs, Florent peremptorily
+ordered them to cease selling at once. The old woman was choking with
+rage, while the daughter kept silent, but turned very white. She, the
+beautiful Norman, to be driven out of her stall!
+
+Claire said in her quiet voice that it served her mother and sister
+right, a remark which nearly resulted in the two girls tearing each
+other's hair out that evening when they returned home to the Rue
+Pirouette. However, when the Mehudins came back to the market at the
+week's end, they remained very quiet, reserved, and curt of speech,
+though full of a cold-blooded wrath. Moreover, they found the pavilion
+quite calm and restored to order again. From that day forward the
+beautiful Norman must have harboured the thought of some terrible
+vengeance. She felt that she really had Lisa to thank for what had
+happened. She had met her, the day after the battle, carrying her head
+so high, that she had sworn she would make her pay dearly for her glance
+of triumph. She held interminable confabulations with Madame Saget,
+Madame Lecoeur, and La Sarriette, in quiet corners of the market;
+however, all their chatter about the shameless conduct which they
+slanderously ascribed to Lisa and her cousin, and about the hairs which
+they declared were found in Quenu's chitterlings, brought La Normande
+little consolation. She was trying to think of some very malicious plan
+of vengeance, which would strike her rival to the heart.
+
+Her child was growing up in the fish market in all freedom and neglect.
+When but three years old the youngster had been brought there, and day
+by day remained squatting on some rag amidst the fish. He would fall
+asleep beside the big tunnies as though he were one of them, and awake
+among the mackerel and whiting. The little rascal smelt of fish as
+strongly as though he were some big fish's offspring. For a long time
+his favourite pastime, whenever his mother's back was turned, was to
+build walls and houses of herrings; and he would also play at soldiers
+on the marble slab, arranging the red gurnets in confronting lines,
+pushing them against each other, and battering their heads, while
+imitating the sound of drum and trumpet with his lips; after which he
+would throw them all into a heap again, and exclaim that they were dead.
+When he grew older he would prowl about his aunt Claire's stall to get
+hold of the bladders of the carp and pike which she gutted. He placed
+them on the ground and made them burst, an amusement which afforded
+him vast delight. When he was seven he rushed about the alleys, crawled
+under the stalls, ferreted amongst the zinc bound fish boxes, and became
+the spoiled pet of all the women. Whenever they showed him something
+fresh which pleased him, he would clasp his hands and exclaim in
+ecstasy, "Oh, isn't it stunning!" _Muche_ was the exact word which he
+used; _muche_ being the equivalent of "stunning" in the lingo of the
+markets; and he used the expression so often that it clung to him as a
+nickname. He became known all over the place as "Muche." It was Muche
+here, there and everywhere; no one called him anything else. He was to
+be met with in every nook; in out-of-the-way corners of the offices in
+the auction pavilion; among the piles of oyster baskets, and betwixt the
+buckets where the refuse was thrown. With a pinky fairness of skin, he
+was like a young barbel frisking and gliding about in deep water. He
+was as fond of running, streaming water as any young fry. He was
+ever dabbling in the pools in the alleys. He wetted himself with the
+drippings from the tables, and when no one was looking often slyly
+turned on the taps, rejoicing in the bursting gush of water. But it was
+especially beside the fountains near the cellar steps that his mother
+went to seek him in the evening, and she would bring him thence with his
+hands quite blue, and his shoes, and even his pockets, full of water.
+
+At seven years old Muche was as pretty as an angel, and as coarse in his
+manners as any carter. He had curly chestnut hair, beautiful eyes,
+and an innocent-looking mouth which gave vent to language that even a
+gendarme would have hesitated to use. Brought up amidst all the ribaldry
+and profanity of the markets, he had the whole vocabulary of the place
+on the tip of his tongue. With his hands on his hips he often mimicked
+Grandmother Mehudin in her anger, and at these times the coarsest and
+vilest expressions would stream from his lips in a voice of crystalline
+purity that might have belonged to some little chorister chanting the
+_Ave Maria_. He would even try to assume a hoarse roughness of tone,
+seek to degrade and taint that exquisite freshness of childhood which
+made him resemble a _bambino_ on the Madonna's knees. The fish-wives
+laughed at him till they cried; and he, encouraged, could scarcely say a
+couple of words without rapping out an oath. But in spite of all this he
+still remained charming, understanding nothing of the dirt amidst which
+he lived, kept in vigorous health by the fresh breezes and sharp odours
+of the fish market, and reciting his vocabulary of coarse indecencies
+with as pure a face as though he were saying his prayers.
+
+The winter was approaching, and Muche seemed very sensitive to the cold.
+As soon as the chilly weather set in he manifested a strong predilection
+for the inspector's office. This was situated in the left-hand corner of
+the pavilion, on the side of the Rue Rambuteau. The furniture consisted
+of a table, a stack of drawers, an easy-chair, two other chairs, and a
+stove. It was this stove which attracted Muche. Florent quite worshipped
+children, and when he saw the little fellow, with his dripping legs,
+gazing wistfully through the window, he made him come inside. His first
+conversation with the lad caused him profound amazement. Muche sat down
+in front of the stove, and in his quiet voice exclaimed: "I'll just
+toast my toes, do you see? It's d----d cold this morning." Then he broke
+into a rippling laugh, and added: "Aunt Claire looks awfully blue this
+morning. Is it true, sir, that you are sweet on her?"
+
+Amazed though he was, Florent felt quite interested in the odd little
+fellow. The handsome Norman retained her surly bearing, but allowed
+her son to frequent the inspector's office without a word of objection.
+Florent consequently concluded that he had the mother's permission to
+receive the boy, and every afternoon he asked him in; by degrees forming
+the idea of turning him into a steady, respectable young fellow. He
+could almost fancy that his brother Quenu had grown little again, and
+that they were both in the big room in the Rue Royer-Collard once more.
+The life which his self-sacrificing nature pictured to him as perfect
+happiness was a life spent with some young being who would never grow
+up, whom he could go on teaching for ever, and in whose innocence he
+might still love his fellow man. On the third day of his acquaintance
+with Muche he brought an alphabet to the office, and the lad delighted
+him by the intelligence he manifested. He learned his letters with all
+the sharp precocity which marks the Parisian street arab, and derived
+great amusement from the woodcuts illustrating the alphabet.
+
+He found opportunities, too, for plenty of fine fun in the little
+office, where the stove still remained the chief attraction and a source
+of endless enjoyment. At first he cooked potatoes and chestnuts at it,
+but presently these seemed insipid, and he thereupon stole some gudgeons
+from his aunt Claire, roasted them one by one, suspended from a string
+in front of the glowing fire, and then devoured them with gusto, though
+he had no bread. One day he even brought a carp with him; but it was
+impossible to roast it sufficiently, and it made such a smell in the
+office that both window and door had to be thrown open. Sometimes, when
+the odour of all these culinary operations became too strong, Florent
+would throw the fish into the street, but as a rule he only laughed. By
+the end of a couple of months Muche was able to read fairly well, and
+his copy-books did him credit.
+
+Meantime, every evening the lad wearied his mother with his talk about
+his good friend Florent. His good friend Florent had drawn him pictures
+of trees and of men in huts, said he. His good friend Florent waved his
+arm and said that men would be far better if they all knew how to read.
+And at last La Normande heard so much about Florent that she seemed
+to be almost intimate with this man against whom she harboured so much
+rancour. One day she shut Muche up at home to prevent him from going to
+the inspector's, but he cried so bitterly that she gave him his liberty
+again on the following morning. There was very little determination
+about her, in spite of her broad shoulders and bold looks. When the lad
+told her how nice and warm he had been in the office, and came back to
+her with his clothes quite dry, she felt a sort of vague gratitude, a
+pleasure in knowing that he had found a shelter-place where he could sit
+with his feet in front of a fire. Later on, she was quite touched when
+he read her some words from a scrap of soiled newspaper wrapped round
+a slice of conger-eel. By degrees, indeed, she began to think, though
+without admitting it, that Florent could not really be a bad sort of
+fellow. She felt respect for his knowledge, mingled with an increasing
+curiosity to see more of him and learn something of his life. Then, all
+at once, she found an excuse for gratifying this inquisitiveness. She
+would use it as a means of vengeance. It would be fine fun to make
+friends with Florent and embroil him with that great fat Lisa.
+
+"Does your good friend Florent ever speak to you about me?" she asked
+Muche one morning as she was dressing him.
+
+"Oh, no," replied the boy. "We enjoy ourselves."
+
+"Well, you can tell him that I've quite forgiven him, and that I'm much
+obliged to him for having taught you to read."
+
+Thenceforward the child was entrusted with some message every day. He
+went backwards and forwards from his mother to the inspector, and from
+the inspector to his mother, charged with kindly words and questions and
+answers, which he repeated mechanically without knowing their meaning.
+He might, indeed, have been safely trusted with the most compromising
+communications. However, the beautiful Norman felt afraid of appearing
+timid, and so one day she herself went to the inspector's office and sat
+down on the second chair, while Muche was having his writing lesson.
+She proved very suave and complimentary, and Florent was by far the more
+embarrassed of the two. They only spoke of the lad; and when Florent
+expressed a fear that he might not be able to continue the lessons
+in the office, La Normande invited him to come to their home in the
+evening. She spoke also of payment; but at this he blushed, and said
+that he certainly would not come if any mention were made of money.
+Thereupon the young woman determined in her own mind that she would
+recompense him with presents of choice fish.
+
+Peace was thus made between them; the beautiful Norman even took Florent
+under her protection. Apart from this, however, the whole market was
+becoming reconciled to the new inspector, the fish-wives arriving at the
+conclusion that he was really a better fellow than Monsieur Verlaque,
+notwithstanding his strange eyes. It was only old Madame Mehudin who
+still shrugged her shoulders, full of rancour as she was against the
+"long lanky-guts," as she contemptuously called him. And then, too, a
+strange thing happened. One morning, when Florent stopped with a smile
+before Claire's tanks, the girl dropped an eel which she was holding and
+angrily turned her back upon him, her cheeks quite swollen and reddened
+by temper. The inspector was so much astonished that he spoke to La
+Normande about it.
+
+"Oh, never mind her," said the young woman; "she's cracked. She makes
+a point of always differing from everybody else. She only behaved like
+that to annoy me."
+
+La Normande was now triumphant--she strutted about her stall, and became
+more coquettish than ever, arranging her hair in the most elaborate
+manner. Meeting the handsome Lisa one day she returned her look of
+scorn, and even burst out laughing in her face. The certainty she felt
+of driving the mistress of the pork shop to despair by winning her
+cousin from her endowed her with a gay, sonorous laugh, which rolled up
+from her chest and rippled her white plump neck. She now had the whim
+of dressing Muche very showily in a little Highland costume and velvet
+bonnet. The lad had never previously worn anything but a tattered
+blouse. It unfortunately happened, however, that just about this time he
+again became very fond of the water. The ice had melted and the weather
+was mild, so he gave his Scotch jacket a bath, turning the fountain tap
+on at full flow and letting the water pour down his arm from his elbow
+to his hand. He called this "playing at gutters." Then a little later,
+when his mother came up and caught him, she found him with two other
+young scamps watching a couple of little fishes swimming about in his
+velvet cap, which he had filled with water.
+
+For nearly eight months Florent lived in the markets, feeling continual
+drowsiness. After his seven years of suffering he had lighted upon such
+calm quietude, such unbroken regularity of life, that he was scarcely
+conscious of existing. He gave himself up to this jog-trot peacefulness
+with a dazed sort of feeling, continually experiencing surprise at
+finding himself each morning in the same armchair in the little office.
+This office with its bare hut-like appearance had a charm for him. He
+here found a quiet and secluded refuge amidst that ceaseless roar of the
+markets which made him dream of some surging sea spreading around
+him, and isolating him from the world. Gradually, however, a vague
+nervousness began to prey upon him; he became discontented, accused
+himself of faults which he could not define, and began to rebel against
+the emptiness which he experienced more and more acutely in mind and
+body. Then, too, the evil smells of the fish market brought him nausea.
+By degrees he became unhinged, his vague boredom developing into
+restless, nervous excitement.
+
+All his days were precisely alike, spent among the same sounds and the
+same odours. In the mornings the noisy buzzing of the auction sales
+resounded in his ears like a distant echo of bells; and sometimes, when
+there was a delay in the arrival of the fish, the auctions continued
+till very late. Upon these occasions he remained in the pavilion till
+noon, disturbed at every moment by quarrels and disputes, which he
+endeavoured to settle with scrupulous justice. Hours elapsed before he
+could get free of some miserable matter or other which was exciting the
+market. He paced up and down amidst the crush and uproar of the sales,
+slowly perambulating the alleys and occasionally stopping in front of
+the stalls which fringed the Rue Rambuteau, and where lay rosy heaps of
+prawns and baskets of boiled lobsters with tails tied backwards, while
+live ones were gradually dying as they sprawled over the marble
+slabs. And then he would watch gentlemen in silk hats and black gloves
+bargaining with the fish-wives, and finally going off with boiled
+lobsters wrapped in paper in the pockets of their frock-coats.[*]
+Farther away, at the temporary stalls, where the commoner sorts of fish
+were sold, he would recognise the bareheaded women of the neighbourhood,
+who always came at the same hour to make their purchases.
+
+     [*] The little fish-basket for the use of customers, so
+     familiar in London, is not known in Paris.--Translator.
+
+At times he took an interest in some well-dressed lady trailing her lace
+petticoats over the damp stones, and escorted by a servant in a white
+apron; and he would follow her at a little distance on noticing how the
+fish-wives shrugged their shoulders at sight of her air of disgust. The
+medley of hampers and baskets and bags, the crowd of skirts flitting
+along the damp alleys, occupied his attention until lunchtime. He took a
+delight in the dripping water and the fresh breeze as he passed from the
+acrid smell of the shell-fish to the pungent odour of the salted fish.
+It was always with the latter that he brought his official round of
+inspection to a close. The cases of red herrings, the Nantes sardines on
+their layers of leaves, and the rolled cod, exposed for sale under
+the eyes of stout, faded fish-wives, brought him thoughts of a voyage
+necessitating a vast supply of salted provisions.
+
+In the afternoon the markets became quieter, grew drowsy; and Florent
+then shut himself up in his office, made out his reports, and enjoyed
+the happiest hours of his day. If he happened to go out and cross
+the fish market, he found it almost deserted. There was no longer the
+crushing and pushing and uproar of ten o'clock in the morning. The
+fish-wives, seated behind their stalls, leant back knitting, while a
+few belated purchasers prowled about casting sidelong glances at the
+remaining fish, with the thoughtful eyes and compressed lips of women
+closely calculating the price of their dinner. At last the twilight
+fell, there was a noise of boxes being moved, and the fish was laid for
+the night on beds of ice; and then, after witnessing the closing of the
+gates, Florent went off, seemingly carrying the fish market along with
+him in his clothes and his beard and his hair.
+
+For the first few months this penetrating odour caused him no great
+discomfort. The winter was a severe one, the frosts converted the alleys
+into slippery mirrors, and the fountains and marble slabs were fringed
+with a lacework of ice. In the mornings it was necessary to place little
+braziers underneath the taps before a drop of water could be drawn. The
+frozen fish had twisted tails; and, dull of hue and hard to the touch
+like unpolished metal, gave out a ringing sound akin to that of pale
+cast-iron when it snaps. Until February the pavilion presented a most
+mournful appearance: it was deserted, and wrapped in a bristling shroud
+of ice. But with March came a thaw, with mild weather and fogs and rain.
+Then the fish became soft again, and unpleasant odours mingled with the
+smell of mud wafted from the neighbouring streets. These odours were as
+yet vague, tempered by the moisture which clung to the ground. But in
+the blazing June afternoons a reeking stench arose, and the atmosphere
+became heavy with a pestilential haze. The upper windows were then
+opened, and huge blinds of grey canvas were drawn beneath the burning
+sky. Nevertheless, a fiery rain seemed to be pouring down, heating the
+market as though it were a big stove, and there was not a breath of air
+to waft away the noxious emanations from the fish. A visible steam went
+up from the stalls.
+
+The masses of food amongst which Florent lived now began to cause him
+the greatest discomfort. The disgust with which the pork shop had filled
+him came back in a still more intolerable fashion. He almost sickened
+as he passed these masses of fish, which, despite all the water lavished
+upon them, turned bad under a sudden whiff of hot air. Even when he shut
+himself up in his office his discomfort continued, for the abominable
+odour forced its way through the chinks in the woodwork of the window
+and door. When the sky was grey and leaden, the little room remained
+quite dark; and then the day was like a long twilight in the depths of
+some fetid march. He was often attacked by fits of nervous excitement,
+and felt a craving desire to walk; and he would then descend into the
+cellars by the broad staircase opening in the middle of the pavilion. In
+the pent-up air down below, in the dim light of the occasional gas jets,
+he once more found the refreshing coolness diffused by pure cold water.
+He would stand in front of the big tank where the reserve stock of live
+fish was kept, and listen to the ceaseless murmur of the four streamlets
+of water falling from the four corners of the central urn, and then
+spreading into a broad stream and gliding beneath the locked gratings of
+the basins with a gentle and continuous flow. This subterranean spring,
+this stream murmuring in the gloom, had a tranquillising effect upon
+him. Of an evening, too, he delighted in the fine sunsets which threw
+the delicate lacework of the market buildings blackly against the red
+glow of the heavens. The dancing dust of the last sun rays streamed
+through every opening, through every chink of the Venetian shutters,
+and the whole was like some luminous transparency on which the slender
+shafts of the columns, the elegant curves of the girders, and the
+geometrical tracery of the roofs were minutely outlined. Florent
+feasted his eyes on this mighty diagram washed in with Indian ink on
+phosphorescent vellum, and his mind reverted to his old fancy of a
+colossal machine with wheels and levers and beams espied in the crimson
+glow of the fires blazing beneath its boilers. At each consecutive hour
+of the day the changing play of the light--from the bluish haze of early
+morning and the black shadows of noon to the flaring of the sinking sun
+and the paling of its fires in the ashy grey of the twilight--revealed
+the markets under a new aspect; but on the flaming evenings, when the
+foul smells arose and forced their way across the broad yellow beams
+like hot puffs of steam, Florent again experienced discomfort, and
+his dream changed, and he imagined himself in some gigantic knacker's
+boiling-house where the fat of a whole people was being melted down.
+
+The coarseness of the market people, whose words and gestures seemed to
+be infected with the evil smell of the place, also made him suffer. He
+was very tolerant, and showed no mock modesty; still, these impudent
+women often embarrassed him. Madame Francois, whom he had again met,
+was the only one with whom he felt at ease. She showed such pleasure
+on learning he had found a berth and was quite comfortable and out of
+worry, as she put it, that he was quite touched. The laughter of Lisa,
+the handsome Norman, and the others disquieted him; but of Madame
+Francois he would willingly have made a confidante. She never laughed
+mockingly at him; when she did laugh, it was like a woman rejoicing at
+another's happiness. She was a brave, plucky creature, too; hers was a
+hard business in winter, during the frosts, and the rainy weather was
+still more trying. On some mornings Florent saw her arrive in a pouring
+deluge which had been slowly, coldly falling ever since the previous
+night. Between Nanterre and Paris the wheels of her cart had sunk up to
+the axles in mud, and Balthazar was caked with mire to his belly. His
+mistress would pity him and sympathise with him as she wiped him down
+with some old aprons.
+
+"The poor creatures are very sensitive," said she; "a mere nothing gives
+them a cold. Ah, my poor old Balthazar! I really thought that we had
+tumbled into the Seine as we crossed the Neuilly bridge, the rain came
+down in such a deluge!"
+
+While Balthazar was housed in the inn stable his mistress remained in
+the pouring rain to sell her vegetables. The footway was transformed
+into a lake of liquid mud. The cabbages, carrots, and turnips were
+pelted by the grey water, quite drowned by the muddy torrent that rushed
+along the pavement. There was no longer any of that glorious greenery
+so apparent on bright mornings. The market gardeners, cowering in their
+heavy cloaks beneath the downpour, swore at the municipality which,
+after due inquiry, had declared that rain was in no way injurious to
+vegetables, and that there was accordingly no necessity to erect any
+shelters.
+
+Those rainy mornings greatly worried Florent, who thought about Madame
+Francois. He always managed to slip away and get a word with her. But
+he never found her at all low-spirited. She shook herself like a poodle,
+saying that she was quite used to such weather, and was not made of
+sugar, to melt away beneath a few drops of rain. However, he made her
+seek refuge for a few minutes in one of the covered ways, and frequently
+even took her to Monsieur Lebigre's, where they had some hot wine
+together. While she with her peaceful face beamed on him in all
+friendliness, he felt quite delighted with the healthy odour of the
+fields which she brought into the midst of the foul market atmosphere.
+She exhaled a scent of earth, hay, fresh air, and open skies.
+
+"You must come to Nanterre, my lad," she said to him, "and look at my
+kitchen garden. I have put borders of thyme everywhere. How bad your
+villainous Paris does smell!"
+
+Then she went off, dripping. Florent, on his side, felt quite
+re-invigorated when he parted from her. He tried, too the effect of work
+upon the nervous depression from which he suffered. He was a man of a
+very methodical temperament, and sometimes carried out his plans for the
+allotment of his time with a strictness that bordered on mania. He shut
+himself up two evenings a week in order to write an exhaustive work on
+Cayenne. His modest bedroom was excellently adapted, he thought, to
+calm his mind and incline him to work. He lighted his fire, saw that
+the pomegranate at the foot of the bed was looking all right, and then
+seated himself at the little table, and remained working till midnight.
+He had pushed the missal and Dream-book back in the drawer, which was
+now filling with notes, memoranda, manuscripts of all kinds. The work
+on Cayenne made but slow progress, however, as it was constantly being
+interrupted by other projects, plans for enormous undertakings which
+he sketched out in a few words. He successively drafted an outline of
+a complete reform of the administrative system of the markets, a scheme
+for transforming the city dues, levied on produce as it entered Paris,
+into taxes levied upon the sales, a new system of victualling the poorer
+neighbourhoods, and, lastly, a somewhat vague socialist enactment for
+the storing in common warehouses of all the provisions brought to the
+markets, and the ensuring of a minimum daily supply to each household in
+Paris. As he sat there, with his head bent over his table, and his mind
+absorbed in thoughts of all these weighty matters, his gloomy figure
+cast a great black shadow on the soft peacefulness of the garret.
+Sometimes a chaffinch which he had picked up one snowy day in the market
+would mistake the lamplight for the day, and break the silence, which
+only the scratching of Florent's pen on his paper disturbed, by a cry.
+
+Florent was fated to revert to politics. He had suffered too much
+through them not to make them the dearest occupation of his life. Under
+other conditions he might have become a good provincial schoolmaster,
+happy in the peaceful life of some little town. But he had been treated
+as though he were a wolf, and felt as though he had been marked out
+by exile for some great combative task. His nervous discomfort was the
+outcome of his long reveries at Cayenne, the brooding bitterness he had
+felt at his unmerited sufferings, and the vows he had secretly sworn to
+avenge humanity and justice--the former scourged with a whip, and the
+latter trodden under foot. Those colossal markets and their teeming
+odoriferous masses of food had hastened the crisis. To Florent they
+appeared symbolical of some glutted, digesting beast, of Paris,
+wallowing in its fat and silently upholding the Empire. He seemed to be
+encircled by swelling forms and sleek, fat faces, which ever and
+ever protested against his own martyrlike scragginess and sallow,
+discontented visage. To him the markets were like the stomach of the
+shopkeeping classes, the stomach of all the folks of average rectitude
+puffing itself out, rejoicing, glistening in the sunshine, and declaring
+that everything was for the best, since peaceable people had never
+before grown so beautifully fat. As these thoughts passed through his
+mind Florent clenched his fists, and felt ready for a struggle, more
+irritated now by the thought of his exile than he had been when he first
+returned to France. Hatred resumed entire possession of him. He often
+let his pen drop and became absorbed in dreams. The dying fire cast a
+bright glow upon his face; the lamp burned smokily, and the chaffinch
+fell asleep again on one leg, with its head tucked under its wing.
+
+Sometimes Auguste, on coming upstairs at eleven o'clock and seeing the
+light shining under the door, would knock, before going to bed. Florent
+admitted him with some impatience. The assistant sat down in front of
+the fire, speaking but little, and never saying why he had come. His
+eyes would all the time remain fixed upon the photograph of himself and
+Augustine in their Sunday finery. Florent came to the conclusion that
+the young man took a pleasure in visiting the room for the simple reason
+that it had been occupied by his sweetheart; and one evening he asked
+him with a smile if he had guessed rightly.
+
+"Well, perhaps it is so," replied Auguste, very much surprised at the
+discovery which he himself now made of the reasons which actuated him.
+"I'd really never thought of that before. I came to see you without
+knowing why. But if I were to tell Augustine, how she'd laugh!"
+
+Whenever he showed himself at all loquacious, his one eternal theme was
+the pork shop which he was going to set up with Augustine at Plaisance.
+He seemed so perfectly assured of arranging his life in accordance
+with his desires, that Florent grew to feel a sort of respect for him,
+mingled with irritation. After all, the young fellow was very resolute
+and energetic, in spite of his seeming stupidity. He made straight
+for the goal he had in view, and would doubtless reach it in perfect
+assurance and happiness. On the evenings of these visits from the
+apprentice, Florent could not settle down to work again; he went off to
+bed in a discontented mood, and did not recover his equilibrium till
+the thought passed through his mind, "Why, that Auguste is a perfect
+animal!"
+
+Every month he went to Clamart to see Monsieur Verlaque. These visits
+were almost a delight to him. The poor man still lingered on, to the
+great astonishment of Gavard, who had not expected him to last for more
+than six months. Every time that Florent went to see him Verlaque would
+declare that he was feeling better, and was most anxious to resume his
+work again. But the days glided by, and he had serious relapses. Florent
+would sit by his bedside, chat about the fish market, and do what he
+could to enliven him. He deposited on the pedestal table the fifty
+francs which he surrendered to him each month; and the old inspector,
+though the payment had been agreed upon, invariably protested, and
+seemed disinclined to take the money. Then they would begin to speak of
+something else, and the coins remained lying on the table. When Florent
+went away, Madame Verlaque always accompanied him to the street door.
+She was a gentle little woman, of a very tearful disposition. Her one
+topic of conversation was the expense necessitated by her husband's
+illness, the costliness of chicken broth, butcher's meat, Bordeaux
+wine, medicine, and doctors' fees. Her doleful conversation greatly
+embarrassed Florent, and on the first few occasions he did not
+understand the drift of it. But at last, as the poor woman seemed always
+in a state of tears, and kept saying how happy and comfortable they had
+been when they had enjoyed the full salary of eighteen hundred francs
+a year, he timidly offered to make her a private allowance, to be
+kept secret from her husband. This offer, however, she declined,
+inconsistently declaring that the fifty francs were sufficient. But in
+the course of the month she frequently wrote to Florent, calling
+him their saviour. Her handwriting was small and fine, yet she would
+contrive to fill three pages of letter paper with humble, flowing
+sentences entreating the loan of ten francs; and this she at last did so
+regularly that wellnigh the whole of Florent's hundred and fifty francs
+found its way to the Verlaques. The husband was probably unaware of
+it; however, the wife gratefully kissed Florent's hands. This charity
+afforded him the greatest pleasure, and he concealed it as though it
+were some forbidden selfish indulgence.
+
+"That rascal Verlaque is making a fool of you," Gavard would sometimes
+say. "He's coddling himself up finely now that you are doing the work
+and paying him an income."
+
+At last one day Florent replied:
+
+"Oh, we've arranged matters together. I'm only to give him twenty-five
+francs a month in future."
+
+As a matter of fact, Florent had but little need of money. The Quenus
+continued to provide him with board and lodging; and the few francs
+which he kept by him sufficed to pay for the refreshment he took in the
+evening at Monsieur Lebigre's. His life had gradually assumed all the
+regularity of clockwork. He worked in his bedroom, continued to teach
+little Muche twice a week from eight to nine o'clock, devoted an evening
+to Lisa, to avoid offending her, and spent the rest of his spare time in
+the little "cabinet" with Gavard and his friends.
+
+When he went to the Mehudins' there was a touch of tutorial stiffness
+in his gentle demeanour. He was pleased with the old house in the
+Rue Pirouette. On the ground floor he passed through the faint odours
+pervading the premises of the purveyor of cooked vegetables. Big pans of
+boiled spinach and sorrel stood cooling in the little backyard. Then he
+ascended the winding staircase, greasy and dark, with worn and bulging
+steps which sloped in a disquieting manner. The Mehudins occupied the
+whole of the second floor. Even when they had attained to comfortable
+circumstances the old mother had always declined to move into fresh
+quarters, despite all the supplications of her daughters, who dreamt of
+living in a new house in a fine broad street. But on this point the old
+woman was not to be moved; she had lived there, she said, and meant to
+die there. She contented herself, moreover, with a dark little closet,
+leaving the largest rooms to Claire and La Normande. The later, with
+the authority of the elder born, had taken possession of the room that
+overlooked the street; it was the best and largest of the suite. Claire
+was so much annoyed at her sister's action in the matter that she
+refused to occupy the adjoining room, whose window overlooked the yard,
+and obstinately insisted on sleeping on the other side of the landing,
+in a sort of garret, which she did not even have whitewashed. However,
+she had her own key, and so was independent; directly anything happened
+to displease her she locked herself up in her own quarters.
+
+As a rule, when Florent arrived the Mehudins were just finishing
+their dinner. Muche sprang to his neck, and for a moment the young man
+remained seated with the lad chattering between his legs. Then, when
+the oilcloth cover had been wiped, the lesson began on a corner of
+the table. The beautiful Norman gave Florent a cordial welcome. She
+generally began to knit or mend some linen, and would draw her chair up
+to the table and work by the light of the same lamp as the others; and
+she frequently put down her needle to listen to the lesson, which filled
+her with surprise. She soon began to feel warm esteem for this man who
+seemed so clever, who, in speaking to the little one, showed himself as
+gentle as a woman, and manifested angelic patience in again and again
+repeating the same instructions. She no longer considered him at all
+plain, but even felt somewhat jealous of beautiful Lisa. And then she
+drew her chair still nearer, and gazed at Florent with an embarrassing
+smile.
+
+"But you are jogging my elbow, mother, and I can't write," Muche
+exclaimed angrily. "There! see what a blot you've made me make! Get
+further away, do!"
+
+La Normande now gradually began to say a good many unpleasant things
+about beautiful Lisa. She pretended that the latter concealed her real
+age, that she laced her stays so tightly that she nearly suffocated
+herself, and that if she came down of a morning looking so trim and
+neat, without a single hair out of place, it must be because she looked
+perfectly hideous when in dishabille. Then La Normande would raise her
+arm a little, and say that there was no need for her to wear any stays
+to cramp and deform her figure. At these times the lessons would be
+interrupted, and Muche gazed with interest at his mother as she raised
+her arms. Florent listened to her, and even laughed, thinking to himself
+that women were very odd creatures. The rivalry between the beautiful
+Norman and beautiful Lisa amused him.
+
+Muche, however, managed to finish his page of writing. Florent, who was
+a good penman, set him copies in large hand and round hand on slips of
+paper. The words he chose were very long and took up the whole line, and
+he evinced a marked partiality for such expressions as "tyrannically,"
+"liberticide," "unconstitutional," and "revolutionary." At times also
+he made the boy copy such sentences as these: "The day of justice will
+surely come"; "The suffering of the just man is the condemnation of the
+oppressor"; "When the hour strikes, the guilty shall fall." In preparing
+these copy slips he was, indeed, influenced by the ideas which haunted
+his brain; he would for the time become quite oblivious of Muche, the
+beautiful Norman, and all his surroundings. The lad would have copied
+Rousseau's "Contrat Social" had he been told to do so; and thus,
+drawing each letter in turn, he filled page after page with lines of
+"tyrannically" and "unconstitutional."
+
+As long as the tutor remained there, old Madame Mehudin kept fidgeting
+round the table, muttering to herself. She still harboured terrible
+rancour against Florent; and asserted that it was folly to make the lad
+work in that way at a time when children should be in bed. She would
+certainly have turned that "spindle-shanks" out of the house, if the
+beautiful Norman, after a stormy scene, had not bluntly told her that
+she would go to live elsewhere if she were not allowed to receive whom
+she chose. However, the pair began quarrelling again on the subject
+every evening.
+
+"You may say what you like," exclaimed the old woman; "but he's got
+treacherous eyes. And, besides, I'm always suspicious of those skinny
+people. A skinny man's capable of anything. I've never come across a
+decent one yet. That one's as flat as a board. And he's got such an ugly
+face, too! Though I'm sixty-five and more, I'd precious soon send him
+about his business if he came a-courting of me!"
+
+She said this because she had a shrewd idea of how matters were likely
+to turn out. And then she went on to speak in laudatory terms of
+Monsieur Lebigre, who, indeed, paid the greatest attention to the
+beautiful Norman. Apart from the handsome dowry which he imagined she
+would bring with her, he considered that she would be a magnificent
+acquisition to his counter. The old woman never missed an opportunity to
+sound his praises; there was no lankiness, at any rate, about him, said
+she; he was stout and strong, with a pair of calves which would have
+done honour even to one of the Emperor's footmen.
+
+However, La Normande shrugged her shoulders and snappishly replied:
+"What do I care whether he's stout or not? I don't want him or anybody.
+And besides, I shall do as I please."
+
+Then, if the old woman became too pointed in her remarks, the other
+added: "It's no business of yours, and besides, it isn't true. Hold
+your tongue and don't worry me." And thereupon she would go off into
+her room, banging the door behind her. Florent, however, had a yet
+more bitter enemy than Madame Mehudin in the house. As soon as ever he
+arrived there, Claire would get up without a word, take a candle, and go
+off to her own room on the other side of the landing; and she could be
+heard locking her door in a burst of sullen anger. One evening when
+her sister asked the tutor to dinner, she prepared her own food on
+the landing, and ate it in her bedroom; and now and again she secluded
+herself so closely that nothing was seen of her for a week at a time.
+She usually retained her appearance of soft lissomness, but periodically
+had a fit of iron rigidity, when her eyes blazed from under her pale
+tawny locks like those of a distrustful wild animal. Old Mother Mehudin,
+fancying that she might relieve herself in her company, only made her
+furious by speaking to her of Florent; and thereupon the old woman, in
+her exasperation, told everyone that she would have gone off and left
+her daughters to themselves had she not been afraid of their devouring
+each other if they remained alone together.
+
+As Florent went away one evening, he passed in front of Claire's door,
+which was standing wide open. He saw the girl look at him, and turn very
+red. Her hostile demeanour annoyed him; and it was only the timidity
+which he felt in the presence of women that restrained him from seeking
+an explanation of her conduct. On this particular evening he would
+certainly have addressed her if he had not detected Mademoiselle Saget's
+pale face peering over the balustrade of the upper landing. So he went
+his way, but had not taken a dozen steps before Claire's door was closed
+behind him with such violence as to shake the whole staircase. It was
+after this that Mademoiselle Saget, eager to propagate slander, went
+about repeating everywhere that Madame Quenu's cousin was "carrying on"
+most dreadfully with both the Mehudin girls.
+
+Florent, however, gave very little thought to these two handsome young
+women. His usual manner towards them was that of a man who has but
+little success with the sex. Certainly he had come to entertain a
+feeling of genuine friendship for La Normande, who really displayed a
+very good heart when her impetuous temper did not run away with her. But
+he never went any further than this. Moreover, the queenly proportions
+of her robust figure filled him with a kind of alarm; and of an evening,
+whenever she drew her chair up to the lamp and bent forward as though
+to look at Muche's copy-book, he drew in his own sharp bony elbows and
+shrunken shoulders as if realising what a pitiful specimen of humanity
+he was by the side of that buxom, hardy creature so full of the life of
+ripe womanhood. Moreover, there was another reason why he recoiled from
+her. The smells of the markets distressed him; on finishing his duties
+of an evening he would have liked to escape from the fishy odour amidst
+which his days were spent; but, alas! beautiful though La Normande was,
+this odour seemed to adhere to her silky skin. She had tried every
+sort of aromatic oil, and bathed freely; but as soon as the freshening
+influence of the bath was over her blood again impregnated her skin with
+the faint odour of salmon, the musky perfume of smelts, and the pungent
+scent of herrings and skate. Her skirts, too, as she moved about,
+exhaled these fishy smells, and she walked as though amidst an
+atmosphere redolent of slimy seaweed. With her tall, goddess-like
+figure, her purity of form, and transparency of complexion she resembled
+some lovely antique marble that had rolled about in the depths of the
+sea and had been brought to land in some fisherman's net.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget, however, swore by all her gods that Florent was the
+young woman's lover. According to her account, indeed, he courted
+both the sisters. She had quarrelled with the beautiful Norman about
+a ten-sou dab; and ever since this falling-out she had manifested warm
+friendship for handsome Lisa. By this means she hoped the sooner to
+arrive at a solution of what she called the Quenus' mystery. Florent
+still continued to elude her curiosity, and she told her friends that
+she felt like a body without a soul, though she was careful not to
+reveal what was troubling her so grievously. A young girl infatuated
+with a hopeless passion could not have been in more distress than this
+terrible old woman at finding herself unable to solve the mystery of the
+Quenus' cousin. She was constantly playing the spy on Florent, following
+him about, and watching him, in a burning rage at her failure to satisfy
+her rampant curiosity. Now that he had begun to visit the Mehudins she
+was for ever haunting the stairs and landings. She soon discovered that
+handsome Lisa was much annoyed at Florent visiting "those women," and
+accordingly she called at the pork shop every morning with a budget of
+information. She went in shrivelled and shrunk by the frosty air, and,
+resting her hands on the heating-pan to warm them, remained in front of
+the counter buying nothing, but repeating in her shrill voice: "He
+was with them again yesterday; he seems to live there now. I heard La
+Normande call him 'my dear' on the staircase."
+
+She indulged like this in all sorts of lies in order to remain in the
+shop and continue warming her hands for a little longer. On the morning
+after the evening when she had heard Claire close her door behind
+Florent, she spun out her story for a good half hour, inventing all
+sorts of mendacious and abominable particulars.
+
+Lisa, who had assumed a look of contemptuous scorn, said but little,
+simply encouraging Mademoiselle Saget's gossip by her silence. At last,
+however, she interrupted her. "No, no," she said; "I can't really listen
+to all that. Is it possible that there can be such women?"
+
+Thereupon Mademoiselle Saget told Lisa that unfortunately all women were
+not so well conducted as herself. And then she pretended to find all
+sorts of excuses for Florent: it wasn't his fault; he was no doubt a
+bachelor; these women had very likely inveigled him in their snares.
+In this way she hinted questions without openly asking them. But Lisa
+preserved silence with respect to her cousin, merely shrugging her
+shoulders and compressing her lips. When Mademoiselle Saget at last went
+away, the mistress of the shop glanced with disgust at the cover of the
+heating-pan, the glistening metal of which had been tarnished by the
+impression of the old woman's little hands.
+
+"Augustine," she cried, "bring a duster, and wipe the cover of the
+heating-pan. It's quite filthy!"
+
+The rivalry between the beautiful Lisa and the beautiful Norman now
+became formidable. The beautiful Norman flattered herself that she had
+carried a lover off from her enemy; and the beautiful Lisa was indignant
+with the hussy who, by luring the sly cousin to her home, would surely
+end by compromising them all. The natural temperament of each woman
+manifested itself in the hostilities which ensued. The one remained
+calm and scornful, like a lady who holds up her skirts to keep them from
+being soiled by the mud; while the other, much less subject to shame,
+displayed insolent gaiety and swaggered along the footways with the airs
+of a duellist seeking a cause of quarrel. Each of their skirmishes would
+be the talk of the fish market for the whole day. When the beautiful
+Norman saw the beautiful Lisa standing at the door of her shop, she
+would go out of her way in order to pass her, and brush against her with
+her apron; and then the angry glances of the two rivals crossed like
+rapiers, with the rapid flash and thrust of pointed steel. When the
+beautiful Lisa, on the other hand, went to the fish market, she assumed
+an expression of disgust on approaching the beautiful Norman's stall.
+And then she proceeded to purchase some big fish--a turbot or a
+salmon--of a neighbouring dealer, spreading her money out on the marble
+slab as she did so, for she had noticed that this seemed to have a
+painful effect upon the "hussy," who ceased laughing at the sight. To
+hear the two rivals speak, anyone would have supposed that the fish
+and pork they sold were quite unfit for food. However, their principal
+engagements took place when the beautiful Norman was seated at her stall
+and the beautiful Lisa at her counter, and they glowered blackly at each
+other across the Rue Rambuteau. They sat in state in their big white
+aprons, decked out with showy toilets and jewels, and the battle between
+them would commence early in the morning.
+
+"Hallo, the fat woman's got up!" the beautiful Norman would exclaim.
+"She ties herself up as tightly as her sausages! Ah, she's got
+Saturday's collar on again, and she's still wearing that poplin dress!"
+
+At the same moment, on the opposite side of the street, beautiful Lisa
+was saying to her shop girl: "Just look at that creature staring at us
+over yonder, Augustine! She's getting quite deformed by the life she
+leads. Do you see her earrings? She's wearing those big drops of hers,
+isn't she? It makes one feel ashamed to see a girl like that with
+brilliants."
+
+All complaisance, Augustine echoed her mistress's words.
+
+When either of them was able to display a new ornament it was like
+scoring a victory--the other one almost choked with spleen. Every day
+they would scrutinise and count each other's customers, and manifest the
+greatest annoyance if they thought that the "big thing over the way" was
+doing the better business. Then they spied out what each had for lunch.
+Each knew what the other ate, and even watched to see how she digested
+it. In the afternoon, while the one sat amidst her cooked meats and the
+other amidst her fish, they posed and gave themselves airs, as though
+they were queens of beauty. It was then that the victory of the day was
+decided. The beautiful Norman embroidered, selecting the most delicate
+and difficult work, and this aroused Lisa's exasperation.
+
+"Ah!" she said, speaking of her rival, "she had far better mend her
+boy's stockings. He's running about quite barefooted. Just look at that
+fine lady, with her red hands stinking of fish!"
+
+For her part, Lisa usually knitted.
+
+"She's still at that same sock," La Normande would say, as she watched
+her. "She eats so much that she goes to sleep over her work. I pity her
+poor husband if he's waiting for those socks to keep his feet warm!"
+
+They would sit glowering at each other with this implacable hostility
+until evening, taking note of every customer, and displaying such keen
+eyesight that they detected the smallest details of each other's dress
+and person when other women declared that they could see nothing at
+such a distance. Mademoiselle Saget expressed the highest admiration for
+Madame Quenu's wonderful sight when she one day detected a scratch on
+the fish-girl's left cheek. With eyes like those, said the old maid,
+one might even see through a door. However, the victory often remained
+undecided when night fell; sometimes one or other of the rivals was
+temporarily crushed, but she took her revenge on the morrow. Several
+people of the neighbourhood actually laid wagers on these contests, some
+backing the beautiful Lisa and others the beautiful Norman.
+
+At last they ended by forbidding their children to speak to one another.
+Pauline and Muche had formerly been good friends, notwithstanding the
+girl's stiff petticoats and lady-like demeanour, and the lad's tattered
+appearance, coarse language, and rough manners. They had at times played
+together at horses on the broad footway in front of the fish market,
+Pauline always being the horse and Muche the driver. One day, however,
+when the boy came in all simplicity to seek his playmate, Lisa turned
+him out of the house, declaring that he was a dirty little street arab.
+
+"One can't tell what may happen with children who have been so
+shockingly brought up," she observed.
+
+"Yes, indeed; you are quite right," replied Mademoiselle Saget, who
+happened to be present.
+
+When Muche, who was barely seven years old, came in tears to his mother
+to tell her of what had happened, La Normande broke out into a terrible
+passion. At the first moment she felt a strong inclination to rush
+over to the Quenu-Gradelles' and smash everything in their shop. But
+eventually she contented herself with giving Muche a whipping.
+
+"If ever I catch you going there again," she cried, boiling over with
+anger, "you'll get it hot from me, I can tell you!"
+
+Florent, however, was the real victim of the two women. It was he, in
+truth, who had set them by the ears, and it was on his account that
+they were fighting each other. Ever since he had appeared upon the scene
+things had been going from bad to worse. He compromised and disturbed
+and embittered all these people, who had previously lived in such sleek
+peace and harmony. The beautiful Norman felt inclined to claw him when
+he lingered too long with the Quenus, and it was chiefly from an impulse
+of hostile rivalry that she desired to win him to herself. The beautiful
+Lisa, on her side, maintained a cold judicial bearing, and although
+extremely annoyed, forced herself to silence whenever she saw Florent
+leaving the pork shop to go to the Rue Pirouette.
+
+Still, there was now much less cordiality than formerly round the
+Quenus' dinner-table in the evening. The clean, prim dining-room seemed
+to have assumed an aspect of chilling severity. Florent divined a
+reproach, a sort of condemnation in the bright oak, the polished lamp,
+and the new matting. He scarcely dared to eat for fear of letting crumbs
+fall on the floor or soiling his plate. There was a guileless simplicity
+about him which prevented him from seeing how the land really lay.
+He still praised Lisa's affectionate kindliness on all sides; and
+outwardly, indeed, she did continue to treat him with all gentleness.
+
+"It is very strange," she said to him one day with a smile, as though
+she were joking; "although you don't eat at all badly now, you don't get
+fatter. Your food doesn't seem to do you any good."
+
+At this Quenu laughed aloud, and tapping his brother's stomach,
+protested that the whole contents of the pork shop might pass through it
+without depositing a layer of fat as thick as a two-sou piece. However,
+Lisa's insistence on this particular subject was instinct with that same
+suspicious dislike for fleshless men which Madame Mehudin manifested
+more outspokenly; and behind it all there was likewise a veiled allusion
+to the disorderly life which she imagined Florent was leading. She
+never, however, spoke a word to him about La Normande. Quenu had
+attempted a joke on the subject one evening, but Lisa had received it so
+icily that the good man had not ventured to refer to the matter again.
+They would remain seated at table for a few moments after dessert, and
+Florent, who had noticed his sister-in-law's vexation if ever he went
+off too soon, tried to find something to talk about. On these occasions
+Lisa would be near him, and certainly he did not suffer in her presence
+from that fishy smell which assailed him when he was in the company of
+La Normande. The mistress of the pork shop, on the contrary, exhaled an
+odour of fat and rich meats. Moreover, not a thrill of life stirred her
+tight-fitting bodice; she was all massiveness and all sedateness.
+Gavard once said to Florent in confidence that Madame Quenu was no doubt
+handsome, but that for his part he did not admire such armour-plated
+women.
+
+Lisa avoided talking to Quenu of Florent. She habitually prided herself
+on her patience, and considered, too, that it would not be proper to
+cause any unpleasantness between the brothers, unless some peremptory
+reason for her interference should arise. As she said, she could put up
+with a good deal, but, of course, she must not be tried too far. She had
+now reached the period of courteous tolerance, wearing an expressionless
+face, affecting perfect indifference and strict politeness, and
+carefully avoiding everything which might seem to hint that Florent was
+boarding and lodging with them without their receiving the slightest
+payment from him. Not, indeed, that she would have accepted any payment
+from him, she was above all that; still he might, at any rate, she
+thought, have lunched away from the house.
+
+"We never seem to be alone now," she remarked to Quenu one day. "If
+there is anything we want to say to one another we have to wait till we
+go upstairs at night."
+
+And then, one night when they were in bed, she said to him: "Your
+brother earns a hundred and fifty francs a month, doesn't he? Well, it's
+strange he can't put a trifle by to buy himself some more linen. I've
+been obliged to give him three more of your old shirts."
+
+"Oh, that doesn't matter," Quenu replied. "Florent's not hard to please;
+and we must let him keep his money for himself."
+
+"Oh, yes, of course," said Lisa, without pressing the matter further. "I
+didn't mention it for that reason. Whether he spends his money well or
+ill, it isn't our business."
+
+In her own mind she felt quite sure that he wasted his salary at the
+Mehudins'.
+
+Only on one occasion did she break through her habitual calmness of
+demeanour, the quiet reserve which was the result of both natural
+temperament and preconceived design. The beautiful Norman had made
+Florent a present of a magnificent salmon. Feeling very much embarrassed
+with the fish, and not daring to refuse it, he brought it to Lisa.
+
+"You can make a pasty of it," he said ingenuously.
+
+Lisa looked at him sternly with whitening lips. Then, striving to
+restrain her anger, she exclaimed: "Do you think that we are short of
+food? Thank God, we've got quite enough to eat here! Take it back!"
+
+"Well, at any rate, cook it for me," replied Florent, amazed by her
+anger; "I'll eat it myself."
+
+At this she burst out furiously.
+
+"The house isn't an inn! Tell those who gave you the fish to cook it for
+you! I won't have my pans tainted and infected! Take it back again! Do
+you hear?"
+
+If he had not gone away with it, she would certainly have seized it and
+hurled it into the street. Florent took it to Monsieur Lebigre's, where
+Rose was ordered to make a pasty of it; and one evening the pasty was
+eaten in the little "cabinet," Gavard, who was present, "standing"
+some oysters for the occasion. Florent now gradually came more and more
+frequently to Monsieur Lebigre's, till at last he was constantly to be
+met in the little private room. He there found an atmosphere of heated
+excitement in which his political feverishness could pulsate freely.
+At times, now, when he shut himself up in his garret to work, the quiet
+simplicity of the little room irritated him, his theoretical search
+for liberty proved quite insufficient, and it became necessary that he
+should go downstairs, sally out, and seek satisfaction in the trenchant
+axioms of Charvet and the wild outbursts of Logre. During the first few
+evenings the clamour and chatter had made him feel ill at ease; he was
+then quite conscious of their utter emptiness, but he felt a need of
+drowning his thoughts, of goading himself on to some extreme resolution
+which might calm his mental disquietude. The atmosphere of the little
+room, reeking with the odour of spirits and warm with tobacco smoke,
+intoxicated him and filled him with peculiar beatitude, prompting a kind
+of self-surrender which made him willing to acquiesce in the wildest
+ideas. He grew attached to those he met there, and looked for them
+and awaited their coming with a pleasure which increased with habit.
+Robine's mild, bearded countenance, Clemence's serious profile,
+Charvet's fleshless pallor, Logre's hump, Gavard, Alexandre, and
+Lacaille, all entered into his life, and assumed a larger and larger
+place in it. He took quite a sensual enjoyment in these meetings.
+When his fingers closed round the brass knob on the door of the little
+cabinet it seemed to be animated with life, to warm him, and turn of its
+own accord. Had he grasped the supple wrist of a woman he could not have
+felt a more thrilling emotion.
+
+To tell the truth, very serious things took place in that little room.
+One evening, Logre, after indulging in wilder outbursts than usual,
+banged his fist upon the table, declaring that if they were men they
+would make a clean sweep of the Government. And he added that it was
+necessary they should come to an understanding without further delay, if
+they desired to be fully prepared when the time for action arrived. Then
+they all bent their heads together, discussed the matter in lower tones,
+and decided to form a little "group," which should be ready for whatever
+might happen. From that day forward Gavard flattered himself that he
+was a member of a secret society, and was engaged in a conspiracy. The
+little circle received no new members, but Logre promised to put it into
+communication with other associations with which he was acquainted; and
+then, as soon as they held all Paris in their grasp, they would rise
+and make the Tuileries' people dance. A series of endless discussions,
+renewed during several months, then began--discussions on questions of
+organisation, on questions of ways and means, on questions of strategy,
+and of the form of the future Government. As soon as Rose had brought
+Clemence's grog, Charvet's and Robine's beer, the coffee for Logre,
+Gavard, and Florent, and the liqueur glasses of brandy for Lacaille
+and Alexandre, the door of the cabinet was carefully fastened, and the
+debate began.
+
+Charvet and Florent were naturally those whose utterances were listened
+to with the greatest attention. Gavard had not been able to keep his
+tongue from wagging, but had gradually related the whole story of
+Cayenne; and Florent found himself surrounded by a halo of martyrdom.
+His words were received as though they were the expression of
+indisputable dogmas. One evening, however, the poultry dealer, vexed
+at hearing his friend, who happened to be absent, attacked, exclaimed:
+"Don't say anything against Florent; he's been to Cayenne!"
+
+Charvet was rather annoyed by the advantage which this circumstance
+gave to Florent. "Cayenne, Cayenne," he muttered between his teeth. "Ah,
+well, they were not so badly off there, after all."
+
+Then he attempted to prove that exile was a mere nothing, and that real
+suffering consisted in remaining in one's oppressed country, gagged in
+presence of triumphant despotism. And besides, he urged, it wasn't his
+fault that he hadn't been arrested on the Second of December. Next,
+however, he hinted that those who had allowed themselves to be captured
+were imbeciles. His secret jealousy made him a systematic opponent of
+Florent; and the general discussions always ended in a duel between
+these two, who, while their companions listened in silence, would speak
+against one another for hours at a time, without either of them allowing
+that he was beaten.
+
+One of the favourite subjects of discussion was that of the
+reorganisation of the country which would have to be effected on the
+morrow of their victory.
+
+"We are the conquerors, are we not?" began Gavard.
+
+And, triumph being taken for granted, everyone offered his opinion.
+There were two rival parties. Charvet, who was a disciple of Hebert, was
+supported by Logre and Robine; while Florent, who was always absorbed
+in humanitarian dreams, and called himself a Socialist, was backed by
+Alexandre and Lacaille. As for Gavard, he felt no repugnance for violent
+action; but, as he was often twitted about his fortune with no end of
+sarcastic witticisms which annoyed him, he declared himself a Communist.
+
+"We must make a clean sweep of everything," Charvet would curtly say, as
+though he were delivering a blow with a cleaver. "The trunk is rotten,
+and it must come down."
+
+"Yes! yes!" cried Logre, standing up that he might look taller,
+and making the partition shake with the excited motion of his hump.
+"Everything will be levelled to the ground; take my word for it. After
+that we shall see what to do."
+
+Robine signified approval by wagging his beard. His silence seemed
+instinct with delight whenever violent revolutionary propositions were
+made. His eyes assumed a soft ecstatic expression at the mention of the
+guillotine. He half closed them, as though he could see the machine, and
+was filled with pleasant emotion at the sight; and next he would gently
+rub his chin against the knob of his stick, with a subdued purr of
+satisfaction.
+
+"All the same," said Florent, in whose voice a vague touch of sadness
+lingered, "if you cut down the tree it will be necessary to preserve
+some seed. For my part, I think that the tree ought to be preserved, so
+that we may graft new life on it. The political revolution, you know,
+has already taken place; to-day we have got to think of the labourer,
+the working man. Our movement must be altogether a social one. I defy
+you to reject the claims of the people. They are weary of waiting, and
+are determined to have their share of happiness."
+
+These words aroused Alexandre's enthusiasm. With a beaming, radiant face
+he declared that this was true, that the people were weary of waiting.
+
+"And we will have our share," added Lacaille, with a more menacing
+expression. "All the revolutions that have taken place have been for
+the good of the middle classes. We've had quite enough of that sort of
+thing, and the next one shall be for our benefit."
+
+From this moment disagreement set in. Gavard offered to make a division
+of his property, but Logre declined, asserting that he cared nothing for
+money. Then Charvet gradually overcame the tumult, till at last he alone
+was heard speaking.
+
+"The selfishness of the different classes does more than anything else
+to uphold tyranny," said he. "It is wrong of the people to display
+egotism. If they assist us they shall have their share. But why should
+I fight for the working man if the working man won't fight for
+me? Moreover, that is not the question at present. Ten years of
+revolutionary dictatorship will be necessary to accustom a nation like
+France to the fitting enjoyment of liberty."
+
+"All the more so as the working man is not ripe for it, and requires to
+be directed," said Clemence bluntly.
+
+She but seldom spoke. This tall, serious looking girl, alone among
+so many men, listened to all the political chatter with a learnedly
+critical air. She leaned back against the partition, and every now and
+then sipped her grog whilst gazing at the speakers with frowning
+brows or inflated nostrils, thus silently signifying her approval or
+disapproval, and making it quite clear that she held decided opinions
+upon the most complicated matters. At times she would roll a cigarette,
+and puff slender whiffs of smoke from the corners of her mouth, whilst
+lending increased attention to what was being debated. It was as though
+she were presiding over the discussion, and would award the prize to
+the victor when it was finished. She certainly considered that it became
+her, as a woman, to display some reserve in her opinions, and to remain
+calm whilst the men grew more and more excited. Now and then, however,
+in the heat of the debate, she would let a word or a phrase escape her
+and "clench the matter" even for Charvet himself, as Gavard said. In her
+heart she believed herself the superior of all these fellows. The only
+one of them for whom she felt any respect was Robine, and she would
+thoughtfully contemplate his silent bearing.
+
+Neither Florent nor any of the others paid any special attention to
+Clemence. They treated her just as though she were a man, shaking hands
+with her so roughly as almost to dislocate her arms. One evening Florent
+witnessed the periodical settlement of accounts between her and Charvet.
+She had just received her pay, and Charvet wanted to borrow ten francs
+from her; but she first of all insisted that they must reckon up
+how matters stood between them. They lived together in a voluntary
+partnership, each having complete control of his or her earnings, and
+strictly paying his or her expenses. By so doing, said they, they were
+under no obligations to one another, but retained entire freedom. Rent,
+food, washing, and amusements, were all noted down and added up. That
+evening, when the accounts had been verified, Clemence proved to Charvet
+that he already owed her five francs. Then she handed him the other ten
+which he wished to borrow, and exclaimed: "Recollect that you now owe me
+fifteen. I shall expect you to repay me on the fifth, when you get paid
+for teaching little Lehudier."
+
+When Rose was summoned to receive payment for the "drinks," each
+produced the few coppers required to discharge his or her liability.
+Charvet laughingly called Clemence an aristocrat because she drank grog.
+She wanted to humiliate him, said he, and make him feel that he earned
+less than she did, which, as it happened, was the fact. Beneath his
+laugh, however, there was a feeling of bitterness that the girl should
+be better circumstanced than himself, for, in spite of his theory of the
+equality of the sexes, this lowered him.
+
+Although the discussions in the little room had virtually no result,
+they served to exercise the speakers' lungs. A tremendous hubbub
+proceeded from the sanctum, and the panes of frosted glass vibrated
+like drum-skins. Sometimes the uproar became so great that Rose, while
+languidly serving some blouse-wearing customer in the shop, would turn
+her head uneasily.
+
+"Why, they're surely fighting together in there," the customer would
+say, as he put his glass down on the zinc-covered counter, and wiped his
+mouth with the back of his hand.
+
+"Oh, there's no fear of that," Monsieur Lebigre tranquilly replied.
+"It's only some gentlemen talking together."
+
+Monsieur Lebigre, indeed, although very strict with his other customers,
+allowed the politicians to shout as loudly as they pleased, and never
+made the least remark on the subject. He would sit for hours together on
+the bench behind the counter, with his big head lolling drowsily against
+the mirror, whilst he watched Rose uncorking the bottles and giving a
+wipe here and there with her duster. And in spite of the somniferous
+effects of the wine fumes and the warm streaming gaslight, he would keep
+his ears open to the sounds proceeding from the little room. At times,
+when the voices grew noisier than usual, he got up from his seat and
+went to lean against the partition; and occasionally he even pushed the
+door open, and went inside and sat down there for a few minutes, giving
+Gavard a friendly slap on the thigh. And then he would nod approval
+of everything that was said. The poultry dealer asserted that although
+friend Lebigre hadn't the stuff of an orator in him, they might safely
+reckon on him when the "shindy" came.
+
+One morning, however, at the markets, when a tremendous row broke out
+between Rose and one of the fish-wives, through the former accidentally
+knocking over a basket of herrings, Florent heard Rose's employer spoken
+of as a "dirty spy" in the pay of the police. And after he had succeeded
+in restoring peace, all sorts of stories about Monsieur Lebigre were
+poured into his ears. Yes, the wine seller was in the pay of the police,
+the fish-wives said; all the neighbourhood knew it. Before Mademoiselle
+Saget had begun to deal with him she had once met him entering the
+Prefecture to make his report. It was asserted, too, that he was a
+money-monger, a usurer, and lent petty sums by the day to costermongers,
+and let out barrows to them, exacting a scandalous rate of interest in
+return. Florent was greatly disturbed by all this, and felt it his
+duty to repeat it that evening to his fellow politicians. The latter,
+however, only shrugged their shoulders, and laughed at his uneasiness.
+
+"Poor Florent!" Charvet exclaimed sarcastically; "he imagines the whole
+police force is on his track, just because he happens to have been sent
+to Cayenne!"
+
+Gavard gave his word of honour that Lebigre was perfectly staunch and
+true, while Logre, for his part, manifested extreme irritation. He fumed
+and declared that it would be quite impossible for them to get on if
+everyone was to be accused of being a police spy; for his own part, he
+would rather stay at home, and have nothing more to do with politics.
+Why, hadn't people even dared to say that he, Logre himself, who had
+fought in '48 and '51, and had twice narrowly escaped transportation,
+was a spy as well? As he shouted this out, he thrust his jaws forward,
+and glared at the others as though he would have liked to ram the
+conviction that he had nothing to do with the police down their throats.
+At the sight of his furious glances his companions made gestures of
+protestation. However, Lacaille, on hearing Monsieur Lebigre accused of
+usury, silently lowered his head.
+
+The incident was forgotten in the discussions which ensued. Since Logre
+had suggested a conspiracy, Monsieur Lebigre had grasped the hands of
+the frequenters of the little room with more vigor than ever. Their
+custom, to tell the truth, was of but small value to him, for they never
+ordered more than one "drink" apiece. They drained the last drops just
+as they rose to leave, having been careful to allow a little to remain
+in their glasses, even during their most heated arguments. In this wise
+the one "shout" lasted throughout the evening. They shivered as they
+turned out into the cold dampness of the night, and for a moment or two
+remained standing on the footway with dazzled eyes and buzzing ears,
+as though surprised by the dark silence of the street. Rose, meanwhile,
+fastened the shutters behind them. Then, quite exhausted, at a loss for
+another word they shook hands, separated, and went their different ways,
+still mentally continuing the discussion of the evening, and regretting
+that they could not ram their particular theories down each other's
+throats. Robine walked away, with his bent back bobbing up and down, in
+the direction of the Rue Rambuteau; whilst Charvet and Clemence went
+off through the markets on their return to the Luxembourg quarter, their
+heels sounding on the flag-stones in military fashion, whilst they still
+discussed some question of politics or philosophy, walking along side by
+side, but never arm-in-arm.
+
+The conspiracy ripened very slowly. At the commencement of the summer
+the plotters had got no further than agreeing that it was necessary a
+stroke should be attempted. Florent, who had at first looked upon
+the whole business with a kind of distrust, had now, however, come to
+believe in the possibility of a revolutionary movement. He took up the
+matter seriously; making notes, and preparing plans in writing, while
+the others still did nothing but talk. For his part, he began to
+concentrate his whole life in the one persistent idea which made his
+brain throb night after night; and this to such a degree that he at last
+took his brother Quenu with him to Monsieur Lebigre's, as though such a
+course were quite natural. Certainly he had no thought of doing anything
+improper. He still looked upon Quenu as in some degree his pupil, and
+may even have considered it his duty to start him on the proper path.
+Quenu was an absolute novice in politics, but after spending five or six
+evenings in the little room he found himself quite in accord with the
+others. When Lisa was not present he manifested much docility, a sort of
+respect for his brother's opinions. But the greatest charm of the affair
+for him was really the mild dissipation of leaving his shop and shutting
+himself up in the little room where the others shouted so loudly, and
+where Clemence's presence, in his opinion, gave a tinge of rakishness
+and romance to the proceedings. He now made all haste with his
+chitterlings in order that he might get away as early as possible,
+anxious to lose not a single word of the discussions, which seemed to
+him to be very brilliant, though he was not always able to follow them.
+The beautiful Lisa did not fail to notice his hurry to be gone, but as
+yet she refrained from saying anything. When Florent took him off, she
+simply went to the door-step, and watched them enter Monsieur Lebigre's,
+her face paling somewhat, and a severe expression coming into her eyes.
+
+One evening, as Mademoiselle Saget was peering out of her garret
+casement, she recognised Quenu's shadow on the frosted glass of the
+"cabinet" window facing the Rue Pirouette. She had found her casement an
+excellent post of observation, as it overlooked that milky transparency,
+on which the gaslight threw silhouettes of the politicians, with noses
+suddenly appearing and disappearing, gaping jaws abruptly springing into
+sight and then vanishing, and huge arms, apparently destitute of bodies,
+waving hither and thither. This extraordinary jumble of detached
+limbs, these silent but frantic profiles, bore witness to the heated
+discussions that went on in the little room, and kept the old maid
+peering from behind her muslin curtains until the transparency turned
+black. She shrewdly suspected some "bit of trickery," as she phrased it.
+By continual watching she had come to recognise the different shadows
+by their hands and hair and clothes. As she gazed upon the chaos of
+clenched fists, angry heads, and swaying shoulders, which seemed to
+have become detached from their trunks and to roll about one atop of the
+other, she would exclaim unhesitatingly, "Ah, there's that big booby of
+a cousin; there's that miserly old Gavard; and there's the hunchback;
+and there's that maypole of a Clemence!" Then, when the action of the
+shadow-play became more pronounced, and they all seemed to have
+lost control over themselves, she felt an irresistible impulse to go
+downstairs to try to find out what was happening. Thus she now made a
+point of buying her black-currant syrup at nights, pretending that she
+felt out-of-sorts in the morning, and was obliged to take a sip as soon
+as ever she was out of bed. On the evening when she noticed Quenu's
+massive head shadowed on the transparency in close proximity to
+Charvet's fist, she made her appearance at Monsieur Lebigre's in a
+breathless condition. To gain more time, she made Rose rinse out her
+little bottle for her; however, she was about to return to her room when
+she heard the pork butcher exclaim with a sort of childish candour:
+
+"No, indeed, we'll stand for it no longer! We'll make a clean sweep of
+all those humbugging Deputies and Ministers! Yes, we'll send the whole
+lot packing."
+
+Eight o'clock had scarcely struck on the following morning when
+Mademoiselle Saget was already at the pork shop. She found Madame
+Lecoeur and La Sarriette there, dipping their noses into the
+heating-pan, and buying hot sausages for breakfast. As the old maid had
+managed to draw them into her quarrel with La Normande with respect to
+the ten-sou dab, they had at once made friends again with Lisa, and they
+now had nothing but contempt for the handsome fish-girl, and assailed
+her and her sister as good-for-nothing hussies, whose only aim was
+to fleece men of their money. This opinion had been inspired by the
+assertions of Mademoiselle Saget, who had declared to Madame Lecoeur
+that Florent had induced one of the two girls to coquette with Gavard,
+and that the four of them had indulged in the wildest dissipation at
+Barratte's--of course, at the poultry dealer's expense. From the effects
+of this impudent story Madame Lecoeur had not yet recovered; she wore a
+doleful appearance, and her eyes were quite yellow with spleen.
+
+That morning, however, it was for Madame Quenu that the old maid had
+a shock in store. She looked round the counter, and then in her most
+gentle voice remarked:
+
+"I saw Monsieur Quenu last night. They seem to enjoy themselves
+immensely in that little room at Lebigre's, if one may judge from the
+noise they make."
+
+Lisa had turned her head towards the street, listening very attentively,
+but apparently unwilling to show it. The old maid paused, hoping that
+one of the others would question her; and then, in a lower tone, she
+added: "They had a woman with them. Oh, I don't mean Monsieur Quenu, of
+course! I didn't say that; I don't know--"
+
+"It must be Clemence," interrupted La Sarriette; "a big scraggy creature
+who gives herself all sorts of airs just because she went to boarding
+school. She lives with a threadbare usher. I've seen them together;
+they always look as though they were taking each other off to the police
+station."
+
+"Oh, yes; I know," replied the old maid, who, indeed, knew everything
+about Charvet and Clemence, and whose only purpose was to alarm Lisa.
+
+The mistress of the pork shop, however, never flinched. She seemed to be
+absorbed in watching something of great interest in the market yonder.
+Accordingly the old maid had recourse to stronger measures. "I think,"
+said she, addressing herself to Madame Lecoeur, "that you ought to
+advise your brother-in-law to be careful. Last night they were shouting
+out the most shocking things in that little room. Men really seem to
+lose their heads over politics. If anyone had heard them, it might have
+been a very serious matter for them."
+
+"Oh! Gavard will go his own way," sighed Madame Lecoeur. "It only wanted
+this to fill my cup. I shall die of anxiety, I am sure, if he ever gets
+arrested."
+
+As she spoke, a gleam shot from her dim eyes. La Sarriette, however,
+laughed and wagged her little face, bright with the freshness of the
+morning air.
+
+"You should hear what Jules says of those who speak against the Empire,"
+she remarked. "They ought all to be thrown into the Seine, he told me;
+for it seems there isn't a single respectable person amongst them."
+
+"Oh! there's no harm done, of course, so long as only people like myself
+hear their foolish talk," resumed Mademoiselle Saget. "I'd rather cut
+my hand off, you know, than make mischief. Last night now, for instance,
+Monsieur Quenu was saying----"
+
+She again paused. Lisa had started slightly.
+
+"Monsieur Quenu was saying that the Ministers and Deputies and all who
+are in power ought to be shot."
+
+At this Lisa turned sharply, her face quite white and her hands clenched
+beneath her apron.
+
+"Quenu said that?" she curtly asked.
+
+"Yes, indeed, and several other similar things that I can't recollect
+now. I heard him myself. But don't distress yourself like that, Madame
+Quenu. You know very well that I sha'n't breathe a word. I'm quite old
+enough to know what might harm a man if it came out. Oh, no; it will go
+no further."
+
+Lisa had recovered her equanimity. She took a pride in the happy
+peacefulness of her home; she would not acknowledge that there had ever
+been the slightest difference between herself and her husband. And so
+now she shrugged her shoulders and said with a smile: "Oh, it's all a
+pack of foolish nonsense."
+
+When the three others were in the street together they agreed that
+handsome Lisa had pulled a very doleful face; and they were unanimously
+of opinion that the mysterious goings-on of the cousin, the Mehudins,
+Gavard, and the Quenus would end in trouble. Madame Lecoeur inquired
+what was done to the people who got arrested "for politics," but on this
+point Mademoiselle Saget could not enlighten her; she only knew that
+they were never seen again--no, never. And this induced La Sarriette to
+suggest that perhaps they were thrown into the Seine, as Jules had said
+they ought to be.
+
+Lisa avoided all reference to the subject at breakfast and dinner that
+day; and even in the evening, when Florent and Quenu went off together
+to Monsieur Lebigre's, there was no unwonted severity in her glance. On
+that particular evening, however, the question of framing a constitution
+for the future came under discussion, and it was one o'clock in the
+morning before the politicians could tear themselves away from the
+little room. The shutters had already been fastened, and they were
+obliged to leave by a small door, passing out one at a time with bent
+backs. Quenu returned home with an uneasy conscience. He opened the
+three or four doors on his way to bed as gently as possible, walking
+on tip-toe and stretching out his hands as he passed through the
+sitting-room, to avoid a collision with any of the furniture. The whole
+house seemed to be asleep. When he reached the bedroom, he was annoyed
+to find that Lisa had not extinguished the candle, which was burning
+with a tall, mournful flame in the midst of the deep silence. As Quenu
+took off his shoes, and put them down in a corner, the time-piece struck
+half past one with such a clear, ringing sound that he turned in alarm,
+almost frightened to move, and gazing with an expression of angry
+reproach at the shining gilded Gutenberg standing there, with his finger
+on a book. Lisa's head was buried in her pillow, and Quenu could only
+see her back; but he divined that she was merely feigning sleep, and her
+conduct in turning her back upon him was so instinct with reproach that
+he felt sorely ill at ease. At last he slipped beneath the bed-clothes,
+blew out the candle, and lay perfectly still. He could have sworn that
+his wife was awake, though she did not speak to him; and presently he
+fell asleep, feeling intensely miserable, and lacking the courage to say
+good night.
+
+He slept till late, and when he awoke he found himself sprawling in the
+middle of the bed with the eider-down quilt up to his chin, whilst Lisa
+sat in front of the secretaire, arranging some papers. His slumber
+had been so heavy that he had not heard her rise. However, he now took
+courage, and spoke to her from the depths of the alcove: "Why didn't you
+wake me? What are you doing there?"
+
+"I'm sorting the papers in these drawers," she replied in her usual tone
+of voice.
+
+Quenu felt relieved. But Lisa added: "One never knows what may happen.
+If the police were to come--"
+
+"What! the police?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, the police; for you're mixing yourself up with politics
+now."
+
+At this Quenu sat up in bed, quite dazed and confounded by such a
+violent and unexpected attack.
+
+"I mix myself up with politics! I mix myself up with politics!" he
+repeated. "It's no concern of the police. I've nothing to do with any
+compromising matters."
+
+"No," replied Lisa, shrugging her shoulders; "you merely talk about
+shooting everybody."
+
+"I! I!"
+
+"Yes. And you bawl it out in a public-house! Mademoiselle Saget heard
+you. All the neighbourhood knows by this time that you are a Red
+Republican!"
+
+Quenu fell back in bed again. He was not perfectly awake as yet. Lisa's
+words resounded in his ears as though he already heard the heavy tramp
+of gendarmes at the bedroom door. He looked at her as she sat there,
+with her hair already arranged, her figure tightly imprisoned in her
+stays, her whole appearance the same as it was on any other morning; and
+he felt more astonished than ever that she should be so neat and prim
+under such extraordinary circumstances.
+
+"I leave you absolutely free, you know," she continued, as she went on
+arranging the papers. "I don't want to wear the breeches, as the saying
+goes. You are the master, and you are at liberty to endanger your
+position, compromise our credit, and ruin our business."
+
+Then, as Quenu tried to protest, she silenced him with a gesture. "No,
+no; don't say anything," she continued. "This is no quarrel, and I am
+not even asking an explanation from you. But if you had consulted me,
+and we had talked the matter over together, I might have intervened.
+Ah! it's a great mistake to imagine that women understand nothing about
+politics. Shall I tell you what my politics are?"
+
+She had risen from her seat whilst speaking, and was now walking to and
+fro between the bed and the window, wiping as she went some specks
+of dust from the bright mahogany of the mirrored wardrobe and the
+dressing-table.
+
+"My politics are the politics of honest folks," said she. "I'm grateful
+to the Government when business is prosperous, when I can eat my meals
+in peace and comfort, and can sleep at nights without being awakened by
+the firing of guns. There were pretty times in '48, were there not? You
+remember our uncle Gradelle, the worthy man, showing us his books for
+that year? He lost more than six thousand francs. Now that we have got
+the Empire, however, everything prospers. We sell our goods readily
+enough. You can't deny it. Well, then, what is it that you want? How
+will you be better off when you have shot everybody?"
+
+She took her stand in front of the little night-table, crossed her arms
+over her breast, and fixed her eyes upon Quenu, who had shuffled himself
+beneath the bed-clothes, almost out of sight. He attempted to explain
+what it was that his friends wanted, but he got quite confused in his
+endeavours to summarise Florent's and Charvet's political and social
+systems; and could only talk about the disregard shown to principles,
+the accession of the democracy to power, and the regeneration of
+society, in such a strange tangled way that Lisa shrugged her shoulders,
+quite unable to understand him. At last, however, he extricated himself
+from his difficulties by declaring that the Empire was the reign of
+licentiousness, swindling finance, and highway robbery. And, recalling
+an expression of Logre's he added: "We are the prey of a band of
+adventurers, who are pillaging, violating, and assassinating France.
+We'll have no more of them."
+
+Lisa, however, still shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Well, and is that all you have got to say?" she asked with perfect
+coolness. "What has all that got to do with me? Even supposing it were
+true, what then? Have I ever advised you to practise dishonest courses?
+Have I ever prompted you to dishonour your acceptances, or cheat your
+customers, or pile up money by fraudulent practices? Really, you'll end
+by making me quite angry! We are honest folks, and we don't pillage or
+assassinate anybody. That's quite sufficient. What other folks do is no
+concern of ours. If they choose to be rogues it's their affair."
+
+She looked quite majestic and triumphant; and again pacing the room,
+drawing herself up to her full height, she resumed: "A pretty notion
+it is that people are to let their business go to rack and ruin just to
+please those who are penniless. For my part, I'm in favour of making hay
+while the sun shines, and supporting a Government which promotes trade.
+If it does do dishonourable things, I prefer to know nothing about them.
+I know that I myself commit none, and that no one in the neighbourhood
+can point a finger at me. It's only fools who go tilting at windmills.
+At the time of the last elections, you remember, Gavard said that the
+Emperor's candidate had been bankrupt, and was mixed up in all sorts of
+scandalous matters. Well, perhaps that was true, I don't deny it; but
+all the same, you acted wisely in voting for him, for all that was not
+in question; you were not asked to lend the man any money or to transact
+any business with him, but merely to show the Government that you were
+pleased with the prosperity of the pork trade."
+
+At this moment Quenu called to mind a sentence of Charvet's, asserting
+that "the bloated bourgeois, the sleek shopkeepers, who backed up that
+Government of universal gormandising, ought to be hurled into the sewers
+before all others, for it was owing to them and their gluttonous egotism
+that tyranny had succeeded in mastering and preying upon the nation." He
+was trying to complete this piece of eloquence when Lisa, carried off by
+her indignation, cut him short.
+
+"Don't talk such stuff! My conscience doesn't reproach me with anything.
+I don't owe a copper to anybody; I'm not mixed up in any dishonest
+business; I buy and sell good sound stuff; and I charge no more than
+others do. What you say may perhaps apply to people like our cousins,
+the Saccards. They pretend to be even ignorant that I am in Paris; but
+I am prouder than they are, and I don't care a rap for their millions.
+It's said that Saccard speculates in condemned buildings, and cheats and
+robs everybody. I'm not surprised to hear it, for he was always that way
+inclined. He loves money just for the sake of wallowing in it, and then
+tossing it out of his windows, like the imbecile he is. I can understand
+people attacking men of his stamp, who pile up excessive fortunes. For
+my part, if you care to know it, I have but a bad opinion of Saccard.
+But we--we who live so quietly and peaceably, who will need at least
+fifteen years to put by sufficient money to make ourselves comfortably
+independent, we who have no reason to meddle in politics, and whose
+only aim is to bring up our daughter respectably, and to see that our
+business prospers--why you must be joking to talk such stuff about us.
+We are honest folks!"
+
+She came and sat down on the edge of the bed. Quenu was already much
+shaken in his opinions.
+
+"Listen to me, now," she resumed in a more serious voice. "You surely
+don't want to see your own shop pillaged, your cellar emptied, and your
+money taken from you? If these men who meet at Monsieur Lebigre's should
+prove triumphant, do you think that you would then lie as comfortably
+in your bed as you do now? And on going down into the kitchen, do you
+imagine that you would set about making your galantines as peacefully
+as you will presently? No, no, indeed! So why do you talk about
+overthrowing a Government which protects you, and enables you to put
+money by? You have a wife and a daughter, and your first duty is towards
+them. You would be in fault if you imperilled their happiness. It is
+only those who have neither home nor hearth, who have nothing to lose,
+who want to be shooting people. Surely you don't want to pull the
+chestnuts out of the fire for _them_! So stay quietly at home, you
+foolish fellow, sleep comfortably, eat well, make money, keep an easy
+conscience, and leave France to free herself of the Empire if the Empire
+annoys her. France can get on very well without _you_."
+
+She laughed her bright melodious laugh as she finished; and Quenu was
+now altogether convinced. Yes, she was right, after all; and she looked
+so charming, he thought, as she sat there on the edge of the bed, so
+trim, although it was so early, so bright, and so fresh in the dazzling
+whiteness of her linen. As he listened to her his eyes fell on their
+portraits hanging on either side of the fireplace. Yes, they were
+certainly honest folks; they had such a respectable, well-to-do air in
+their black clothes and their gilded frames! The bedroom, too, looked
+as though it belonged to people of some account in the world. The lace
+squares seemed to give a dignified appearance to the chairs; and
+the carpet, the curtains, and the vases decorated with painted
+landscapes--all spoke of their exertions to get on in the world and
+their taste for comfort. Thereupon he plunged yet further beneath the
+eider-down quilt, which kept him in a state of pleasant warmth. He
+began to feel that he had risked losing all these things at Monsieur
+Lebigre's--his huge bed, his cosy room, and his business, on which
+his thoughts now dwelt with tender remorse. And from Lisa, from the
+furniture, from all his cosy surroundings, he derived a sense of comfort
+which thrilled him with a delightful, overpowering charm.
+
+"You foolish fellow!" said his wife, seeing that he was now quite
+conquered. "A pretty business it was that you'd embarked upon; but you'd
+have had to reckon with Pauline and me, I can tell you! And now don't
+bother your head any more about the Government. To begin with, all
+Governments are alike, and if we didn't have this one, we should have
+another. A Government is necessary. But the one thing is to be able to
+live on, to spend one's savings in peace and comfort when one grows old,
+and to know that one has gained one's means honestly."
+
+Quenu nodded his head in acquiescence, and tried to commence a
+justification of his conduct.
+
+"It was Gavard--," he began.
+
+But Lisa's face again assumed a serious expression, and she interrupted
+him sharply.
+
+"No, it was not Gavard. I know very well who it was; and it would be
+a great deal better if he would look after his own safety before
+compromising that of others."
+
+"Is it Florent you mean?" Quenu timidly inquired after a pause.
+
+Lisa did not immediately reply. She got up and went back to the
+secretaire, as if trying to restrain herself.
+
+"Yes, it is Florent," she said presently, in incisive tones. "You know
+how patient I am. I would bear almost anything rather than come between
+you and your brother. The tie of relationship is a sacred thing. But the
+cup is filled to overflowing now. Since your brother came here things
+have been constantly getting worse and worse. But now, I won't say
+anything more; it is better that I shouldn't."
+
+There was another pause. Then, as her husband gazed up at the ceiling
+with an air of embarrassment, she continued, with increased violence:
+
+"Really, he seems to ignore all that we have done for him. We have
+put ourselves to great inconvenience for his sake; we have given him
+Augustine's bedroom, and the poor girl sleeps without a murmur in a
+stuffy little closet where she can scarcely breathe. We board and lodge
+him and give him every attention--but no, he takes it all quite as a
+matter of course. He is earning money, but what he does with it nobody
+knows; or, rather, one knows only too well."
+
+"But there's his share of the inheritance, you know," Quenu ventured to
+say, pained at hearing his brother attacked.
+
+Lisa suddenly stiffened herself as though she were stunned, and her
+anger vanished.
+
+"Yes, you are right; there is his share of the inheritance. Here is
+the statement of it, in this drawer. But he refused to take it; you
+remember, you were present, and heard him. That only proves that he is a
+brainless, worthless fellow. If he had had an idea in his head, he would
+have made something out of that money by now. For my own part, I should
+be very glad to get rid of it; it would be a relief to us. I have told
+him so twice, but he won't listen to me. You ought to persuade him to
+take it. Talk to him about it, will you?"
+
+Quenu growled something in reply; and Lisa refrained from pressing the
+point further, being of opinion that she had done all that could be
+expected of her.
+
+"He is not like other men," she resumed. "He's not a comfortable sort of
+person to have in the house. I shouldn't have said this if we hadn't got
+talking on the subject. I don't busy myself about his conduct, though
+it's setting the whole neighbourhood gossiping about us. Let him eat
+and sleep here, and put us about, if he likes; we can get over that; but
+what I won't tolerate is that he should involve us in his politics. If
+he tries to lead you off again, or compromises us in the least degree,
+I shall turn him out of the house without the least hesitation. I warn
+you, and now you understand!"
+
+Florent was doomed. Lisa was making a great effort to restrain herself,
+to prevent the animosity which had long been rankling in her heart
+from flowing forth. But Florent and his ways jarred against her every
+instinct; he wounded her, frightened her, and made her quite miserable.
+
+"A man who has made such a discreditable career," she murmured, "who has
+never been able to get a roof of his own over his head! I can very well
+understand his partiality for bullets! He can go and stand in their way
+if he chooses; but let him leave honest folks to their families! And
+then, he isn't pleasant to have about one! He reeks of fish in the
+evening at dinner! It prevents me from eating. He himself never lets a
+mouthful go past him, though it's little better he seems to be for it
+all! He can't even grow decently stout, the wretched fellow, to such a
+degree do his bad instincts prey on him!"
+
+She had stepped up to the window whilst speaking, and now saw Florent
+crossing the Rue Rambuteau on his way to the fish market. There was
+a very large arrival of fish that morning; the tray-like baskets were
+covered with rippling silver, and the auction rooms roared with the
+hubbub of their sales. Lisa kept her eyes on the bony shoulders of her
+brother-in-law as he made his way into the pungent smells of the market,
+stooping beneath the sickening sensation which they brought him; and
+the glance with which she followed his steps was that of a woman bent on
+combat and resolved to be victorious.
+
+When she turned round again, Quenu was getting up. As he sat on the edge
+of the bed in his night-shirt, still warm from the pleasant heat of the
+eider-down quilt and with his feet resting on the soft fluffy rug below
+him, he looked quite pale, quite distressed at the misunderstanding
+between his wife and his brother. Lisa, however, gave him one of her
+sweetest smiles, and he felt deeply touched when she handed him his
+socks.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Marjolin had been found in a heap of cabbages at the Market of the
+Innocents. He was sleeping under the shelter of a large white-hearted
+one, a broad leaf of which concealed his rosy childish face It was never
+known what poverty-stricken mother had laid him there. When he was found
+he was already a fine little fellow of two or three years of age,
+very plump and merry, but so backward and dense that he could scarcely
+stammer a few words, and only seemed able to smile. When one of the
+vegetable saleswomen found him lying under the big white cabbage she
+raised such a loud cry of surprise that her neighbours rushed up to
+see what was the matter, while the youngster, still in petticoats, and
+wrapped in a scrap of old blanket, held out his arms towards her.
+He could not tell who his mother was, but opened his eyes in wide
+astonishment as he squeezed against the shoulder of a stout tripe dealer
+who eventually took him up. The whole market busied itself about him
+throughout the day. He soon recovered confidence, ate slices of bread
+and butter, and smiled at all the women. The stout tripe dealer kept him
+for a time, then a neighbour took him; and a month later a third woman
+gave him shelter. When they asked him where his mother was, he waved his
+little hand with a pretty gesture which embraced all the women present.
+He became the adopted child of the place, always clinging to the skirts
+of one or another of the women, and always finding a corner of a bed and
+a share of a meal somewhere. Somehow, too, he managed to find clothes,
+and he even had a copper or two at the bottom of his ragged pockets. It
+was a buxom, ruddy girl dealing in medicinal herbs who gave him the name
+of Marjolin,[*] though no one knew why.
+
+[*] Literally "Marjoram."
+
+When Marjolin was nearly four years of age, old Mother Chantemesse also
+happened to find a child, a little girl, lying on the footway of the Rue
+Saint Denis, near the corner of the market. Judging by the little one's
+size, she seemed to be a couple of years old, but she could already
+chatter like a magpie, murdering her words in an incessant childish
+babble. Old Mother Chantemesse after a time gathered that her name was
+Cadine, and that on the previous evening her mother had left her sitting
+on a doorstep, with instructions to wait till she returned. The child
+had fallen asleep there, and did not cry. She related that she was
+beaten at home; and she gladly followed Mother Chantemesse, seemingly
+quite enchanted with that huge square, where there were so many people
+and such piles of vegetables. Mother Chantemesse, a retail dealer by
+trade, was a crusty but very worthy woman, approaching her sixtieth
+year. She was extremely fond of children, and had lost three boys of her
+own when they were mere babies. She came to the opinion that the chit
+she had found "was far too wide awake to kick the bucket," and so she
+adopted her.
+
+One evening, however, as she was going off home with her right hand
+clasping Cadine's, Marjolin came up and unceremoniously caught hold of
+her left hand.
+
+"Nay, my lad," said the old woman, stopping, "the place is filled. Have
+you left your big Therese, then? What a fickle little gadabout you are!"
+
+The boy gazed at her with his smiling eyes, without letting go of her
+hand. He looked so pretty with his curly hair that she could not resist
+him. "Well, come along, then, you little scamp," said she; "I'll put you
+to bed as well."
+
+Thus she made her appearance in the Rue au Lard, where she lived, with
+a child clinging to either hand. Marjolin made himself quite at home
+there. When the two children proved too noisy the old woman cuffed them,
+delighted to shout and worry herself, and wash the youngsters, and pack
+them away beneath the blankets. She had fixed them up a little bed in
+an old costermonger's barrow, the wheels and shafts of which had
+disappeared. It was like a big cradle, a trifle hard, but retaining a
+strong scent of the vegetables which it had long kept fresh and cool
+beneath a covering of damp cloths. And there, when four years old,
+Cadine and Marjolin slept locked in each other's arms.
+
+They grew up together, and were always to be seen with their arms about
+one another's waist. At night time old Mother Chantemesse heard them
+prattling softly. Cadine's clear treble went chattering on for hours
+together, while Marjolin listened with occasional expressions of
+astonishment vented in a deeper tone. The girl was a mischievous young
+creature, and concocted all sorts of stories to frighten her companion;
+telling him, for instance, that she had one night seen a man, dressed
+all in white, looking at them and putting out a great red tongue, at
+the foot of the bed. Marjolin quite perspired with terror, and anxiously
+asked for further particulars; but the girl would then begin to jeer at
+him, and end by calling him a big donkey. At other times they were
+not so peaceably disposed, but kicked each other beneath the blankets.
+Cadine would pull up her legs, and try to restrain her laughter as
+Marjolin missed his aim, and sent his feet banging against the wall.
+When this happened, old Madame Chantemesse was obliged to get up to put
+the bed-clothes straight again; and, by way of sending the children to
+sleep, she would administer a box on the ear to both of them. For a long
+time their bed was a sort of playground. They carried their toys into
+it, and munched stolen carrots and turnips as they lay side by side.
+Every morning their adopted mother was amazed at the strange things she
+found in the bed--pebbles, leaves, apple cores, and dolls made out of
+scraps of rags. When the very cold weather came, she went off to her
+work, leaving them sleeping there, Cadine's black mop mingling with
+Marjolin's sunny curls, and their mouths so near together that they
+looked as though they were keeping each other warm with their breath.
+
+The room in the Rue au Lard was a big, dilapidated garret, with a single
+window, the panes of which were dimmed by the rain. The children would
+play at hide-and-seek in the tall walnut wardrobe and underneath Mother
+Chantemesse's colossal bed. There were also two or three tables in the
+room, and they crawled under these on all fours. They found the place a
+very charming playground, on account of the dim light and the vegetables
+scattered about in the dark corners. The street itself, too, narrow and
+very quiet, with a broad arcade opening into the Rue de la Lingerie,
+provided them with plenty of entertainment. The door of the house was by
+the side of the arcade; it was a low door and could only be opened half
+way owing to the near proximity of the greasy corkscrew staircase. The
+house, which had a projecting pent roof and a bulging front, dark with
+damp, and displaying greenish drain-sinks near the windows of each
+floor, also served as a big toy for the young couple. They spent their
+mornings below in throwing stones up into the drain-sinks, and the
+stones thereupon fell down the pipes with a very merry clatter. In thus
+amusing themselves, however, they managed to break a couple of windows,
+and filled the drains with stones, so that Mother Chantemesse, who had
+lived in the house for three and forty years, narrowly escaped being
+turned out of it.
+
+Cadine and Marjolin then directed their attention to the vans and drays
+and tumbrels which were drawn up in the quiet street. They clambered on
+to the wheels, swung from the dangling chains, and larked about amongst
+the piles of boxes and hampers. Here also were the back premises of the
+commission agents of the Rue de la Poterie--huge, gloomy warehouses,
+each day filled and emptied afresh, and affording a constant succession
+of delightful hiding-places, where the youngsters buried themselves
+amidst the scent of dried fruits, oranges, and fresh apples. When
+they got tired of playing in his way, they went off to join old
+Madame Chantemesse at the Market of the Innocents. They arrived there
+arm-in-arm, laughing gaily as they crossed the streets with never the
+slightest fear of being run over by the endless vehicles. They knew the
+pavement well, and plunged their little legs knee-deep in the vegetable
+refuse without ever slipping. They jeered merrily at any porter in
+heavy boots who, in stepping over an artichoke stem, fell sprawling
+full-length upon the ground. They were the rosy-cheeked familiar spirits
+of those greasy streets. They were to be seen everywhere.
+
+On rainy days they walked gravely beneath the shelter of a ragged old
+umbrella, with which Mother Chantemesse had protected her stock-in-trade
+for twenty years, and sticking it up in a corner of the market they
+called it their house. On sunny days they romped to such a degree that
+when evening came they were almost too tired to move. They bathed their
+feet in the fountains, dammed up the gutters, or hid themselves beneath
+piles of vegetables, and remained there prattling to each other just as
+they did in bed at night. People passing some huge mountain of cos or
+cabbage lettuces often heard a muffled sound of chatter coming from
+it. And when the green-stuff was removed, the two children would be
+discovered lying side by side on their couch of verdure, their eyes
+glistening uneasily like those of birds discovered in the depth of a
+thicket. As time went on, Cadine could not get along without Marjolin,
+and Marjolin began to cry when he lost sight of Cadine. If they happened
+to get separated, they sought one another behind the petticoats of every
+stallkeeper in the markets, amongst the boxes and under the cabbages. If
+was, indeed, chiefly under the cabbages that they grew up and learned to
+love each other.
+
+Marjolin was nearly eight years old, and Cadine six, when old Madame
+Chantemesse began to reproach them for their idleness. She told them
+that she would interest them in her business, and pay them a sou a day
+to assist her in paring her vegetables. During the first few days the
+children displayed eager zeal; they squatted down on either side of
+the big flat basket with little knives in their hands, and worked away
+energetically. Mother Chantemesse made a specialty of pared vegetables;
+on her stall, covered with a strip of damp black lining, were little
+lots of potatoes, turnips, carrots, and white onions, arranged in
+pyramids of four--three at the base and one at the apex, all quite ready
+to be popped into the pans of dilatory housewives. She also had bundles
+duly stringed in readiness for the soup-pot--four leeks, three carrots,
+a parsnip, two turnips, and a couple of springs of celery. Then there
+were finely cut vegetables for julienne soup laid out on squares of
+paper, cabbages cut into quarters, and little heaps of tomatoes and
+slices of pumpkin which gleamed like red stars and golden crescents
+amidst the pale hues of the other vegetables. Cadine evinced much more
+dexterity than Marjolin, although she was younger. The peelings of the
+potatoes she pared were so thin that you could see through them; she
+tied up the bundles for the soup-pot so artistically that they looked
+like bouquets; and she had a way of making the little heaps she set up,
+though they contained but three carrots or turnips, look like very big
+ones. The passers-by would stop and smile when she called out in her
+shrill childish voice: "Madame! madame! come and try me! Each little
+pile for two sous."
+
+She had her regular customers, and her little piles and bundles were
+widely known. Old Mother Chantemesse, seated between the two children,
+would indulge in a silent laugh which made her bosom rise almost to
+her chin, at seeing them working away so seriously. She paid them their
+daily sous most faithfully. But they soon began to weary of the little
+heaps and bundles; they were growing up, and began to dream of some more
+lucrative business. Marjolin remained very childish for his years, and
+this irritated Cadine. He had no more brains than a cabbage, she often
+said. And it was, indeed, quite useless for her to devise any plan for
+him to make money; he never earned any. He could not even do an errand
+satisfactorily. The girl, on the other hand, was very shrewd. When but
+eight years old she obtained employment from one of those women who sit
+on a bench in the neighbourhood of the markets provided with a basket
+of lemons, and employ a troop of children to go about selling them.
+Carrying the lemons in her hands and offering them at two for three
+sous, Cadine thrust them under every woman's nose, and ran after every
+passer-by. Her hands empty, she hastened back for a fresh supply. She
+was paid two sous for every dozen lemons that she sold, and on good
+days she could earn some five or six sous. During the following year
+she hawked caps at nine sous apiece, which proved a more profitable
+business; only she had to keep a sharp look-out, as street trading of
+this kind is forbidden unless one be licensed. However, she scented
+a policeman at a distance of a hundred yards; and the caps forthwith
+disappeared under her skirts, whilst she began to munch an apple with
+an air of guileless innocence. Then she took to selling pastry, cakes,
+cherry-tarts, gingerbread, and thick yellow maize biscuits on wicker
+trays. Marjolin, however, ate up nearly the whole of her stock-in-trade.
+At last, when she was eleven years old, she succeeded in realising a
+grand idea which had long been worrying her. In a couple of months she
+put by four francs, bought a small _hotte_,[*] and then set up as a
+dealer in birds' food.
+
+[*] A basket carried on the back.--Translator.
+
+It was a big affair. She got up early in the morning and purchased her
+stock of groundsel, millet, and bird-cake from the wholesale
+dealers. Then she set out on her day's work, crossing the river, and
+perambulating the Latin Quarter from the Rue Saint Jacques to the Rue
+Dauphine, and even to the Luxembourg. Marjolin used to accompany her,
+but she would not let him carry the basket. He was only fit to call out,
+she said; and so, in his thick, drawling voice, he would raise the cry,
+"Chickweed for the little birds!"
+
+Then Cadine herself, with her flute-like voice, would start on a strange
+scale of notes ending in a clear, protracted alto, "Chickweed for the
+little birds!"
+
+They each took one side of the road, and looked up in the air as they
+walked along. In those days Marjolin wore a big scarlet waistcoat
+which hung down to his knees; it had belonged to the defunct Monsieur
+Chantemesse, who had been a cab-driver. Cadine for her part wore a white
+and blue check gown, made out of an old tartan of Madame Chantemesse's.
+All the canaries in the garrets of the Latin Quarter knew them; and, as
+they passed along, repeating their cry, each echoing the other's voice,
+every cage poured out a song.
+
+Cadine sold water-cress, too. "Two sous a bunch! Two sous a bunch!" And
+Marjolin went into the shops to offer it for sale. "Fine water-cress!
+Health for the body! Fine fresh water-cress!"
+
+However, the new central markets had just been erected, and the girl
+would stand gazing in ecstacy at the avenue of flower stalls which runs
+through the fruit pavilion. Here on either hand, from end to end, big
+clumps of flowers bloom as in the borders of a garden walk. It is a
+perfect harvest, sweet with perfume, a double hedge of blossoms, between
+which the girls of the neighbourhood love to walk, smiling the while,
+though almost stifled by the heavy perfume. And on the top tiers of the
+stalls are artificial flowers, with paper leaves, in which dewdrops are
+simulated by drops of gum; and memorial wreaths of black and white beads
+rippling with bluish reflections. Cadine's rosy nostrils would dilate
+with feline sensuality; she would linger as long as possible in that
+sweet freshness, and carry as much of the perfume away with her as she
+could. When her hair bobbed under Marjolin's nose he would remark that
+it smelt of pinks. She said that she had given over using pomatum; that
+is was quite sufficient for her to stroll through the flower walk in
+order to scent her hair. Next she began to intrigue and scheme with
+such success that she was engaged by one of the stallkeepers. And then
+Marjolin declared that she smelt sweet from head to foot. She lived in
+the midst of roses, lilacs, wall-flowers, and lilies of the valley;
+and Marjolin would playfully smell at her skirts, feign a momentary
+hesitation, and then exclaim, "Ah, that's lily of the valley!" Next he
+would sniff at her waist and bodice: "Ah, that's wall-flowers!" And at
+her sleeves and wrists: "Ah, that's lilac!" And at her neck, and her
+cheeks and lips: "Ah, but that's roses!" he would cry. Cadine used to
+laugh at him, and call him a "silly stupid," and tell him to get away,
+because he was tickling her with the tip of his nose. As she spoke her
+breath smelt of jasmine. She was verily a bouquet, full of warmth and
+life.
+
+She now got up at four o'clock every morning to assist her mistress in
+her purchases. Each day they bought armfuls of flowers from the
+suburban florists, with bundles of moss, and bundles of fern fronds,
+and periwinkle leaves to garnish the bouquets. Cadine would gaze with
+amazement at the diamonds and Valenciennes worn by the daughters of
+the great gardeners of Montreuil, who came to the markets amidst their
+roses.
+
+On the saints' days of popular observance, such as Saint Mary's, Saint
+Peter's, and Saint Joseph's days, the sale of flowers began at two
+o'clock. More than a hundred thousand francs' worth of cut flowers would
+be sold on the footways, and some of the retail dealers would make
+as much as two hundred francs in a few hours. On days like those only
+Cadine's curly locks peered over the mounds of pansies, mignonette, and
+marguerites. She was quite drowned and lost in the flood of flowers.
+Then she would spend all her time in mounting bouquets on bits of rush.
+In a few weeks she acquired considerable skillfulness in her business,
+and manifested no little originality. Her bouquets did not always
+please everybody, however. Sometimes they made one smile, sometimes they
+alarmed the eyes. Red predominated in them, mottled with violent tints
+of blue, yellow, and violet of a barbaric charm. On the mornings when
+she pinched Marjolin, and teased him till she made him cry, she made up
+fierce-looking bouquets, suggestive of her own bad temper, bouquets
+with strong rough scents and glaring irritating colours. On other days,
+however, when she was softened by some thrill of joy or sorrow, her
+bouquets would assume a tone of silvery grey, very soft and subdued, and
+delicately perfumed.
+
+Then, too, she would set roses, as sanguineous as open hearts, in lakes
+of snow-white pinks; arrange bunches of tawny iris that shot up in
+tufts of flame from foliage that seemed scared by the brilliance of the
+flowers; work elaborate designs, as complicated as those of Smyrna rugs,
+adding flower to flower, as on a canvas; and prepare rippling fanlike
+bouquets spreading out with all the delicacy of lace. Here was a cluster
+of flowers of delicious purity, there a fat nosegay, whatever one might
+dream of for the hand of a marchioness or a fish-wife; all the charming
+quaint fancies, in short, which the brain of a sharp-witted child of
+twelve, budding into womanhood, could devise.
+
+There were only two flowers for which Cadine retained respect; white
+lilac, which by the bundle of eight or ten sprays cost from fifteen to
+twenty francs in the winter time; and camellias, which were still more
+costly, and arrived in boxes of a dozen, lying on beds of moss, and
+covered with cotton wool. She handled these as delicately as though they
+were jewels, holding her breath for fear of dimming their lustre, and
+fastening their short stems to springs of cane with the tenderest care.
+She spoke of them with serious reverence. She told Marjolin one day
+that a speckless white camellia was a very rare and exceptionally lovely
+thing, and, as she was making him admire one, he exclaimed: "Yes;
+it's pretty; but I prefer your neck, you know. It's much more soft and
+transparent than the camellia, and there are some little blue and pink
+veins just like the pencillings on a flower." Then, drawing near and
+sniffing, he murmured: "Ah! you smell of orange blossom to-day."
+
+Cadine was self-willed, and did not get on well in the position of a
+servant, so she ended by setting up in business on her own account. As
+she was only thirteen at the time, and could not hope for a big trade
+and a stall in the flower avenue, she took to selling one-sou bunches
+of violets pricked into a bed of moss in an osier tray which she carried
+hanging from her neck. All day long she wandered about the markets and
+their precincts with her little bit of hanging garden. She loved this
+continual stroll, which relieved the numbness of her limbs after long
+hours spent, with bent knees, on a low chair, making bouquets. She
+fastened her violets together with marvellous deftness as she walked
+along. She counted out six or eight flowers, according to the season,
+doubled a sprig of cane in half, added a leaf, twisted some damp thread
+round the whole, and broke off the thread with her strong young teeth.
+The little bunches seemed to spring spontaneously from the layer of
+moss, so rapidly did she stick them into it.
+
+Along the footways, amidst the jostling of the street traffic, her
+nimble fingers were ever flowering though she gave them not a glance,
+but boldly scanned the shops and passers-by. Sometimes she would rest in
+a doorway for a moment; and alongside the gutters, greasy with kitchen
+slops, she sat, as it were a patch of springtime, a suggestion of green
+woods, and purple blossoms. Her flowers still betokened her frame of
+mind, her fits of bad temper and her thrills of tenderness. Sometimes
+they bristled and glowered with anger amidst their crumpled leaves; at
+other times they spoke only of love and peacefulness as they smiled in
+their prim collars. As Cadine passed along, she left a sweet perfume
+behind her; Marjolin followed her devoutly. From head to foot she now
+exhaled but one scent, and the lad repeated that she was herself a
+violet, a great big violet.
+
+"Do you remember the day when we went to Romainville together?" he would
+say; "Romainville, where there are so many violets. The scent was just
+the same. Oh! don't change again--you smell too sweetly."
+
+And she did not change again. This was her last trade. Still, she often
+neglected her osier tray to go rambling about the neighbourhood. The
+building of the central markets--as yet incomplete--provided both
+children with endless opportunities for amusement. They made their way
+into the midst of the work-yards through some gap or other between
+the planks; they descended into the foundations, and climbed up to the
+cast-iron pillars. Every nook, every piece of the framework witnessed
+their games and quarrels; the pavilions grew up under the touch of their
+little hands. From all this arose the affection which they felt for
+the great markets, and which the latter seemed to return. They were on
+familiar terms with that gigantic pile, old friends as they were, who
+had seen each pin and bolt put into place. They felt no fear of the huge
+monster; but slapped it with their childish hands, treated it like
+a good friend, a chum whose presence brought no constraint. And the
+markets seemed to smile at these two light-hearted children, whose love
+was the song, the idyll of their immensity.
+
+Cadine alone now slept at Mother Chantemesse's. The old woman had packed
+Marjolin off to a neighbour's. This made the two children very unhappy.
+Still, they contrived to spend much of their time together. In the
+daytime they would hide themselves away in the warehouses of the Rue au
+Lard, behind piles of apples and cases of oranges; and in the evening
+they would dive into the cellars beneath the poultry market, and secret
+themselves among the huge hampers of feathers which stood near the
+blocks where the poultry was killed. They were quite alone there, amidst
+the strong smell of the poultry, and with never a sound but the sudden
+crowing of some rooster to break upon their babble and their
+laughter. The feathers amidst which they found themselves were of
+all sorts--turkey's feathers, long and black; goose quills, white and
+flexible; the downy plumage of ducks, soft like cotton wool; and the
+ruddy and mottled feathers of fowls, which at the faintest breath flew
+up in a cloud like a swarm of flies buzzing in the sun. And then in
+wintertime there was the purple plumage of the pheasants, the ashen
+grey of the larks, the splotched silk of the partridges, quails, and
+thrushes. And all these feathers freshly plucked were still warm and
+odoriferous, seemingly endowed with life. The spot was as cosy as a
+nest; at times a quiver as of flapping wings sped by, and Marjolin and
+Cadine, nestling amidst all the plumage, often imagined that they were
+being carried aloft by one of those huge birds with outspread pinions
+that one hears of in the fairy tales.
+
+As time went on their childish affection took the inevitable turn.
+Veritable offsprings of Nature, knowing naught of social conventions and
+restraints, they loved one another in all innocence and guilelessness.
+They mated even as the birds of the air mate, even as youth and maid
+mated in primeval times, because such is Nature's law. At sixteen
+Cadine was a dusky town gipsy, greedy and sensual, whilst Marjolin, now
+eighteen, was a tall, strapping fellow, as handsome a youth as could
+be met, but still with his mental faculties quite undeveloped. He had
+lived, indeed, a mere animal life, which had strengthened his frame, but
+left his intellect in a rudimentary state.
+
+When old Madame Chantemesse realised the turn that things were taking
+she wrathfully upbraided Cadine and struck out vigorously at her with
+her broom. But the hussy only laughed and dodged the blows, and then
+hied off to her lover. And gradually the markets became their home,
+their manger, their aviary, where they lived and loved amidst the meat,
+the butter, the vegetables, and the feathers.
+
+They discovered another little paradise in the pavilion where butter,
+eggs, and cheese were sold wholesale. Enormous walls of empty baskets
+were here piled up every morning, and amidst these Cadine and Marjolin
+burrowed and hollowed out a dark lair for themselves. A mere partition
+of osier-work separated them from the market crowd, whose loud voices
+rang out all around them. They often shook with laughter when people,
+without the least suspicion of their presence, stopped to talk together
+a few yards away from them. On these occasions they would contrive
+peepholes, and spy through them, and when cherries were in season Cadine
+tossed the stones in the faces of all the old women who passed along--a
+pastime which amused them the more as the startled old crones could
+never make out whence the hail of cherry-stones had come. They also
+prowled about the depths of the cellars, knowing every gloomy corner of
+them, and contriving to get through the most carefully locked gates. One
+of their favourite amusements was to visit the track of the subterranean
+railway, which had been laid under the markets, and which those who
+planned the latter had intended to connect with the different goods'
+stations of Paris. Sections of this railway were laid beneath each
+of the covered ways, between the cellars of each pavilion; the work,
+indeed, was in such an advanced state that turn-tables had been put into
+position at all the points of intersection, and were in readiness for
+use. After much examination, Cadine and Marjolin had at last succeeded
+in discovering a loose plank in the hoarding which enclosed the track,
+and they had managed to convert it into a door, by which they could
+easily gain access to the line. There they were quite shut off from
+the world, though they could hear the continuous rumbling of the street
+traffic over their heads.
+
+The line stretched through deserted vaults, here and there illumined
+by a glimmer of light filtering through iron gratings, while in certain
+dark corners gas jets were burning. And Cadine and Marjolin rambled
+about as in the secret recesses of some castle of their own, secure from
+all interruption, and rejoicing in the buzzy silence, the murky glimmer,
+and subterranean secrecy, which imparted a touch of melodrama to their
+experiences. All sorts of smells were wafted through the hoarding from
+the neighbouring cellars; the musty smell of vegetables, the pungency of
+fish, the overpowering stench of cheese, and the warm reek of poultry.
+
+At other times, on clear nights and fine dawns, they would climb on to
+the roofs, ascending thither by the steep staircases of the turrets
+at the angles of the pavilions. Up above they found fields of leads,
+endless promenades and squares, a stretch of undulating country which
+belonged to them. They rambled round the square roofs of the pavilions,
+followed the course of the long roofs of the covered ways, climbed and
+descended the slopes, and lost themselves in endless perambulations of
+discovery. And when they grew tired of the lower levels they ascended
+still higher, venturing up the iron ladders, on which Cadine's skirts
+flapped like flags. Then they ran along the second tier of roofs beneath
+the open heavens. There was nothing save the stars above them. All sorts
+of sounds rose up from the echoing markets, a clattering and rumbling,
+a vague roar as of a distant tempest heard at nighttime. At that height
+the morning breeze swept away the evil smells, the foul breath of
+the awaking markets. They would kiss one another on the edge of the
+gutterings like sparrows frisking on the house-tops. The rising fires
+of the sun illumined their faces with a ruddy glow. Cadine laughed
+with pleasure at being so high up in the air, and her neck shone with
+iridescent tints like a dove's; while Marjolin bent down to look at
+the street still wrapped in gloom, with his hands clutching hold of
+the leads like the feet of a wood-pigeon. When they descended to earth
+again, joyful from their excursion in the fresh air, they would remark
+to one another that they were coming back from the country.
+
+It was in the tripe market that they had made the acquaintance of Claude
+Lantier. They went there every day, impelled thereto by an animal taste
+for blood, the cruel instinct of urchins who find amusement in the sight
+of severed heads. A ruddy stream flowed along the gutters round the
+pavilion; they dipped the tips of their shoes in it, and dammed it up
+with leaves, so as to form large pools of blood. They took a strong
+interest in the arrival of the loads of offal in carts which always
+smelt offensively, despite all the drenchings of water they got; they
+watched the unloading of the bundles of sheep's trotters, which were
+piled up on the ground like filthy paving-stones, of the huge stiffened
+tongues, bleeding at their torn roots, and of the massive bell-shaped
+bullocks' hearts. But the spectacle which, above all others, made
+them quiver with delight was that of the big dripping hampers, full of
+sheep's heads, with greasy horns and black muzzles, and strips of woolly
+skin dangling from bleeding flesh. The sight of these conjured up in
+their minds the idea of some guillotine casting into the baskets the
+heads of countless victims.
+
+They followed the baskets into the depths of the cellar, watching them
+glide down the rails laid over the steps, and listening to the rasping
+noise which the casters of these osier waggons made in their descent.
+Down below there was a scene of exquisite horror. They entered into a
+charnel-house atmosphere, and walked along through murky puddles, amidst
+which every now and then purple eyes seem to be glistening. At times
+the soles of their boots stuck to the ground, at others they splashed
+through the horrible mire, anxious and yet delighted. The gas jets
+burned low, like blinking, bloodshot eyes. Near the water-taps, in the
+pale light falling through the gratings, they came upon the blocks; and
+there they remained in rapture watching the tripe men, who, in aprons
+stiffened by gory splashings, broke the sheep's heads one after another
+with a blow of their mallets. They lingered there for hours, waiting
+till all the baskets were empty, fascinated by the crackling of the
+bones, unable to tear themselves away till all was over. Sometimes an
+attendant passed behind them, cleansing the cellar with a hose; floods
+of water rushed out with a sluice-like roar, but although the violence
+of the discharge actually ate away the surface of the flagstones, it was
+powerless to remove the ruddy stains and stench of blood.
+
+Cadine and Marjolin were sure of meeting Claude between four and five in
+the afternoon at the wholesale auction of the bullocks' lights. He
+was always there amidst the tripe dealers' carts backed up against the
+kerb-stones and the blue-bloused, white-aproned men who jostled him and
+deafened his ears by their loud bids. But he never felt their elbows; he
+stood in a sort of ecstatic trance before the huge hanging lights, and
+often told Cadine and Marjolin that there was no finer sight to be seen.
+The lights were of a soft rosy hue, gradually deepening and turning at
+the lower edges to a rich carmine; and Claude compared them to watered
+satin, finding no other term to describe the soft silkiness of those
+flowing lengths of flesh which drooped in broad folds like ballet
+dancers' skirts. He thought, too, of gauze and lace allowing a glimpse
+of pinky skin; and when a ray of sunshine fell upon the lights and
+girdled them with gold an expression of languorous rapture came into his
+eyes, and he felt happier than if he had been privileged to contemplate
+the Greek goddesses in their sovereign nudity, or the chatelaines of
+romance in their brocaded robes.
+
+The artist became a great friend of the two young scapegraces. He loved
+beautiful animals, and such undoubtedly they were. For a long time he
+dreamt of a colossal picture which should represent the loves of Cadine
+and Marjolin in the central markets, amidst the vegetables, the fish,
+and the meat. He would have depicted them seated on some couch of food,
+their arms circling each other's waists, and their lips exchanging an
+idyllic kiss. In this conception he saw a manifesto proclaiming the
+positivism of art--modern art, experimental and materialistic. And it
+seemed to him also that it would be a smart satire on the school which
+wishes every painting to embody an "idea," a slap for the old traditions
+and all they represented. But during a couple of years he began study
+after study without succeeding in giving the particular "note" he
+desired. In this way he spoilt fifteen canvases. His failure filled him
+with rancour; however, he continued to associate with his two models
+from a sort of hopeless love for his abortive picture. When he met them
+prowling about in the afternoon, he often scoured the neighbourhood
+with them, strolling around with his hands in his pockets, and deeply
+interested in the life of the streets.
+
+They all three trudged along together, dragging their heels over the
+footways and monopolising their whole breadth so as to force others to
+step down into the road. With their noses in the air they sniffed in the
+odours of Paris, and could have recognised every corner blindfold by the
+spirituous emanations of the wine shops, the hot puffs that came from
+the bakehouses and confectioners', and the musty odours wafted from the
+fruiterers'. They would make the circuit of the whole district. They
+delighted in passing through the rotunda of the corn market, that huge
+massive stone cage where sacks of flour were piled up on every side, and
+where their footsteps echoed in the silence of the resonant roof. They
+were fond, too, of the little narrow streets in the neighbourhood, which
+had become as deserted, as black, and as mournful as though they formed
+part of an abandoned city. These were the Rue Babille, the Rue Sauval,
+the Rue des Deux Ecus, and the Rue de Viarmes, this last pallid from its
+proximity to the millers' stores, and at four o'clock lively by reason
+of the corn exchange held there. It was generally at this point that
+they started on their round. They made their way slowly along the
+Rue Vauvilliers, glancing as they went at the windows of the low
+eating-houses, and thus reaching the miserably narrow Rue des
+Prouvaires, where Claude blinked his eyes as he saw one of the covered
+ways of the market, at the far end of which, framed round by this huge
+iron nave, appeared a side entrance of St. Eustache with its rose and
+its tiers of arched windows. And then, with an air of defiance, he would
+remark that all the middle ages and the Renaissance put together were
+less mighty than the central markets. Afterwards, as they paced the
+broad new streets, the Rue du Pont Neuf and the Rue des Halles, he
+explained modern life with its wide footways, its lofty houses, and its
+luxurious shops, to the two urchins. He predicted, too, the advent of
+new and truly original art, whose approach he could divine, and despair
+filled him that its revelation should seemingly be beyond his own
+powers.
+
+Cadine and Marjolin, however, preferred the provincial quietness of the
+Rue des Bourdonnais, where one can play at marbles without fear of
+being run over. The girl perked her head affectedly as she passed the
+wholesale glove and hosiery stores, at each door of which bareheaded
+assistants, with their pens stuck in their ears, stood watching her with
+a weary gaze. And she and her lover had yet a stronger preference for
+such bits of olden Paris as still existed: the Rue de la Poterie and the
+Rue de la Lingerie, with their butter and egg and cheese dealers; the
+Rue de la Ferronerie and the Rue de l'Aiguillerie (the beautiful streets
+of far-away times), with their dark narrow shops; and especially the Rue
+Courtalon, a dank, dirty by-way running from the Place Sainte Opportune
+to the Rue Saint Denis, and intersected by foul-smelling alleys where
+they had romped in their younger days. In the Rue Saint Denis they
+entered into the land of dainties; and they smiled upon the dried
+apples, the "Spanishwood," the prunes, and the sugar-candy in the
+windows of the grocers and druggists. Their ramblings always set them
+dreaming of a feast of good things, and inspired them with a desire to
+glut themselves on the contents of the windows. To them the district
+seemed like some huge table, always laid with an everlasting dessert
+into which they longed to plunge their fingers.
+
+They devoted but a moment to visiting the other blocks of tumble-down
+old houses, the Rue Pirouette, the Rue de Mondetour, the Rue de la
+Petite Truanderie, and the Rue de la Grande Truanderie, for they took
+little interest in the shops of the dealers in edible snails, cooked
+vegetables, tripe, and drink. In the Rue de la Grand Truanderie,
+however, there was a soap factory, an oasis of sweetness in the midst of
+all the foul odours, and Marjolin was fond of standing outside it till
+some one happened to enter or come out, so that the perfume which swept
+through the doorway might blow full in his face. Then with all speed
+they returned to the Rue Pierre Lescot and the Rue Rambuteau. Cadine was
+extremely fond of salted provisions; she stood in admiration before the
+bundles of red-herrings, the barrels of anchovies and capers, and the
+little casks of gherkins and olives, standing on end with wooden spoons
+inside them. The smell of the vinegar titillated her throat; the pungent
+odour of the rolled cod, smoked salmon, bacon and ham, and the sharp
+acidity of the baskets of lemons, made her mouth water longingly. She
+was also fond of feasting her eyes on the boxes of sardines piled up in
+metallic columns amidst the cases and sacks. In the Rue Montorgueil
+and the Rue Montmartre were other tempting-looking groceries and
+restaurants, from whose basements appetising odours were wafted, with
+glorious shows of game and poultry, and preserved-provision shops, which
+last displayed beside their doors open kegs overflowing with yellow
+sourkrout suggestive of old lacework. Then they lingered in the Rue
+Coquilliere, inhaling the odour of truffles from the premises of a
+notable dealer in comestibles, which threw so strong a perfume into the
+street that Cadine and Marjolin closed their eyes and imagined they
+were swallowing all kinds of delicious things. These perfumes, however,
+distressed Claude. They made him realise the emptiness of his stomach,
+he said; and, leaving the "two animals" to feast on the odour of
+the truffles--the most penetrating odour to be found in all the
+neighbourhood--he went off again to the corn market by way of the Rue
+Oblin, studying on his road the old women who sold green-stuff in
+the doorways and the displays of cheap pottery spread out on the
+foot-pavements.
+
+Such were their rambles in common; but when Cadine set out alone with
+her bunches of violets she often went farther afield, making it a point
+to visit certain shops for which she had a particular partiality. She
+had an especial weakness for the Taboureau bakery establishment, one of
+the windows of which was exclusively devoted to pastry. She would follow
+the Rue Turbigo and retrace her steps a dozen times in order to pass
+again and again before the almond cakes, the _savarins_, the St. Honore
+tarts, the fruit tarts, and the various dishes containing bunlike
+_babas_ redolent of rum, eclairs combining the finger biscuit with
+chocolate, and _choux a la creme_, little rounds of pastry overflowing
+with whipped white of egg. The glass jars full of dry biscuits,
+macaroons, and _madeleines_ also made her mouth water; and the bright
+shop with its big mirrors, its marble slabs, its gilding, its bread-bins
+of ornamental ironwork, and its second window in which long glistening
+loaves were displayed slantwise, with one end resting on a crystal
+shelf whilst above they were upheld by a brass rod, was so warm and
+odoriferous of baked dough that her features expanded with pleasure
+when, yielding to temptation, she went in to buy a _brioche_ for two
+sous.
+
+Another shop, one in front of the Square des Innocents, also filled her
+with gluttonous inquisitiveness, a fever of longing desire. This shop
+made a specialty of forcemeat pasties. In addition to the ordinary ones
+there were pasties of pike and pasties of truffled _foie gras_; and the
+girl would gaze yearningly at them, saying to herself that she would
+really have to eat one some day.
+
+Cadine also had her moments of vanity and coquetry. When these fits
+were on her, she bought herself in imagination some of the magnificent
+dresses displayed in the windows of the "Fabriques de France" which
+made the Pointe Saint Eustache gaudy with their pieces of bright stuff
+hanging from the first floor to the footway and flapping in the breeze.
+Somewhat incommoded by the flat basket hanging before her, amidst the
+crowd of market women in dirty aprons gazing at future Sunday dresses,
+the girl would feel the woollens, flannels, and cottons to test the
+texture and suppleness of the material; and she would promise herself a
+gown of bright-coloured flannelling, flowered print, or scarlet poplin.
+Sometimes even from amongst the pieces draped and set off to advantage
+by the window-dressers she would choose some soft sky-blue or
+apple-green silk, and dream of wearing it with pink ribbons. In the
+evenings she would dazzle herself with the displays in the windows of
+the big jewellers in the Rue Montmartre. That terrible street deafened
+her with its ceaseless flow of vehicles, and the streaming crowd never
+ceased to jostle her; still she did not stir, but remained feasting her
+eyes on the blazing splendour set out in the light of the reflecting
+lamps which hung outside the windows. On one side all was white with the
+bright glitter of silver: watches in rows, chains hanging, spoons
+and forks laid crossways, cups, snuff-boxes, napkin-rings, and combs
+arranged on shelves. The silver thimbles, dotting a porcelain stand
+covered with a glass shade, had an especial attraction for her. Then
+on the other side the windows glistened with the tawny glow of gold. A
+cascade of long pendant chains descended from above, rippling with ruddy
+gleams; small ladies' watches, with the backs of their cases displayed,
+sparkled like fallen stars; wedding rings clustered round slender rods;
+bracelets, broaches, and other costly ornaments glittered on the black
+velvet linings of their cases; jewelled rings set their stands aglow
+with blue, green, yellow, and violet flamelets; while on every tier of
+the shelves superposed rows of earrings and crosses and lockets hung
+against the crystal like the rich fringes of altar-cloths. The glow of
+this gold illumined the street half way across with a sun-like radiance.
+And Cadine, as she gazed at it, almost fancied that she was in presence
+of something holy, or on the threshold of the Emperor's treasure
+chamber. She would for a long time scrutinise all this show of gaudy
+jewellery, adapted to the taste of the fish-wives, and carefully read
+the large figures on the tickets affixed to each article; and eventually
+she would select for herself a pair of earrings--pear-shaped drops of
+imitation coral hanging from golden roses.
+
+One morning Claude caught her standing in ecstasy before a
+hair-dresser's window in the Rue Saint Honore. She was gazing at the
+display of hair with an expression of intense envy. High up in the
+window was a streaming cascade of long manes, soft wisps, loose tresses,
+frizzy falls, undulating comb-curls, a perfect cataract of silky and
+bristling hair, real and artificial, now in coils of a flaming red, now
+in thick black crops, now in pale golden locks, and even in snowy white
+ones for the coquette of sixty. In cardboard boxes down below were
+cleverly arranged fringes, curling side-ringlets, and carefully combed
+chignons glossy with pomade. And amidst this framework, in a sort of
+shrine beneath the ravelled ends of the hanging locks, there revolved
+the bust of a woman, arrayed in a wrapper of cherry-coloured satin
+fastened between the breasts with a brass brooch. The figure wore a
+lofty bridal coiffure picked out with sprigs of orange blossom, and
+smiled with a dollish smile. Its eyes were pale blue; its eyebrows were
+very stiff and of exaggerated length; and its waxen cheeks and shoulders
+bore evident traces of the heat and smoke of the gas. Cadine waited
+till the revolving figure again displayed its smiling face, and as its
+profile showed more distinctly and it slowly went round from left to
+right she felt perfectly happy. Claude, however, was indignant, and,
+shaking Cadine, he asked her what she was doing in front of "that
+abomination, that corpse-like hussy picked up at the Morgue!" He flew
+into a temper with the "dummy's" cadaverous face and shoulders, that
+disfigurement of the beautiful, and remarked that artists painted
+nothing but that unreal type of woman nowadays. Cadine, however,
+remained unconvinced by his oratory, and considered the lady extremely
+beautiful. Then, resisting the attempts of the artist to drag her away
+by the arm, and scratching her black mop in vexation, she pointed to an
+enormous ruddy tail, severed from the quarters of some vigorous mare,
+and told him she would have liked to have a crop of hair like that.
+
+During the long rambles when Claude, Cadine, and Marjolin prowled about
+the neighbourhood of the markets, they saw the iron ribs of the giant
+building at the end of every street. Wherever they turned they caught
+sudden glimpses of it; the horizon was always bounded by it; merely the
+aspect under which it was seen varied. Claude was perpetually turning
+round, and particularly in the Rue Montmartre, after passing the church.
+From that point the markets, seen obliquely in the distance, filled him
+with enthusiasm. A huge arcade, a giant, gaping gateway, was open before
+him; then came the crowding pavilions with their lower and upper roofs,
+their countless Venetian shutters and endless blinds, a vision, as it
+were, of superposed houses and palaces; a Babylon of metal of Hindoo
+delicacy of workmanship, intersected by hanging terraces, aerial
+galleries, and flying bridges poised over space. The trio always
+returned to this city round which they strolled, unable to stray
+more than a hundred yards away. They came back to it during the hot
+afternoons when the Venetian shutters were closed and the blinds
+lowered. In the covered ways all seemed to be asleep, the ashy greyness
+was streaked by yellow bars of sunlight falling through the high
+windows. Only a subdued murmur broke the silence; the steps of a few
+hurrying passers-by resounded on the footways; whilst the badge-wearing
+porters sat in rows on the stone ledges at the corners of the pavilions,
+taking off their boots and nursing their aching feet. The quietude
+was that of a colossus at rest, interrupted at times by some cock-crow
+rising from the cellars below.
+
+Claude, Cadine, and Marjolin then often went to see the empty hampers
+piled upon the drays, which came to fetch them every afternoon so that
+they might be sent back to the consignors. There were mountains of them,
+labelled with black letters and figures, in front of the salesmen's
+warehouses in the Rue Berger. The porters arranged them symmetrically,
+tier by tier, on the vehicles. When the pile rose, however, to the
+height of a first floor, the porter who stood below balancing the next
+batch of hampers had to make a spring in order to toss them up to his
+mate, who was perched aloft with arms extended. Claude, who delighted
+in feats of strength and dexterity, would stand for hours watching the
+flight of these masses of osier, and would burst into a hearty laugh
+whenever too vigorous a toss sent them flying over the pile into the
+roadway beyond. He was fond, too, of the footways of the Rue Rambuteau
+and the Rue du Pont Neuf, near the fruit market, where the retail
+dealers congregated. The sight of the vegetables displayed in the open
+air, on trestle-tables covered with damp black rags, was full of charm
+for him. At four in the afternoon the whole of this nook of greenery was
+aglow with sunshine; and Claude wandered between the stalls, inspecting
+the bright-coloured heads of the saleswomen with keen artistic relish.
+The younger ones, with their hair in nets, had already lost all
+freshness of complexion through the rough life they led; while the older
+ones were bent and shrivelled, with wrinkled, flaring faces showing
+under the yellow kerchiefs bound round their heads. Cadine and Marjolin
+refused to accompany him hither, as they could perceive old Mother
+Chantemesse shaking her fist at them, in her anger at seeing them
+prowling about together. He joined them again, however, on the opposite
+footway, where he found a splendid subject for a picture in the
+stallkeepers squatting under their huge umbrellas of faded red, blue,
+and violet, which, mounted upon poles, filled the whole market-side with
+bumps, and showed conspicuously against the fiery glow of the sinking
+sun, whose rays faded amidst the carrots and the turnips. One tattered
+harridan, a century old, was sheltering three spare-looking lettuces
+beneath an umbrella of pink silk, shockingly split and stained.
+
+Cadine and Marjolin had struck up an acquaintance with Leon, Quenu's
+apprentice, one day when he was taking a pie to a house in the
+neighbourhood. They saw him cautiously raise the lid of his pan in a
+secluded corner of the Rue de Mondetour, and delicately take out a ball
+of forcemeat. They smiled at the sight, which gave them a very high
+opinion of Leon. And the idea came to Cadine that she might at last
+satisfy one of her most ardent longings. Indeed, the very next time that
+she met the lad with his basket she made herself very agreeable, and
+induced him to offer her a forcemeat ball. But, although she laughed and
+licked her fingers, she experienced some disappointment. The forcemeat
+did not prove nearly so nice as she had anticipated. On the other hand,
+the lad, with his sly, greedy phiz and his white garments, which made
+him look like a girl going to her first communion, somewhat took her
+fancy.
+
+She invited him to a monster lunch which she gave amongst the hampers
+in the auction room at the butter market. The three of them--herself,
+Marjolin, and Leon--completely secluded themselves from the world within
+four walls of osier. The feast was laid out on a large flat basket.
+There were pears, nuts, cream-cheese, shrimps, fried potatoes,
+and radishes. The cheese came from a fruiterer's in the Rue de la
+Cossonnerie, and was a present; and a "frier" of the Rue de la Grande
+Truanderie had given Cadine credit for two sous' worth of potatoes. The
+rest of the feast, the pears, the nuts, the shrimps, and the radishes,
+had been pilfered from different parts of the market. It was a delicious
+treat; and Leon, desirous of returning the hospitality, gave a supper
+in his bedroom at one o'clock in the morning. The bill of fare included
+cold black-pudding, slices of polony, a piece of salt pork, some
+gherkins, and some goose-fat. The Quenu-Gradelles' shop had provided
+everything. And matters did not stop there. Dainty suppers alternated
+with delicate luncheons, and invitation upon invitation. Three times a
+week there were banquets, either amidst the hampers or in Leon's garret,
+where Florent, on the nights when he lay awake, could hear a stifled
+sound of munching and rippling laughter until day began to break.
+
+The loves of Cadine and Marjolin now took another turn. The youth played
+the gallant, and just as another might entertain his _innamorata_ at a
+champagne supper _en tete a tete_ in a private room, he led Cadine into
+some quiet corner of the market cellars to munch apples or sprigs of
+celery. One day he stole a red-herring, which they devoured with immense
+enjoyment on the roof of the fish market beside the guttering. There was
+not a single shady nook in the whole place where they did not indulge in
+secret feasts. The district, with its rows of open shops full of fruit
+and cakes and preserves, was no longer a closed paradise, in front of
+which they prowled with greedy, covetous appetites. As they passed
+the shops they now extended their hands and pilfered a prune, a few
+cherries, or a bit of cod. They also provisioned themselves at the
+markets, keeping a sharp look-out as they made their way between the
+stalls, picking up everything that fell, and often assisting the fall by
+a push of their shoulders.
+
+In spite, however, of all the marauding, some terrible scores had to be
+run up with the "frier" of the Rue de la Grand Truanderie. This "frier,"
+whose shanty leaned against a tumble-down house, and was propped up by
+heavy joists, green with moss, made a display of boiled mussels lying in
+large earthenware bowls filled to the brim with clear water; of dishes
+of little yellow dabs stiffened by too thick a coating of paste; of
+squares of tripe simmering in a pan; and of grilled herrings, black and
+charred, and so hard that if you tapped them they sounded like wood. On
+certain weeks Cadine owed the frier as much as twenty sous, a crushing
+debt, which required the sale of an incalculable number of bunches of
+violets, for she could count upon no assistance from Marjolin. Moreover,
+she was bound to return Leon's hospitalities; and she even felt some
+little shame at never being able to offer him a scrap of meat. He
+himself had now taken to purloining entire hams. As a rule, he stowed
+everything away under his shirt; and at night when he reached his
+bedroom he drew from his bosom hunks of polony, slices of _pate de foie
+gras_, and bundles of pork rind. They had to do without bread, and there
+was nothing to drink; but no matter. One night Marjolin saw Leon kiss
+Cadine between two mouthfuls; however, he only laughed. He could have
+smashed the little fellow with a blow from his fist, but he felt no
+jealousy in respect of Cadine. He treated her simply as a comrade with
+whom he had chummed for years.
+
+Claude never participated in these feasts. Having caught Cadine one day
+stealing a beet-root from a little hamper lined with hay, he had pulled
+her ears and given her a sound rating. These thieving propensities made
+her perfect as a ne'er-do-well. However, in spite of himself, he could
+not help feeling a sort of admiration for these sensual, pilfering,
+greedy creatures, who preyed upon everything that lay about, feasting
+off the crumbs that fell from the giant's table.
+
+At last Marjolin nominally took service under Gavard, happy in having
+nothing to do except to listen to his master's flow of talk, while
+Cadine still continued to sell violets, quite accustomed by this time to
+old Mother Chantemesse's scoldings. They were still the same children as
+ever, giving way to their instincts and appetites without the slightest
+shame--they were the growth of the slimy pavements of the market
+district, where, even in fine weather, the mud remains black and sticky.
+However, as Cadine walked along the footways, mechanically twisting her
+bunches of violets, she was sometimes disturbed by disquieting reveries;
+and Marjolin, too, suffered from an uneasiness which he could not
+explain. He would occasionally leave the girl and miss some ramble or
+feast in order to go and gaze at Madame Quenu through the windows of her
+pork shop. She was so handsome and plump and round that it did him good
+to look at her. As he stood gazing at her, he felt full and satisfied,
+as though he had just eaten or drunk something extremely nice. And when
+he went off, a sort of hunger and thirst to see her again suddenly came
+upon him. This had been going on for a couple of months. At first he
+had looked at her with the respectful glance which he bestowed upon the
+shop-fronts of the grocers and provision dealers; but subsequently, when
+he and Cadine had taken to general pilfering, he began to regard her
+smooth cheeks much as he regarded the barrels of olives and boxes of
+dried apples.
+
+For some time past Marjolin had seen handsome Lisa every day, in the
+morning. She would pass Gavard's stall, and stop for a moment or two to
+chat with the poultry dealer. She now did her marketing herself, so
+that she might be cheated as little as possible, she said. The truth,
+however, was that she wished to make Gavard speak out. In the pork shop
+he was always distrustful, but at his stall he chatted and talked with
+the utmost freedom. Now, Lisa had made up her mind to ascertain from him
+exactly what took place in the little room at Monsieur Lebigre's; for
+she had no great confidence in her secret police office, Mademoiselle
+Saget. In a short time she learnt from the incorrigible chatterbox a
+lot of vague details which very much alarmed her. Two days after her
+explanation with Quenu she returned home from the market looking very
+pale. She beckoned to her husband to follow her into the dining-room,
+and having carefully closed the door she said to him: "Is your brother
+determined to send us to the scaffold, then? Why did you conceal from me
+what you knew?"
+
+Quenu declared that he knew nothing. He even swore a great oath that he
+had not returned to Monsieur Lebigre's, and would never go there again.
+
+"You will do well not to do so," replied Lisa, shrugging her shoulders,
+"unless you want to get yourself into a serious scrape. Florent is up to
+some evil trick, I'm certain of it! I have just learned quite sufficient
+to show me where he is going. He's going back to Cayenne, do you hear?"
+
+Then, after a pause, she continued in calmer ones: "Oh, the unhappy man!
+He had everything here that he could wish for. He might have redeemed
+his character; he had nothing but good examples before him. But no,
+it is in his blood! He will come to a violent end with his politics! I
+insist upon there being an end to all this! You hear me, Quenu? I gave
+you due warning long ago!"
+
+She spoke the last words very incisively. Quenu bent his head, as if
+awaiting sentence.
+
+"To begin with," continued Lisa, "he shall cease to take his meals here.
+It will be quite sufficient if we give him a bed. He is earning money;
+let him feed himself."
+
+Quenu seemed on the point of protesting, but his wife silenced him by
+adding energetically:
+
+"Make your choice between him and me. If he remains here, I swear to
+you that I will go away, and take my daughter with me. Do you want me to
+tell you the whole truth about him? He is a man capable of anything; he
+has come here to bring discord into our household. But I will set things
+right, you may depend on it. You have your choice between him and me;
+you hear me?"
+
+Then, leaving her husband in silent consternation, she returned to the
+shop, where she served a customer with her usual affable smile. The fact
+was that, having artfully inveigled Gavard into a political discussion,
+the poultry dealer had told her that she would soon see how the land
+lay, that they were going to make a clean sweep of everything, and that
+two determined men like her brother-in-law and himself would suffice to
+set the fire blazing. This was the evil trick of which she had spoken
+to Quenu, some conspiracy to which Gavard was always making mysterious
+allusions with a sniggering grin from which he seemingly desired a great
+deal to be inferred. And in imagination Lisa already saw the gendarmes
+invading the pork shop, gagging herself, her husband, and Pauline, and
+casting them into some underground dungeon.
+
+In the evening, at dinner, she evinced an icy frigidity. She made no
+offers to serve Florent, but several times remarked: "It's very strange
+what an amount of bread we've got through lately."
+
+Florent at last understood. He felt that he was being treated like a
+poor relation who is gradually turned out of doors. For the last two
+months Lisa had dressed him in Quenu's old trousers and coats; and, as
+he was as thin as his brother was fat, these ragged garments had a most
+extraordinary appearance upon him. She also turned her oldest linen over
+to him: pocket-handkerchiefs which had been darned a score of times,
+ragged towels, sheets which were only fit to be cut up into dusters and
+dish-cloths, and worn-out shirts, distended by Quenu's corpulent
+figure, and so short that they would have served Florent as under-vests.
+Moreover, he no longer found around him the same good-natured kindliness
+as in the earlier days. The whole household seemed to shrug its
+shoulders after the example set by handsome Lisa. Auguste and Augustine
+turned their backs upon him, and little Pauline, with the cruel
+frankness of childhood, let fall some bitter remarks about the stains
+on his coat and the holes in his shirt. However, during the last days he
+suffered most at table. He scarcely dared to eat, as he saw the mother
+and daughter fix their gaze upon him whenever he cut himself a piece of
+bread. Quenu meantime peered into his plate, to avoid having to take any
+part in what went on.
+
+That which most tortured Florent was his inability to invent a reason
+for leaving the house. During a week he kept on revolving in his mind a
+sentence expressing his resolve to take his meals elsewhere, but could
+not bring himself to utter it. Indeed, this man of tender nature lived
+in such a world of illusions that he feared he might hurt his brother
+and sister-in-law by ceasing to lunch and dine with them. It had taken
+him over two months to detect Lisa's latent hostility; and even now he
+was sometimes inclined to think that he must be mistaken, and that
+she was in reality kindly disposed towards him. Unselfishness with
+him extended to forgetfulness of his requirements; it was no longer
+a virtue, but utter indifference to self, an absolute obliteration of
+personality. Even when he recognised that he was being gradually turned
+out of the house, his mind never for a moment dwelt upon his share in
+old Gradelle's fortune, or upon the accounts which Lisa had offered him.
+He had already planned out his expenditure for the future; reckoning
+that with what Madame Verlaque still allowed him to retain of his
+salary, and the thirty francs a month which a pupil, obtained through
+La Normande, paid him he would be able to spend eighteen sous on his
+breakfast and twenty-six sous on his dinner. This, he thought, would be
+ample. And so, at last, taking as his excuse the lessons which he was
+giving his new pupil, he emboldened himself one morning to pretend
+that it would be impossible for him in future to come to the house
+at mealtimes. He blushed as he gave utterance to this laboriously
+constructed lie, which had given him so much trouble, and continued
+apologetically:
+
+"You mustn't be offended; the boy only has those hours free. I can
+easily get something to eat, you know; and I will come and have a chat
+with you in the evenings."
+
+Beautiful Lisa maintained her icy reserve, and this increased Florent's
+feeling of trouble. In order to have no cause for self-reproach she had
+been unwilling to send him about his business, preferring to wait till
+he should weary of the situation and go of his own accord. Now he was
+going, and it was a good riddance; and she studiously refrained from
+all show of kindliness for fear it might induce him to remain. Quenu,
+however, showed some signs of emotion, and exclaimed: "Don't think of
+putting yourself about; take your meals elsewhere by all means, if it
+is more convenient. It isn't we who are turning you way; you'll at all
+events dine with us sometimes on Sundays, eh?"
+
+Florent hurried off. His heart was very heavy. When he had gone, the
+beautiful Lisa did not venture to reproach her husband for his weakness
+in giving that invitation for Sundays. She had conquered, and again
+breathed freely amongst the light oak of her dining-room, where she
+would have liked to burn some sugar to drive away the odour of perverse
+leanness which seemed to linger about. Moreover, she continued to remain
+on the defensive; and at the end of another week she felt more alarmed
+than ever. She only occasionally saw Florent in the evenings, and
+began to have all sorts of dreadful thoughts, imagining that her
+brother-in-law was constructing some infernal machine upstairs in
+Augustine's bedroom, or else making signals which would result in
+barricades covering the whole neighbourhood. Gavard, who had become
+gloomy, merely nodded or shook his head when she spoke to him, and left
+his stall for days together in Marjolin's charge. The beautiful Lisa,
+however, determined that she would get to the bottom of affairs. She
+knew that Florent had obtained a day's leave, and intended to spend
+it with Claude Lantier, at Madame Francois's, at Nanterre. As he would
+start in the morning, and remain away till night, she conceived the idea
+of inviting Gavard to dinner. He would be sure to talk freely, at table,
+she thought. But throughout the morning she was unable to meet the
+poultry dealer, and so in the afternoon she went back again to the
+markets.
+
+Marjolin was in the stall alone. He used to drowse there for hours,
+recouping himself from the fatigue of his long rambles. He generally sat
+upon one chair with his legs resting upon another, and his head leaning
+against a little dresser. In the wintertime he took a keen delight in
+lolling there and contemplating the display of game; the bucks hanging
+head downwards, with their fore-legs broken and twisted round their
+necks; the larks festooning the stall like garlands; the big ruddy
+hares, the mottled partridges, the water-fowl of a bronze-grey hue, the
+Russian black cocks and hazel hens, which arrived in a packing of oat
+straw and charcoal;[*] and the pheasants, the magnificent pheasants,
+with their scarlet hoods, their stomachers of green satin, their mantles
+of embossed gold, and their flaming tails, that trailed like trains of
+court robes. All this show of plumage reminded Marjolin of his rambles
+in the cellars with Cadine amongst the hampers of feathers.
+
+     [*] The baskets in which these are sent to Paris are
+     identical with those which in many provinces of Russia serve
+     the _moujiks_ as cradles for their infants.--Translator.
+
+That afternoon the beautiful Lisa found Marjolin in the midst of the
+poultry. It was warm, and whiffs of hot air passed along the narrow
+alleys of the pavilion. She was obliged to stoop before she could see
+him stretched out inside the stall, below the bare flesh of the birds.
+From the hooked bar up above hung fat geese, the hooks sticking in the
+bleeding wounds of their long stiffened necks, while their huge bodies
+bulged out, glowing ruddily beneath their fine down, and, with their
+snowy tails and wings, suggesting nudity encompassed by fine linen.
+And also hanging from the bar, with ears thrown back and feet parted
+as though they were bent on some vigorous leap, were grey rabbits whose
+turned-up tails gleamed whitely, whilst their heads, with sharp teeth
+and dim eyes, laughed with the grin of death. On the counter of the
+stall plucked fowls showed their strained fleshy breasts; pigeons,
+crowded on osier trays, displayed the soft bare skin of innocents;
+ducks, with skin of rougher texture, exhibited their webbed feet; and
+three magnificent turkeys, speckled with blue dots, like freshly-shaven
+chins, slumbered on their backs amidst the black fans of their expanded
+tails. On plates near by were giblets, livers, gizzards, necks, feet,
+and wings; while an oval dish contained a skinned and gutted rabbit,
+with its four legs wide apart, its head bleeding, and is kidneys showing
+through its gashed belly. A streamlet of dark blood, after trickling
+along its back to its tail, had fallen drop by drop, staining the
+whiteness of the dish. Marjolin had not even taken the trouble to wipe
+the block, near which the rabbit's feet were still lying. He reclined
+there with his eyes half closed, encompassed by other piles of dead
+poultry which crowded the shelves of the stall, poultry in paper
+wrappers like bouquets, rows upon rows of protuberant breasts and bent
+legs showing confusedly. And amidst all this mass of food, the young
+fellow's big, fair figure, the flesh of his cheeks, hands, and powerful
+neck covered with ruddy down seemed as soft as that of the magnificent
+turkeys, and as plump as the breasts of the fat geese.
+
+When he caught sight of Lisa, he at once sprang up, blushing at having
+been caught sprawling in this way. He always seemed very nervous and ill
+at ease in Madame Quenu's presence; and when she asked him if Monsieur
+Gavard was there, he stammered out: "No, I don't think so. He was here a
+little while ago, but he want away again."
+
+Lisa looked at him, smiling; she had a great liking for him. But feeling
+something warm brush against her hand, which was hanging by her side,
+she raised a little shriek. Some live rabbits were thrusting their noses
+out of a box under the counter of the stall, and sniffing at her skirts.
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed with a laugh, "it's your rabbits that are tickling
+me."
+
+Then she stooped and attempted to stroke a white rabbit, which darted in
+alarm into a corner of the box.
+
+"Will Monsieur Gavard be back soon, do you think?" she asked, as she
+again rose erect.
+
+Marjolin once more replied that he did not know; then in a hesitating
+way he continued: "He's very likely gone down into the cellars. He told
+me, I think, that he was going there."
+
+"Well, I think I'll wait for him, then," replied Lisa. "Could you let
+him know that I am here? or I might go down to him, perhaps. Yes, that's
+a good idea; I've been intending to go and have a look at the cellars
+for these last five years. You'll take me down, won't you, and explain
+things to me?"
+
+Marjolin blushed crimson, and, hurrying out of the stall, walked on in
+front of her, leaving the poultry to look after itself. "Of course I
+will," said he. "I'll do anything you wish, Madame Lisa."
+
+When they got down below, the beautiful Lisa felt quite suffocated by
+the dank atmosphere of the cellar. She stood at the bottom step, and
+raised her eyes to look at the vaulted roofing of red and white bricks
+arching slightly between the iron ribs upheld by small columns. What
+made her hesitate more than the gloominess of the place was a warm,
+penetrating odour, the exhalations of large numbers of living creatures,
+which irritated her nostrils and throat.
+
+"What a nasty smell!" she exclaimed. "It must be very unhealthy down
+here."
+
+"It never does me any harm," replied Marjolin in astonishment. "There's
+nothing unpleasant about the smell when you've got accustomed to it; and
+it's very warm and cosy down here in the wintertime."
+
+As Lisa followed him, however, she declared that the strong scent of the
+poultry quite turned her stomach, and that she would certainly not
+be able to eat a fowl for the next two months. All around her, the
+storerooms, the small cabins where the stallkeepers keep their live
+stock, formed regular streets, intersecting each other at right angles.
+There were only a few scattered gas lights, and the little alleys seemed
+wrapped in sleep like the lanes of a village where the inhabitants
+have all gone to bed. Marjolin made Lisa feel the close-meshed wiring,
+stretched on a framework of cast iron; and as she made her way along one
+of the streets she amused herself by reading the names of the different
+tenants, which were inscribed on blue labels.
+
+"Monsieur Gavard's place is quite at the far end," said the young man,
+still walking on.
+
+They turned to the left, and found themselves in a sort of blind alley,
+a dark, gloomy spot where not a ray of light penetrated. Gavard was not
+there.
+
+"Oh, it makes no difference," said Marjolin. "I can show you our birds
+just the same. I have a key of the storeroom."
+
+Lisa followed him into the darkness.
+
+"You don't suppose that I can see your birds in this black oven, do
+you?" she asked, laughing.
+
+Marjolin did not reply at once; but presently he stammered out that
+there was always a candle in the storeroom. He was fumbling about the
+lock, and seemed quite unable to find the keyhole. As Lisa came up to
+help him, she felt a hot breath on her neck; and when the young man had
+at last succeeded in opening the door and lighted the candle, she saw
+that he was trembling.
+
+"You silly fellow!" she exclaimed, "to get yourself into such a state
+just because a door won't open! Why, you're no better than a girl, in
+spite of your big fists!"
+
+She stepped inside the storeroom. Gavard had rented two compartments,
+which he had thrown into one by removing the partition between them. In
+the dirt on the floor wallowed the larger birds--the geese, turkeys,
+and ducks--while up above, on tiers of shelves, were boxes with barred
+fronts containing fowls and rabbits. The grating of the storeroom was so
+coated with dust and cobwebs that it looked as though covered with grey
+blinds. The woodwork down below was rotting, and covered with filth.
+Lisa, however, not wishing to vex Marjolin, refrained from any further
+expression of disgust. She pushed her fingers between the bars of the
+boxes, and began to lament the fate of the unhappy fowls, which were
+so closely huddled together and could not even stand upright. Then she
+stroked a duck with a broken leg which was squatting in a corner, and
+the young man told her that it would be killed that very evening, for
+fear lest it should die during the night.
+
+"But what do they do for food?" asked Lisa.
+
+Thereupon he explained to her that poultry would not eat in the dark,
+and that it was necessary to light a candle and wait there till they had
+finished their meal.
+
+"It amuses me to watch them," he continued; "I often stay here with a
+light for hours altogether. You should see how they peck away; and when
+I hide the flame of the candle with my hand they all stand stock-still
+with their necks in the air, just as though the sun had set. It is
+against the rules to leave a lighted candle here and go away. One of the
+dealers, old Mother Palette--you know her, don't you?--nearly burned the
+whole place down the other day. A fowl must have knocked the candle over
+into the straw while she was away."
+
+"A pretty thing, isn't it," said Lisa, "for fowls to insist upon having
+the chandeliers lighted up every time they take a meal?"
+
+This idea made her laugh. Then she came out of the storeroom, wiping her
+feet, and holding up her skirts to keep them from the filth. Marjolin
+blew out the candle and locked the door. Lisa felt rather nervous at
+finding herself in the dark again with this big young fellow, and so she
+hastened on in front.
+
+"I'm glad I came, all the same," she presently said, as he joined her.
+"There is a great deal more under these markets than I ever imagined.
+But I must make haste now and get home again. They'll wonder what has
+become of me at the shop. If Monsieur Gavard comes back, tell him that I
+want to speak to him immediately."
+
+"I expect he's in the killing-room," said Marjolin. "We'll go and see,
+if you like."
+
+Lisa made no reply. She felt oppressed by the close atmosphere which
+warmed her face. She was quite flushed, and her bodice, generally so
+still and lifeless, began to heave. Moreover, the sound of Marjolin's
+hurrying steps behind her filled her with an uneasy feeling. At last she
+stepped aside, and let him go on in front. The lanes of this underground
+village were still fast asleep. Lisa noticed that her companion was
+taking the longest way. When they came out in front of the railway track
+he told her that he had wished to show it to her; and they stood for a
+moment or two looking through the chinks in the hoarding of heavy beams.
+Then Marjolin proposed to take her on to the line; but she refused,
+saying that it was not worth while, as she could see things well enough
+where she was.
+
+As they returned to the poultry cellars they found old Madame Palette in
+front of her storeroom, removing the cords of a large square hamper, in
+which a furious fluttering of wings and scraping of feet could be heard.
+As she unfastened the last knot the lid suddenly flew open, as though
+shot up by a spring, and some big geese thrust out their heads and
+necks. Then, in wild alarm, they sprang from their prison and rushed
+away, craning their necks, and filling the dark cellars with a frightful
+noise of hissing and clattering of beaks. Lisa could not help laughing,
+in spite of the lamentations of the old woman, who swore like a carter
+as she caught hold of two of the absconding birds and dragged them back
+by the neck. Marjolin, meantime, set off in pursuit of a third. They
+could hear him running along the narrow alleys, hunting for the runaway,
+and delighting in the chase. Then, far off in the distance, they heard
+the sounds of a struggle, and presently Marjolin came back again,
+bringing the goose with him. Mother Palette, a sallow-faced old woman,
+took it in her arms and clasped it for a moment to her bosom, in the
+classic attitude of Leda.
+
+"Well, well, I'm sure I don't know what I should have done if you hadn't
+been here," said she. "The other day I had a regular fight with one of
+the brutes; but I had my knife with me, and I cut its throat."
+
+Marjolin was quite out of breath. When they reached the stone blocks
+where the poultry were killed, and where the gas burnt more brightly,
+Lisa could see that he was perspiring, and had bold, glistening eyes.
+She thought he looked very handsome like that, with his broad shoulders,
+big flushed face, and fair curly hair, and she looked at him so
+complacently, with that air of admiration which women feel they may
+safely express for quite young lads, that he relapsed into timid
+bashfulness again.
+
+"Well, Monsieur Gavard isn't here, you see," she said. "You've only made
+me waste my time."
+
+Marjolin, however, began rapidly explaining the killing of the poultry
+to her. Five huge stone slabs stretched out in the direction of the Rue
+Rambuteau under the yellow light of the gas jets. A woman was killing
+fowls at one end; and this led him to tell Lisa that the birds were
+plucked almost before they were dead, the operation thus being much
+easier. Then he wanted her to feel the feathers which were lying in
+heaps on the stone slabs; and told her that they were sorted and sold
+for as much as nine sous the pound, according to their quality. To
+satisfy him, she was also obliged to plunge her hand into the big
+hampers full of down. Then he turned the water-taps, of which there was
+one by every pillar. There was no end to the particulars he gave. The
+blood, he said, streamed along the stone blocks, and collected into
+pools on the paved floor, which attendants sluiced with water every two
+hours, removing the more recent stains with coarse brushes.
+
+When Lisa stooped over the drain which carries away the swillings,
+Marjolin found a fresh text for talk. On rainy days, said he, the water
+sometimes rose through this orifice and flooded the place. It had
+once risen a foot high; and they had been obliged to transport all the
+poultry to the other end of the cellar, which is on a higher level.
+He laughed as he recalled the wild flutter of the terrified creatures.
+However, he had now finished, and it seemed as though there remained
+nothing else for him to show, when all at once he bethought himself of
+the ventilator. Thereupon he took Lisa off to the far end of the cellar,
+and told her to look up; and inside one of the turrets at the corner
+angles of the pavilion she observed a sort of escape-pipe, by which the
+foul atmosphere of the storerooms ascended into space.
+
+Here, in this corner, reeking with abominable odours, Marjolin's
+nostrils quivered, and his breath came and went violently. His long
+stroll with Lisa in these cellars, full of warm animal perfumes, had
+gradually intoxicated him.
+
+She had again turned towards him. "Well," said she, "it was very kind of
+you to show me all this, and when you come to the shop I will give you
+something."
+
+Whilst speaking she took hold of his soft chin, as she often did,
+without recognising that he was no longer a child; and perhaps she
+allowed her hand to linger there a little longer than was her wont. At
+all events, Marjolin, usually so bashful, was thrilled by the caress,
+and all at once he impetuously sprang forward, clasped Lisa by the
+shoulders, and pressed his lips to her soft cheeks. She raised no
+cry, but turned very pale at this sudden attack, which showed her how
+imprudent she had been. And then, freeing herself from the embrace, she
+raised her arm, as she had seen men do in slaughter houses, clenched
+her comely fist, and knocked Marjolin down with a single blow, planted
+straight between his eyes; and as he fell his head came into collision
+with one of the stone slabs, and was split open. Just at that moment the
+hoarse and prolonged crowing of a cock sounded through the gloom.
+
+Handsome Lisa, however, remained perfectly cool. Her lips were tightly
+compressed, and her bosom had recovered its wonted immobility. Up
+above she could hear the heavy rumbling of the markets, and through the
+vent-holes alongside the Rue Rambuteau the noise of the street traffic
+made its way into the oppressive silence of the cellar. Lisa reflected
+that her own strong arm had saved her; and then, fearing lest some
+one should come and find her there, she hastened off, without giving a
+glance at Marjolin. As she climbed the steps, after passing through the
+grated entrance of the cellars, the daylight brought her great relief.
+
+She returned to the shop, quite calm, and only looking a little pale.
+
+"You've been a long time," Quenu said to her.
+
+"I can't find Gavard. I have looked for him everywhere," she quietly
+replied. "We shall have to eat our leg of mutton without him."
+
+Then she filled the lard pot, which she noticed was empty; and cut some
+pork chops for her friend Madame Taboureau, who had sent her little
+servant for them. The blows which she dealt with her cleaver reminded
+her of Marjolin. She felt that she had nothing to reproach herself with.
+She had acted like an honest woman. She was not going to disturb her
+peace of mind; she was too happy to do anything to compromise herself.
+However, she glanced at Quenu, whose neck was coarse and ruddy, and
+whose shaven chin looked as rough as knotted wood; whereas Marjolin's
+chin and neck resembled rosy satin. But then she must not think of him
+any more, for he was no longer a child. She regretted it, and could not
+help thinking that children grew up much too quickly.
+
+A slight flush came back to her cheeks, and Quenu considered that she
+looked wonderfully blooming. He came and sat down beside her at the
+counter for a moment or two. "You ought to go out oftener," said he; "it
+does you good. We'll go to the theatre together one of these nights, if
+you like; to the Gaite, eh? Madame Taboureau has been to see the piece
+they are playing there, and she declares it's splendid."
+
+Lisa smiled, and said they would see about it, and then once more she
+took herself off. Quenu thought that it was too good of her to take so
+much trouble in running about after that brute Gavard. In point of fact,
+however, she had simply gone upstairs to Florent's bedroom, the key
+of which was hanging from a nail in the kitchen. She hoped to find out
+something or other by an inspection of this room, since the poultry
+dealer had failed her. She went slowly round it, examining the bed, the
+mantelpiece, and every corner. The window with the little balcony was
+open, and the budding pomegranate was steeped in the golden beams of the
+setting sun. The room looked to her as though Augustine had never left
+it--had slept there only the night before. There seemed to be nothing
+masculine about the place. She was quite surprised, for she had expected
+to find some suspicious-looking chests, and coffers with strong locks.
+She went to feel Augustine's summer gown, which was still hanging
+against the wall. Then she sat down at the table, and began to read an
+unfinished page of manuscript, in which the word "revolution" occurred
+twice. This alarmed her, and she opened the drawer, which she saw was
+full of papers. But her sense of honour awoke within her in presence of
+the secret which the rickety deal table so badly guarded. She remained
+bending over the papers, trying to understand them without touching
+them, in a state of great emotion, when the shrill song of the
+chaffinch, on whose cage streamed a ray of sunshine, made her start. She
+closed the drawer. It was a base thing that she had contemplated, she
+thought.
+
+Then, as she lingered by the window, reflecting that she ought to go
+and ask counsel of Abbe Roustan, who was a very sensible man, she saw a
+crowd of people round a stretcher in the market square below. The night
+was falling, still she distinctly recognised Cadine weeping in the midst
+of the crowd; while Florent and Claude, whose boots were white with
+dust, stood together talking earnestly at the edge of the footway.
+She hurried downstairs again, surprised to see them back so soon, and
+scarcely had she reached her counter when Mademoiselle Saget entered the
+shop.
+
+"They have found that scamp of a Marjolin in the cellar, with his head
+split open," exclaimed the old maid. "Won't you come to see him, Madame
+Quenu?"
+
+Lisa crossed the road to look at him. The young fellow was lying on his
+back on the stretcher, looking very pale. His eyes were closed, and
+a stiff wisp of his fair hair was clotted with blood. The bystanders,
+however, declared that there was no serious harm done, and, besides, the
+scamp had only himself to blame, for he was always playing all sorts of
+wild pranks in the cellars. It was generally supposed that he had
+been trying to jump over one of the stone blocks--one of his favourite
+amusements--and had fallen with his head against the slab.
+
+"I dare say that hussy there gave him a shove," remarked Mademoiselle
+Saget, pointing to Cadine, who was weeping. "They are always larking
+together."
+
+Meantime the fresh air had restored Marjolin to consciousness, and he
+opened his eyes in wide astonishment. He looked round at everybody, and
+then, observing Lisa bending over him, he gently smiled at her with
+an expression of mingled humility and affection. He seemed to have
+forgotten all that had happened. Lisa, feeling relieved, said that he
+ought to be taken to the hospital at once, and promised to go and see
+him there, and take him some oranges and biscuits. However, Marjolin's
+head had fallen back, and when the stretcher was carried away Cadine
+followed it, with her flat basket slung round her neck, and her hot
+tears rolling down upon the bunches of violets in their mossy bed. She
+certainly had no thoughts for the flowers that she was thus scalding
+with her bitter grief.
+
+As Lisa went back to her shop, she heard Claude say, as he shook hands
+with Florent and parted from him: "Ah! the confounded young scamp! He's
+quite spoiled my day for me! Still, we had a very enjoyable time, didn't
+we?"
+
+Claude and Florent had returned both worried and happy, bringing with
+them the pleasant freshness of the country air. Madame Francois had
+disposed of all her vegetables that morning before daylight; and they
+had all three gone to the Golden Compasses, in the Rue Montorgueil, to
+get the cart. Here, in the middle of Paris, they found a foretaste of
+the country. Behind the Restaurant Philippe, with its frontage of gilt
+woodwork rising to the first floor, there was a yard like that of a
+farm, dirty, teeming with life, reeking with the odour of manure
+and straw. Bands of fowls were pecking at the soft ground. Sheds and
+staircases and galleries of greeny wood clung to the old houses around,
+and at the far end, in a shanty of big beams, was Balthazar, harnessed
+to the cart, and eating the oats in his nosebag. He went down the Rue
+Montorgueil at a slow trot, seemingly well pleased to return to Nanterre
+so soon. However, he was not going home without a load. Madame Francois
+had a contract with the company which undertook the scavenging of the
+markets, and twice a week she carried off with her a load of leaves,
+forked up from the mass of refuse which littered the square. It made
+excellent manure. In a few minutes the cart was filled to overflowing.
+Claude and Florent stretched themselves out on the deep bed of greenery;
+Madame Francois grasped her reins, and Balthazar went off at his slow,
+steady pace, his head somewhat bent by reason of there being so many
+passengers to pull along.
+
+This excursion had been talked of for a long time past. Madame Francois
+laughed cheerily. She was partial to the two men, and promised them
+an _omelette au lard_ as had never been eaten, said she, in "that
+villainous Paris." Florent and Claude revelled in the thought of this
+day of lounging idleness which as yet had scarcely begun to dawn.
+Nanterre seemed to be some distant paradise into which they would
+presently enter.
+
+"Are you quite comfortable?" Madame Francois asked as the cart turned
+into the Rue du Pont Neuf.
+
+Claude declared that their couch was as soft as a bridal bed. Lying on
+their backs, with their hands crossed under their heads, both men were
+looking up at the pale sky from which the stars were vanishing. All
+along the Rue de Rivoli they kept unbroken silence, waiting till they
+should have got clear of the houses, and listening to the worthy woman
+as she chattered to Balthazar: "Take your time, old man," she said to
+him in kindly tones. "We're in no hurry; we shall be sure to get there
+at last."
+
+On reaching the Champs Elysees, when the artist saw nothing but
+tree-tops on either side of him, and the great green mass of the
+Tuileries gardens in the distance, he woke up, as it were, and began to
+talk. When the cart had passed the end of the Rue du Roule he had caught
+a glimpse of the side entrance of Saint Eustache under the giant roofing
+of one of the market covered-ways. He was constantly referring to this
+view of the church, and tried to give it a symbolical meaning.
+
+"It's an odd mixture," he said, "that bit of church framed round by an
+avenue of cast iron. The one will kill the other; the iron will slay
+the stone, and the time is not very far off. Do you believe in chance,
+Florent? For my part, I don't think that it was any mere chance of
+position that set a rose-window of Saint Eustache right in the middle of
+the central markets. No; there's a whole manifesto in it. It is modern
+art, realism, naturalism--whatever you like to call it--that has grown
+up and dominates ancient art. Don't you agree with me?"
+
+Then, as Florent still kept silence, Claude continued: "Besides, that
+church is a piece of bastard architecture, made up of the dying gasp of
+the middle ages, and the first stammering of the Renaissance. Have you
+noticed what sort of churches are built nowadays? They resemble all
+kinds of things--libraries, observatories, pigeon-cotes, barracks; and
+surely no one can imagine that the Deity dwells in such places. The
+pious old builders are all dead and gone; and it would be better to
+cease erecting those hideous carcasses of stone, in which we have no
+belief to enshrine. Since the beginning of the century there has only
+been one large original pile of buildings erected in Paris--a pile in
+accordance with modern developments--and that's the central markets. You
+hear me, Florent? Ah! they are a fine bit of building, though they but
+faintly indicate what we shall see in the twentieth century! And so, you
+see, Saint Eustache is done for! It stands there with its rose-windows,
+deserted by worshippers, while the markets spread out by its side and
+teem with noisy life. Yes! that's how I understand it all, my friend."
+
+"Ah! Monsieur Claude," said Madame Francois, laughing, "the woman who
+cut your tongue-string certainly earned her money. Look at Balthazar
+laying his ears back to listen to you. Come, come, get along,
+Balthazar!"
+
+The cart was slowly making its way up the incline. At this early hour of
+the morning the avenue, with its double lines of iron chairs on either
+pathway, and its lawns, dotted with flowerbeds and clumps of shrubbery,
+stretching away under the blue shadows of the trees, was quite deserted;
+however, at the Rond-Point a lady and gentleman on horseback passed the
+cart at a gentle trot. Florent, who had made himself a pillow with
+a bundle of cabbage-leaves, was still gazing at the sky, in which a
+far-stretching rosy glow was appearing. Every now and then he would
+close his eyes, the better to enjoy the fresh breeze of the morning
+as it fanned his face. He was so happy to escape from the markets, and
+travel on through the pure air, that he remained speechless, and did not
+even listen to what was being said around him.
+
+"And then, too, what fine jokers are those fellows who imprison art in a
+toy-box!" resumed Claude, after a pause. "They are always repeating the
+same idiotic words: 'You can't create art out of science,' says one;
+'Mechanical appliances kill poetry,' says another; and a pack of fools
+wail over the fate of the flowers, as though anybody wished the flowers
+any harm! I'm sick of all such twaddle; I should like to answer all that
+snivelling with some work of open defiance. I should take a pleasure in
+shocking those good people. Shall I tell you what was the finest thing
+I ever produced since I first began to work, and the one which I recall
+with the greatest pleasure? It's quite a story. When I was at my
+Aunt Lisa's on Christmas Eve last year that idiot of an Auguste, the
+assistant, was setting out the shop-window. Well, he quite irritated
+me by the weak, spiritless way in which he arranged the display; and at
+last I requested him to take himself off, saying that I would group
+the things myself in a proper manner. You see, I had plenty of bright
+colours to work with--the red of the tongues, the yellow of the hams,
+the blue of the paper shavings, the rosy pink of the things that had
+been cut into, the green of the sprigs of heath, and the black of the
+black-puddings--ah! a magnificent black, which I have never managed to
+produce on my palette. And naturally, the _crepine_, the small sausages,
+the chitterlings, and the crumbed trotters provided me with delicate
+greys and browns. I produced a perfect work of art. I took the dishes,
+the plates, the pans, and the jars, and arranged the different colours;
+and I devised a wonderful picture of still life, with subtle scales of
+tints leading up to brilliant flashes of colour. The red tongues seemed
+to thrust themselves out like greedy flames, and the black-puddings,
+surrounded by pale sausages, suggested a dark night fraught with
+terrible indigestion. I had produced, you see, a picture symbolical of
+the gluttony of Christmas Eve, when people meet and sup--the midnight
+feasting, the ravenous gorging of stomachs void and faint after all the
+singing of hymns.[*] At the top of everything a huge turkey exhibited
+its white breast, marbled blackly by the truffles showing through its
+skin. It was something barbaric and superb, suggesting a paunch amidst
+a halo of glory; but there was such a cutting, sarcastic touch about it
+all that people crowded to the window, alarmed by the fierce flare of
+the shop-front. When my aunt Lisa came back from the kitchen she was
+quite frightened, and thought I'd set the fat in the shop on fire;
+and she considered the appearance of the turkey so indelicate that she
+turned me out of the place while Auguste re-arranged the window after
+his own idiotic fashion. Such brutes will never understand the language
+of a red splotch by the side of a grey one. Ah, well! that was my
+masterpiece. I have never done anything better."
+
+     [*] An allusion to the "midnight mass" usually celebrated in
+     Roman Catholic churches on Christmas Eve.--Translator.
+
+He relapsed into silence, smiling and dwelling with gratification on
+this reminiscence. The cart had now reached the Arc de Triomphe, and
+strong currents of air swept from the avenues across the expanse of open
+ground. Florent sat up, and inhaled with zest the first odours of grass
+wafted from the fortifications. He turned his back on Paris, anxious
+to behold the country in the distance. At the corner of the Rue de
+Longchamp, Madame Francois pointed out to him the spot where she had
+picked him up. This rendered him thoughtful, and he gazed at her as
+she sat there, so healthy-looking and serene, with her arms slightly
+extended so as to grasp the reins. She looked even handsomer than Lisa,
+with her neckerchief tied over her head, her robust glow of health, and
+her brusque, kindly air. When she gave a slight cluck with her tongue,
+Balthazar pricked up his ears and rattled down the road at a quicker
+pace.
+
+On arriving at Nanterre, the cart turned to the left into a narrow lane,
+skirted some blank walls, and finally came to a standstill at the end of
+a sort of blind alley. It was the end of the world, Madame Francois used
+to say. The load of vegetable leaves now had to be discharged. Claude
+and Florent would not hear of the journeyman gardener, who was planting
+lettuces, leaving his work, but armed themselves with pitchforks and
+proceeded to toss the leaves into the manure pit. This occupation
+afforded them much amusement. Claude had quite a liking for manure,
+since it symbolises the world and its life. The strippings and parings
+of the vegetables, the scourings of the markets, the refuse that fell
+from that colossal table, remained full of life, and returned to the
+spot where the vegetables had previously sprouted, to warm and nourish
+fresh generations of cabbages, turnips, and carrots. They rose again
+in fertile crops, and once more went to spread themselves out upon the
+market square. Paris rotted everything, and returned everything to the
+soil, which never wearied of repairing the ravages of death.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Claude, as he plied his fork for the last time, "here's
+a cabbage-stalk that I'm sure I recognise. It has grown up at least half
+a score of times in that corner yonder by the apricot tree."
+
+This remark made Florent laugh. But he soon became grave again, and
+strolled slowly through the kitchen garden, while Claude made a sketch
+of the stable, and Madame Francois got breakfast ready. The kitchen
+garden was a long strip of ground, divided in the middle by a narrow
+path; it rose slightly, and at the top end, on raising the head, you
+could perceive the low barracks of Mont Valerien. Green hedges separated
+it from other plots of land, and these lofty walls of hawthorn fringed
+the horizon with a curtain of greenery in such wise that of all the
+surrounding country Mont Valerien alone seemed to rise inquisitively
+on tip-toe in order to peer into Madame Francois's close. Great
+peacefulness came from the countryside which could not be seen. Along
+the kitchen garden, between the four hedges, the May sun shone with
+a languid heat, a silence disturbed only by the buzzing of insects,
+a somnolence suggestive of painless parturition. Every now and then a
+faint cracking sound, a soft sigh, made one fancy that one could hear
+the vegetables sprout into being. The patches of spinach and sorrel,
+the borders of radishes, carrots, and turnips, the beds of potatoes
+and cabbages, spread out in even regularity, displaying their dark
+leaf-mould between their tufts of greenery. Farther away, the trenched
+lettuces, onions, leeks, and celery, planted by line in long straight
+rows, looked like soldiers on parade; while the peas and beans were
+beginning to twine their slender tendrils round a forest of sticks,
+which, when June came, they would transform into a thick and verdant
+wood. There was not a weed to be seen. The garden resembled two parallel
+strips of carpet of a geometrical pattern of green on a reddish ground,
+which were carefully swept every morning. Borders of thyme grew like
+greyish fringe along each side of the pathway.
+
+Florent paced backwards and forwards amidst the perfume of the thyme,
+which the sun was warming. He felt profoundly happy in the peacefulness
+and cleanliness of the garden. For nearly a year past he had only seen
+vegetables bruised and crushed by the jolting of the market-carts;
+vegetables torn up on the previous evening, and still bleeding. He
+rejoiced to find them at home, in peace in the dark mould, and sound in
+every part. The cabbages had a bulky, prosperous appearance; the carrots
+looked bright and gay; and the lettuces lounged in line with an air of
+careless indolence. And as he looked at them all, the markets which he
+had left behind him that morning seemed to him like a vast mortuary,
+an abode of death, where only corpses could be found, a charnel-house
+reeking with foul smells and putrefaction. He slackened his steps, and
+rested in that kitchen garden, as after a long perambulation amidst
+deafening noises and repulsive odours. The uproar and the sickening
+humidity of the fish market had departed from him; and he felt as though
+he were being born anew in the pure fresh air. Claude was right, he
+thought. The markets were a sphere of death. The soil was the life, the
+eternal cradle, the health of the world.
+
+"The omelet's ready!" suddenly cried Madame Francois.
+
+When they were all three seated round the table in the kitchen, with
+the door thrown open to the sunshine, they ate their breakfast with
+such light-hearted gaiety that Madame Francois looked at Florent in
+amazement, repeating between each mouthful: "You're quite altered.
+You're ten years younger. It is that villainous Paris which makes you
+seem so gloomy. You've got a little sunshine in your eyes now. Ah! those
+big towns do one's health no good, you ought to come and live here."
+
+Claude laughed, and retorted that Paris was a glorious place. He stuck
+up for it and all that belonged to it, even to its gutters; though at
+the same time retaining a keen affection for the country.
+
+In the afternoon Madame Francois and Florent found themselves alone
+at the end of the garden, in a corner planted with a few fruit trees.
+Seated on the ground, they talked somewhat seriously together. The good
+woman advised Florent with an affectionate and quite maternal kindness.
+She asked him endless questions about his life, and his intentions for
+the future, and begged him to remember that he might always count
+upon her, if ever he thought that she could in the slightest degree
+contribute to his happiness. Florent was deeply touched. No woman had
+ever spoken to him in that way before. Madame Francois seemed to him
+like some healthy, robust plant that had grown up with the vegetables
+in the leaf-mould of the garden; while the Lisas, the Normans, and
+other pretty women of the markets appeared to him like flesh of doubtful
+freshness decked out for exhibition. He here enjoyed several hours of
+perfect well-being, delivered from all that reek of food which sickened
+him in the markets, and reviving to new life amidst the fertile
+atmosphere of the country, like that cabbage stalk which Claude declared
+he had seen sprout up more than half a score of times.
+
+The two men took leave of Madame Francois at about five o'clock. They
+had decided to walk back to Paris; and the market gardener accompanied
+them into the lane. As she bade good-bye to Florent, she kept his hand
+in her own for a moment, and said gently: "If ever anything happens to
+trouble you, remember to come to me."
+
+For a quarter of an hour Florent walked on without speaking, already
+getting gloomy again, and reflecting that he was leaving health behind
+him. The road to Courbevoie was white with dust. However, both men were
+fond of long walks and the ringing of stout boots on the hard ground.
+Little clouds of dust rose up behind their heels at every step,
+while the rays of the sinking sun darted obliquely over the avenue,
+lengthening their shadows in such wise that their heads reached the
+other side of the road, and journeyed along the opposite footway.
+
+Claude, swinging his arms, and taking long, regular strides,
+complacently watched these two shadows, whilst enjoying the rhythmical
+cadence of his steps, which he accentuated by a motion of his shoulders.
+Presently, however, as though just awaking from a dream, he exclaimed:
+"Do you know the 'Battle of the Fat and the Thin'?"
+
+Florent, surprised by the question, replied in the negative; and
+thereupon Claude waxed enthusiastic, talking of that series of prints
+in very eulogical fashion. He mentioned certain incidents: the Fat, so
+swollen that they almost burst, preparing their evening debauch, while
+the Thin, bent double by fasting, looked in from the street with the
+appearance of envious laths; and then, again, the Fat, with hanging
+cheeks, driving off one of the Thin, who had been audacious enough to
+introduce himself into their midst in lowly humility, and who looked
+like a ninepin amongst a population of balls.
+
+In these designs Claude detected the entire drama of human life, and he
+ended by classifying men into Fat and Thin, two hostile groups, one of
+which devours the other, and grows fat and sleek and enjoys itself.
+
+"Cain," said he, "was certainly one of the Fat, and Abel one of the
+Thin. Ever since that first murder, there have been rampant appetites
+which have drained the life-blood of small eaters. It's a continual
+preying of the stronger upon the weaker; each swallowing his neighbour,
+and then getting swallowed in his turn. Beware of the Fat, my friend."
+
+He relapsed into silence for a moment, still watching their two shadows,
+which the setting sun elongated more than ever. Then he murmured: "You
+see, we belong to the Thin--you and I. Those who are no more corpulent
+than we are don't take up much room in the sunlight, eh?"
+
+Florent glanced at the two shadows, and smiled. But Claude waxed angry,
+and exclaimed: "You make a mistake if you think it is a laughing matter.
+For my own part, I greatly suffer from being one of the Thin. If I were
+one of the Fat, I could paint at my ease; I should have a fine studio,
+and sell my pictures for their weight in gold. But, instead of that,
+I'm one of the Thin; and I have to grind my life out in producing things
+which simply make the Fat ones shrug their shoulders. I shall die of it
+all in the end, I'm sure of it, with my skin clinging to my bones, and
+so flattened that they will be able to bury me between two leaves of a
+book. And you, too, you are one of the Thin, a wonderful one; the very
+king of Thin, in fact! Do you remember your quarrel with the fish-wives?
+It was magnificent; all those colossal bosoms flying at your scraggy
+breast! Oh! they were simply acting from natural instinct; they were
+pursuing one of the Thin just as cats pursue a mouse. The Fat, you know,
+have an instinctive hatred of the Thin, to such an extent that they must
+needs drive the latter from their sight, either by means of their teeth
+or their feet. And that is why, if I were in your place, I should take
+my precautions. The Quenus belong to the Fat, and so do the Mehudins;
+indeed, you have none but Fat ones around you. I should feel uneasy
+under such circumstances."
+
+"And what about Gavard, and Mademoiselle Saget, and your friend
+Marjolin?" asked Florent, still smiling.
+
+"Oh, if you like, I will classify all our acquaintances for you,"
+replied Claude. "I've had their heads in a portfolio in my studio for a
+long time past, with memoranda of the order to which they belong. Gavard
+is one of the Fat, but of the kind which pretends to belong to the
+Thin. The variety is by no means uncommon. Mademoiselle Saget and
+Madame Lecoeur belong to the Thin, but to a variety which is much to be
+feared--the Thin ones whom envy drives to despair, and who are capable
+of anything in their craving to fatten themselves. My friend Marjolin,
+little Cadine, and La Sarriette are three Fat ones, still innocent,
+however, and having nothing but the guileless hunger of youth. I may
+remark that the Fat, so long as they've not grown old, are charming
+creatures. Monsieur Lebigre is one of the Fat--don't you think so? As
+for your political friends, Charvet, Clemence, Logre, and Lacaille, they
+mostly belong to the Thin. I only except that big animal Alexandre, and
+that prodigy Robine, who has caused me a vast amount of annoyance."
+
+The artist continued to talk in this strain from the Pont de Neuilly to
+the Arc de Triomphe. He returned to some of those whom he had already
+mentioned, and completed their portraits with a few characteristic
+touches. Logre, he said, was one of the Thin whose belly had been placed
+between his shoulders. Beautiful Lisa was all stomach, and the beautiful
+Norman all bosom. Mademoiselle Saget, in her earlier life, must have
+certainly lost some opportunity to fatten herself, for she detested the
+Fat, while, at the same time, she despised the Thin. As for Gavard,
+he was compromising his position as one of the Fat, and would end by
+becoming as flat as a bug.
+
+"And what about Madame Francois?" Florent asked.
+
+Claude seemed much embarrassed by this question. He cast about for an
+answer, and at last stammered:
+
+"Madame Francois, Madame Francois--well, no, I really don't know; I
+never thought about classifying her. But she's a dear good soul, and
+that's quite sufficient. She's neither one of the Fat nor one of the
+Thin!"
+
+They both laughed. They were now in front of the Arc de Triomphe. The
+sun, over by the hills of Suresnes, was so low on the horizon that their
+colossal shadows streaked the whiteness of the great structure even
+above the huge groups of statuary, like strokes made with a piece of
+charcoal. This increased Claude's merriment, he waved his arms and bent
+his body; and then, as he started on his way again, he said; "Did you
+notice--just as the sun set our two heads shot up to the sky!"
+
+But Florent no longer smiled. Paris was grasping him again, that Paris
+which now frightened him so much, after having cost him so many tears at
+Cayenne. When he reached the markets night was falling, and there was
+a suffocating smell. He bent his head as he once more returned to
+the nightmare of endless food, whilst preserving the sweet yet sad
+recollection of that day of bright health odorous with the perfume of
+thyme.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+At about four o'clock on the afternoon of the following day Lisa betook
+herself to Saint Eustache. For the short walk across the square she had
+arrayed herself very seriously in a black silk gown and thick woollen
+shawl. The handsome Norman, who, from her stall in the fish market,
+watched her till she vanished into the church porch, was quite amazed.
+
+"Hallo! So the fat thing's gone in for priests now, has she?" she
+exclaimed, with a sneer. "Well, a little holy water may do her good!"
+
+She was mistaken in her surmises, however, for Lisa was not a devotee.
+She did not observe the ordinances of the Church, but said that she
+did her best to lead an honest life, and that this was all that was
+necessary. At the same time, however, she disliked to hear religion
+spoken ill of, and often silenced Gavard, who delighted in scandalous
+stories of priests and their doings. Talk of that sort seemed to her
+altogether improper. Everyone, in her opinion, should be allowed to
+believe as they pleased, and every scruple should be respected. Besides,
+the majority of the clergy were most estimable men. She knew Abbe
+Roustan, of Saint Eustache--a distinguished priest, a man of shrewd
+sense, and one, she thought, whose friendship might be safely relied
+upon. And she would wind up by explaining that religion was absolutely
+necessary for the people; she looked upon it as a sort of police force
+that helped to maintain order, and without which no government would be
+possible. When Gavard went too far on this subject and asserted that the
+priests ought to be turned into the streets and have their shops shut
+up, Lisa, shrugged her shoulders and replied: "A great deal of good that
+would do! Why, before a month was over the people would be murdering
+one another in the streets, and you would be compelled to invent another
+God. That was just what happened in '93. You know very well that I'm not
+given to mixing with the priests, but for all that I say that they are
+necessary, as we couldn't do without them."
+
+And so when Lisa happened to enter a church she always manifested
+the utmost decorum. She had bought a handsome missal, which she never
+opened, for use when she was invited to a funeral or a wedding. She
+knelt and rose at the proper times, and made a point of conducting
+herself with all propriety. She assumed, indeed, what she considered a
+sort of official demeanour, such as all well-to-do folks, tradespeople,
+and house-owners ought to observe with regard to religion.
+
+As she entered Saint Eustache that afternoon she let the double doors,
+covered with green baize, faded and worn by the frequent touch of pious
+hands, close gently behind her. Then she dipped her fingers in the holy
+water and crossed herself in the correct fashion. And afterwards, with
+hushed footsteps, she made her way to the chapel of Saint Agnes, where
+two kneeling women with their faces buried in their hands were waiting,
+whilst the blue skirts of a third protruded from the confessional. Lisa
+seemed rather put out by the sight of these women, and, addressing a
+verger who happened to pass along, wearing a black skullcap and
+dragging his feet over the slabs, she inquired: "Is this Monsieur l'Abbe
+Roustan's day for hearing confessions?"
+
+The verger replied that his reverence had only two more penitents
+waiting, and that they would not detain him long, so that if Lisa would
+take a chair her turn would speedily come. She thanked him, without
+telling him that she had not come to confess; and, making up her mind to
+wait, she began to pace the church, going as far as the chief entrance,
+whence she gazed at the lofty, severe, bare nave stretching between the
+brightly coloured aisles. Raising her head a little, she examined the
+high altar, which she considered too plain, having no taste for the cold
+grandeur of stonework, but preferring the gilding and gaudy colouring of
+the side chapels. Those on the side of the Rue du Jour looked greyish in
+the light which filtered through their dusty windows, but on the side
+of the markets the sunset was lighting up the stained glass with lovely
+tints, limpid greens and yellows in particular, which reminded Lisa of
+the bottle of liqueurs in front of Monsieur Lebigre's mirror. She came
+back by this side, which seemed to be warmed by the glow of light,
+and took a passing interest in the reliquaries, altar ornaments, and
+paintings steeped in prismatic reflections. The church was empty,
+quivering with the silence that fell from its vaulted roofing. Here and
+there a woman's dress showed like a dark splotch amidst the vague yellow
+of the chairs; and a low buzzing came from the closed confessionals. As
+Lisa again passed the chapel of Saint Agnes she saw the blue dress still
+kneeling at Abbe Roustan's feet.
+
+"Why, if I'd wanted to confess I could have said everything in ten
+seconds," she thought, proud of her irreproachable integrity.
+
+Then she went on to the end of the church. Behind the high altar, in the
+gloom of a double row of pillars, is the chapel of the Blessed Virgin,
+damp and dark and silent. The dim stained windows only show the flowing
+crimson and violet robes of saints, which blaze like flames of mystic
+love in the solemn, silent adoration of the darkness. It is a weird,
+mysterious spot, like some crepuscular nook of paradise solely illumined
+by the gleaming stars of two tapers. The four brass lamps hanging from
+the roof remain unlighted, and are but faintly seen; on espying them you
+think of the golden censers which the angels swing before the throne of
+Mary. And kneeling on the chairs between the pillars there are always
+women surrendering themselves languorously to the dim spot's voluptuous
+charm.
+
+Lisa stood and gazed tranquilly around her. She did not feel the least
+emotion, but considered that it was a mistake not to light the lamps.
+Their brightness would have given the place a more cheerful look. The
+gloom even struck her as savouring of impropriety. Her face was warmed
+by the flames of some candles burning in a candelabrum by her side, and
+an old woman armed with a big knife was scraping off the wax which had
+trickled down and congealed into pale tears. And amidst the quivering
+silence, the mute ecstasy of adoration prevailing in the chapel, Lisa
+would distinctly hear the rumbling of the vehicles turning out of the
+Rue Montmartre, behind the scarlet and purple saints on the windows,
+whilst in the distance the markets roared without a moment's pause.
+
+Just as Lisa was leaving the chapel, she saw the younger of the
+Mehudins, Claire, the dealer in fresh water fish, come in. The girl
+lighted a taper at the candelabrum, and then went to kneel behind a
+pillar, her knees pressed upon the hard stones, and her face so pale
+beneath her loose fair hair that she seemed a corpse. And believing
+herself to be securely screened from observation, she gave way to
+violent emotion, and wept hot tears with a passionate outpouring of
+prayer which bent her like a rushing wind. Lisa looked on in amazement,
+for the Mehudins were not known to be particularly pious; indeed, Claire
+was accustomed to speak of religion and priests in such terms as to
+horrify one.
+
+"What's the meaning of this, I wonder?" pondered Lisa, as she again
+made her way to the chapel of Saint Agnes. "The hussy must have been
+poisoning some one or other."
+
+Abbe Roustan was at last coming out of his confessional. He was a
+handsome man, of some forty years of age, with a smiling, kindly air.
+When he recognised Madame Quenu he grasped her hand, called her "dear
+lady," and conducted her to the vestry, where, taking off his surplice,
+he told her that he would be entirely at her service in a moment. They
+returned, the priest in his cassock, bareheaded, and Lisa strutting
+along in her shawl, and paced up and down in front of the side-chapels
+adjacent to the Rue du Jour. They conversed together in low tones. The
+sunlight was departing from the stained windows, the church was growing
+dark, and the retreating footsteps of the last worshippers sounded but
+faintly over the flagstones.
+
+Lisa explained her doubts and scruples to Abbe Roustan. There had never
+been any question of religion between them; she never confessed, but
+merely consulted him in cases of difficulty, because he was shrewd
+and discreet, and she preferred him, as she sometimes said, to shady
+business men redolent of the galleys. The abbe, on his side, manifested
+inexhaustible complaisance. He looked up points of law for her in
+the Code, pointed out profitable investments, resolved her moral
+difficulties with great tact, recommended tradespeople to her,
+invariably having an answer ready however diverse and complicated
+her requirements might be. And he supplied all this help in a natural
+matter-of-fact way, without ever introducing the Deity into his talk,
+or seeking to obtain any advantage either for himself or the cause of
+religion. A word of thanks and a smile sufficed him. He seemed glad to
+have an opportunity of obliging the handsome Madame Quenu, of whom his
+housekeeper often spoke to him in terms of praise, as of a woman who was
+highly respected in the neighbourhood.
+
+Their consultation that afternoon was of a peculiarly delicate nature.
+Lisa was anxious to know what steps she might legitimately take, as a
+woman of honour, with respect to her brother-in-law. Had she a right
+to keep a watch upon him, and to do what she could to prevent him from
+compromising her husband, her daughter, and herself? And then how far
+might she go in circumstances of pressing danger? She did not bluntly
+put these questions to the abbe, but asked them with such skilful
+circumlocutions that he was able to discuss the matter without entering
+into personalities. He brought forward arguments on both sides of the
+question, but the conclusion he came to was that a person of integrity
+was entitled, indeed bound, to prevent evil, and was justified in using
+whatever means might be necessary to ensure the triumph of that which
+was right and proper.
+
+"That is my opinion, dear lady," he said in conclusion. "The question
+of means is always a very grave one. It is a snare in which souls
+of average virtue often become entangled. But I know your scrupulous
+conscience. Deliberate carefully over each step you think of taking, and
+if it contains nothing repugnant to you, go on boldly. Pure natures have
+the marvelous gift of purifying all that they touch."
+
+Then, changing his tone of voice, he continued: "Pray give my kind
+regards to Monsieur Quenu. I'll come in to kiss my dear little Pauline
+some time when I'm passing. And now good-bye, dear lady; remember that
+I'm always at your service."
+
+Thereupon he returned to the vestry. Lisa, on her way out, was curious
+to see if Claire was still praying, but the girl had gone back to
+her eels and carp; and in front of the Lady-chapel, which was already
+shrouded in darkness, there was now but a litter of chairs overturned by
+the ardent vehemence of the woman who had knelt there.
+
+When the handsome Lisa again crossed the square, La Normande, who
+had been watching for her exit from the church, recognised her in the
+twilight by the rotundity of her skirts.
+
+"Good gracious!" she exclaimed, "she's been more than an hour in there!
+When the priests set about cleansing her of her sins, the choir-boys
+have to form in line to pass the buckets of filth and empty them in the
+street!"
+
+The next morning Lisa went straight up to Florent's bedroom and settled
+herself there with perfect equanimity. She felt certain that she would
+not be disturbed, and, moreover, she had made up her mind to tell a
+falsehood and say that she had come to see if the linen was clean,
+should Florent by any chance return. Whilst in the shop, however, she
+had observed him busily engaged in the fish market. Seating herself in
+front of the little table, she pulled out the drawer, placed it upon her
+knees, and began to examine its contents, taking the greatest care to
+restore them to their original positions.
+
+First of all she came upon the opening chapters of the work on Cayenne;
+then upon the drafts of Florent's various plans and projects, his
+schemes for converting the Octroi duties into taxes upon sales, for
+reforming the administrative system of the markets, and all the others.
+These pages of small writing, which she set herself to read, bored her
+extremely, and she was about to restore the drawer to its place, feeling
+convinced that Florent concealed the proofs of his wicked designs
+elsewhere, and already contemplating a searching visitation of his
+mattress, when she discovered a photograph of La Normande in an
+envelope. The impression was rather dark. La Normande was standing up
+with her right arm resting on a broken column. Decked out with all
+her jewels, and attired in a new silk dress, the fish-girl was smiling
+impudently, and Lisa, at the sight, forgot all about her brother-in-law,
+her fears, and the purpose for which she had come into the room. She
+became quite absorbed in her examination of the portrait, as often
+happens when one woman scrutinises the photograph of another at her
+ease, without fear of being seen. Never before had she so favourable an
+opportunity to study her rival. She scrutinised her hair, her nose, her
+mouth; held the photograph at a distance, and then brought it closer
+again. And, finally, with compressed lips, she read on the back of it,
+in a big, ugly scrawl: "Louise, to her friend, Florent." This quite
+scandalised her; to her mind it was a confession, and she felt a strong
+impulse to take possession of the photograph, and keep it as a weapon
+against her enemy. However, she slowly replaced it in the envelope on
+coming to the conclusion that this course would be wrong, and reflecting
+that she would always know where to find it should she want it again.
+
+Then, as she again began turning over the loose sheets of paper, it
+occurred to her to look at the back end of the drawer, where Florent had
+relegated Augustine's needles and thread; and there, between the missal
+and the Dream-book, she discovered what she sought, some extremely
+compromising memoranda, simply screened from observation by a wrapper of
+grey paper.
+
+That idea of an insurrection, of the overthrow of the Empire by means
+of an armed rising, which Logre had one evening propounded at Monsieur
+Lebigre's, had slowly ripened in Florent's feverish brain. He soon grew
+to see a duty, a mission in it. Therein undoubtedly lay the task to
+which his escape from Cayenne and his return to Paris predestined him.
+Believing in a call to avenge his leanness upon the city which wallowed
+in food while the upholders of right and equity were racked by hunger
+in exile, he took upon himself the duties of a justiciary, and dreamt of
+rising up, even in the midst of those markets, to sweep away the reign
+of gluttony and drunkenness. In a sensitive nature like his, this idea
+quickly took root. Everything about him assumed exaggerated proportions,
+the wildest fancies possessed him. He imagined that the markets had been
+conscious of his arrival, and had seized hold of him that they might
+enervate him and poison him with their stenches. Then, too, Lisa wanted
+to cast a spell over him, and for two or three days at a time he would
+avoid her, as though she were some dissolving agency which would destroy
+all his power of will should he approach too closely. However, these
+paroxysms of puerile fear, these wild surgings of his rebellious brain,
+always ended in thrills of the gentlest tenderness, with yearnings to
+love and be loved, which he concealed with a boyish shame.
+
+It was more especially in the evening that his mind became blurred by
+all his wild imaginings. Depressed by his day's work, but shunning sleep
+from a covert fear--the fear of the annihilation it brought with it--he
+would remain later than ever at Monsieur Lebigre's, or at the Mehudins';
+and on his return home he still refrained from going to bed, and sat
+up writing and preparing for the great insurrection. By slow degrees he
+devised a complete system of organisation. He divided Paris into twenty
+sections, one for each arrondissement. Each section would have a
+chief, a sort of general, under whose orders there were to be twenty
+lieutenants commanding twenty companies of affiliated associates. Every
+week, among the chiefs, there would be a consultation, which was to be
+held in a different place each time; and, the better to ensure secrecy
+and discretion, the associates would only come in contact with their
+respective lieutenants, these alone communicating with the chiefs of the
+sections. It also occurred to Florent that it would be as well that the
+companies should believe themselves charged with imaginary missions, as
+a means of putting the police upon a wrong scent.
+
+As for the employment of the insurrectionary forces, that would be all
+simplicity. It would, of course, be necessary to wait till the companies
+were quite complete, and then advantage would be taken of the first
+public commotion. They would doubtless only have a certain number of
+guns used for sporting purposes in their possession, so they would
+commence by seizing the police stations and guard-houses, disarming the
+soldiers of the line; resorting to violence as little as possible, and
+inviting the men to make common cause with the people. Afterwards they
+would march upon the Corps Legislatif, and thence to the Hotel de Ville.
+This plan, to which Florent returned night after night, as though it
+were some dramatic scenario which relieved his over-excited nervous
+system, was as yet simply jotted down on scraps of paper, full of
+erasures, which showed how the writer had felt his way, and revealed
+each successive phase of his scientific yet puerile conception. When
+Lisa had glanced through the notes, without understanding some of them,
+she remained there trembling with fear; afraid to touch them further
+lest they should explode in her hands like live shells.
+
+A last memorandum frightened her more than any of the others. It was
+a half sheet of paper on which Florent had sketched the distinguishing
+insignia which the chiefs and the lieutenants were to wear. By the
+side of these were rough drawings of the standards which the different
+companies were to carry; and notes in pencil even described what colours
+the banners should assume. The chiefs were to wear red scarves, and the
+lieutenants red armlets.
+
+To Lisa this seemed like an immediate realisation of the rising; she saw
+all the men with their red badges marching past the pork shop, firing
+bullets into her mirrors and marble, and carrying off sausages
+and chitterlings from the window. The infamous projects of her
+brother-in-law were surely directed against herself--against her own
+happiness. She closed the drawer and looked round the room, reflecting
+that it was she herself who had provided this man with a home--that he
+slept between her sheets and used her furniture. And she was especially
+exasperated at his keeping his abominable infernal machine in that
+little deal table which she herself had used at Uncle Gradelle's before
+her marriage--a perfectly innocent, rickety little table.
+
+For a while she stood thinking what she should do. In the first place,
+it was useless to say anything to Quenu. For a moment it occurred to
+her to provoke an explanation with Florent, but she dismissed that idea,
+fearing lest he would only go and perpetrate his crime elsewhere, and
+maliciously make a point of compromising them. Then gradually growing
+somewhat calmer, she came to the conclusion that her best plan would be
+to keep a careful watch over her brother-in-law. It would be time enough
+to take further steps at the first sign of danger. She already had quite
+sufficient evidence to send him back to the galleys.
+
+On returning to the shop again, she found Augustine in a state of
+great excitement. Little Pauline had disappeared more than half an
+hour before, and to Lisa's anxious questions the young woman could only
+reply: "I don't know where she can have got to, madame. She was on the
+pavement there with a little boy. I was watching them, and then I had to
+cut some ham for a gentleman, and I never saw them again."
+
+"I'll wager it was Muche!" cried Lisa. "Ah, the young scoundrel!"
+
+It was, indeed, Muche who had enticed Pauline away. The little girl, who
+was wearing a new blue-striped frock that day for the first time, had
+been anxious to exhibit it, and had accordingly taken her stand outside
+the shop, manifesting great propriety of bearing, and compressing her
+lips with the grave expression of a little woman of six who is afraid of
+soiling her clothes. Her short and stiffly-starched petticoats stood out
+like the skirts of a ballet girl, allowing a full view of her tightly
+stretched white stockings and little sky-blue boots. Her pinafore,
+which hung low about her neck, was finished off at the shoulders with an
+edging of embroidery, below which appeared her pretty little arms, bare
+and rosy. She had small turquoise rings in her ears, a cross at her
+neck, a blue velvet ribbon in her well-brushed hair; and she displayed
+all her mother's plumpness and softness--the gracefulness, indeed, of a
+new doll.
+
+Muche had caught sight of her from the market, where he was amusing
+himself by dropping little dead fishes into the gutter, following them
+along the kerb as the water carried them away, and declaring that they
+were swimming. However, the sight of Pauline standing in front of the
+shop and looking so smart and pretty made him cross over to her, capless
+as he was, with his blouse ragged, his trousers slipping down, and his
+whole appearance suggestive of a seven-year-old street-arab. His mother
+had certainly forbidden him to play any more with "that fat booby of a
+girl who was stuffed by her parents till she almost burst"; so he stood
+hesitating for a moment, but at last came up to Pauline, and wanted to
+feel her pretty striped frock. The little girl, who had at first felt
+flattered, then put on a prim air and stepped back, exclaiming in a tone
+of displeasure: "Leave me alone. Mother says I'm not to have anything to
+do with you."
+
+This brought a laugh to the lips of Muche, who was a wily, enterprising
+young scamp.
+
+"What a little flat you are!" he retorted. "What does it matter what
+your mother says? Let's go and play at shoving each other, eh?"
+
+He doubtless nourished some wicked idea of dirtying the neat little
+girl; but she, on seeing him prepare to give her a push in the back,
+retreated as though about to return inside the shop. Muche thereupon
+adopted a flattering tone like a born cajoler.
+
+"You silly! I didn't mean it," said he. "How nice you look like that! Is
+that little cross your mother's?"
+
+Pauline perked herself up, and replied that it was her own, whereupon
+Muche gently led her to the corner of the Rue Pirouette, touching her
+skirts the while and expressing his astonishment at their wonderful
+stiffness. All this pleased the little girl immensely. She had been very
+much vexed at not receiving any notice while she was exhibiting herself
+outside the shop. However, in spite of all Muche's blandishments, she
+still refused to leave the footway.
+
+"You stupid fatty!" thereupon exclaimed the youngster, relapsing into
+coarseness. "I'll squat you down in the gutter if you don't look out,
+Miss Fine-airs!"
+
+The girl was dreadfully alarmed. Muche had caught hold of her by
+the hand; but, recognising his mistake in policy, he again put on a
+wheedling air, and began to fumble in his pocket.
+
+"I've got a sou," said he.
+
+The sight of the coin had a soothing effect upon Pauline. The boy held
+up the sou with the tips of his fingers, and the temptation to follow
+it proved so great that the girl at last stepped down into the roadway.
+Muche's diplomacy was eminently successful.
+
+"What do you like best?" he asked.
+
+Pauline gave no immediate answer. She could not make up her mind; there
+were so many things that she liked. Muche, however, ran over a whole
+list of dainties--liquorice, molasses, gum-balls, and powdered sugar.
+The powdered sugar made the girl ponder. One dipped one's fingers into
+it and sucked them; it was very nice. For a while she gravely considered
+the matter. Then, at last making up her mind, she said:
+
+"No, I like the mixed screws the best."
+
+Muche thereupon took hold of her arm, and she unresistingly allowed him
+to lead her away. They crossed the Rue Rambuteau, followed the broad
+footway skirting the markets, and went as far as a grocer's shop in the
+Rue de la Cossonnerie which was celebrated for its mixed screws. These
+mixed screws are small screws of paper in which grocers put up all sorts
+of damaged odds and ends, broken sugar-plums, fragments of crystallised
+chestnuts--all the doubtful residuum of their jars of sweets. Muche
+showed himself very gallant, allowed Pauline to choose the screw--a blue
+one--paid his sou, and did not attempt to dispossess her of the sweets.
+Outside, on the footway, she emptied the miscellaneous collection of
+scraps into both pockets of her pinafore; and they were such little
+pockets that they were quite filled. Then in delight she began to munch
+the fragments one by one, wetting her fingers to catch the fine sugary
+dust, with such effect that she melted the scraps of sweets, and the
+pockets of her pinafore soon showed two brownish stains. Muche laughed
+slily to himself. He had his arm about the girl's waist, and rumpled her
+frock at his ease whilst leading her round the corner of the Rue Pierre
+Lescot, in the direction of the Place des Innocents.
+
+"You'll come and play now, won't you?" he asked. "That's nice what
+you've got in your pockets, ain't it? You see that I didn't want to do
+you any harm, you big silly!"
+
+Thereupon he plunged his own fingers into her pockets, and they entered
+the square together. To this spot, no doubt, he had all along intended
+to lure his victim. He did the honours of the square as though it were
+his own private property, and indeed it was a favourite haunt of his,
+where he often larked about for whole afternoons. Pauline had never
+before strayed so far from home, and would have wept like an abducted
+damsel had it not been that her pockets were full of sweets. The
+fountain in the middle of the flowered lawn was sending sheets of water
+down its tiers of basins, whilst, between the pilasters above, Jean
+Goujon's nymphs, looking very white beside the dingy grey stonework,
+inclined their urns and displayed their nude graces in the grimy air
+of the Saint Denis quarter. The two children walked round the fountain,
+watching the water fall into the basins, and taking an interest in the
+grass, with thoughts, no doubt, of crossing the central lawn, or gliding
+into the clumps of holly and rhododendrons that bordered the railings of
+the square. Little Muche, however, who had now effectually rumpled the
+back of the pretty frock, said with his sly smile:
+
+"Let's play at throwing sand at each other, eh?"
+
+Pauline had no will of her own left; and they began to throw the sand at
+each other, keeping their eyes closed meanwhile. The sand made its way
+in at the neck of the girl's low bodice, and trickled down into her
+stockings and boots. Muche was delighted to see the white pinafore
+become quite yellow. But he doubtless considered that it was still far
+too clean.
+
+"Let's go and plant trees, shall we?" he exclaimed suddenly. "I know how
+to make such pretty gardens."
+
+"Really, gardens!" murmured Pauline full of admiration.
+
+Then, as the keeper of the square happened to be absent, Muche told her
+to make some holes in one of the borders; and dropping on her knees in
+the middle of the soft mould, and leaning forward till she lay at full
+length on her stomach, she dug her pretty little arms into the ground.
+He, meantime, began to hunt for scraps of wood, and broke off branches.
+These were the garden-trees which he planted in the holes that Pauline
+made. He invariably complained, however, that the holes were not deep
+enough, and rated the girl as though she were an idle workman and he an
+indignant master. When she at last got up, she was black from head to
+foot. Her hair was full of mould, her face was smeared with it, she
+looked such a sight with her arms as black as a coalheaver's that Muche
+clapped his hands with glee, and exclaimed: "Now we must water the
+trees. They won't grow, you know, if we don't water them."
+
+That was the finishing stroke. They went outside the square, scooped the
+gutter-water up in the palms of their hands, and then ran back to pour
+it over the bits of wood. On the way, Pauline, who was so fat that she
+couldn't run properly, let the water trickle between her fingers on to
+her frock, so that by the time of her sixth journey she looked as if she
+had been rolled in the gutter. Muche chuckled with delight on beholding
+her dreadful condition. He made her sit down beside him under a
+rhododendron near the garden they had made, and told her that the trees
+were already beginning to grow. He had taken hold of her hand and called
+her his little wife.
+
+"You're not sorry now that you came, are you," he asked, "instead of
+mooning about on the pavement, where there was nothing to do? I know all
+sorts of fun we can have in the streets; you must come with me again.
+You will, won't you? But you mustn't say anything to your mother, mind.
+If you say a word to her, I'll pull your hair the next time I come past
+your shop."
+
+Pauline consented to everything; and then, as a last attention, Muche
+filled both pockets of her pinafore with mould. However, all the sweets
+were finished, and the girl began to get uneasy, and ceased playing.
+Muche thereupon started pinching her, and she burst into tears, sobbing
+that she wanted to go away. But at this the lad only grinned, and played
+the bully, threatening that he would not take her home at all. Then she
+grew terribly alarmed, and sobbed and gasped like a maiden in the power
+of a libertine. Muche would certainly have ended by punching her in
+order to stop her row, had not a shrill voice, the voice of Mademoiselle
+Saget, exclaimed, close by: "Why, I declare it's Pauline! Leave her
+alone, you wicked young scoundrel!"
+
+Then the old maid took the girl by the hand, with endless expressions
+of amazement at the pitiful condition of her clothes. Muche showed no
+alarm, but followed them, chuckling to himself, and declaring that it
+was Pauline who had wanted to come with him, and had tumbled down.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget was a regular frequenter of the Square des Innocents.
+Every afternoon she would spend a good hour there to keep herself well
+posted in the gossip of the common people. On either side there is a
+long crescent of benches placed end to end; and on these the poor folks
+who stifle in the hovels of the neighbouring narrow streets assemble in
+crowds. There are withered, chilly-looking old women in tumbled caps,
+and young ones in loose jackets and carelessly fastened skirts, with
+bare heads and tired, faded faces, eloquent of the wretchedness of their
+lives. There are some men also: tidy old buffers, porters in greasy
+jackets, and equivocal-looking individuals in black silk hats, while the
+foot-path is overrun by a swarm of youngsters dragging toy carts without
+wheels about, filling pails with sand, and screaming and fighting;
+a dreadful crew, with ragged clothes and dirty noses, teeming in the
+sunshine like vermin.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget was so slight and thin that she always managed to
+insinuate herself into a place on one of the benches. She listened to
+what was being said, and started a conversation with her neighbour, some
+sallow-faced workingman's wife, who sat mending linen, from time to time
+producing handkerchiefs and stockings riddled with holes from a little
+basket patched up with string. Moreover, Mademoiselle Saget had
+plenty of acquaintances here. Amidst the excruciating squalling of
+the children, and the ceaseless rumble of the traffic in the Rue Saint
+Denis, she took part in no end of gossip, everlasting tales about the
+tradesmen of the neighbourhood, the grocers, the butchers, and the
+bakers, enough, indeed, to fill the columns of a local paper, and the
+whole envenomed by refusals of credit and covert envy, such as is always
+harboured by the poor. From these wretched creatures she also obtained
+the most disgusting revelations, the gossip of low lodging-houses and
+doorkeepers' black-holes, all the filthy scandal of the neighbourhood,
+which tickled her inquisitive appetite like hot spice.
+
+As she sat with her face turned towards the markets, she had immediately
+in front of her the square and its three blocks of houses, into the
+windows of which her eyes tried to pry. She seemed to gradually rise
+and traverse the successive floors right up to the garret skylights.
+She stared at the curtains; based an entire drama on the appearance of
+a head between two shutters; and, by simply gazing at the facades, ended
+by knowing the history of all the dwellers in these houses. The Baratte
+Restaurant, with its wine shop, its gilt wrought-iron _marquise_,
+forming a sort of terrace whence peeped the foliage of a few plants in
+flower-pots, and its four low storeys, all painted and decorated, had an
+especial interest for her. She gazed at its yellow columns standing
+out against a background of tender blue, at the whole of its imitation
+temple-front daubed on the facade of a decrepit, tumble-down house,
+crowned at the summit by a parapet of painted zinc. Behind the
+red-striped window-blinds she espied visions of nice little lunches,
+delicate suppers, and uproarious, unlimited orgies. And she did not
+hesitate to invent lies about the place. It was there, she declared,
+that Florent came to gorge with those two hussies, the Mehudins, on whom
+he lavished his money.
+
+However, Pauline cried yet louder than before when the old maid took
+hold of her hand. Mademoiselle Saget at first led her towards the gate
+of the square; but before she got there she seemed to change her mind;
+for she sat down at the end of a bench and tried to pacify the child.
+
+"Come, now, give over crying, or the policeman will lock you up," she
+said to Pauline. "I'll take you home safely. You know me, don't you? I'm
+a good friend. Come, come, let me see how prettily you can smile."
+
+The child, however, was choking with sobs and wanted to go away.
+Mademoiselle Saget thereupon quietly allowed her to continue weeping,
+reserving further remarks till she should have finished. The poor little
+creature was shivering all over; her petticoats and stockings were
+wet through, and as she wiped her tears away with her dirty hands she
+plastered the whole of her face with earth to the very tips of her
+ears. When at last she became a little calmer the old maid resumed in
+a caressing tone: "Your mamma isn't unkind, is she? She's very fond of
+you, isn't she?"
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed," replied Pauline, still sobbing.
+
+"And your papa, he's good to you, too, isn't he? He doesn't flog you, or
+quarrel with your mother, does he? What do they talk about when they go
+to bed?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. I'm asleep then."
+
+"Do they talk about your cousin Florent?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget thereupon assumed a severe expression, and got up as
+if about to go away.
+
+"I'm afraid you are a little story-teller," she said. "Don't you know
+that it's very wicked to tell stories? I shall go away and leave you, if
+you tell me lies, and then Muche will come back and pinch you."
+
+Pauline began to cry again at the threat of being abandoned. "Be quiet,
+be quiet, you wicked little imp!" cried the old maid shaking
+her. "There, there, now, I won't go away. I'll buy you a stick of
+barley-sugar; yes, a stick of barley-sugar! So you don't love your
+cousin Florent, eh?"
+
+"No, mamma says he isn't good."
+
+"Ah, then, so you see your mother does say something."
+
+"One night when I was in bed with Mouton--I sleep with Mouton sometimes,
+you know--I heard her say to father, 'Your brother has only escaped from
+the galleys to take us all back with him there.'"
+
+Mademoiselle Saget gave vent to a faint cry, and sprang to her feet,
+quivering all over. A ray of light had just broken upon her. Then
+without a word she caught hold of Pauline's hand and made her run till
+they reached the pork shop, her lips meanwhile compressed by an inward
+smile, and her eyes glistening with keen delight. At the corner of the
+Rue Pirouette, Muche, who had so far followed them, amused at seeing the
+girl running along in her muddy stockings, prudently disappeared.
+
+Lisa was now in a state of terrible alarm; and when she saw her daughter
+so bedraggled and limp, her consternation was such that she turned the
+child round and round, without even thinking of beating her.
+
+"She has been with little Muche," said the old maid, in her malicious
+voice. "I took her away at once, and I've brought her home. I found them
+together in the square. I don't know what they've been up to; but that
+young vagabond is capable of anything."
+
+Lisa could not find a word to say; and she did not know where to take
+hold of her daughter, so great was her disgust at the sight of the
+child's muddy boots, soiled stockings, torn skirts, and filthy face and
+hands. The blue velvet ribbon, the earrings, and the necklet were all
+concealed beneath a crust of mud. But what put the finishing touch to
+Lisa's exasperation was the discovery of the two pockets filled with
+mould. She stooped and emptied them, regardless of the pink and white
+flooring of the shop. And as she dragged Pauline away, she could only
+gasp: "Come along, you filthy thing!"
+
+Quite enlivened by this scene, Mademoiselle Saget now hurriedly made
+her way across the Rue Rambuteau. Her little feet scarcely touched the
+ground; her joy seemed to carry her along like a breeze which fanned her
+with a caressing touch. She had at last found out what she had so much
+wanted to know! For nearly a year she had been consumed by curiosity,
+and now at a single stroke she had gained complete power over Florent!
+This was unhoped-for contentment, positive salvation, for she felt that
+Florent would have brought her to the tomb had she failed much longer in
+satisfying her curiosity about him. At present she was complete mistress
+of the whole neighbourhood of the markets. There was no longer any gap
+in her information. She could have narrated the secret history of every
+street, shop by shop. And thus, as she entered the fruit market, she
+fairly gasped with delight, in a perfect transport of pleasure.
+
+"Hallo, Mademoiselle Saget," cried La Sarriette from her stall, "what
+are you smiling to yourself like that about? Have you won the grand
+prize in the lottery?"
+
+"No, no. Ah, my dear, if you only knew!"
+
+Standing there amidst her fruit, La Sarriette, in her picturesque
+disarray, looked charming. Frizzy hair fell over her brow like vine
+branches. Her bare arms and neck, indeed all the rosy flesh she showed,
+bloomed with the freshness of peach and cherry. She had playfully hung
+some cherries on her ears, black cherries which dangled against her
+cheeks when she stooped, shaking with merry laughter. She was eating
+currants, and her merriment arose from the way in which she was smearing
+her face with them. Her lips were bright red, glistening with the juice
+of the fruit, as though they had been painted and perfumed with some
+seraglio face-paint. A perfume of plum exhaled from her gown, while
+from the kerchief carelessly fastened across her breast came an odour of
+strawberries.
+
+Fruits of all kinds were piled around her in her narrow stall. On the
+shelves at the back were rows of melons, so-called "cantaloups" swarming
+with wart-like knots, "maraichers" whose skin was covered with grey
+lace-like netting, and "culs-de-singe" displaying smooth bare bumps. In
+front was an array of choice fruits, carefully arranged in baskets, and
+showing like smooth round cheeks seeking to hide themselves, or glimpses
+of sweet childish faces, half veiled by leaves. Especially was this the
+case with the peaches, the blushing peaches of Montreuil, with skin
+as delicate and clear as that of northern maidens, and the yellow,
+sun-burnt peaches from the south, brown like the damsels of Provence.
+The apricots, on their beds of moss, gleamed with the hue of amber or
+with that sunset glow which so warmly colours the necks of brunettes at
+the nape, just under the little wavy curls which fall below the chignon.
+The cherries, ranged one by one, resembled the short lips of smiling
+Chinese girls; the Montmorencies suggested the dumpy mouths of buxom
+women; the English ones were longer and graver-looking; the common black
+ones seemed as though they had been bruised and crushed by kisses; while
+the white-hearts, with their patches of rose and white, appeared to
+smile with mingled merriment and vexation. Then piles of apples
+and pears, built up with architectural symmetry, often in pyramids,
+displayed the ruddy glow of budding breasts and the gleaming sheen of
+shoulders, quite a show of nudity, lurking modestly behind a screen of
+fern-leaves. There were all sorts of varieties--little red ones so
+tiny that they seemed to be yet in the cradle, shapeless "rambours"
+for baking, "calvilles" in light yellow gowns, sanguineous-looking
+"Canadas," blotched "chataignier" apples, fair freckled rennets and
+dusky russets. Then came the pears--the "blanquettes," the "British
+queens," the "Beurres," the "messirejeans," and the "duchesses"--some
+dumpy, some long and tapering, some with slender necks, and others with
+thick-set shoulders, their green and yellow bellies picked out at times
+with a splotch of carmine. By the side of these the transparent plums
+resembled tender, chlorotic virgins; the greengages and the Orleans
+plums paled as with modest innocence, while the mirabelles lay like
+golden beads of a rosary forgotten in a box amongst sticks of
+vanilla. And the strawberries exhaled a sweet perfume--a perfume of
+youth--especially those little ones which are gathered in the woods, and
+which are far more aromatic than the large ones grown in gardens,
+for these breathe an insipid odour suggestive of the watering-pot.
+Raspberries added their fragrance to the pure scent. The currants--red,
+white, and black--smiled with a knowing air; whilst the heavy clusters
+of grapes, laden with intoxication, lay languorously at the edges
+of their wicker baskets, over the sides of which dangled some of the
+berries, scorched by the hot caresses of the voluptuous sun.
+
+It was there that La Sarriette lived in an orchard, as it were, in
+an atmosphere of sweet, intoxicating scents. The cheaper fruits--the
+cherries, plums, and strawberries--were piled up in front of her in
+paper-lined baskets, and the juice coming from their bruised ripeness
+stained the stall-front, and steamed, with a strong perfume, in the
+heat. She would feel quite giddy on those blazing July afternoons when
+the melons enveloped her with a powerful, vaporous odour of musk; and
+then with her loosened kerchief, fresh as she was with the springtide of
+life, she brought sudden temptation to all who saw her. It was she--it
+was her arms and necks which gave that semblance of amorous vitality
+to her fruit. On the stall next to her an old woman, a hideous old
+drunkard, displayed nothing but wrinkled apples, pears as flabby
+as herself, and cadaverous apricots of a witch-like sallowness. La
+Sarriette's stall, however, spoke of love and passion. The cherries
+looked like the red kisses of her bright lips; the silky peaches were
+not more delicate than her neck; to the plums she seemed to have lent
+the skin from her brow and chin; while some of her own crimson blood
+coursed through the veins of the currants. All the scents of the
+avenue of flowers behind her stall were but insipid beside the aroma of
+vitality which exhaled from her open baskets and falling kerchief.
+
+That day she was quite intoxicated by the scent of a large arrival of
+mirabelle plums, which filled the market. She could plainly see that
+Mademoiselle Saget had learnt some great piece of news, and she wished
+to make her talk. But the old maid stamped impatiently whilst she
+repeated: "No, no; I've no time. I'm in a great hurry to see Madame
+Lecoeur. I've just learnt something and no mistake. You can come with
+me, if you like."
+
+As a matter of fact, she had simply gone through the fruit market for
+the purpose of enticing La Sarriette to go with her. The girl could
+not refuse temptation. Monsieur Jules, clean-shaven and as fresh as a
+cherub, was seated there, swaying to and fro on his chair.
+
+"Just look after the stall for a minute, will you?" La Sarriette said to
+him. "I'll be back directly."
+
+Jules, however, got up and called after her, in a thick voice: "Not I;
+no fear! I'm off! I'm not going to wait an hour for you, as I did the
+other day. And, besides, those cursed plums of yours quite make my head
+ache."
+
+Then he calmly strolled off, with his hands in his pockets, and the
+stall was left to look after itself. Mademoiselle Saget went so fast
+that La Sarriette had to run. In the butter pavilion a neighbour of
+Madame Lecoeur's told them that she was below in the cellar; and so,
+whilst La Sarriette went down to find her, the old maid installed
+herself amidst the cheeses.
+
+The cellar under the butter market is a very gloomy spot. The rows of
+storerooms are protected by a very fine wire meshing, as a safeguard
+against fire; and the gas jets, which are very few and far between,
+glimmer like yellow splotches destitute of radiance in the heavy,
+malordorous atmosphere beneath the low vault. Madame Lecoeur, however,
+was at work on her butter at one of the tables placed parallel with the
+Rue Berger, and here a pale light filtered through the vent-holes. The
+tables, which are continually sluiced with a flood of water from the
+taps, are as white as though they were quite new. With her back turned
+to the pump in the rear, Madame Lecoeur was kneading her butter in a
+kind of oak box. She took some of different sorts which lay beside her,
+and mixed the varieties together, correcting one by another, just as is
+done in the blending of wines. Bent almost double, and showing sharp,
+bony shoulders, and arms bared to the elbows, as scraggy and knotted as
+pea-rods, she dug her fists into the greasy paste in front of her, which
+was assuming a whitish and chalky appearance. It was trying work, and
+she heaved a sigh at each fresh effort.
+
+"Mademoiselle Saget wants to speak to you, aunt," said La Sarriette.
+
+Madame Lecoeur stopped her work, and pulled her cap over her hair with
+her greasy fingers, seemingly quite careless of staining it. "I've
+nearly finished. Ask her to wait a moment," she said.
+
+"She's got something very particular to tell you," continued La
+Sarriette.
+
+"I won't be more than a minute, my dear."
+
+Then she again plunged her arms into the butter, which buried them up
+to the elbows. Previously softened in warm water, it covered Madame
+Lecoeur's parchment-like skin as with an oily film, and threw the big
+purple veins that streaked her flesh into strong relief. La Sarriette
+was quite disgusted by the sight of those hideous arms working so
+frantically amidst the melting mass. However, she could recall the time
+when her own pretty little hands had manipulated the butter for whole
+afternoons at a time. It had even been a sort of almond-paste to her,
+a cosmetic which had kept her skin white and her nails delicately pink;
+and even now her slender fingers retained the suppleness it had endowed
+them with.
+
+"I don't think that butter of yours will be very good, aunt," she
+continued, after a pause. "Some of the sorts seem much too strong."
+
+"I'm quite aware of that," replied Madame Lecoeur, between a couple of
+groans. "But what can I do? I must use everything up. There are some
+folks who insist upon having butter cheap, and so cheap butter must be
+made for them. Oh! it's always quite good enough for those who buy it."
+
+La Sarriette reflected that she would hardly care to eat butter which
+had been worked by her aunt's arms. Then she glanced at a little jar
+full of a sort of reddish dye. "Your colouring is too pale," she said.
+
+This colouring-matter--"raucourt," as the Parisians call it is used to
+give the butter a fine yellow tint. The butter women imagine that
+its composition is known only to themselves, and keep it very secret.
+However, it is merely made from anotta;[*] though a composition of
+carrots and marigold is at times substituted for it.
+
+     [*] Anotta, which is obtained from the pulp surrounding the
+     seeds of the _Bixa Orellana_, is used for a good many
+     purposes besides the colouring of butter and cheese. It
+     frequently enters into the composition of chocolate, and is
+     employed to dye nankeen. Police court proceedings have also
+     shown that it is well known to the London milkmen, who are
+     in the habit of adding water to their merchandise.
+     --Translator.
+
+"Come, do be quick!" La Sarriette now exclaimed, for she was getting
+impatient, and was, moreover, no longer accustomed to the malodorous
+atmosphere of the cellar. "Mademoiselle Saget will be going. I fancy
+she's got something very important to tell you abut my uncle Gavard."
+
+On hearing this, Madame Lecoeur abruptly ceased working. She at once
+abandoned both butter and dye, and did not even wait to wipe her arms.
+With a slight tap of her hand she settled her cap on her head again, and
+made her way up the steps, at her niece's heels, anxiously repeating:
+"Do you really think that she'll have gone away?"
+
+She was reassured, however, on catching sight of Mademoiselle Saget
+amidst the cheeses. The old maid had taken good care not to go away
+before Madame Lecoeur's arrival. The three women seated themselves at
+the far end of the stall, crowding closely together, and their faces
+almost touching one another. Mademoiselle Saget remained silent for
+two long minutes, and then, seeing that the others were burning with
+curiosity, she began, in her shrill voice: "You know that Florent! Well,
+I can tell you now where he comes from."
+
+For another moment she kept them in suspense; and then, in a deep,
+melodramatic voice, she said: "He comes from the galleys!"
+
+The cheeses were reeking around the three women. On the two shelves at
+the far end of the stall were huge masses of butter: Brittany butters
+overflowing from baskets; Normandy butters, wrapped in canvas, and
+resembling models of stomachs over which some sculptor had thrown damp
+cloths to keep them from drying; while other great blocks had been cut
+into, fashioned into perpendicular rocky masses full of crevasses and
+valleys, and resembling fallen mountain crests gilded by the pale sun of
+an autumn evening.
+
+Beneath the stall show-table, formed of a slab of red marble veined with
+grey, baskets of eggs gleamed with a chalky whiteness; while on layers
+of straw in boxes were Bondons, placed end to end, and Gournays,
+arranged like medals, forming darker patches tinted with green. But
+it was upon the table that the cheeses appeared in greatest profusion.
+Here, by the side of the pound-rolls of butter lying on white-beet
+leaves, spread a gigantic Cantal cheese, cloven here and there as by an
+axe; then came a golden-hued Cheshire, and next a Gruyere, resembling
+a wheel fallen from some barbarian chariot; whilst farther on were some
+Dutch cheeses, suggesting decapitated heads suffused with dry blood, and
+having all that hardness of skulls which in France has gained them
+the name of "death's heads." Amidst the heavy exhalations of these, a
+Parmesan set a spicy aroma. Then there came three Brie cheeses displayed
+on round platters, and looking like melancholy extinct moons. Two of
+them, very dry, were at the full; the third, in its second quarter, was
+melting away in a white cream, which had spread into a pool and flowed
+over the little wooden barriers with which an attempt had been made to
+arrest its course. Next came some Port Saluts, similar to antique discs,
+with exergues bearing their makers' names in print. A Romantour, in its
+tin-foil wrapper, suggested a bar of nougat or some sweet cheese astray
+amidst all these pungent, fermenting curds. The Roqueforts under their
+glass covers also had a princely air, their fat faces marbled with blue
+and yellow, as though they were suffering from some unpleasant malady
+such as attacks the wealthy gluttons who eat too many truffles. And on a
+dish by the side of these, the hard grey goats' milk cheeses, about the
+size of a child's fist, resembled the pebbles which the billy-goats
+send rolling down the stony paths as they clamber along ahead of their
+flocks. Next came the strong smelling cheeses: the Mont d'Ors, of a
+bright yellow hue, and exhaling a comparatively mild odour; the Troyes,
+very thick, and bruised at the edges, and of a far more pungent smell,
+recalling the dampness of a cellar; the Camemberts, suggestive of high
+game; the square Neufchatels, Limbourgs, Marolles, and Pont l'Eveques,
+each adding its own particular sharp scent to the malodorous bouquet,
+till it became perfectly pestilential; the Livarots, ruddy in hue, and
+as irritating to the throat as sulphur fumes; and, lastly, stronger than
+all the others, the Olivets, wrapped in walnut leaves, like the carrion
+which peasants cover with branches as it lies rotting in the hedgerow
+under the blazing sun.
+
+The heat of the afternoon had softened the cheeses; the patches of mould
+on their crusts were melting, and glistening with tints of ruddy bronze
+and verdigris. Beneath their cover of leaves, the skins of the Olivets
+seemed to be heaving as with the slow, deep respiration of a sleeping
+man. A Livarot was swarming with life; and in a fragile box behind the
+scales a Gerome flavoured with aniseed diffused such a pestilential
+smell that all around it the very flies had fallen lifeless on the
+gray-veined slap of ruddy marble.
+
+This Gerome was almost immediately under Mademoiselle Saget's nose; so
+she drew back, and leaned her head against the big sheets of white and
+yellow paper which were hanging in a corner.
+
+"Yes," she repeated, with an expression of disgust, "he comes from the
+galleys! Ah, those Quenu-Gradelles have no reason to put on so many
+airs!"
+
+Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette, however, had burst into exclamations of
+astonishment: "It wasn't possible, surely! What had he done to be sent
+to the galleys? Could anyone, now, have ever suspected that Madame
+Quenu, whose virtue was the pride of the whole neighbourhood, would
+choose a convict for a lover?"
+
+"Ah, but you don't understand at all!" cried the old maid impatiently.
+"Just listen, now, while I explain things. I was quite certain that I
+had seen that great lanky fellow somewhere before."
+
+Then she proceeded to tell them Florent's story. She had recalled to
+mind a vague report which had circulated of a nephew of old Gradelle
+being transported to Cayenne for murdering six gendarmes at a barricade.
+She had even seen this nephew on one occasion in the Rue Pirouette. The
+pretended cousin was undoubtedly the same man. Then she began to bemoan
+her waning powers. Her memory was quite going, she said; she would soon
+be unable to remember anything. And she bewailed her perishing memory
+as bitterly as any learned man might bewail the loss of his notes
+representing the work of a life-time, on seeing them swept away by a
+gust of wind.
+
+"Six gendarmes!" murmured La Sarriette, admiringly; "he must have a very
+heavy fist!"
+
+"And he's made away with plenty of others, as well," added Mademoiselle
+Saget. "I shouldn't advise you to meet him at night!"
+
+"What a villain!" stammered out Madame Lecoeur, quite terrified.
+
+The slanting beams of the sinking sun were now enfilading the pavilion,
+and the odour of the cheeses became stronger than ever. That of the
+Marolles seemed to predominate, borne hither and thither in powerful
+whiffs. Then, however, the wind appeared to change, and suddenly the
+emanations of the Limbourgs were wafted towards the three women, pungent
+and bitter, like the last gasps of a dying man.
+
+"But in that case," resumed Madame Lecoeur, "he must be fat Lisa's
+brother-in-law. And we thought that he was her lover!"
+
+The women exchanged glances. This aspect of the case took them by
+surprise. They were loth to give up their first theory. However, La
+Sarriette, turning to Mademoiselle Saget, remarked: "That must have been
+all wrong. Besides, you yourself say that he's always running after the
+two Mehudin girls."
+
+"Certainly he is," exclaimed Mademoiselle Saget sharply, fancying that
+her word was doubted. "He dangles about them every evening. But, after
+all, it's no concern of ours, is it? We are virtuous women, and what he
+does makes no difference to us, the horrid scoundrel!"
+
+"No, certainly not," agreed the other two. "He's a consummate villain."
+
+The affair was becoming tragical. Of course beautiful Lisa was now
+out of the question, but for this they found ample consolation in
+prophesying that Florent would bring about some frightful catastrophe.
+It was quite clear, they said, that he had got some base design in
+his head. When people like him escaped from gaol it was only to burn
+everything down; and if he had come to the markets it must assuredly be
+for some abominable purpose. Then they began to indulge in the wildest
+suppositions. The two dealers declared that they would put additional
+padlocks to the doors of their storerooms; and La Sarriette called
+to mind that a basket of peaches had been stolen from her during the
+previous week. Mademoiselle Saget, however, quite frightened the two
+others by informing them that that was not the way in which the Reds
+behaved; they despised such trifles as baskets of peaches; their plan
+was to band themselves together in companies of two or three hundred,
+kill everybody they came across, and then plunder and pillage at their
+ease. That was "politics," she said, with the superior air of one who
+knew what she was talking about. Madame Lecoeur felt quite ill. She
+already saw Florent and his accomplices hiding in the cellars, and
+rushing out during the night to set the markets in flames and sack
+Paris.
+
+"Ah! by the way," suddenly exclaimed the old maid, "now I think of it,
+there's all that money of old Gradelle's! Dear me, dear me, those Quenus
+can't be at all at their ease!"
+
+She now looked quite gay again. The conversation took a fresh turn, and
+the others fell foul of the Quenus when Mademoiselle Saget had told them
+the history of the treasure discovered in the salting-tub, with every
+particular of which she was acquainted. She was even able to inform
+them of the exact amount of the money found--eighty-five thousand
+francs--though neither Lisa nor Quenu was aware of having revealed this
+to a living soul. However, it was clear that the Quenus had not given
+the great lanky fellow his share. He was too shabbily dressed for
+that. Perhaps he had never even heard of the discovery of the treasure.
+Plainly enough, they were all thieves in his family. Then the three
+women bent their heads together and spoke in lower tones. They were
+unanimously of opinion that it might perhaps be dangerous to attack the
+beautiful Lisa, but it was decidedly necessary that they should settle
+the Red Republican's hash, so that he might no longer prey upon the
+purse of poor Monsieur Gavard.
+
+At the mention of Gavard there came a pause. The gossips looked at
+each other with a circumspect air. And then, as they drew breath, they
+inhaled the odour of the Camemberts, whose gamy scent had overpowered
+the less penetrating emanations of the Marolles and the Limbourgs, and
+spread around with remarkable power. Every now and then, however, a
+slight whiff, a flutelike note, came from the Parmesan, while the Bries
+contributed a soft, musty scent, the gentle, insipid sound, as it were,
+of damp tambourines. Next followed an overpowering refrain from the
+Livarots, and afterwards the Gerome, flavoured with aniseed, kept up the
+symphony with a high prolonged note, like that of a vocalist during a
+pause in the accompaniment.
+
+"I have seen Madame Leonce," Mademoiselle Saget at last continued, with
+a significant expression.
+
+At this the two others became extremely attentive. Madame Leonce was the
+doorkeeper of the house where Gavard lived in the Rue de la Cossonnerie.
+It was an old house standing back, with its ground floor occupied by an
+importer of oranges and lemons, who had had the frontage coloured blue
+as high as the first floor. Madame Leonce acted as Gavard's housekeeper,
+kept the keys of his cupboards and closets, and brought him up tisane
+when he happened to catch cold. She was a severe-looking woman, between
+fifty and sixty years of age, and spoke slowly, but at endless length.
+Mademoiselle Saget, who went to drink coffee with her every Wednesday
+evening, had cultivated her friendship more closely than ever since the
+poultry dealer had gone to lodge in the house. They would talk about
+the worthy man for hours at a time. They both professed the greatest
+affection for him, and a keen desire to ensure his comfort and
+happiness.
+
+"Yes, I have seen Madame Leonce," repeated the old maid. "We had a cup
+of coffee together last night. She was greatly worried. It seems that
+Monsieur Gavard never comes home now before one o'clock in the morning.
+Last Sunday she took him up some broth, as she thought he looked quite
+ill."
+
+"Oh, she knows very well what she's about," exclaimed Madame Lecoeur,
+whom these attentions to Gavard somewhat alarmed.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget felt bound to defend her friend. "Oh, really, you are
+quite mistaken," said she. "Madame Leonce is much above her position;
+she is quite a lady. If she wanted to enrich herself at Monsieur
+Gavard's expense, she might easily have done so long ago. It seems that
+he leaves everything lying about in the most careless fashion. It's
+about that, indeed, that I want to speak to you. But you'll not repeat
+anything I say, will you? I am telling it you in strict confidence."
+
+Both the others swore that they would never breathe a word of what they
+might hear; and they craned out their necks with eager curiosity, whilst
+the old maid solemnly resumed: "Well, then, Monsieur Gavard has been
+behaving very strangely of late. He has been buying firearms--a great
+big pistol--one of those which revolve, you know. Madame Leonce says
+that things are awful, for this pistol is always lying about on the
+table or the mantelpiece; and she daren't dust anywhere near it. But
+that isn't all. His money--"
+
+"His money!" echoed Madame Lecoeur, with blazing cheeks.
+
+"Well, he's disposed of all his stocks and shares. He's sold everything,
+and keeps a great heap of gold in a cupboard."
+
+"A heap of gold!" exclaimed La Sarriette in ecstasy.
+
+"Yes, a great heap of gold. It covers a whole shelf, and is quite
+dazzling. Madame Leonce told me that one morning Gavard opened the
+cupboard in her presence, and that the money quite blinded her, it shone
+so."
+
+There was another pause. The eyes of the three women were blinking as
+though the dazzling pile of gold was before them. Presently La Sarriette
+began to laugh.
+
+"What a jolly time I would have with Jules if my uncle would give that
+money to me!" said she.
+
+Madame Lecoeur, however, seemed quite overwhelmed by this revelation,
+crushed beneath the weight of the gold which she could not banish from
+her sight. Covetous envy thrilled her. But at last, raising her skinny
+arms and shrivelled hands, her finger-nails still stuffed with butter,
+she stammered in a voice full of bitter distress: "Oh, I mustn't think
+of it! It's too dreadful!"
+
+"Well, it would all be yours, you know, if anything were to happen to
+Monsieur Gavard," retorted Mademoiselle Saget. "If I were in your place,
+I would look after my interests. That revolver means nothing good,
+you may depend upon it. Monsieur Gavard has got into the hands of evil
+counsellors; and I'm afraid it will all end badly."
+
+Then the conversation again turned upon Florent. The three women
+assailed him more violently than ever. And afterwards, with perfect
+composure, they began to discuss what would be the result of all these
+dark goings-on so far as he and Gavard were concerned; certainly it
+would be no pleasant one if there was any gossiping. And thereupon they
+swore that they themselves would never repeat a word of what they knew;
+not, however, because that scoundrel Florent merited any consideration,
+but because it was necessary, at all costs, to save that worthy Monsieur
+Gavard from being compromised. Then they rose from their seats, and
+Mademoiselle Saget was burning as if to go away when the butter dealer
+asked her: "All the same, in case of accident, do you think that Madame
+Leonce can be trusted? I dare say she has the key of the cupboard."
+
+"Well, that's more than I can tell you," replied the old maid. "I
+believe she's a very honest woman; but, after all, there's no telling.
+There are circumstances, you know, which tempt the best of people.
+Anyhow, I've warned you both; and you must do what you think proper."
+
+As the three women stood there, taking leave of each other, the odour
+of the cheeses seemed to become more pestilential than ever. It was a
+cacophony of smells, ranging from the heavily oppressive odour of the
+Dutch cheeses and the Gruyeres to the alkaline pungency of the Olivets.
+From the Cantal, the Cheshire, and the goats' milk cheeses there seemed
+to come a deep breath like the sound of a bassoon, amidst which the
+sharp, sudden whiffs of the Neufchatels, the Troyes, and the Mont
+d'Ors contributed short, detached notes. And then the different odours
+appeared to mingle one with another, the reek of the Limbourgs, the Port
+Saluts, the Geromes, the Marolles, the Livarots, and the Pont l'Eveques
+uniting in one general, overpowering stench sufficient to provoke
+asphyxia. And yet it almost seemed as though it were not the cheeses but
+the vile words of Madame Lecoeur and Mademoiselle Saget that diffused
+this awful odour.
+
+"I'm very much obliged to you, indeed I am," said the butter dealer. "If
+ever I get rich, you shall not find yourself forgotten."
+
+The old maid still lingered in the stall. Taking up a Bondon, she turned
+it round, and put it down on the slab again. Then she asked its price.
+
+"To me!" she added, with a smile.
+
+"Oh, nothing to you," replied Madame Lecoeur. "I'll make you a present
+of it." And again she exclaimed: "Ah, if I were only rich!"
+
+Mademoiselle Saget thereupon told her that some day or other she would
+be rich. The Bondon had already disappeared within the old maid's bag.
+And now the butter dealer returned to the cellar, while Mademoiselle
+Saget escorted La Sarriette back to her stall. On reaching it they
+talked for a moment or two about Monsieur Jules. The fruits around them
+diffused a fresh scent of summer.
+
+"It smells much nicer here than at your aunt's," said the old maid. "I
+felt quite ill a little time ago. I can't think how she manages to exist
+there. But here it's very sweet and pleasant. It makes you look quite
+rosy, my dear."
+
+La Sarriette began to laugh, for she was fond of compliments. Then she
+served a lady with a pound of mirabelle plums, telling her that they
+were as sweet as sugar.
+
+"I should like to buy some of those mirabelles too," murmured
+Mademoiselle Saget, when the lady had gone away; "only I want so few. A
+lone woman, you know."
+
+"Take a handful of them," exclaimed the pretty brunette. "That won't
+ruin me. Send Jules back to me if you see him, will you? You'll most
+likely find him smoking his cigar on the first bench to the right as you
+turn out of the covered way."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget distended her fingers as widely as possible in order
+to take a handful of mirabelles, which joined the Bondon in the bag.
+Then she pretended to leave the market, but in reality made a detour by
+one of the covered ways, thinking, as she walked slowly along, that the
+mirabelles and Bondon would not make a very substantial dinner. When she
+was unable, during her afternoon perambulations, to wheedle stallkeepers
+into filling her bag for her, she was reduced to dining off the merest
+scraps. So she now slyly made her way back to the butter pavilions,
+where, on the side of the Rue Berger, at the back of the offices of the
+oyster salesmen, there were some stalls at which cooked meat was
+sold. Every morning little closed box-like carts, lined with zinc and
+furnished with ventilators, drew up in front of the larger Parisian
+kitchens and carried away the leavings of the restaurants, the
+embassies, and State Ministries. These leavings were conveyed to the
+market cellars and there sorted. By nine o'clock plates of food were
+displayed for sale at prices ranging from three to five sous, their
+contents comprising slices of meat, scraps of game, heads and tails of
+fishes, bits of galantine, stray vegetables, and, by way of dessert,
+cakes scarcely cut into, and other confectionery. Poor starving
+wretches, scantily-paid clerks, and women shivering with fever were
+to be seen crowding around, and the street lads occasionally amused
+themselves by hooting the pale-faced individuals, known to be misers,
+who only made their purchases after slyly glancing about them to see
+that they were not observed.[*] Mademoiselle Saget wriggled her way to
+a stall, the keeper of which boasted that the scraps she sold came
+exclusively from the Tuileries. One day, indeed, she had induced the old
+maid to buy a slice of leg of mutton by informing that it had come from
+the plate of the Emperor himself; and this slice of mutton, eaten with
+no little pride, had been a soothing consolation to Mademoiselle Saget's
+vanity. The wariness of her approach to the stall was, moreover, solely
+caused by her desire to keep well with the neighbouring shop people,
+whose premises she was eternally haunting without ever buying anything.
+Her usual tactics were to quarrel with them as soon as she had managed
+to learn their histories, when she would bestow her patronage upon a
+fresh set, desert it in due course, and then gradually make friends
+again with those with whom she had quarrelled. In this way she made the
+complete circuit of the market neighbourhood, ferreting about in every
+shop and stall. Anyone would have imagined that she consumed an enormous
+amount of provisions, whereas, in point of fact, she lived solely upon
+presents and the few scraps which she was compelled to buy when people
+were not in the giving vein.
+
+     [*] The dealers in these scraps are called _bijoutiers_, or
+     jewellers, whilst the scraps themselves are known as
+     _harlequins_, the idea being that they are of all colours
+     and shapes when mingled together, thus suggesting
+     harlequin's variegated attire.--Translator.
+
+On that particular evening there was only a tall old man standing in
+front of the stall. He was sniffing at a plate containing a mixture
+of meat and fish. Mademoiselle Saget, in her turn, began to sniff at a
+plate of cold fried fish. The price of it was three sous, but, by dint
+of bargaining, she got it for two. The cold fish then vanished into the
+bag. Other customers now arrived, and with a uniform impulse lowered
+their noses over the plates. The smell of the stall was very disgusting,
+suggestive alike of greasy dishes and a dirty sink.[*]
+
+     [*] Particulars of the strange and repulsive trade in
+     harlequins, which even nowadays is not extinct, will be
+     found in Privat d'Anglemont's well-known book _Paris
+     Anecdote_, written at the very period with which M. Zola
+     deals in the present work. My father, Henry Vizetelly, also
+     gave some account of it in his _Glances Back through Seventy
+     Years_, in a chapter describing the odd ways in which
+     certain Parisians contrive to get a living.--Translator.
+
+"Come and see me to-morrow," the stallkeeper called out to the old maid,
+"and I'll put something nice on one side for you. There's going to be a
+grand dinner at the Tuileries to-night."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget was just promising to come, when, happening to turn
+round, she discovered Gavard looking at her and listening to what she
+was saying. She turned very red, and, contracting her skinny shoulders,
+hurried away, affecting not to recognise him. Gavard, however, followed
+her for a few yards, shrugging his shoulders and muttering to himself
+that he was no longer surprised at the old shrew's malice, now he
+knew that "she poisoned herself with the filth carted away from the
+Tuileries."
+
+On the very next morning vague rumours began to circulate in the
+markets. Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette were in their own fashion
+keeping the oaths of silence they had taken. For her own part,
+Mademoiselle Saget warily held her tongue, leaving the two others to
+circulate the story of Florent's antecedents. At first only a few meagre
+details were hawked about in low tones; then various versions of the
+facts got into circulation, incidents were exaggerated, and gradually
+quite a legend was constructed, in which Florent played the part of a
+perfect bogey man. He had killed ten gendarmes at the barricade in the
+Rue Greneta, said some; he had returned to France on a pirate ship whose
+crew scoured the seas to murder everyone they came across, said others;
+whilst a third set declared that ever since his arrival he had been
+observed prowling about at nighttime with suspicious-looking characters,
+of whom he was undoubtedly the leader. Soon the imaginative market
+women indulged in the highest flights of fancy, revelled in the most
+melodramatic ideas. There was talk of a band of smugglers plying their
+nefarious calling in the very heart of Paris, and of a vast central
+association formed for systematically robbing the stalls in the markets.
+Much pity was expressed for the Quenu-Gradelles, mingled with malicious
+allusions to their uncle's fortune. That fortune was an endless subject
+of discussion. The general opinion was that Florent had returned
+to claim his share of the treasure; however, as no good reason was
+forthcoming to explain why the division had not taken place already, it
+was asserted that Florent was waiting for some opportunity which
+might enable him to pocket the whole amount. The Quenu-Gradelles would
+certainly be found murdered some morning, it was said; and a rumour
+spread that dreadful quarrels already took place every night between the
+two brothers and beautiful Lisa.
+
+When these stories reached the ears of the beautiful Norman, she
+shrugged her shoulders and burst out laughing.
+
+"Get away with you!" she cried, "you don't know him. Why, the dear
+fellow's as gentle as a lamb."
+
+She had recently refused the hand of Monsieur Lebigre, who had at last
+ventured upon a formal proposal. For two months past he had given the
+Mehudins a bottle of some liqueur every Sunday. It was Rose who brought
+it, and she was always charged with a compliment for La Normande, some
+pretty speech which she faithfully repeated, without appearing in the
+slightest degree embarrassed by the peculiar commission. When Monsieur
+Lebigre was rejected, he did not pine, but to show that he took no
+offence and was still hopeful, he sent Rose on the following Sunday with
+two bottles of champagne and a large bunch of flowers. She gave them
+into the handsome fish-girl's own hands, repeating, as she did so, the
+wine dealer's prose madrigal:
+
+"Monsieur Lebigre begs you to drink this to his health, which has been
+greatly shaken by you know what. He hopes that you will one day be
+willing to cure him, by being for him as pretty and as sweet as these
+flowers."
+
+La Normande was much amused by the servant's delighted air. She kissed
+her as she spoke to her of her master, and asked her if he wore braces,
+and snored at nights. Then she made her take the champagne and flowers
+back with her. "Tell Monsieur Lebigre," said she, "that he's not to send
+you here again. It quite vexes me to see you coming here so meekly, with
+your bottles under your arms."
+
+"Oh, he wishes me to come," replied Rose, as she went away. "It is wrong
+of you to distress him. He is a very handsome man."
+
+La Normande, however, was quite conquered by Florent's affectionate
+nature. She continued to follow Muche's lessons of an evening in the
+lamplight, indulging the while in a dream of marrying this man who was
+so kind to children. She would still keep her fish stall, while he would
+doubtless rise to a position of importance in the administrative staff
+of the markets. This dream of hers, however, was scarcely furthered by
+the tutor's respectful bearing towards her. He bowed to her, and kept
+himself at a distance, when she have liked to laugh with him, and love
+him as she knew how to love. But it was just this covert resistance
+on Florent's part which continually brought her back to the dream of
+marrying him. She realised that he lived in a loftier sphere than her
+own; and by becoming his wife she imagined that her vanity would reap no
+little satisfaction.
+
+She was greatly surprised when she learned the history of the man she
+loved. He had never mentioned a word of those things to her; and she
+scolded him about it. His extraordinary adventures only increased her
+tenderness for him, and for evenings together she made him relate all
+that had befallen him. She trembled with fear lest the police should
+discover him; but he reassured her, saying that the matter was now too
+old for the police to trouble their heads about it. One evening he told
+her of the woman on the Boulevard Montmartre, the woman in the pink
+bonnet, whose blood had dyed his hands. He still frequently thought of
+that poor creature. His anguish-stricken mind had often dwelt upon her
+during the clear nights he had passed in Cayenne; and he had returned
+to France with a wild dream of meeting her again on some footway in the
+bright sunshine, even though he could still feel her corpse-like weight
+across his legs. And yet, he thought, she might perhaps have recovered.
+At times he received quite a shock while he was walking through the
+streets, on fancying that he recognised her; and he followed pink
+bonnets and shawl-draped shoulders with a wildly beating heart. When he
+closed his eyes he could see her walking, and advancing towards him;
+but she let her shawl slip down, showing the two red stains on her
+chemisette; and then he saw that her face was pale as wax, and that
+her eyes were blank, and her lips distorted by pain. For a long time he
+suffered from not knowing her name, from being forced to look upon her
+as a mere shadow, whose recollection filled him with sorrow. Whenever
+any idea of woman crossed his mind it was always she that rose up before
+him, as the one pure, tender wife. He often found himself fancying that
+she might be looking for him on that boulevard where she had fallen
+dead, and that if she had met him a few seconds sooner she would have
+given him a life of joy. And he wished for no other wife; none other
+existed for him. When he spoke of her, his voice trembled to such a
+degree that La Normande, her wits quickened by her love, guessed his
+secret, and felt jealous.
+
+"Oh, it's really much better that you shouldn't see her again," she said
+maliciously. "She can't look particularly nice by this time."
+
+Florent turned pale with horror at the vision which these words evoked.
+His love was rotting in her grave. He could not forgive La Normande's
+savage cruelty, which henceforth made him see the grinning jaws and
+hollow eyes of a skeleton within that lovely pink bonnet. Whenever the
+fish-girl tried to joke with him on the subject he turned quite angry,
+and silenced her with almost coarse language.
+
+That, however, which especially surprised the beautiful Norman in
+these revelations was the discovery that she had been quite mistaken in
+supposing that she was enticing a lover away from handsome Lisa. This
+so diminished her feeling of triumph, that for a week or so her love
+for Florent abated. She consoled herself, however, with the story of the
+inheritance, no longer calling Lisa a strait-laced prude, but a thief
+who kept back her brother-in-law's money, and assumed sanctimonious airs
+to deceive people. Every evening, while Muche took his writing lesson,
+the conversation turned upon old Gradelle's treasure.
+
+"Did anyone ever hear of such an idea?" the fish-girl would exclaim,
+with a laugh. "Did the old man want to salt his money, since he put
+it in a salting-tub? Eighty-five thousand francs! That's a nice sum
+of money! And, besides, the Quenus, no doubt, lied about it--there
+was perhaps two or three times as much. Ah, if I were in your place, I
+shouldn't lose any time about claiming my share; indeed I shouldn't."
+
+"I've no need of anything," was Florent's invariable answer. "I
+shouldn't know what to do with the money if I had it."
+
+"Oh, you're no man!" cried La Normande, losing all control over herself.
+"It's pitiful! Can't you see that the Quenus are laughing at you? That
+great fat thing passes all her husband's old clothes over to you. I'm
+not saying this to hurt your feelings, but everybody makes remarks about
+it. Why, the whole neighbourhood has seen the greasy pair of trousers,
+which you're now wearing, on your brother's legs for three years and
+more! If I were in your place I'd throw their dirty rags in their faces,
+and insist upon my rights. Your share comes to forty-two thousand five
+hundred francs, doesn't it? Well, I shouldn't go out of the place till
+I'd got forty-two thousand five hundred francs."
+
+It was useless for Florent to explain to her that his sister-in-law had
+offered to pay him his share, that she was taking care of it for him,
+and that it was he himself who had refused to receive it. He entered
+into the most minute particulars, seeking to convince her of the Quenus'
+honesty, but she sarcastically replied: "Oh, yes, I dare say! I know all
+about their honesty. That fat thing folds it up every morning and puts
+it away in her wardrobe for fear it should get soiled. Really, I quite
+pity you, my poor friend. It's easy to gull you, for you can't see any
+further than a child of five. One of these days she'll simply put your
+money in her pocket, and you'll never look on it again. Shall I go, now,
+and claim your share for you, just to see what she says? There'd be
+some fine fun, I can tell you! I'd either have the money, or I'd break
+everything in the house--I swear I would!"
+
+"No, no, it's no business of yours," Florent replied, quite alarmed.
+"I'll see about it; I may possibly be wanting some money soon."
+
+At this La Normande assumed an air of doubt, shrugged her shoulders, and
+told him that he was really too chicken-hearted. Her one great aim now
+was to embroil him with the Quenu-Gradelles, and she employed every
+means she could think of to effect her purpose, both anger and banter,
+as well as affectionate tenderness. She also cherished another design.
+When she had succeeded in marrying Florent, she would go and administer
+a sound cuffing to beautiful Lisa, if the latter did not yield up the
+money. As she lay awake in her bed at night she pictured every detail of
+the scene. She saw herself sitting down in the middle of the pork shop
+in the busiest part of the day, and making a terrible fuss. She brooded
+over this idea to such an extent, it obtained such a hold upon her, that
+she would have been willing to marry Florent simply in order to be able
+to go and demand old Gradelle's forty-two thousand five hundred francs.
+
+Old Madame Mehudin, exasperated by La Normande's dismissal of Monsieur
+Lebigre, proclaimed everywhere that her daughter was mad, and that the
+"long spindle-shanks" must have administered some insidious drug to her.
+When she learned the Cayenne story, her anger was terrible. She called
+Florent a convict and murderer, and said it was no wonder that his
+villainy had kept him lank and flat. Her versions of Florent's biography
+were the most horrible of all that were circulated in the neighbourhood.
+At home she kept a moderately quiet tongue in her head, and restricted
+herself to muttered indignation, and a show of locking up the drawer
+where the silver was kept whenever Florent arrived. One day, however,
+after a quarrel with her elder daughter, she exclaimed:
+
+"Things can't go on much longer like this! It is that vile man who is
+setting you against me. Take care that you don't try me too far, or I'll
+go and denounce him to the police. I will, as true as I stand here!"
+
+"You'll denounce him!" echoed La Normande, trembling violently,
+and clenching her fists. "You'd better not! Ah, if you weren't my
+mother----"
+
+At this, Claire, who was a spectator of the quarrel, began to laugh,
+with a nervous laughter that seemed to rasp her throat. For some time
+past she had been gloomier and more erratic than ever, invariably
+showing red eyes and a pale face.
+
+"Well, what would you do?" she asked. "Would you give her a cuffing?
+Perhaps you'd like to give me, your sister, one as well? I dare say it
+will end in that. But I'll clear the house of him. I'll go to the police
+to save mother the trouble."
+
+Then, as La Normande almost choked with the angry threats that rose
+to her throat, the younger girl added: "I'll spare you the exertion of
+beating me. I'll throw myself into the river as I come back over the
+bridge."
+
+Big tears were streaming from her eyes; and she rushed off to her
+bedroom, banging the doors violently behind her. Old Madame Mehudin said
+nothing more about denouncing Florent. Muche, however, told La Normande
+that he met his grandma talking with Monsieur Lebigre in every corner of
+the neighbourhood.
+
+The rivalry between the beautiful Norman and the beautiful Lisa
+now assumed a less aggressive but more disturbing character. In the
+afternoon, when the red-striped canvas awning was drawn down in front
+of the pork shop, the fish-girl would remark that the big fat thing felt
+afraid, and was concealing herself. She was also much exasperated by
+the occasional lowering of the window-blind, on which was pictured
+a hunting-breakfast in a forest glade, with ladies and gentlemen in
+evening dress partaking of a red pasty, as big as themselves, on the
+yellow grass.
+
+Beautiful Lisa, however, was by no means afraid. As soon as the sun
+began to sink she drew up the blind; and, as she sat knitting behind her
+counter, she serenely scanned the market square, where numerous urchins
+were poking about in the soil under the gratings which protected the
+roots of the plane-trees, while porters smoked their pipes on the
+benches along the footway, at either end of which was an advertisement
+column covered with theatrical posters, alternately green, yellow, red,
+and blue, like some harlequin's costume. And while pretending to watch
+the passing vehicles, Lisa would really be scrutinising the beautiful
+Norman. She might occasionally be seen bending forward, as though her
+eyes were following the Bastille and Place Wagram omnibus to the Pointe
+Saint Eustache, where it always stopped for a time. But this was only a
+manoeuvre to enable her to get a better view of the fish-girl, who, as
+a set-off against the blind, retorted by covering her head and fish with
+large sheets of brown paper, on the pretext of warding off the rays of
+the setting sun. The advantage at present was on Lisa's side, for as
+the time for striking the decisive blow approached she manifested the
+calmest serenity of bearing, whereas her rival, in spite of all her
+efforts to attain the same air of distinction, always lapsed into some
+piece of gross vulgarity, which she afterwards regretted. La Normande's
+ambition was to look "like a lady." Nothing irritated her more than to
+hear people extolling the good manners of her rival. This weak point
+of hers had not escaped old Madame Mehudin's observation, and she now
+directed all her attacks upon it.
+
+"I saw Madame Quenu standing at her door this evening," she would
+say sometimes. "It is quite amazing how well she wears. And she's so
+refined-looking, too; quite the lady, indeed. It's the counter that does
+it, I'm sure. A fine counter gives a woman such a respectable look."
+
+In this remark there was a veiled allusion to Monsieur Lebigre's
+proposal. The beautiful Norman would make no reply; but for a moment or
+two she would seem deep in thought. In her mind's eye she saw herself
+behind the counter of the wine shop at the other corner of the street,
+forming a pendent, as it were, to beautiful Lisa. It was this that first
+shook her love for Florent.
+
+To tell the truth, it was now becoming a very difficult thing to defend
+Florent. The whole neighbourhood was in arms against him; it seemed as
+though everyone had an immediate interest in exterminating him. Some of
+the market people swore that he had sold himself to the police; while
+others asserted that he had been seen in the butter-cellar, attempting
+to make holes in the wire grating, with the intention of tossing lighted
+matches through them. There was a vast increase of slander, a perfect
+flood of abuse, the source of which could not be exactly determined.
+The fish pavilion was the last one to join in the revolt against the
+inspector. The fish-wives liked Florent on account of his gentleness,
+and for some time they defended him; but, influenced by the stallkeepers
+of the butter and fruit pavilions, they at last gave way. Then
+hostilities began afresh between these huge, swelling women and the
+lean and lank inspector. He was lost in the whirl of the voluminous
+petticoats and buxom bodices which surged furiously around his scraggy
+shoulders. However, he understood nothing, but pursued his course
+towards the realisation of his one haunting idea.
+
+At every hour of the day, and in every corner of the market,
+Mademoiselle Saget's black bonnet was now to be seen in the midst of
+this outburst of indignation. Her little pale face seemed to multiply.
+She had sworn a terrible vengeance against the company which assembled
+in Monsieur Lebigre's little cabinet. She accused them of having
+circulated the story that she lived on waste scraps of meat. The truth
+was that old Gavard had told the others one evening that the "old
+nanny-goat" who came to play the spy upon them gorged herself with the
+filth which the Bonapartist clique tossed away. Clemence felt quite ill
+on hearing this, and Robine hurriedly gulped down a draught of beer, as
+though to wash his throat. In Gavard's opinion, the scraps of meat
+left on the Emperor's plate were so much political ordure, the putrid
+remnants of all the filth of the reign. Thenceforth the party at
+Monsieur Lebigre's looked on Mademoiselle Saget as a creature whom no
+one could touch except with tongs. She was regarded as some unclean
+animal that battened upon corruption. Clemence and Gavard circulated the
+story so freely in the markets that the old maid found herself seriously
+injured in her intercourse with the shopkeepers, who unceremoniously
+bade her go off to the scrap-stalls when she came to haggle and gossip
+at their establishments without the least intention of buying anything.
+This cut her off from her sources of information; and sometimes she was
+altogether ignorant of what was happening. She shed tears of rage, and
+in one such moment of anger she bluntly said to La Sarriette and Madame
+Lecoeur: "You needn't give me any more hints: I'll settle your Gavard's
+hash for him now--that I will!"
+
+The two women were rather startled, but refrained from all protestation.
+The next day, however, Mademoiselle Saget had calmed down, and again
+expressed much tender-hearted pity for that poor Monsieur Gavard who was
+so badly advised, and was certainly hastening to his ruin.
+
+Gavard was undoubtedly compromising himself. Ever since the conspiracy
+had begun to ripen he had carried the revolver, which caused Madame
+Leonce so much alarm, in his pocket wherever he went. It was a big,
+formidable-looking weapon, which he had bought of the principal gunmaker
+in Paris. He exhibited it to all the women in the poultry market, like a
+schoolboy who has got some prohibited novel hidden in his desk. First he
+would allow the barrel to peer out of his pocket, and call attention
+to it with a wink. Then he affected a mysterious reticence, indulged in
+vague hints and insinuations--played, in short, the part of a man who
+revelled in feigning fear. The possession of this revolver gave
+him immense importance, placed him definitely amongst the dangerous
+characters of Paris. Sometimes, when he was safe inside his stall, he
+would consent to take it out of his pocket, and exhibit it to two or
+three of the women. He made them stand before him so as to conceal him
+with their petticoats, and then he brandished the weapon, cocked the
+lock, caused the breech to revolve, and took aim at one of the geese or
+turkeys that were hanging in the stall. He was immensely delighted at
+the alarm manifested by the women; but eventually reassured them by
+stating that the revolver was not loaded. However, he carried a supply
+of cartridges about with him, in a case which he opened with the most
+elaborate precautions. When he had allowed his friends to feel
+the weight of the cartridges, he would again place both weapon and
+ammunition in his pockets. And afterwards, crossing his arms over his
+breast, he would chatter away jubilantly for hours.
+
+"A man's a man when he's got a weapon like that," he would say with a
+swaggering air. "I don't care a fig now for the gendarmes. A friend and
+I went to try it last Sunday on the plain of Saint Denis. Of course,
+you know, a man doesn't tell everyone that he's got a plaything of that
+sort. But, ah! my dears, we fired at a tree, and hit it every time. Ah,
+you'll see, you'll see. You'll hear of Anatole one of these days, I can
+tell you."
+
+He had bestowed the name of Anatole upon the revolver; and he carried
+things so far that in a week's time both weapon and cartridges were
+known to all the women in the pavilion. His friendship for Florent
+seemed to them suspicious; he was too sleek and rich to be visited with
+the hatred that was manifested towards the inspector; still, he lost the
+esteem of the shrewder heads amongst his acquaintances, and succeeded in
+terrifying the timid ones. This delighted him immensely.
+
+"It is very imprudent for a man to carry firearms about with him," said
+Mademoiselle Saget. "Monsieur Gavard's revolver will end by playing him
+a nasty trick."
+
+Gavard now showed the most jubilant bearing at Monsieur Lebigre's.
+Florent, since ceasing to take his meals with the Quenus, had come
+almost to live in the little "cabinet." He breakfasted, dined, and
+constantly shut himself up there. In fact he had converted the place
+almost into a sort of private room of his own, where he left his old
+coats and books and papers lying about. Monsieur Lebigre had offered no
+objection to these proceedings; indeed, he had even removed one of the
+tables to make room for a cushioned bench, on which Florent could
+have slept had he felt so inclined. When the inspector manifested any
+scruples about taking advantage of Monsieur Lebigre's kindness, the
+latter told him to do as he pleased, saying that the whole house was at
+his service. Logre also manifested great friendship for him, and even
+constituted himself his lieutenant. He was constantly discussing affairs
+with him, rendering an account of the steps he was supposed to take, and
+furnishing the names of newly affiliated associates. Logre, indeed, had
+now assumed the duties of organiser; on him rested the task of bringing
+the various plotters together, forming the different sections, and
+weaving each mesh of the gigantic net into which Paris was to fall at
+a given signal. Florent meantime remained the leader, the soul of the
+conspiracy.
+
+However, much as the hunchback seemed to toil, he attained no
+appreciable result. Although he had loudly asserted that in each
+district of Paris he knew two or three groups of men as determined and
+trustworthy as those who met at Monsieur Lebigre's, he had never yet
+given any precise information about them, but had merely mentioned a
+name here and there, and recounted stories of endless alleged secret
+expeditions, and the wonderful enthusiasm that the people manifested
+for the cause. He made a great point of the hand-grasps he had received.
+So-and-so, whom he thou'd and thee'd, had squeezed his fingers and
+declared he would join them. At the Gros Caillou a big, burly fellow,
+who would make a magnificent sectional leader, had almost dislocated
+his arm in his enthusiasm; while in the Rue Popincourt a whole group
+of working men had embraced him. He declared that at a day's notice a
+hundred thousand active supporters could be gathered together. Each time
+that he made his appearance in the little room, wearing an exhausted
+air, and dropping with apparent fatigue on the bench, he launched into
+fresh variations of his usual reports, while Florent duly took notes of
+what he said, and relied on him to realise his many promises. And soon
+in Florent's pockets the plot assumed life. The notes were looked upon
+as realities, as indisputable facts, upon which the entire plan of the
+rising was constructed. All that now remained to be done was to wait
+for a favourable opportunity, and Logre asserted with passionate
+gesticulations that the whole thing would go on wheels.
+
+Florent was at last perfectly happy. His feet no longer seemed to tread
+the ground; he was borne aloft by his burning desire to pass sentence on
+all the wickedness he had seen committed. He had all the credulity of a
+little child, all the confidence of a hero. If Logre had told him that
+the Genius of Liberty perched on the Colonne de Juillet[*] would have
+come down and set itself at their head, he would hardly have expressed
+any surprise. In the evenings, at Monsieur Lebigre's, he showed great
+enthusiasm and spoke effusively of the approaching battle, as though it
+were a festival to which all good and honest folks would be invited. But
+although Gavard in his delight began to play with his revolver, Charvet
+got more snappish than ever, and sniggered and shrugged his shoulders.
+His rival's assumption of the leadership angered him extremely; indeed,
+quite disgusted him with politics. One evening when, arriving early,
+he happened to find himself alone with Logre and Lebigre, he frankly
+unbosomed himself.
+
+     [*] The column erected on the Place de la Bastille in memory
+     of the Revolution of July 1830, by which Charles X was
+     dethroned.--Translator.
+
+"Why," said he, "that fellow Florent hasn't an idea about politics,
+and would have done far better to seek a berth as writing master in a
+ladies' school! It would be nothing short of a misfortune if he were to
+succeed, for, with his visionary social sentimentalities, he would crush
+us down beneath his confounded working men! It's all that, you know,
+which ruins the party. We don't need any more tearful sentimentalists,
+humanitarian poets, people who kiss and slobber over each other for the
+merest scratch. But he won't succeed! He'll just get locked up, and that
+will be the end of it."
+
+Logre and the wine dealer made no remark, but allowed Charvet to talk on
+without interruption.
+
+"And he'd have been locked up long ago," he continued, "if he were
+anything as dangerous as he fancies he is. The airs he puts on just
+because he's been to Cayenne are quite sickening. But I'm sure that the
+police knew of his return the very first day he set foot in Paris, and
+if they haven't interfered with him it's simply because they hold him in
+contempt."
+
+At this Logre gave a slight start.
+
+"They've been dogging me for the last fifteen years," resumed the
+Hebertist, with a touch of pride, "but you don't hear me proclaiming it
+from the house-tops. However, he won't catch me taking part in his riot.
+I'm not going to let myself be nabbed like a mere fool. I dare say he's
+already got half a dozen spies at his heels, who will take him by the
+scruff of the neck whenever the authorities give the word."
+
+"Oh, dear, no! What an idea!" exclaimed Monsieur Lebigre, who usually
+observed complete silence. He was rather pale, and looked at Logre, who
+was gently rubbing his hump against the partition.
+
+"That's mere imagination," murmured the hunchback.
+
+"Very well; call it imagination, if you like," replied the tutor; "but
+I know how these things are arranged. At all events, I don't mean to
+let the 'coppers' nab me this time. You others, of course, will please
+yourselves, but if you take my advice--and you especially, Monsieur
+Lebigre--you'll take care not to let your establishment be compromised,
+or the authorities will close it."
+
+At this Logre could not restrain a smile. On several subsequent
+occasions Charvet plied him and Lebigre with similar arguments, as
+though he wished to detach them from Florent's project by frightening
+them; and he was much surprised at the calmness and confidence which
+they both continued to manifest. For his own part, he still came pretty
+regularly in the evening with Clemence. The tall brunette was no longer
+a clerk at the fish auctions--Monsieur Manoury had discharged her.
+
+"Those salesmen are all scoundrels!" Logre growled, when he heard of her
+dismissal.
+
+Thereupon Clemence, who, lolling back against the partition, was rolling
+a cigarette between her long, slim fingers, replied in a sharp voice:
+"Oh, it's fair fighting! We don't hold the same political views, you
+know. That fellow Manoury, who's making no end of money, would lick the
+Emperor's boots. For my part, if I were an auctioneer, I wouldn't keep
+him in my service for an hour."
+
+The truth was that she had been indulging in some clumsy pleasantry,
+amusing herself one day by inscribing in the sale-book, alongside of the
+dabs and skate and mackerel sold by auction, the names of some of the
+best-known ladies and gentlemen of the Court. This bestowal of piscine
+names upon high dignitaries, these entries of the sale of duchesses
+and baronesses at thirty sous apiece, had caused Monsieur Manoury much
+alarm. Gavard was still laughing over it.
+
+"Well, never mind!" said he, patting Clemence's arm; "you are every inch
+a man, you are!"
+
+Clemence had discovered a new method of mixing her grog. She began by
+filling her glass with hot water; and after adding some sugar she poured
+the rum drop by drop upon the slice of lemon floating on the surface,
+in such wise that it did not mix with the water. Then she lighted it and
+with a grave expression watched it blaze, slowly smoking her cigarette
+while the flame of the alcohol cast a greenish tinge over her face.
+"Grog," however, was an expensive luxury in which she could not afford
+to indulge after she had lost her place. Charvet told her, with a
+strained laugh, that she was no longer a millionaire. She supported
+herself by giving French lessons, at a very early hour in the morning,
+to a young lady residing in the Rue de Miromesnil, who was perfecting
+her education in secrecy, unknown even to her maid. And so now Clemence
+merely ordered a glass of beer in the evenings, but this she drank, it
+must be admitted, with the most philosophical composure.
+
+The evenings in the little sanctum were now far less noisy than they had
+been. Charvet would suddenly lapse into silence, pale with suppressed
+rage, when the others deserted him to listen to his rival. The thought
+that he had been the king of the place, had ruled the whole party with
+despotic power before Florent's appearance there, gnawed at his heart,
+and he felt all the regretful pangs of a dethroned monarch. If he
+still came to the meetings, it was only because he could not resist the
+attraction of the little room where he had spent so many happy hours in
+tyrannising over Gavard and Robine. In those days even Logre's hump had
+been his property, as well as Alexandre's fleshy arms and Lacaille's
+gloomy face. He had done what he liked with them, stuffed his opinions
+down their throats, belaboured their shoulders with his sceptre. But
+now he endured much bitterness of spirit; and ended by quite ceasing
+to speak, simply shrugging his shoulders and whistling disdainfully,
+without condescending to combat the absurdities vented in his presence.
+What exasperated him more than anything else was the gradual way in
+which he had been ousted from his position of predominance without
+being conscious of it. He could not see that Florent was in any way his
+superior, and after hearing the latter speak for hours, in his gentle
+and somewhat sad voice, he often remarked: "Why, the fellow's a parson!
+He only wants a cassock!"
+
+The others, however, to all appearance eagerly absorbed whatever the
+inspector said. When Charvet saw Florent's clothes hanging from every
+peg, he pretended not to know where he could put his hat so that it
+would not be soiled. He swept away the papers that lay about the little
+room, declaring that there was no longer any comfort for anyone in
+the place since that "gentleman" had taken possession of it. He even
+complained to the landlord, and asked if the room belonged to a single
+customer or to the whole company. This invasion of his realm was indeed
+the last straw. Men were brutes, and he conceived an unspeakable scorn
+for humanity when he saw Logre and Monsieur Lebigre fixing their eyes on
+Florent with rapt attention. Gavard with his revolver irritated him, and
+Robine, who sat silent behind his glass of beer, seemed to him to be the
+only sensible person in the company, and one who doubtless judged
+people by their real value, and was not led away by mere words. As
+for Alexandre and Lacaille, they confirmed him in his belief that
+"the people" were mere fools, and would require at least ten years of
+revolutionary dictatorship to learn how to conduct themselves.
+
+Logre, however, declared that the sections would soon be completely
+organised; and Florent began to assign the different parts that each
+would have to play. One evening, after a final discussion in which he
+again got worsted, Charvet rose up, took his hat, and exclaimed: "Well,
+I'll wish you all good night. You can get your skulls cracked if it
+amuses you; but I would have you understand that I won't take any part
+in the business. I have never abetted anybody's ambition."
+
+Clemence, who had also risen and was putting on her shawl, coldly added:
+"The plan's absurd."
+
+Then, as Robine sat watching their departure with a gentle glance,
+Charvet asked him if he were not coming with them; but Robine, having
+still some beer left in his glass, contented himself with shaking hands.
+Charvet and Clemence never returned again; and Lacaille one day informed
+the company that they now frequented a beer-house in the Rue Serpente.
+He had seen them through the window, gesticulating with great energy, in
+the midst of an attentive group of very young men.
+
+Florent was never able to enlist Claude amongst his supporters. He
+had once entertained the idea of gaining him over to his own political
+views, of making a disciple of him, an assistant in his revolutionary
+task; and in order to initiate him he had taken him one evening to
+Monsieur Lebigre's. Claude, however, spent the whole time in making
+a sketch of Robine, in his hat and chestnut cloak, and with his beard
+resting on the knob of his walking-stick.
+
+"Really, you know," he said to Florent, as they came away, "all that you
+have been saying inside there doesn't interest me in the least. It may
+be very clever, but, for my own part, I see nothing in it. Still, you've
+got a splendid fellow there, that blessed Robine. He's as deep as a
+well. I'll come with you again some other time, but it won't be for
+politics. I shall make sketches of Logre and Gavard, so as to put them
+with Robine in a picture which I was thinking about while you were
+discussing the question of--what do you call it? eh? Oh, the question
+of the two Chambers. Just fancy, now, a picture of Gavard and Logre and
+Robine talking politics, entrenched behind their glasses of beer! It
+would be the success of the Salon, my dear fellow, an overwhelming
+success, a genuine modern picture!"
+
+Florent was grieved by the artist's political scepticism; so he took him
+up to his bedroom, and kept him on the narrow balcony in front of the
+bluish mass of the markets, till two o'clock in the morning, lecturing
+him, and telling him that he was no man to show himself so indifferent
+to the happiness of his country.
+
+"Well, you're perhaps right," replied Claude, shaking his head; "I'm an
+egotist. I can't even say that I paint for the good of my country; for,
+in the first place, my sketches frighten everybody, and then, when I'm
+busy painting, I think about nothing but the pleasure I take in it. When
+I'm painting, it is as though I were tickling myself; it makes me laugh
+all over my body. Well, I can't help it, you know; it's my nature to
+be like that; and you can't expect me to go and drown myself in
+consequence. Besides, France can get on very well without me, as my
+aunt Lisa says. And--may I be quite frank with you?--if I like you it's
+because you seem to me to follow politics just as I follow painting. You
+titillate yourself, my good friend."
+
+Then, as Florent protested, he continued:
+
+"Yes, yes; you are an artist in your own way; you dream of politics,
+and I'll wager you spend hours here at night gazing at the stars and
+imagining they are the voting-papers of infinity. And then you titillate
+yourself with your ideas of truth and justice; and this is so evidently
+the case that those ideas of yours cause just as much alarm to
+commonplace middle-class folks as my sketches do. Between ourselves,
+now, do you imagine that if you were Robine I should take any pleasure
+in your friendship? Ah, no, my friend, you are a great poet!"
+
+Then he began to joke on the subject, saying that politics caused him no
+trouble, and that he had got accustomed to hear people discussing them
+in beer shops and studios. This led him to speak of a cafe in the
+Rue Vauvilliers; the cafe on the ground-floor of the house where La
+Sarriette lodged. This smoky place, with its torn, velvet-cushioned
+seats, and marble table-tops discoloured by the drippings from
+coffee-cups, was the chief resort of the young people of the markets.
+Monsieur Jules reigned there over a company of porters, apprentices,
+and gentlemen in white blouses and velvet caps. Two curling "Newgate
+knockers" were glued against his temples; and to keep his neck white he
+had it scraped with a razor every Saturday at a hair-dresser's in the
+Rue des Deux Ecus. At the cafe he gave the tone to his associates,
+especially when he played billiards with studied airs and graces,
+showing off his figure to the best advantage. After the game the company
+would begin to chat. They were a very reactionary set, taking a delight
+in the doings of "society." For his part, Monsieur Jules read the
+lighter boulevardian newspapers, and knew the performers at the smaller
+theatres, talked familiarly of the celebrities of the day, and could
+always tell whether the piece first performed the previous evening had
+been a success or a failure. He had a weakness, however, for politics.
+His ideal man was Morny, as he curtly called him. He read the reports of
+the discussions of the Corps Legislatif, and laughed with glee over the
+slightest words that fell from Morny's lips. Ah, Morny was the man to
+sit upon your rascally republicans! And he would assert that only the
+scum detested the Emperor, for his Majesty desired that all respectable
+people should have a good time of it.
+
+"I've been to the cafe occasionally," Claude said to Florent. "The young
+men there are vastly amusing, with their clay pipes and their talk about
+the Court balls! To hear them chatter you might almost fancy they were
+invited to the Tuileries. La Sarriette's young man was making great fun
+of Gavard the other evening. He called him uncle. When La Sarriette came
+downstairs to look for him she was obliged to pay his bill. It cost her
+six francs, for he had lost at billiards, and the drinks they had played
+for were owing. And now, good night, my friend, and pleasant dreams. If
+ever you become a Minister, I'll give you some hints on the beautifying
+of Paris."
+
+Florent was obliged to relinquish the hope of making a docile disciple
+of Claude. This was a source of grief to him, for, blinded though he
+was by his fanatical ardour, he at last grew conscious of the
+ever-increasing hostility which surrounded him. Even at the Mehudins' he
+now met with a colder reception: the old woman would laugh slyly; Muche
+no longer obeyed him, and the beautiful Norman cast glances of hasty
+impatience at him, unable as she was to overcome his coldness. At the
+Quenus', too, he had lost Auguste's friendship. The assistant no longer
+came to see him in his room on the way to bed, being greatly alarmed
+by the reports which he heard concerning this man with whom he had
+previously shut himself up till midnight. Augustine had made her lover
+swear that he would never again be guilty of such imprudence; however,
+it was Lisa who turned the young man into Florent's determined enemy by
+begging him and Augustine to defer their marriage till her cousin should
+vacate the little bedroom at the top of the house, as she did not want
+to give that poky dressing-room on the first floor to the new shop
+girl whom she would have to engage. From that time forward Auguste was
+anxious that the "convict" should be arrested. He had found such a
+pork shop as he had long dreamed of, not at Plaisance certainly, but at
+Montrouge, a little farther away. And now trade had much improved, and
+Augustine, with her silly, overgrown girl's laugh, said that she was
+quite ready. So every night, whenever some slight noise awoke him,
+August was thrilled with delight as he imagined that the police were at
+last arresting Florent.
+
+Nothing was said at the Quenu-Gradelles' about all the rumours which
+circulated. There was a tacit understanding amongst the staff of the
+pork shop to keep silent respecting them in the presence of Quenu. The
+latter, somewhat saddened by the falling-out between his brother and his
+wife, sought consolation in stringing his sausages and salting his pork.
+Sometimes he would come and stand on his door-step, with his red face
+glowing brightly above his white apron, which his increasing corpulence
+stretched quite taut, and never did he suspect all the gossip which his
+appearance set on foot in the markets. Some of the women pitied him, and
+thought that he was losing flesh, though he was, indeed, stouter than
+ever; while others, on the contrary, reproached him for not having grown
+thin with shame at having such a brother as Florent. He, however, like
+one of those betrayed husbands who are always the last to know what
+has befallen them, continued in happy ignorance, displaying a
+light-heartedness which was quite affecting. He would stop some
+neighbour's wife on the footway to ask her if she found his brawn or
+truffled boar's head to her liking, and she would at once assume a
+sympathetic expression, and speak in a condoling way, as though all the
+pork on his premises had got jaundice.
+
+"What do they all mean by looking at me with such a funereal air?" he
+asked Lisa one day. "Do you think I'm looking ill?"
+
+Lisa, well aware that he was terribly afraid of illness, and groaned
+and made a dreadful disturbance if he suffered the slightest ailment,
+reassured him on this point, telling him that he was as blooming as
+a rose. The fine pork shop, however, was becoming gloomy; the mirrors
+seemed to pale, the marbles grew frigidly white, and the cooked meats on
+the counter stagnated in yellow fat or lakes of cloudy jelly. One day,
+even, Claude came into the shop to tell his aunt that the display in
+the window looked quite "in the dumps." This was really the truth. The
+Strasburg tongues on their beds of blue paper-shavings had a melancholy
+whiteness of hue, like the tongues of invalids; and the whilom chubby
+hams seemed to be wasting away beneath their mournful green top-knots.
+Inside the shop, too, when customers asked for a black-pudding or ten
+sous' worth of bacon, or half a pound of lard, they spoke in subdued,
+sorrowful voices, as though they were in the bed-chamber of a dying man.
+There were always two or three lachrymose women in front of the chilled
+heating-pan. Beautiful Lisa meantime discharged the duties of chief
+mourner with silent dignity. Her white apron fell more primly than ever
+over her black dress. Her hands, scrupulously clean and closely girded
+at the wrists by long white sleevelets, her face with its becoming air
+of sadness, plainly told all the neighbourhood, all the inquisitive
+gossips who streamed into the shop from morning to night, that they, the
+Quenu-Gradelles, were suffering from unmerited misfortune, but that she
+knew the cause of it, and would triumph over it at last. And sometimes
+she stooped to look at the two gold-fish, who also seemed ill at ease
+as they swam languidly around the aquarium in the window, and her glance
+seemed to promise them better days in the future.
+
+Beautiful Lisa now only allowed herself one indulgence. She fearlessly
+patted Marjolin's satiny chin. The young man had just come out of the
+hospital. His skull had healed, and he looked as fat and merry as ever;
+but even the little intelligence he had possessed had left him, he was
+now quite an idiot. The gash in his skull must have reached his brain,
+for he had become a mere animal. The mind of a child of five dwelt in
+his sturdy frame. He laughed and stammered, he could no longer pronounce
+his words properly, and he was as submissively obedient as a sheep.
+Cadine took entire possession of him again; surprised, at first, at the
+alteration in him, and then quite delighted at having this big fellow to
+do exactly as she liked with. He was her doll, her toy, her slave in
+all respects but one: she could not prevent him from going off to Madame
+Quenu's every now and then. She thumped him, but he did not seem to feel
+her blows; as soon as she had slung her basket round her neck, and set
+off to sell her violets in the Rue du Pont Neuf and the Rue de Turbigo,
+he went to prowl about in front of the pork shop.
+
+"Come in!" Lisa cried to him.
+
+She generally gave him some gherkins, of which he was extremely fond;
+and he ate them, laughing in a childish way, whilst he stood in front of
+the counter. The sight of the handsome mistress of the shop filled him
+with rapture; he often clapped his hands with joy and began to jump
+about and vent little cries of pleasure, like a child delighted at
+something shown to it. On the first few occasions when he came to see
+her after leaving the hospital Lisa had feared that he might remember
+what had happened.
+
+"Does your head still hurt you?" she asked him.
+
+But he swayed about and burst into a merry laugh as he answered no; and
+then Lisa gently inquired: "You had a fall, hadn't you?"
+
+"Yes, a fall, fall, fall," he sang, in a happy voice, tapping his skull
+the while.
+
+Then, as though he were in a sort of ecstasy, he continued in lingering
+notes, as he gazed at Lisa, "Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!" This
+quite touched Madame Quenu. She had prevailed upon Gavard to keep him
+in his service. It was on the occasions when he so humbly vented his
+admiration that she caressed his chin, and told him that he was a good
+lad. He smiled with childish satisfaction, at times closing his eyes
+like some domestic pet fondled by its mistress; and Lisa thought to
+herself that she was making him some compensation for the blow with
+which she had felled him in the cellar of the poultry market.
+
+However, the Quenus' establishment still remained under a cloud. Florent
+sometimes ventured to show himself, and shook hands with his brother,
+while Lisa observed a frigid silence. He even dined with them sometimes
+on Sundays, at long intervals, and Quenu then made great efforts at
+gaiety, but could not succeed in imparting any cheerfulness to the meal.
+He ate badly, and ended by feeling altogether put out. One evening,
+after one of these icy family gatherings, he said to his wife with tears
+in his eyes:
+
+"What can be the matter with me? Is it true that I'm not ill? Don't you
+really see anything wrong in my appearance? I feel just as though I'd
+got a heavy weight somewhere inside me. And I'm so sad and depressed,
+too, without in the least knowing why. What can it be, do you think?"
+
+"Oh, a little attack of indigestion, I dare say," replied Lisa.
+
+"No, no; it's been going on too long for that; I feel quite crushed
+down. Yet the business is going on all right; I've no great worries, and
+I am leading just the same steady life as ever. But you, too, my dear,
+don't look well; you seem melancholy. If there isn't a change for the
+better soon, I shall send for the doctor."
+
+Lisa looked at him with a grave expression.
+
+"There's no need of a doctor," she said, "things will soon be all right
+again. There's something unhealthy in the atmosphere just now. All the
+neighbourhood is unwell." Then, as if yielding to an impulse of anxious
+affection, she added: "Don't worry yourself, my dear. I can't have you
+falling ill; that would be the crowning blow."
+
+As a rule she sent him back to the kitchen, knowing that the noise of
+the choppers, the tuneful simmering of the fat, and the bubbling of the
+pans had a cheering effect upon him. In this way, too, she kept him at
+a distance from the indiscreet chatter of Mademoiselle Saget, who now
+spent whole mornings in the shop. The old maid seemed bent on arousing
+Lisa's alarm, and thus driving her to some extreme step. She began by
+trying to obtain her confidence.
+
+"What a lot of mischievous folks there are about!" she exclaimed; "folks
+who would be much better employed in minding their own business. If you
+only knew, my dear Madame Quenu--but no, really, I should never dare to
+repeat such things to you."
+
+And, as Madame Quenu replied that she was quite indifferent to gossip,
+and that it had no effect upon her, the old maid whispered into her ear
+across the counter: "Well, people say, you know, that Monsieur Florent
+isn't your cousin at all."
+
+Then she gradually allowed Lisa to see that she knew the whole story; by
+way of proving that she had her quite at her mercy. When Lisa confessed
+the truth, equally as a matter of diplomacy, in order that she might
+have the assistance of some one who would keep her well posted in all
+the gossip of the neighbourhood, the old maid swore that for her own
+part she would be as mute as a fish, and deny the truth of the reports
+about Florent, even if she were to be led to the stake for it. And
+afterwards this drama brought her intense enjoyment; every morning she
+came to the shop with some fresh piece of disturbing news.
+
+"You must be careful," she whispered one day; "I have just heard two
+women in the tripe market talking about you know what. I can't interrupt
+people and tell them they are lying, you know. It would look so strange.
+But the story's got about, and it's spreading farther every day. It
+can't be stopped now, I fear; the truth will have to come out."
+
+A few days later she returned to the assault in all earnest. She made
+her appearance looking quite scared, and waited impatiently till there
+was no one in the shop, when she burst out in her sibilant voice:
+
+"Do you know what people are saying now? Well, they say that all those
+men who meet at Monsieur Lebigre's have got guns, and are going to
+break out again as they did in '48. It's quite distressing to see such
+a worthy man as Monsieur Gavard--rich, too, and so respectable--leaguing
+himself with such scoundrels! I was very anxious to let you know, on
+account of your brother-in-law."
+
+"Oh, it's mere nonsense, I'm sure; it can't be serious," rejoined Lisa,
+just to incite the old maid to tell her more.
+
+"Not serious, indeed! Why, when one passes along the Rue Pirouette in
+the evening one can hear them screaming out in the most dreadful way.
+Oh! they make no mystery of it all. You know yourself how they tried to
+corrupt your husband. And the cartridges which I have seen them making
+from my own window, are they mere nonsense? Well, well, I'm only telling
+you this for your own good."
+
+"Oh! I'm sure of that, and I'm very much obliged to you," replied Lisa;
+"but people do invent such stories, you know."
+
+"Ah, but this is no invention, unfortunately. The whole neighbourhood is
+talking of it. It is said, too, that if the police discover the matter
+there will be a great many people compromised--Monsieur Gavard, for
+instance."
+
+Madame Quenu shrugged her shoulders as though to say that Monsieur
+Gavard was an old fool, and that it would do him good to be locked up.
+
+"Well, I merely mention Monsieur Gavard as I might mention any of the
+others, your brother-in-law, for instance," resumed the old maid with a
+wily glance. "Your brother-in-law is the leader, it seems. That's very
+annoying for you, and I'm very sorry indeed; for if the police were to
+make a descent here they might march Monsieur Quenu off as well. Two
+brothers, you know, they're like two fingers of the same hand."
+
+Beautiful Lisa protested against this, but she turned very pale, for
+Mademoiselle Saget's last thrust had touched a vulnerable point. From
+that day forward the old maid was ever bringing her stories of innocent
+people who had been thrown into prison for extending hospitality to
+criminal scoundrels. In the evening, when La Saget went to get her
+black-currant syrup at the wine dealer's, she prepared her budget for
+the next morning. Rose was but little given to gossiping, and the old
+main reckoned chiefly on her own eyes and ears. She had been struck by
+Monsieur Lebigre's extremely kind and obliging manner towards Florent,
+his eagerness to keep him at his establishment, all the polite
+civilities, for which the little money which the other spent in the
+house could never recoup him. And this conduct of Monsieur Lebigre's
+surprised her the more as she was aware of the position in which the two
+men stood in respect to the beautiful Norman.
+
+"It looks as though Lebigre were fattening him up for sale," she
+reflected. "Whom can he want to sell him to, I wonder?"
+
+One evening when she was in the bar she saw Logre fling himself on the
+bench in the sanctum, and heard him speak of his perambulations through
+the faubourgs, with the remark that he was dead beat. She cast a hasty
+glance at his feet, and saw that there was not a speck of dust on his
+boots. Then she smiled quietly, and went off with her black-currant
+syrup, her lips closely compressed.
+
+She used to complete her budget of information on getting back to her
+window. It was very high up, commanding a view of all the neighbouring
+houses, and proved a source of endless enjoyment to her. She was
+constantly installed at it, as though it were an observatory from which
+she kept watch upon everything that went on in the neighbourhood. She
+was quite familiar with all the rooms opposite her, both on the right
+and the left, even to the smallest details of their furniture. She could
+have described, without the least omission, the habits of their tenants,
+have related if the latter's homes were happy or the contrary, have told
+when and how they washed themselves, what they had for dinner, and
+who it was that came to see them. Then she obtained a side view of the
+markets, and not a woman could walk along the Rue Rambuteau without
+being seen by her; and she could have correctly stated whence the woman
+had come and whither she was going, what she had got in her basket,
+and, in short, every detail about her, her husband, her clothes, her
+children, and her means. "That's Madame Loret, over there; she's giving
+her son a fine education; that's Madame Hutin, a poor little woman who's
+dreadfully neglected by her husband; that's Mademoiselle Cecile,
+the butcher's daughter, a girl that no one will marry because
+she's scrofulous." In this way she could have continued jerking out
+biographical scraps for days together, deriving extraordinary amusement
+from the most trivial, uninteresting incidents. However, as soon as
+eight o'clock struck, she only had eyes for the frosted "cabinet" window
+on which appeared the black shadows of the coterie of politicians. She
+discovered the secession of Charvet and Clemence by missing their bony
+silhouettes from the milky transparency. Not an incident occurred in
+that room but she sooner or later learnt it by some sudden motion of
+those silent arms and heads. She acquired great skill in interpretation,
+and could divine the meaning of protruding noses, spreading fingers,
+gaping mouths, and shrugging shoulders; and in this way she followed
+the progress of the conspiracy step by step, in such wise that she could
+have told day by day how matters stood. One evening the terrible outcome
+of it all was revealed to her. She saw the shadow of Gavard's revolver,
+a huge silhouette with pointed muzzle showing very blackly against the
+glimmering window. It kept appearing and disappearing so rapidly that it
+seemed as though the room was full of revolvers. Those were the firearms
+of which Mademoiselle Saget had spoken to Madame Quenu. On another
+evening she was much puzzled by the sight of endless lengths of some
+material or other, and came to the conclusion that the men must be
+manufacturing cartridges. The next morning, however, she made her
+appearance in the wine shop by eleven o'clock, on the pretext of asking
+Rose if she could let her have a candle, and, glancing furtively into
+the little sanctum, she espied a heap of red material lying on the
+table. This greatly alarmed her, and her next budget of news was one of
+decisive gravity.
+
+"I don't want to alarm you, Madame Quenu," she said, "but matters are
+really looking very serious. Upon my word, I'm quite alarmed. You must
+on no account repeat what I am going to confide to you. They would
+murder me if they knew I had told you."
+
+Then, when Lisa had sworn to say nothing that might compromise her, she
+told her about the red material.
+
+"I can't think what it can be. There was a great heap of it. It looked
+just like rags soaked in blood. Logre, the hunchback, you know, put one
+of the pieces over his shoulder. He looked like a headsman. You may be
+sure this is some fresh trickery or other."
+
+Lisa made no reply, but seemed deep in thought whilst with lowered eyes,
+she handled a fork and mechanically arranged some piece of salt pork on
+a dish.
+
+"If I were you," resumed Mademoiselle Saget softly, "I shouldn't be easy
+in mind; I should want to know the meaning of it all. Why shouldn't you
+go upstairs and examine your brother-in-law's bedroom?"
+
+At this Lisa gave a slight start, let the fork drop, and glanced
+uneasily at the old maid, believing that she had discovered her
+intentions. But the other continued: "You would certainly be justified
+in doing so. There's no knowing into what danger your brother-in-law may
+lead you, if you don't put a check on him. They were talking about you
+yesterday at Madame Taboureau's. Ah! you have a most devoted friend in
+her. Madame Taboureau said that you were much too easy-going, and that
+if she were you she would have put an end to all this long ago."
+
+"Madame Taboureau said that?" murmured Lisa thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes, indeed she did; and Madame Taboureau is a woman whose advice is
+worth listening to. Try to find out the meaning of all those red bands;
+and if you do, you'll tell me, won't you?"
+
+Lisa, however, was no longer listening to her. She was gazing
+abstractedly at the edible snails and Gervais cheeses between the
+festoons of sausages in the window. She seemed absorbed in a mental
+conflict, which brought two little furrows to her brow. The old maid,
+however, poked her nose over the dishes on the counter.
+
+"Ah, some slices of saveloy!" she muttered, as though she were
+speaking to herself. "They'll get very dry cut up like that. And that
+black-pudding's broken, I see--a fork's been stuck into it, I expect. It
+might be taken away--it's soiling the dish."
+
+Lisa, still absent-minded, gave her the black-pudding and slices of
+saveloy. "You may take them," she said, "if you would care for them."
+
+The black bag swallowed them up. Mademoiselle Saget was so accustomed
+to receiving presents that she had actually ceased to return thanks for
+them. Every morning she carried away all the scraps of the pork shop.
+And now she went off with the intention of obtaining her dessert from La
+Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur, by gossiping to them about Gavard.
+
+When Lisa was alone again she installed herself on the bench, behind the
+counter, as though she thought she would be able to come to a sounder
+decision if she were comfortably seated. For the last week she had
+been very anxious. Florent had asked Quenu for five hundred francs one
+evening, in the easy, matter-of-course way of a man who had money lying
+to his credit at the pork shop. Quenu referred him to his wife. This
+was distasteful to Florent, who felt somewhat uneasy on applying to
+beautiful Lisa. But she immediately went up to her bedroom, brought
+the money down and gave it to him, without saying a word, or making the
+least inquiry as to what he intended to do with it. She merely remarked
+that she had made a note of the payment on the paper containing the
+particulars of Florent's share of the inheritance. Three days later he
+took a thousand francs.
+
+"It was scarcely worth while trying to make himself out so
+disinterested," Lisa said to Quenu that night, as they went to bed. "I
+did quite right, you see, in keeping the account. By the way, I haven't
+noted down the thousand francs I gave him to-day."
+
+She sat down at the secretaire, and glanced over the page of figures.
+Then she added: "I did well to leave a blank space. I'll put down what
+I pay him on the margin. You'll see, now, he'll fritter it all away by
+degrees. That's what I've been expecting for a long time past."
+
+Quenu said nothing, but went to bed feeling very much put out. Every
+time that his wife opened the secretaire the drawer gave out a mournful
+creak which pierced his heart. He even thought of remonstrating with
+his brother, and trying to prevent him from ruining himself with the
+Mehudins; but when the time came, he did not dare to do it. Two days
+later Florent asked for another fifteen hundred francs. Logre had said
+one evening that things would ripen much faster if they could only get
+some money. The next day he was enchanted to find these words of his,
+uttered quite at random, result in the receipt of a little pile of
+gold, which he promptly pocketed, sniggering as he did so, and his hunch
+fairly shaking with delight. From that time forward money was constantly
+being needed: one section wished to hire a room where they could meet,
+while another was compelled to provide for various needy patriots. Then
+there were arms and ammunition to be purchased, men to be enlisted, and
+private police expenses. Florent would have paid for anything. He
+had bethought himself of Uncle Gradelle's treasure, and recalled La
+Normande's advice. So he made repeated calls upon Lisa's secretaire,
+being merely kept in check by the vague fear with which his
+sister-in-law's grave face inspired him. Never, thought he, could
+he have spent his money in a holier cause. Logre now manifested
+the greatest enthusiasm, and wore the most wonderful rose-coloured
+neckerchiefs and the shiniest of varnished boots, the sight of which
+made Lacaille glower blackly.
+
+"That makes three thousand francs in seven days," Lisa remarked to
+Quenu. "What do you think of that? A pretty state of affairs, isn't
+it? If he goes on at this rate his fifty thousand francs will last him
+barely four months. And yet it took old Gradelle forty years to put his
+fortune together!"
+
+"It's all your own fault!" cried Quenu. "There was no occasion for you
+to say anything to him about the money."
+
+Lisa gave her husband a severe glance. "It is his own," she said; "and
+he is entitled to take it all. It's not the giving him the money that
+vexes me, but the knowledge that he must make a bad use of it. I tell
+you again, as I have been telling you for a long time past, all this
+must come to an end."
+
+"Do whatever you like; I won't prevent you," at last exclaimed the pork
+butcher, who was tortured by his cupidity.
+
+He still loved his brother; but the thought of fifty thousand francs
+squandered in four months was agony to him. As for his wife, after all
+Mademoiselle Saget's chattering she guessed what became of the money.
+The old maid having ventured to refer to the inheritance, Lisa had taken
+advantage of the opportunity to let the neighbourhood know that Florent
+was drawing his share, and spending it after his own fashion.
+
+It was on the following day that the story of the strips of red material
+impelled Lisa to take definite actin. For a few moments she remained
+struggling with herself whilst gazing at the depressed appearance of the
+shop. The sides of pork hung all around in a sullen fashion, and Mouton,
+seated beside a bowl of fat, displayed the ruffled coat and dim eyes of
+a cat who no longer digests his meals in peace. Thereupon Lisa called to
+Augustine and told her to attend to the counter, and she herself went up
+to Florent's room.
+
+When she entered it, she received quite a shock. The bed, hitherto so
+spotless, was quite ensanguined by a bundle of long red scarves dangling
+down to the floor. On the mantelpiece, between the gilt cardboard boxes
+and the old pomatum-pots, were several red armlets and clusters of red
+cockades, looking like pools of blood. And hanging from every nail and
+peg against the faded grey wallpaper were pieces of bunting, square
+flags--yellow, blue, green, and black--in which Lisa recognised the
+distinguishing banners of the twenty sections. The childish simplicity
+of the room seemed quite scared by all this revolutionary decoration.
+The aspect of guileless stupidity which the shop girl had left behind
+her, the white innocence of the curtains and furniture, now glared
+as with the reflection of a fire; while the photograph of Auguste
+and Augustine looked white with terror. Lisa walked round the room,
+examining the flags, the armlets, and the scarves, without touching any
+of them, as though she feared that the dreadful things might burn her.
+She was reflecting that she had not been mistaken, that it was indeed on
+these and similar things that Florent's money had been spent. And to her
+this seemed an utter abomination, an incredibility which set her whole
+being surging with indignation. To think that her money, that money
+which had been so honestly earned, was being squandered to organise and
+defray the expenses of an insurrection!
+
+She stood there, gazing at the expanded blossoms of the pomegranate on
+the balcony--blossoms which seemed to her like an additional supply of
+crimson cockades--and listening to the sharp notes of the chaffinch,
+which resembled the echo of a distant fusillade. And then it struck her
+that the insurrection might break out the next day, or perhaps that very
+evening. She fancied she could see the banners streaming in the air and
+the scarves advancing in line, while a sudden roll of drums broke on her
+ear. Then she hastily went downstairs again, without even glancing
+at the papers which were lying on the table. She stopped on the first
+floor, went into her own room, and dressed herself.
+
+In this critical emergency Lisa arranged her hair with scrupulous care
+and perfect calmness. She was quite resolute; not a quiver of hesitation
+disturbed her; but a sterner expression than usual had come into her
+eyes. As she fastened her black silk dress, straining the waistband with
+all the strength of her fingers, she recalled Abbe Roustan's words; and
+she questioned herself, and her conscience answered that she was going
+to fulfil a duty. By the time she drew her broidered shawl round her
+broad shoulders, she felt that she was about to perform a deed of high
+morality. She put on a pair of dark mauve gloves, secured a thick
+veil to her bonnet; and before leaving the room she double-locked the
+secretaire, with a hopeful expression on her face which seemed to say
+that that much worried piece of furniture would at last be able to sleep
+in peace again.
+
+Quenu was exhibiting his white paunch at the shop door when his wife
+came down. He was surprised to see her going out in full dress at ten
+o'clock in the morning. "Hallo! Where are you off to?" he asked.
+
+She pretended that she was going out with Madame Taboureau, and added
+that she would call at the Gaite Theatre to buy some tickets. Quenu
+hurried after her to tell her to secure some front seats, so that they
+might be able to see well. Then, as he returned to the shop, Lisa made
+her way to the cab-stand opposite St. Eustache, got into a cab, pulled
+down the blinds, and told the driver to go to the Gaite Theatre. She
+felt afraid of being followed. When she had booked two seats, however,
+she directed the cabman to drive her to the Palais de Justice. There,
+in front of the gate, she discharged him, and then quietly made her way
+through the halls and corridors to the Prefecture of Police.
+
+She soon lost herself in a noisy crowd of police officers and gentlemen
+in long frock-coats, but at last gave a man half a franc to guide her to
+the Prefect's rooms. She found, however, that the Prefect only received
+such persons as came with letters of audience; and she was shown into a
+small apartment, furnished after the style of a boarding-house parlour.
+A fat, bald-headed official, dressed in black from head to foot,
+received her there with sullen coldness. What was her business? he
+inquired. Thereupon she raised her veil, gave her name, and told her
+story, clearly and distinctly, without a pause. The bald man listened
+with a weary air.
+
+"You are this man's sister-in-law, are you not?" he inquired, when she
+had finished.
+
+"Yes," Lisa candidly replied. "We are honest, straight-forward people,
+and I am anxious that my husband should not be compromised."
+
+The official shrugged his shoulders, as though to say that the whole
+affair was a great nuisance.
+
+"Do you know," he said impatiently, "that I have been pestered with this
+business for more than a year past? Denunciation after denunciation has
+been sent to me, and I am being continually goaded and pressed to take
+action. You will understand that if I haven't done so as yet, it is
+because I prefer to wait. We have good reasons for our conduct in the
+matter. Stay, now, here are the papers relating to it. I'll let you see
+them."
+
+He laid before her an immense collection of papers in a blue wrapper.
+Lisa turned them over. They were like detached chapters of the story she
+had just been relating. The commissaires of police at Havre, Rouen, and
+Vernon notified Florent's arrival within their respective jurisdictions.
+Then came a report which announced that he had taken up his residence
+with the Quenu-Gradelles. Next followed his appointment at the markets,
+an account of his mode of life, the spending of his evenings at Monsieur
+Lebigre's; not a detail was deficient. Lisa, quite astounded as she
+was, noticed that the reports were in duplicate, so that they must have
+emanated from two different sources. And at last she came upon a pile of
+letters, anonymous letters of every shape, and in every description of
+handwriting. They brought her amazement to a climax. In one letter she
+recognised the villainous hand of Mademoiselle Saget, denouncing the
+people who met in the little sanctum at Lebigre's. On a large piece of
+greasy paper she identified the heavy pot-hooks of Madame Lecoeur;
+and there was also a sheet of cream-laid note-paper, ornamented with a
+yellow pansy, and covered with the scrawls of La Sarriette and Monsieur
+Jules. These two letters warned the Government to beware of Gavard.
+Farther on Lisa recognised the coarse style of old Madame Mehudin, who
+in four pages of almost indecipherable scribble repeated all the wild
+stories about Florent that circulated in the markets. However, what
+startled her more than anything else was the discovery of a bill-head
+of her own establishment, with the inscription _Quenu-Gradelle, Pork
+Butcher_, on its face, whilst on the back of it Auguste had penned
+a denunciation of the man whom he looked upon as an obstacle to his
+marriage.
+
+The official had acted upon a secret idea in placing these papers before
+her. "You don't recognise any of these handwritings, do you?" he asked.
+
+"No," she stammered, rising from her seat, quite oppressed by what she
+had just learned; and she hastily pulled down her veil again to conceal
+the blush of confusion which was rising to her cheeks. Her silk dress
+rustled, and her dark gloves disappeared beneath her heavy shawl.
+
+"You see, madame," said the bald man with a faint smile, "your
+information comes a little late. But I promise you that your visit shall
+not be forgotten. And tell your husband not to stir. It is possible that
+something may happen soon that----"
+
+He did not complete his sentence, but, half rising from his armchair,
+made a slight bow to Lisa. It was a dismissal, and she took her leave.
+In the ante-room she caught sight of Logre and Monsieur Lebigre, who
+hastily turned their faces away; but she was more disturbed than they
+were. She went her way through the halls and along the corridors,
+feeling as if she were in the clutches of this system of police which,
+it now seemed to her, saw and knew everything. At last she came out upon
+the Place Dauphine. When she reached the Quai de l'Horloge she slackened
+her steps, and felt refreshed by the cool breeze blowing from the Seine.
+
+She now had a keen perception of the utter uselessness of what she had
+done. Her husband was in no danger whatever; and this thought,
+whilst relieving her, left her a somewhat remorseful feeling. She
+was exasperated with Auguste and the women who had put her in such a
+ridiculous position. She walked on yet more slowly, watching the Seine
+as it flowed past. Barges, black with coal-dust, were floating down the
+greenish water; and all along the bank anglers were casting their lines.
+After all, it was not she who had betrayed Florent. This reflection
+suddenly occurred to her and astonished her. Would she have been guilty
+of a wicked action, then, if she had been his betrayer? She was quite
+perplexed; surprised at the possibility of her conscience having
+deceived her. Those anonymous letters seemed extremely base. She herself
+had gone openly to the authorities, given her name, and saved innocent
+people from being compromised. Then at the sudden thought of old
+Gradelle's fortune she again examined herself, and felt ready to throw
+the money into the river if such a course should be necessary to
+remove the blight which had fallen on the pork shop. No, she was not
+avaricious, she was sure she wasn't; it was no thought of money that
+had prompted her in what she had just done. As she crossed the Pont au
+Change she grew quite calm again, recovering all her superb equanimity.
+On the whole, it was much better, she felt, that others should have
+anticipated her at the Prefecture. She would not have to deceive Quenu,
+and she would sleep with an easier conscience.
+
+"Have you booked the seats?" Quenu asked her when she returned home.
+
+He wanted to see the tickets, and made Lisa explain to him the exact
+position the seats occupied in the dress-circle. Lisa had imagined
+that the police would make a descent upon the house immediately after
+receiving her information, and her proposal to go to the theatre had
+only been a wily scheme for getting Quenu out of the way while the
+officers were arresting Florent. She had contemplated taking him for
+an outing in the afternoon--one of those little jaunts which they
+occasionally allowed themselves. They would then drive in an open cab to
+the Bois de Boulogne, dine at a restaurant, and amuse themselves for an
+hour or two at some cafe concern. But there was no need to go out now,
+she thought; so she spent the rest of the day behind her counter, with
+a rosy glow on her face, and seeming brighter and gayer, as though she
+were recovering from some indisposition.
+
+"You see, I told you it was fresh air you wanted!" exclaimed Quenu.
+"Your walk this morning has brightened you up wonderfully!"
+
+"No, indeed," she said after a pause, again assuming her look of
+severity; "the streets of Paris are not at all healthy places."
+
+In the evening they went to the Gaite to see the performance of "La
+Grace de Dieu." Quenu, in a frock-coat and drab gloves, with his hair
+carefully pomatumed and combed, was occupied most of the time in hunting
+for the names of the performers in the programme. Lisa looked superb
+in her low dress as she rested her hands in their tight-fitting white
+gloves on the crimson velvet balustrade. They were both of them deeply
+affected by the misfortunes of Marie. The commander, they thought, was
+certainly a desperate villain; while Pierrot made them laugh from the
+first moment of his appearance on the stage. But at last Madame Quenu
+cried. The departure of the child, the prayer in the maiden's chamber,
+the return of the poor mad creature, moistened her eyes with gentle
+tears, which she brushed away with her handkerchief.
+
+However, the pleasure which the evening afforded her turned into a
+feeling of triumph when she caught sight of La Normande and her mother
+sitting in the upper gallery. She thereupon puffed herself out more than
+ever, sent Quenu off to the refreshment bar for a box of caramels, and
+began to play with her fan, a mother-of-pearl fan, elaborately gilt.
+The fish-girl was quite crushed; and bent her head down to listen to
+her mother, who was whispering to her. When the performance was over
+and beautiful Lisa and the beautiful Norman met in the vestibule they
+exchanged a vague smile.
+
+Florent had dined early at Monsieur Lebigre's that day. He was expecting
+Logre, who had promised to introduce to him a retired sergeant, a
+capable man, with whom they were to discuss the plan of attack upon the
+Palais Bourbon and the Hotel de Ville. The night closed in, and the
+fine rain, which had begun to fall in the afternoon, shrouded the vast
+markets in a leaden gloom. They loomed darkly against the copper-tinted
+sky, while wisps of murky cloud skimmed by almost on a level with the
+roofs, looking as though they were caught and torn by the points of the
+lightning-conductors. Florent felt depressed by the sight of the muddy
+streets, and the streaming yellowish rain which seemed to sweep the
+twilight away and extinguish it in the mire. He watched the crowds of
+people who had taken refuge on the foot-pavements of the covered ways,
+the umbrellas flitting past in the downpour, and the cabs that dashed
+with increased clatter and speed along the wellnigh deserted roads.
+Presently there was a rift in the clouds; and a red glow arose in the
+west. Then a whole army of street-sweepers came into sight at the end of
+the Rue Montmartre, driving a lake of liquid mud before them with their
+brooms.
+
+Logre did not turn up with the sergeant; Gavard had gone to dine with
+some friends at Batignolles, and so Florent was reduced to spending the
+evening alone with Robine. He had all the talking to himself, and ended
+by feeling very low-spirited. His companion merely wagged his beard, and
+stretched out his hand every quarter of an hour to raise his glass of
+beer to his lips. At last Florent grew so bored that he went off to
+bed. Robine, however, though left to himself, still lingered there,
+contemplating his glass with an expression of deep thought. Rose and the
+waiter, who had hoped to shut up early, as the coterie of politicians
+was absent, had to wait a long half hour before he at last made up his
+mind to leave.
+
+When Florent got to his room, he felt afraid to go to bed. He was
+suffering from one of those nervous attacks which sometimes plunged him
+into horrible nightmares until dawn. On the previous day he had been to
+Clamart to attend the funeral of Monsieur Verlaque, who had died after
+terrible sufferings; and he still felt sad at the recollection of the
+narrow coffin which he had seen lowered into the earth. Nor could he
+banish from his mind the image of Madame Verlaque, who, with a tearful
+voice, though there was not a tear in her eyes, kept following him and
+speaking to him about the coffin, which was not paid for, and of the
+cost of the funeral, which she was quite at a loss about, as she had
+not a copper in the place, for the druggist, on hearing of her husband's
+death on the previous day, had insisted upon his bill being paid. So
+Florent had been obliged to advance the money for the coffin and other
+funeral expenses, and had even given the gratuities to the mutes.
+Just as he was going away, Madame Verlaque looked at him with such a
+heartbroken expression that he left her twenty francs.
+
+And now Monsieur Verlaque's death worried him very much. It affected
+his situation in the markets. He might lose his berth, or perhaps
+be formally appointed inspector. In either case he foresaw vexatious
+complications which might arouse the suspicions of the police. He would
+have been delighted if the insurrection could have broken out the very
+next day, so that he might at once have tossed the laced cap of his
+inspectorship into the streets. With his mind full of harassing thoughts
+like these, he stepped out upon the balcony, as though soliciting of the
+warm night some whiff of air to cool his fevered brow. The rain had
+laid the wind, and a stormy heat still reigned beneath the deep blue,
+cloudless heavens. The markets, washed by the downpour, spread out below
+him, similar in hue to the sky, and, like the sky, studded with the
+yellow stars of their gas lamps.
+
+Leaning on the iron balustrade, Florent recollected that sooner or later
+he would certainly be punished for having accepted the inspectorship. It
+seemed to lie like a stain on his life. He had become an official of the
+Prefecture, forswearing himself, serving the Empire in spite of all
+the oaths he had taken in his exile. His anxiety to please Lisa, the
+charitable purpose to which he had devoted the salary he received, the
+just and scrupulous manner in which he had always struggled to carry
+out his duties, no longer seemed to him valid excuses for his base
+abandonment of principle. If he had suffered in the midst of all that
+sleek fatness, he had deserved to suffer. And before him arose a
+vision of the evil year which he had just spent, his persecution by the
+fish-wives, the sickening sensations he had felt on close, damp days,
+the continuous indigestion which had afflicted his delicate stomach, and
+the latent hostility which was gathering strength against him. All these
+things he now accepted as chastisement. That dull rumbling of hostility
+and spite, the cause of which he could not divine, must forebode some
+coming catastrophe before whose approach he already stooped, with the
+shame of one who knows there is a transgression that he must expiate.
+Then he felt furious with himself as he thought of the popular rising he
+was preparing; and reflected that he was no longer unsullied enough to
+achieve success.
+
+In how many dreams he had indulged in that lofty little room, with his
+eyes wandering over the spreading roofs of the market pavilions! They
+usually appeared to him like grey seas that spoke to him of far-off
+countries. On moonless nights they would darken and turn into stagnant
+lakes of black and pestilential water. But on bright nights they became
+shimmering fountains of light, the moonbeams streaming over both tiers
+like water, gliding along the huge plates of zinc, and flowing over the
+edges of the vast superposed basins. Then frosty weather seemed to turn
+these roofs into rigid ice, like the Norwegian bays over which skaters
+skim; while the warm June nights lulled them into deep sleep. One
+December night, on opening his window, he had seen them white with snow,
+so lustrously white that they lighted up the coppery sky. Unsullied by
+a single footstep, they then stretched out like the lonely plains of the
+Far North, where never a sledge intrudes. Their silence was beautiful,
+their soft peacefulness suggestive of innocence.
+
+And at each fresh aspect of the ever-changing panorama before him,
+Florent yielded to dreams which were now sweet, now full of bitter pain.
+The snow calmed him; the vast sheet of whiteness seemed to him like a
+veil of purity thrown over the filth of the markets. The bright, clear
+nights, the shimmering moonbeams, carried him away into the fairy-land
+of story-books. It was only the dark, black nights, the burning nights
+of June, when he beheld, as it were, a miasmatic marsh, the stagnant
+water of a dead and accursed sea, that filled him with gloom and grief;
+and then ever the same dreadful visions haunted his brain.
+
+The markets were always there. He could never open the window and rest
+his elbows on the balustrade without having them before him, filling
+the horizon. He left the pavilions in the evening only to behold their
+endless roofs as he went to bed. They shut him off from the rest of
+Paris, ceaselessly intruded their huge bulk upon him, entered into every
+hour of his life. That night again horrible fancies came to him, fancies
+aggravated by the vague forebodings of evil which distressed him. The
+rain of the afternoon had filled the markets with malodorous dampness,
+and as they wallowed there in the centre of the city, like some drunken
+man lying, after his last bottle, under the table, they cast all their
+foul breath into his face. He seemed to see a thick vapour rising up
+from each pavilion. In the distance the meat and tripe markets reeked
+with the sickening steam of blood; nearer in, the vegetable and fruit
+pavilions diffused the odour of pungent cabbages, rotten apples, and
+decaying leaves; the butter and cheese exhaled a poisonous stench; from
+the fish market came a sharp, fresh gust; while from the ventilator in
+the tower of the poultry pavilion just below him, he could see a warm
+steam issuing, a fetid current rising in coils like the sooty smoke from
+a factory chimney. And all these exhalations coalesced above the roofs,
+drifted towards the neighbouring houses, and spread themselves out in
+a heavy cloud which stretched over the whole of Paris. It was as though
+the markets were bursting within their tight belt of iron, were beating
+the slumber of the gorged city with the stertorous fumes of their
+midnight indigestion.
+
+However, on the footway down below Florent presently heard a sound of
+voices, the laughter of happy folks. Then the door of the passage was
+closed noisily. It was Quenu and Lisa coming home from the theatre.
+Stupefied and intoxicated, as it were, by the atmosphere he was
+breathing, Florent thereupon left the balcony, his nerves still
+painfully excited by the thought of the tempest which he could feel
+gathering round his head. The source of his misery was yonder, in
+those markets, heated by the day's excesses. He closed the window with
+violence, and left them wallowing in the darkness, naked and perspiring
+beneath the stars.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A week later, Florent thought that he would at last be able to proceed
+to action. A sufficiently serious outburst of public dissatisfaction
+furnished an opportunity for launching his insurrectionary forces
+upon Paris. The Corps Legislatif, whose members had lately shown great
+variance of opinion respecting certain grants to the Imperial family,
+was now discussing a bill for the imposition of a very unpopular tax, at
+which the lower orders had already begun to growl. The Ministry, fearing
+a defeat, was straining every nerve. It was probable, thought Florent,
+that no better pretext for a rising would for a long time present
+itself.
+
+One morning, at daybreak, he went to reconnoitre the neighbourhood of
+the Palais Bourbon. He forgot all about his duties as inspector, and
+lingered there, studying the approaches of the palace, till eight
+o'clock, without ever thinking that his absence would revolutionise the
+fish market. He perambulated all the surrounding streets, the Rue de
+Lille, the Rue de l'Universite, the Rue de Bourgogne, the Rue Saint
+Dominique, and even extended his examination to the Esplanade des
+Invalides, stopping at certain crossways, and measuring distances as he
+walked along. Then, on coming back to the Quai d'Orsay, he sat down
+on the parapet, and determined that the attack should be made
+simultaneously from all sides. The contingents from the Gros-Caillou
+district should arrive by way of the Champ de Mars; the sections from
+the north of Paris should come down by the Madeleine; while those from
+the west and the south would follow the quays, or make their way in
+small detachments through the then narrow streets of the Faubourg Saint
+Germain. However, the other side of the river, the Champs Elysees, with
+their open avenues, caused him some uneasiness; for he foresaw that
+cannon would be stationed there to sweep the quays. He thereupon
+modified several details of his plan, and marked down in a
+memorandum-book the different positions which the several sections
+should occupy during the combat. The chief attack, he concluded, must
+certainly be made from the Rue de Bourgogne and the Rue de l'Universite,
+while a diversion might be effected on the side of the river.
+
+Whilst he thus pondered over his plans the eight o'clock sun, warming
+the nape of his neck, shone gaily on the broad footways, and gilded
+the columns of the great structure in front of him. In imagination he
+already saw the contemplated battle; clusters of men clinging round
+those columns, the gates burst open, the peristyle invaded; and then
+scraggy arms suddenly appearing high aloft and planting a banner there.
+
+At last he slowly went his way homewards again with his gaze fixed upon
+the ground. But all at once a cooing sound made him look up, and he saw
+that he was passing through the garden of the Tuileries. A number of
+wood-pigeons, bridling their necks, were strutting over a lawn near by.
+Florent leant for a moment against the tub of an orange-tree, and looked
+at the grass and the pigeons steeped in sunshine. Right ahead under the
+chestnut-trees all was black. The garden was wrapped in a warm silence,
+broken only by the distant rumbling which came from behind the railings
+of the Rue de Rivoli. The scent of all the greenery affected Florent,
+reminding him of Madame Francois. However, a little girl ran past,
+trundling a hoop, and alarmed the pigeons. They flew off, and settled in
+a row on the arm of a marble statue of an antique wrestler standing
+in the middle of the lawn, and once more, but with less vivacity, they
+began to coo and bridle their necks.
+
+As Florent was returning to the markets by way of the Rue Vauvilliers,
+he heard Claude Lantier calling to him. The artist was going down into
+the basement of the poultry pavilion. "Come with me!" he cried. "I'm
+looking for that brute Marjolin."
+
+Florent followed, glad to forget his thoughts and to defer his return
+to the fish market for a little longer. Claude told him that his friend
+Marjolin now had nothing further to wish for: he had become an utter
+animal. Claude entertained an idea of making him pose on all-fours in
+future. Whenever he lost his temper over some disappointing sketch he
+came to spend whole hours in the idiot's company, never speaking, but
+striving to catch his expression when he laughed.
+
+"He'll be feeding his pigeons, I dare say," he said; "but unfortunately
+I don't know whereabouts Monsieur Gavard's storeroom is."
+
+They groped about the cellar. In the middle of it some water was
+trickling from a couple of taps in the dim gloom. The storerooms here
+are reserved for pigeons exclusively, and all along the trellising they
+heard faint cooings, like the hushed notes of birds nestling under the
+leaves when daylight is departing. Claude began to laugh as he heard it.
+
+"It sounds as though all the lovers in Paris were embracing each other
+inside here, doesn't it?" he exclaimed to his companion.
+
+However, they could not find a single storeroom open, and were beginning
+to think that Marjolin could not be in the cellar, when a sound of
+loud, smacking kisses made them suddenly halt before a door which stood
+slightly ajar. Claude pulled it open and beheld Marjolin, whom Cadine
+was kissing, whilst he, a mere dummy, offered his face without feeling
+the slightest thrill at the touch of her lips.
+
+"Oh, so this is your little game, is it?" said Claude with a laugh.
+
+"Oh," replied Cadine, quite unabashed, "he likes being kissed, because
+he feels afraid now in the dim light. You do feel frightened, don't
+you?"
+
+Like the idiot he was, Marjolin stroked his face with his hands as
+though trying to find the kisses which the girl had just printed there.
+And he was beginning to stammer out that he was afraid, when Cadine
+continued: "And, besides, I came to help him; I've been feeding the
+pigeons."
+
+Florent looked at the poor creatures. All along the shelves were rows of
+lidless boxes, in which pigeons, showing their motley plumage, crowded
+closely on their stiffened legs. Every now and then a tremor ran along
+the moving mass; and then the birds settled down again, and nothing was
+heard but their confused, subdued notes. Cadine had a saucepan near her;
+she filled her mouth with the water and tares which it contained, and
+then, taking up the pigeons one by one, shot the food down their throats
+with amazing rapidity. The poor creatures struggled and nearly choked,
+and finally fell down in the boxes with swimming eyes, intoxicated, as
+it were, by all the food which they were thus forced to swallow.[*]
+
+     [*] This is the customary mode of fattening pigeons at the
+     Paris markets. The work is usually done by men who make a
+     specialty of it, and are called _gaveurs_.--Translator.
+
+"Poor creatures!" exclaimed Claude.
+
+"Oh, so much the worse for them," said Cadine, who had now finished.
+"They are much nicer eating when they've been well fed. In a couple of
+hours or so all those over yonder will be given a dose of salt water.
+That makes their flesh white and tender. Then two hours afterwards
+they'll be killed. If you would like to see the killing, there are some
+here which are quite ready. Marjolin will settle their account for them
+in a jiffy."
+
+Marjolin carried away a box containing some fifty pigeons, and Claude
+and Florent followed him. Squatting upon the ground near one of the
+water-taps, he placed the box by his side. Then he laid a framework of
+slender wooden bars on the top of a kind of zinc trough, and forthwith
+began to kill the pigeons. His knife flashed rapidly in his fingers,
+as he seized the birds by the wings, stunned them by a blow on the head
+from the knife-handle, and then thrust the point of the blade into their
+throats. They quivered for an instant, and ruffled their feathers as
+Marjolin laid them in a row, with their heads between the wooden bars
+above the zinc trough, into which their blood fell drop by drop. He
+repeated each different movement with the regularity of clockwork, the
+blows from the knife-handle falling with a monotonous tick-tack as he
+broke the birds' skulls, and his hand working backwards and forwards
+like a pendulum as he took up the living pigeons on one side and laid
+them down dead on the other. Soon, moreover, he worked with increasing
+rapidity, gloating over the massacre with glistening eyes, squatting
+there like a huge delighted bull-dog enjoying the sight of slaughtered
+vermin. "Tick-tack! Tick-tack!" whilst his tongue clucked as an
+accompaniment to the rhythmical movements of his knife. The pigeons hung
+down like wisps of silken stuff.
+
+"Ah, you enjoy that, don't you, you great stupid?" exclaimed Cadine.
+"How comical those pigeons look when they bury their heads in their
+shoulders to hide their necks! They're horrid things, you know, and
+would give one nasty bites if they got the chance." Then she laughed
+more loudly at Marjolin's increasing, feverish haste; and added: "I've
+killed them sometimes myself, but I can't get on as quickly as he does.
+One day he killed a hundred in ten minutes."
+
+The wooden frame was nearly full; the blood could be heard falling into
+the zinc trough; and as Claude happened to turn round he saw Florent
+looking so pale that he hurriedly led him away. When they got
+above-ground again he made him sit down on a step.
+
+"Why, what's the matter with you?" he exclaimed, tapping him on the
+shoulder. "You're fainting away like a woman!"
+
+"It's the smell of the cellar," murmured Florent, feeling a little
+ashamed of himself.
+
+The truth was, however, that those pigeons, which were forced to swallow
+tares and salt water, and then had their skulls broken and their throats
+slit, had reminded him of the wood-pigeons of the Tuileries gardens,
+strutting over the green turf, with their satiny plumage flashing
+iridescently in the sunlight. He again heard them cooing on the arm
+of the marble wrestler amidst the hushed silence of the garden, while
+children trundled their hoops in the deep gloom of the chestnuts. And
+then, on seeing that big fair-haired animal massacring his boxful of
+birds, stunning them with the handle of his knife and driving its point
+into their throats, in the depths of that foul-smelling cellar, he had
+felt sick and faint, his legs had almost given way beneath him, while
+his eyelids quivered tremulously.
+
+"Well, you'd never do for a soldier!" Claude said to him when he
+recovered from his faintness. "Those who sent you to Cayenne must have
+been very simple-minded folks to fear such a man as you! Why, my good
+fellow, if ever you do put yourself at the head of a rising, you won't
+dare to fire a shot. You'll be too much afraid of killing somebody."
+
+Florent got up without making any reply. He had become very gloomy, his
+face was furrowed by deep wrinkles; and he walked off, leaving Claude to
+go back to the cellar alone. As he made his way towards the fish market
+his thoughts returned to his plan of attack, to the levies of armed men
+who were to invade the Palais Bourbon. Cannon would roar from the Champs
+Elysees; the gates would be burst open; blood would stain the steps, and
+men's brains would bespatter the pillars. A vision of the fight passed
+rapidly before him; and he beheld himself in the midst of it, deadly
+pale, and hiding his face in his hands, not daring to look around him.
+
+As he was crossing the Rue du Pont Neuf he fancied he espied Auguste's
+pale face peering round the corner of the fruit pavilion. The assistant
+seemed to be watching for someone, and his eyes were starting from his
+head with an expression of intense excitement. Suddenly, however, he
+vanished and hastened back to the pork shop.
+
+"What's the matter with him?" thought Florent. "Is he frightened of me,
+I wonder?"
+
+Some very serious occurrences had taken place that morning at the
+Quenu-Gradelles'. Soon after daybreak, Auguste, breathless with
+excitement, had awakened his mistress to tell her that the police
+had come to arrest Monsieur Florent. And he added, with stammering
+incoherence, that the latter had gone out, and that he must have done so
+with the intention of escaping. Lisa, careless of appearances, at once
+hurried up to her brother-in-law's room in her dressing-wrapper, and
+took possession of La Normande's photograph, after glancing round to
+see if there was anything lying about that might compromise herself and
+Quenu. As she was making her way downstairs again, she met the police
+agents on the first floor. The commissary requested her to accompany
+them to Florent's room, where, after speaking to her for a moment in a
+low tone, he installed himself with his men, bidding her open the shop
+as usual so as to avoid giving the alarm to anyone. The trap was set.
+
+Lisa's only worry in the matter was the terrible blow that the arrest
+would prove to poor Quenu. She was much afraid that if he learned that
+the police were in the house, he would spoil everything by his tears; so
+she made Auguste swear to observe the most rigid silence on the subject.
+Then she went back to her room, put on her stays, and concocted some
+story for the benefit of Quenu, who was still drowsy. Half an hour later
+she was standing at the door of the shop with all her usual neatness
+of appearance, her hair smooth and glossy, and her face glowing rosily.
+Auguste was quietly setting out the window. Quenu came for a moment on
+to the footway, yawning slightly, and ridding himself of all sleepiness
+in the fresh morning air. There was nothing to indicate the drama that
+was in preparation upstairs.
+
+The commissary himself, however, gave the alarm to the neighbourhood by
+paying a domiciliary visit to the Mehudins' abode in the Rue Pirouette.
+He was in possession of the most precise information. In the anonymous
+letters which had been sent to the Prefecture, all sorts of statements
+were made respecting Florent's alleged intrigue with the beautiful
+Norman. Perhaps, thought the commissary, he had now taken refuge with
+her; and so, accompanied by two of his men, he proceeded to knock at the
+door in the name of the law. The Mehudins had only just got up. The old
+woman opened the door in a fury; but suddenly calmed down and began
+to smile when she learned the business on hand. She seated herself and
+fastened her clothes, while declaring to the officers: "We are honest
+folks here, and have nothing to be afraid of. You can search wherever
+you like."
+
+However, as La Normande delayed to open the door of her room, the
+commissary told his men to break it open. The young woman was scarcely
+clad when the others entered, and this unceremonious invasion, which she
+could not understand, fairly exasperated her. She flushed crimson from
+anger rather than from shame, and seemed as though she were about to
+fly at the officers. The commissary, at the sight, stepped forward to
+protect his men, repeating in his cold voice: "In the name of the law!
+In the name of the law!"
+
+Thereupon La Normande threw herself upon a chair, and burst into a wild
+fit of hysterical sobbing at finding herself so powerless. She was quite
+at a loss to understand what these men wanted with her. The commissary,
+however, had noticed how scantily she was clad, and taking a shawl from
+a peg, he flung it over her. Still she did not wrap it round her, but
+only sobbed the more bitterly as she watched the men roughly searching
+the apartment.
+
+"But what have I done?" she at last stammered out. "What are you looking
+for here?"
+
+Thereupon the commissary pronounced the name of Florent; and La
+Normande, catching sight of the old woman, who was standing at the door,
+cried out: "Oh, the wretch! This is her doing!" and she rushed at her
+mother.
+
+She would have struck her if she had reached her; but the police agents
+held her back, and forcibly wrapped her in the shawl. Meanwhile, she
+struggled violently, and exclaimed in a choking voice:
+
+"What do you take me for? That Florent has never been in this room, I
+tell you. There was nothing at all between us. People are always trying
+to injure me in the neighbourhood; but just let anyone come here and
+say anything before my face, and then you'll see! You'll lock me up
+afterwards, I dare say, but I don't mind that! Florent, indeed! What a
+lie! What nonsense!"
+
+This flood of words seemed to calm her; and her anger now turned
+against Florent, who was the cause of all the trouble. Addressing the
+commissary, she sought to justify herself.
+
+"I did not know his real character, sir," she said. "He had such a mild
+manner that he deceived us all. I was unwilling to believe all I heard,
+because I know people are so malicious. He only came here to give
+lessons to my little boy, and went away directly they were over. I gave
+him a meal here now and again, that's true and sometimes made him a
+present of a fine fish. That's all. But this will be a warning to me,
+and you won't catch me showing the same kindness to anyone again."
+
+"But hasn't he given you any of his papers to take care of?" asked the
+commissary.
+
+"Oh no, indeed! I swear it. I'd give them up to you at once if he had.
+I've had quite enough of this, I can tell you! It's no joke to see you
+tossing all my things about and ferreting everywhere in this way. Oh!
+you may look; there's nothing."
+
+The officers, who examined every article of furniture, now wished to
+enter the little closet where Muche slept. The child had been awakened
+by the noise, and for the last few moments he had been crying bitterly,
+as though he imagined that he was going to be murdered.
+
+"This is my boy's room," said La Normande, opening the door.
+
+Muche, quite naked, ran up and threw his arms round his mother's neck.
+She pacified him, and laid him down in her own bed. The officers came
+out of the little room again almost immediately, and the commissary
+had just made up his mind to retire, when the child, still in tears,
+whispered in his mother's ear: "They'll take my copy-books. Don't let
+them have my copy-books."
+
+"Oh, yes; that's true," cried La Normande; "there are some copy-books.
+Wait a moment, gentlemen, and I'll give them to you. I want you to see
+that I'm not hiding anything from you. Then, you'll find some of his
+writing inside these. You're quite at liberty to hang him as far as I'm
+concerned; you won't find me trying to cut him down."
+
+Thereupon she handed Muche's books and the copies set by Florent to the
+commissary. But at this the boy sprang angrily out of bed, and began to
+scratch and bite his mother, who put him back again with a box on the
+ears. Then he began to bellow.
+
+In the midst of the uproar, Mademoiselle Saget appeared on the
+threshold, craning her neck forward. Finding all the doors open, she had
+come in to offer her services to old Madame Mehudin. She spied about and
+listened, and expressed extreme pity for these poor women, who had
+no one to defend them. The commissary, however, had begun to read
+the copies with a grave air. The frequent repetition of such words as
+"tyrannically," "liberticide," "unconstitutional," and "revolutionary"
+made him frown; and on reading the sentence, "When the hour strikes, the
+guilty shall fall," he tapped his fingers on the paper and said: "This
+is very serious, very serious indeed."
+
+Thereupon he gave the books to one of his men, and went off. Claire,
+who had hitherto not shown herself, now opened her door, and watched
+the police officers go down the stairs. And afterwards she came into
+her sister's bedroom, which she had not entered for a year. Mademoiselle
+Saget appeared to be on the best of terms with La Normande, and was
+hanging over her in a caressing way, bringing the shawl forward to
+cover her the better, and listening to her angry indignation with an
+expression of the deepest sympathy.
+
+"You wretched coward!" exclaimed Claire, planting herself in front of
+her sister.
+
+La Normande sprang up, quivering with anger, and let the shawl fall to
+the floor.
+
+"Ah, you've been playing the spy, have you?" she screamed. "Dare to
+repeat what you've just said!"
+
+"You wretched coward!" repeated Claire, in still more insulting tones
+than before.
+
+Thereupon La Normande struck Claire with all her force; and in return
+Claire, turning terribly pale, sprang upon her sister and dug her nails
+into her neck. They struggled together for a moment or two, tearing
+at each other's hair and trying to choke one another. Claire, fragile
+though she was, pushed La Normande backward with such tremendous
+violence that they both fell against the wardrobe, smashing the mirror
+on its front. Muche was roaring, and old Madame Mehudin called to
+Mademoiselle Saget to come and help her separate the sisters. Claire,
+however, shook herself free.
+
+"Coward! Coward!" she cried; "I'll go and tell the poor fellow that it
+is you who have betrayed him."
+
+Her mother, however, blocked the doorway, and would not let her pass,
+while La Normande seized her from behind, and then, Mademoiselle Saget
+coming to the assistance of the other two, the three of them dragged
+Claire into her bedroom and locked the door upon her, in spite of all
+her frantic resistance. In her rage she tried to kick the door down, and
+smashed everything in the room. Soon afterwards, however, nothing could
+be heard except a furious scratching, the sound of metal scarping at the
+plaster. The girl was trying to loosen the door hinges with the points
+of her scissors.
+
+"She would have murdered me if she had had a knife," said La Normande,
+looking about for her clothes, in order to dress herself. "She'll be
+doing something dreadful, you'll see, one of these days, with that
+jealousy of hers! We mustn't let her get out on any account: she'd bring
+the whole neighbourhood down upon us!"
+
+Mademoiselle Saget went off in all haste. She reached the corner of the
+Rue Pirouette just as the commissary of police was re-entering the side
+passage of the Quenu-Gradelles' house. She grasped the situation at
+once, and entered the shop with such glistening eyes that Lisa enjoined
+silence by a gesture which called her attention to the presence of
+Quenu, who was hanging up some pieces of salt pork. As soon as he had
+returned to the kitchen, the old maid in a low voice described the
+scenes that had just taken place at the Mehudins'. Lisa, as she bent
+over the counter, with her hand resting on a dish of larded veal,
+listened to her with the happy face of one who triumphs. Then, as a
+customer entered the shop, and asked for a couple of pig's trotters,
+Lisa wrapped them up, and handed them over with a thoughtful air.
+
+"For my own part, I bear La Normande no ill-will," she said to
+Mademoiselle Saget, when they were alone again. "I used to be very
+fond of her, and have always been sorry that other people made mischief
+between us. The proof that I've no animosity against her is here in this
+photograph, which I saved from falling into the hands of the police, and
+which I'm quite ready to give her back if she will come and ask me for
+it herself."
+
+She took the photograph out of her pocket as she spoke. Mademoiselle
+Saget scrutinised it and sniggered as she read the inscription, "Louise,
+to her dear friend Florent."
+
+"I'm not sure you'll be acting wisely," she said in her cutting voice.
+"You'd do better to keep it."
+
+"No, no," replied Lisa; "I'm anxious for all this silly nonsense to
+come to an end. To-day is the day of reconciliation. We've had enough
+unpleasantness, and the neighbourhood's now going to be quiet and
+peaceful again."
+
+"Well, well, shall I go and tell La Normande that you are expecting
+her?" asked the old maid.
+
+"Yes; I shall be very glad if you will."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget then made her way back to the Rue Pirouette, and
+greatly frightened the fish-girl by telling her that she had just seen
+her photograph in Lisa's pocket. She could not, however, at once prevail
+upon her to comply with her rival's terms. La Normande propounded
+conditions of her own. She would go, but Madame Quenu must come to the
+door of the shop to receive her. Thus the old maid was obliged to make
+another couple of journeys between the two rivals before their meeting
+could be satisfactorily arranged. At last, however, to her great
+delight, she succeeded in negotiating the peace which was destined to
+cause so much talk and excitement. As she passed Claire's door for the
+last time she still heard the sound of the scissors scraping away at the
+plaster.
+
+When she had at last carried a definite reply to Madame Quenu,
+Mademoiselle Saget hurried off to find Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette;
+and all three of them took up their position on the footway at the
+corner of the fish market, just in front of the pork shop. Here they
+would be certain to have a good view of every detail of the meeting.
+They felt extremely impatient, and while pretending to chat together
+kept an anxious look-out in the direction of the Rue Pirouette, along
+which La Normande must come. The news of the reconciliation was already
+travelling through the markets, and while some saleswomen stood up
+behind their stalls trying to get a view of what was taking place,
+others, still more inquisitive, actually left their places and took up a
+position in the covered way. Every eye in the markets was directed
+upon the pork shop; the whole neighbourhood was on the tip-toe of
+expectation.
+
+It was a very solemn affair. When La Normande at last turned the corner
+of the Rue Pirouette the excitement was so great that the women held
+their breath.
+
+"She has got her diamonds on," murmured La Sarriette.
+
+"Just look how she stalks along," added Madame Lecoeur; "the stuck-up
+creature!"
+
+The beautiful Norman was, indeed, advancing with the mien of a queen who
+condescends to make peace. She had made a most careful toilet, frizzing
+her hair and turning up a corner of her apron to display her cashmere
+skirt. She had even put on a new and rich lace bow. Conscious that the
+whole market was staring at her, she assumed a still haughtier air as
+she approached the pork shop. When she reached the door she stopped.
+
+"Now it's beautiful Lisa's turn," remarked Mademoiselle Saget. "Mind you
+pay attention."
+
+Beautiful Lisa smilingly quitted her counter. She crossed the shop-floor
+at a leisurely pace, and came and offered her hand to the beautiful
+Norman. She also was smartly dressed, with her dazzling linen and
+scrupulous neatness. A murmur ran through the crowd of fish-wives, all
+their heads gathered close together, and animated chatter ensued. The
+two women had gone inside the shop, and the _crepines_ in the window
+prevented them from being clearly seen. However, they seemed to be
+conversing affectionately, addressing pretty compliments to one another.
+
+"See!" suddenly exclaimed Mademoiselle Saget, "the beautiful Norman's
+buying something! What is it she's buying? It's a chitterling, I
+believe! Ah! Look! look! You didn't see it, did you? Well, beautiful
+Lisa just gave her the photograph; she slipped it into her hand with the
+chitterling."
+
+Fresh salutations were then seen to pass between the two women; and
+the beautiful Lisa, exceeding even the courtesies which had been agreed
+upon, accompanied the beautiful Norman to the footway. There they stood
+laughing together, exhibiting themselves to the neighbourhood like
+a couple of good friends. The markets were quite delighted; and the
+saleswomen returned to their stalls, declaring that everything had
+passed off extremely well.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget, however, detained Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette.
+The drama was not over yet. All three kept their eyes fixed on the house
+opposite with such keen curiosity that they seemed trying to penetrate
+the very walls. To pass the time away they once more began to talk of
+the beautiful Norman.
+
+"She's without a lover now," remarked Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"Oh! she's got Monsieur Lebigre," replied La Sarriette, with a laugh.
+
+"But surely Monsieur Lebigre won't have anything more to say to her."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget shrugged her shoulders. "Ah, you don't know him," she
+said. "He won't care a straw about all this business. He knows what he's
+about, and La Normande is rich. They'll come together in a couple of
+months, you'll see. Old Madame Mehudin's been scheming to bring about
+their marriage for a long time past."
+
+"Well, anyway," retorted the butter dealer, "the commissary found
+Florent at her lodgings."
+
+"No, no, indeed; I'm sure I never told you that. The long spindle-shanks
+had gone way," replied the old maid. She paused to take a breath; then
+resumed in an indignant tone, "What distressed me most was to hear of
+all the abominable things that the villain had taught little Muche.
+You'd really never believe it. There was a whole bundle of papers."
+
+"What sort of abominable things?" asked La Sarriette with interest.
+
+"Oh, all kinds of filth. The commissary said there was quite sufficient
+there to hang him. The fellow's a perfect monster! To go and demoralise
+a child! Why, it's almost past believing! Little Muche is certainly a
+scamp, but that's no reason why he should be given over to the 'Reds,'
+is it?"
+
+"Certainly not," assented the two others.
+
+"However, all these mysterious goings-on will come to an end now. You
+remember my telling you once that there was some strange goings-on at
+the Quenus'? Well, you see, I was right in my conclusions, wasn't
+I? Thank God, however, the neighbourhood will now be able to breathe
+easily. It was high time strong steps were taken, for things had got to
+such a pitch that one actually felt afraid of being murdered in broad
+daylight. There was no pleasure in life. All the dreadful stories and
+reports one heard were enough to worry one to death. And it was all
+owing to that man, that dreadful Florent. Now beautiful Lisa and the
+beautiful Norman have sensibly made friends again. It was their duty to
+do so for the sake of the peace and quietness of us all. Everything will
+go on satisfactorily now, you'll find. Ah! there's poor Monsieur Quenu
+laughing yonder!"
+
+Quenu had again come on to the footway, and was joking with Madame
+Taboureau's little servant. He seemed quite gay and skittish that
+morning. He took hold of the little servant's hands, and squeezed her
+fingers so tightly, in the exuberance of his spirits, that he made her
+cry out. Lisa had the greatest trouble to get him to go back into the
+kitchen. She was impatiently pacing about the shop, fearing lest Florent
+should make his appearance; and she called to her husband to come away,
+dreading a meeting between him and his brother.
+
+"She's getting quite vexed," said Mademoiselle Saget. "Poor Monsieur
+Quenu, you see, knows nothing at all about what's taking place. Just
+look at him there, laughing like a child! Madame Taboureau, you know,
+said that she should have nothing more to do with the Quenus if they
+persisted in bringing themselves into discredit by keeping that Florent
+with them."
+
+"Well, now, I suppose, they will stick to the fortune," remarked Madame
+Lecoeur.
+
+"Oh, no, indeed, my dear. The other one has had his share already."
+
+"Really? How do you know that?"
+
+"Oh, it's clear enough, that is!" replied the old maid after a momentary
+hesitation, but without giving any proof of her assertions. "He's had
+even more than his share. The Quenus will be several thousand francs out
+of pocket. Money flies, you know, when a man has such vices as he has. I
+dare say you don't know that there was another woman mixed up in it all.
+Yes, indeed, old Madame Verlaque, the wife of the former inspector; you
+know the sallow-faced thing well enough."
+
+The others protested that it surely wasn't possible. Why, Madame
+Verlaque was positively hideous!
+
+"What! do you think me a liar?" cried Mademoiselle Saget, with angry
+indignation. "Why, her letters to him have been found, a whole pile of
+letters, in which she asks for money, ten and twenty francs at a time.
+There's no doubt at all about it. I'm quite certain in my own mind that
+they killed the husband between them."
+
+La Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur were convinced; but they were beginning
+to get very impatient. They had been waiting on the footway for more
+than an hour, and feared that somebody might be robbing their stalls
+during their long absence. So Mademoiselle Saget began to give them some
+further interesting information to keep them from going off. Florent
+could not have taken to flight, said she; he was certain to return, and
+it would be very interesting to see him arrested. Then she went on to
+describe the trap that had been laid for him, while Madame Lecoeur
+and La Sarriette continued scrutinising the house from top to bottom,
+keeping watch upon every opening, and at each moment expecting to see
+the hats of the detectives appear at one of the doors or windows.
+
+"Who would ever imagine, now, that the place was full of police?"
+observed the butter dealer.
+
+"Oh! they're in the garret at the top," said the old maid. "They've left
+the window open, you see, just as they found it. Look! I think I can see
+one of them hiding behind the pomegranate on the balcony."
+
+The others excitedly craned out their necks, but could see nothing.
+
+"Ah, no, it's only a shadow," continued Mademoiselle Saget. "The little
+curtains even are perfectly still. The detectives must be sitting down
+in the room, and keeping quiet."
+
+Just at that moment the women caught sight of Gavard coming out of the
+fish market with a thoughtful air. They looked at him with glistening
+eyes, without speaking. They had drawn close to one another, and stood
+there rigid in their drooping skirts. The poultry dealer came up to
+them.
+
+"Have you seen Florent go by?" he asked.
+
+They replied that they had not.
+
+"I want to speak to him at once," continued Gavard. "He isn't in the
+fish market. He must have gone up to his room. But you would have seen
+him, though, if he had."
+
+The women had turned rather pale. They still kept looking at each other
+with a knowing expression, their lips twitching slightly every now and
+then. "We have only been here some five minutes, said Madame Lecoeur
+unblushingly, as her brother-in-law still stood hesitating.
+
+"Well, then, I'll go upstairs and see. I'll risk the five flights,"
+rejoined Gavard with a laugh.
+
+La Sarriette stepped forward as though she wished to detain him, but her
+aunt took hold of her arm and drew her back.
+
+"Let him alone, you big simpleton!" she whispered. "It's the best thing
+that can happen to him. It'll teach him to treat us with respect in
+future."
+
+"He won't say again that I ate tainted meat," muttered Mademoiselle
+Saget in a low tone.
+
+They said nothing more. La Sarriette was very red; but the two others
+still remained quite yellow. But they now averted their heads, feeling
+confused by each other's looks, and at a loss what to do with their
+hands, which they buried beneath their aprons. Presently their eyes
+instinctively came back to the house, penetrating the walls, as it were,
+following Gavard in his progress up the stairs. When they imagined that
+he had entered Florent's room they again exchanged furtive glances. La
+Sarriette laughed nervously. All at once they fancied they could see the
+window curtains moving, and this led them to believe that a struggle was
+taking place. But the house-front remained as tranquil as ever in the
+sunshine; and another quarter of an hour of unbroken quietness passed
+away, during which the three women's nervous excitement became more
+and more intense. They were beginning to feel quite faint when a man
+hurriedly came out of the passage and ran off to get a cab. Five minutes
+later Gavard appeared, followed by two police officers. Lisa, who had
+stepped out on to the footway on observing the cab, hastily hurried back
+into the shop.
+
+Gavard was very pale. The police had searched him upstairs, and had
+discovered the revolver and cartridge case in his possession. Judging
+by the commissary's stern expression on hearing his name, the poultry
+dealer deemed himself lost. This was a terrible ending to his plotting
+that had never entered into his calculations. The Tuileries would never
+forgive him! His legs gave way beneath him as though the firing party
+was already awaiting him outside. When he got into the street, however,
+his vanity lent him sufficient strength to walk erect; and he even
+managed to force a smile, as he knew the market people were looking at
+him. They should see him die bravely, he resolved.
+
+However, La Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur rushed up to him and anxiously
+inquired what was the matter; and the butter dealer began to cry, while
+La Sarriette embraced her uncle, manifesting the deepest emotion. As
+Gavard held her clasped in his arms, he slipped a key into her hand, and
+whispered in her ear: "Take everything, and burn the papers."
+
+Then he got into the cab with the same mien as he would have ascended
+the scaffold. As the vehicle disappeared round the corner of the Rue
+Pierre Lescot, Madame Lecoeur observed La Sarriette trying to hide the
+key in her pocket.
+
+"It's of no use you trying that little game on me, my dear," she
+exclaimed, clenching her teeth; "I saw him slip it into your hand.
+As true as there's a God in Heaven, I'll go to the gaol and tell him
+everything, if you don't treat me properly."
+
+"Of course I shall treat you properly, aunt, dear," replied La
+Sarriette, with an embarrassed smile.
+
+"Very well, then, let us go to his rooms at once. It's of no use to give
+the police time to poke their dirty hands in the cupboards."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget, who had been listening with gleaming eyes, followed
+them, running along in the rear as quickly as her short legs could
+carry her. She had no thought, now, of waiting for Florent. From the Rue
+Rambuteau to the Rue de la Cossonnerie she manifested the most humble
+obsequiousness, and volunteered to explain matters to Madame Leonce, the
+doorkeeper.
+
+"We'll see, we'll see," the butter dealer curtly replied.
+
+However, on reaching the house a preliminary parley--as Mademoiselle
+Saget had opined--proved to be necessary. Madame Leonce refused to allow
+the women to go up to her tenant's room. She put on an expression
+of severe austerity, and seemed greatly shocked by the sight of La
+Sarriette's loosely fastened fichu. However, after the old maid had
+whispered a few words to her and she was shown the key, she gave way.
+When they got upstairs she surrendered the rooms and furniture to the
+others article by article, apparently as heartbroken as if she had been
+compelled to show a party of burglars the place where her own money was
+secreted.
+
+"There, take everything and have done with it!" she cried at last,
+throwing herself into an arm-chair.
+
+La Sarriette was already eagerly trying the key in the locks of
+different closets. Madame Lecoeur, all suspicion, pressed her so closely
+that she exclaimed: "Really, aunt, you get in my way. Do leave my arms
+free, at any rate."
+
+At last they succeeded in opening a wardrobe opposite the window,
+between the fireplace and the bed. And then all four women broke into
+exclamations. On the middle shelf lay some ten thousand francs in
+gold, methodically arranged in little piles. Gavard, who had prudently
+deposited the bulk of his fortune in the hands of a notary, had kept
+this sum by him for the purposes of the coming outbreak. He had been
+wont to say with great solemnity that his contribution to the revolution
+was quite ready. The fact was that he had sold out certain stock, and
+every night took an intense delight in contemplating those ten thousand
+francs, gloating over them, and finding something quite roysterous and
+insurrectional in their appearance. Sometimes when he was in bed he
+dreamed that a fight was going on in the wardrobe; he could hear
+guns being fired there, paving-stones being torn up and piled into
+barricades, and voices shouting in clamorous triumph; and he said to
+himself that it was his money fighting against the Government.
+
+La Sarriette, however, had stretched out her hands with a cry of
+delight.
+
+"Paws off, little one!" exclaimed Madame Lecoeur in a hoarse voice.
+
+As she stood there in the reflection of the gold, she looked yellower
+than ever--her face discoloured by biliousness, her eyes glowing
+feverishly from the liver complaint which was secretly undermining her.
+Behind her Mademoiselle Saget on tip-toe was gazing ecstatically into
+the wardrobe, and Madame Leonce had now risen from her seat, and was
+growling sulkily.
+
+"My uncle said I was to take everything," declared the girl.
+
+"And am I to have nothing, then; I who have done so much for him?" cried
+the doorkeeper.
+
+Madame Lecoeur was almost choking with excitement. She pushed the others
+away, and clung hold of the wardrobe, screaming: "It all belongs to
+me! I am his nearest relative. You are a pack of thieves, you are! I'd
+rather throw it all out of the window than see you have it!"
+
+Then silence fell, and they all four stood glowering at each other.
+The kerchief that La Sarriette wore over her breast was now altogether
+unfastened, and she displayed her bosom heaving with warm life, her
+moist red lips, her rosy nostrils. Madame Lecoeur grew still more sour
+as she saw how lovely the girl looked in the excitement of her longing
+desire.
+
+"Well," she said in a lower tone, "we won't fight about it. You are his
+niece, and I'll divide the money with you. We will each take a pile in
+turn."
+
+Thereupon they pushed the other two aside. The butter dealer took
+the first pile, which at once disappeared within her skirts. Then La
+Sarriette took a pile. They kept a close watch upon one another, ready
+to fight at the slightest attempt at cheating. Their fingers were thrust
+forward in turn, the hideous knotted fingers of the aunt and the white
+fingers of the niece, soft and supple as silk. Slowly they filled their
+pockets. When there was only one pile left, La Sarriette objected to
+her aunt taking it, as she had commenced; and she suddenly divided
+it between Mademoiselle Saget and Madame Leonce, who had watched them
+pocket the gold with feverish impatience.
+
+"Much obliged to you!" snarled the doorkeeper. "Fifty francs for having
+coddled him up with tisane and broth! The old deceiver told me he had no
+relatives!"
+
+Before locking the wardrobe up again, Madame Lecoeur searched it
+thoroughly from top to bottom. It contained all the political works
+which were forbidden admission into the country, the pamphlets printed
+at Brussels, the scandalous histories of the Bonapartes, and the foreign
+caricatures ridiculing the Emperor. One of Gavard's greatest
+delights was to shut himself up with a friend, and show him all these
+compromising things.
+
+"He told me that I was to burn all the papers," said La Sarriette.
+
+"Oh, nonsense! we've no fire, and it would take up too long. The police
+will soon be here! We must get out of this!"
+
+They all four hastened off; but they had not reached the bottom of the
+stairs before the police met them, and made Madame Leonce return with
+them upstairs. The three others, making themselves as small as possible,
+hurriedly escaped into the street. They walked away in single file at a
+brisk pace; the aunt and niece considerably incommoded by the weight of
+their drooping pockets. Mademoiselle Saget had kept her fifty francs in
+her closed fist, and remained deep in thought, brooding over a plan for
+extracting something more from the heavy pockets in front of her.
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed, as they reached the corner of the fish market,
+"we've got here at a lucky moment. There's Florent yonder, just going to
+walk into the trap."
+
+Florent, indeed, was just then returning to the markets after his
+prolonged perambulation. He went into his office to change his coat,
+and then set about his daily duties, seeing that the marble slabs were
+properly washed, and slowly strolling along the alleys. He fancied that
+the fish-wives looked at him in a somewhat strange manner; they chuckled
+too, and smiled significantly as he passed them. Some new vexation, he
+thought, was in store for him. For some time past those huge, terrible
+women had not allowed him a day's peace. However, as he passed the
+Mehudins' stall he was very much surprised to hear the old woman address
+him in a honeyed tone: "There's just been a gentleman inquiring for you,
+Monsieur Florent; a middle-aged gentleman. He's gone to wait for you in
+your room."
+
+As the old fish-wife, who was squatting, all of a heap, on her chair,
+spoke these words, she felt such a delicious thrill of satisfied
+vengeance that her huge body fairly quivered. Florent, still doubtful,
+glanced at the beautiful Norman; but the young woman, now completely
+reconciled with her mother, turned on her tap and slapped her fish,
+pretending not to hear what was being said.
+
+"You are quite sure?" said Florent to Mother Mehudin.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed. Isn't that so, Louise?" said the old woman in a
+shriller voice.
+
+Florent concluded that it must be some one who wanted to see him about
+the great business, and he resolved to go up to his room. He was just
+about to leave the pavilion, when, happening to turn round, he observed
+the beautiful Norman watching him with a grave expression on her face.
+Then he passed in front of the three gossips.
+
+"Do you notice that there's no one in the pork shop?" remarked
+Mademoiselle Saget. "Beautiful Lisa's not the woman to compromise
+herself."
+
+The shop was, indeed, quite empty. The front of the house was still
+bright with sunshine; the building looked like some honest, prosperous
+pile guilelessly warming itself in the morning rays. Up above, the
+pomegranate on the balcony was in full bloom. As Florent crossed the
+roadway he gave a friendly nod to Logre and Monsieur Lebigre, who
+appeared to be enjoying the fresh air on the doorstep of the latter's
+establishment. They returned his greeting with a smile. Florent was then
+about to enter the side-passage, when he fancied he saw Auguste's pale
+face hastily vanishing from its dark and narrow depths. Thereupon he
+turned back and glanced into the shop to make sure that the middle-aged
+gentleman was not waiting for him there. But he saw no one but Mouton,
+who sat on a block displaying his double chin and bristling whiskers,
+and gazed at him defiantly with his great yellow eyes. And when he had
+at last made up his mind to enter the passage, Lisa's face appeared
+behind the little curtain of a glazed door at the back of the shop.
+
+A hush had fallen over the fish market. All the huge paunches and bosoms
+held their breath, waiting till Florent should disappear from sight.
+Then there was an uproarious outbreak; and the bosoms heaved wildly
+and the paunches nearly burst with malicious delight. The joke had
+succeeded. Nothing could be more comical. As old Mother Mehudin vented
+her merriment she shook and quivered like a wine-skin that is being
+emptied. Her story of the middle-aged gentleman went the round of the
+market, and the fish-wives found it extremely amusing. At last the long
+spindle-shanks was collared, and they would no longer always have his
+miserable face and gaol-bird's expression before their eyes. They
+all wished him a pleasant journey, and trusted that they might get a
+handsome fellow for their next inspector. And in their delight they
+rushed about from one stall to another, and felt inclined to dance
+round their marble slabs like a lot of holiday-making schoolgirls.
+The beautiful Norman, however, watched this outbreak of joy in a rigid
+attitude, not daring to move for fear she should burst into tears;
+and she kept her hands pressed upon a big skate to cool her feverish
+excitement.
+
+"You see how those Mehudins turn their backs upon him now that he's come
+to grief," said Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"Well, and they're quite right too," replied Mademoiselle Saget.
+"Besides, matters are settled now, my dear, and we're to have no more
+disputes. You've every reason to be satisfied; leave the others to act
+as they please."
+
+"It's only the old woman who is laughing," La Sarriette remarked; "La
+Normande looks anything but happy."
+
+Meantime, upstairs in his bedroom, Florent allowed himself to be taken
+as unresistingly as a sheep. The police officers sprang roughly
+upon him, expecting, no doubt, that they would meet with a desperate
+resistance. He quietly begged them to leave go of him; and then sat
+down on a chair while they packed up his papers, and the red scarves,
+armlets, and banners. He did not seem at all surprised at this ending;
+indeed, it was something of a relief to him, though he would not frankly
+confess it. But he suffered acutely at thought of the bitter hatred
+which had sent him into that room; he recalled Auguste's pale face and
+the sniggering looks of the fish-wives; he bethought himself of old
+Madame Mehudin's words, La Normande's silence, and the empty shop
+downstairs. The markets were leagued against him, he reflected; the
+whole neighbourhood had conspired to hand him over to the police. The
+mud of those greasy streets had risen up all around to overwhelm him!
+
+And amidst all the round faces which flitted before his mind's eye there
+suddenly appeared that of Quenu, and a spasm of mortal agony contracted
+his heart.
+
+"Come, get along downstairs!" exclaimed one of the officers, roughly.
+
+Florent rose and proceeded to go downstairs. When he reached the second
+floor he asked to be allowed to return; he had forgotten something, he
+said. But the officers refused to let him go back, and began to hustle
+him forward. Then he besought them to let him return to his room again,
+and even offered them the money he had in his pocket. Two of them at
+last consented to return with him, threatening to blow his brains out
+should he attempt to play them any trick; and they drew their revolvers
+out of their pockets as they spoke. However, on reaching his room once
+more Florent simply went straight to the chaffinch's cage, took the
+bird out of it, kissed it between its wings, and set it at liberty.
+He watched it fly away through the open window, into the sunshine, and
+alight, as though giddy, on the roof of the fish market. Then it flew
+off again and disappeared over the markets in the direction of the
+Square des Innocents. For a moment longer Florent remained face to face
+with the sky, the free and open sky; and he thought of the wood-pigeons
+cooing in the garden of the Tuileries, and of those other pigeons down
+in the market cellars with their throats slit by Marjolin's knife. Then
+he felt quite broken, and turned and followed the officers, who were
+putting their revolvers back into their pockets as they shrugged their
+shoulders.
+
+On reaching the bottom of the stairs, Florent stopped before the door
+which led into the kitchen. The commissary, who was waiting for him
+there, seemed almost touched by his gentle submissiveness, and asked
+him: "Would you like to say good-bye to your brother?"
+
+For a moment Florent hesitated. He looked at the door. A tremendous
+noise of cleavers and pans came from the kitchen. Lisa, with the
+design of keeping her husband occupied, had persuaded him to make the
+black-puddings in the morning instead of in the evening, as was his
+wont. The onions were simmering on the fire, and over all the noisy
+uproar Florent could hear Quenu's joyous voice exclaiming, "Ah, dash it
+all, the pudding will be excellent, that it will! Auguste, hand me the
+fat!"
+
+Florent thanked the commissary, but refused his offer. He was afraid
+to return any more into that warm kitchen, reeking with the odour of
+boiling onions, and so he went on past the door, happy in the thought
+that his brother knew nothing of what had happened to him, and hastening
+his steps as if to spare the establishment all further worry. However,
+on emerging into the open sunshine of the street he felt a touch of
+shame, and got into the cab with bent back and ashen face. He was
+conscious that the fish market was gazing at him in triumph; it seemed
+to him, indeed, as though the whole neighbourhood had gathered there to
+rejoice at his fall.
+
+"What a villainous expression he's got!" said Mademoiselle Saget.
+
+"Yes, indeed, he looks just like a thief caught with his hand in
+somebody's till," added Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"I once saw a man guillotined who looked exactly like he does," asserted
+La Sarriette, showing her white teeth.
+
+They stepped forward, lengthened their necks, and tried to see into the
+cab. Just as it was starting, however, the old maid tugged sharply at
+the skirts of her companions, and pointed to Claire, who was coming
+round the corner of the Rue Pirouette, looking like a mad creature,
+with her hair loose and her nails bleeding. She had at last succeeded
+in opening her door. When she discovered that she was too late, and
+that Florent was being taken off, she darted after the cab, but checked
+herself almost immediately with a gesture of impotent rage, and shook
+her fists at the receding wheels. Then, with her face quite crimson
+beneath the fine plaster dust with which she was covered, she ran back
+again towards the Rue Pirouette.
+
+"Had he promised to marry her, eh?" exclaimed La Sarriette, laughing.
+"The silly fool must be quite cracked."
+
+Little by little the neighbourhood calmed down, though throughout the
+day groups of people constantly assembled and discussed the events of
+the morning. The pork shop was the object of much inquisitive curiosity.
+Lisa avoided appearing there, and left the counter in charge of
+Augustine. In the afternoon she felt bound to tell Quenu of what had
+happened, for fear the news might cause him too great a shock should
+he hear it from some gossiping neighbour. She waited till she was alone
+with him in the kitchen, knowing that there he was always most cheerful,
+and would weep less than if he were anywhere else. Moreover, she
+communicated her tidings with all sorts of motherly precautions.
+Nevertheless, as soon as he knew the truth he fell on the
+chopping-block, and began to cry like a calf.
+
+"Now, now, my poor dear, don't give way like that; you'll make yourself
+quite ill," exclaimed Lisa, taking him in her arms.
+
+His tears were inundating his white apron, the whole of his massive,
+torpid form quivered with grief. He seemed to be sinking, melting away.
+When he was at last able to speak, he stammered: "Oh, you don't know how
+good he was to me when we lived together in the Rue Royer-Collard! He
+did everything. He swept the room and cooked the meals. He loved me as
+though I were his own child; and after his day's work he used to come
+back splashed with mud, and so tired that he could scarcely move, while
+I stayed warm and comfortable in the house, and had nothing to do but
+eat. And now they're going to shoot him!"
+
+At this Lisa protested, saying that he would certainly not be shot. But
+Quenu only shook his head.
+
+"I haven't loved him half as much as I ought to have done," he
+continued. "I can see that very well now. I had a wicked heart, and I
+hesitated about giving him his half of the money."
+
+"Why, I offered it to him a dozen times and more!" Lisa interrupted.
+"I'm sure we've nothing to reproach ourselves with."
+
+"Oh, yes, I know that you are everything that is good, and that you
+would have given him every copper. But I hesitated, I didn't like to
+part with it; and now it will be a sorrow to me for the rest of my life.
+I shall always think that if I'd shared the fortune with him he wouldn't
+have gone wrong a second time. Oh, yes; it's my fault! It is I who have
+driven him to this."
+
+Then Lisa, expostulating still more gently, assured him that he had
+nothing to blame himself for, and even expressed some pity for Florent.
+But he was really very culpable, she said, and if he had had more money
+he would probably have perpetrated greater follies. Gradually she gave
+her husband to understand that it was impossible matters could have had
+any other termination, and that now everything would go on much better.
+Quenu was still weeping, wiping his cheeks with his apron, trying to
+suppress his sobs to listen to her, and then breaking into a wilder
+fit of tears than before. His fingers had mechanically sought a heap
+of sausage-meat lying on the block, and he was digging holes in it, and
+roughly kneading it together.
+
+"And how unwell you were feeling, you know," Lisa continued. "It was all
+because our life had got so shifted out of its usual course. I was very
+anxious, though I didn't tell you so, at seeing you getting so low."
+
+"Yes, wasn't I?" he murmured, ceasing to sob for a moment.
+
+"And the business has been quite under a cloud this year. It was as
+though a spell had been cast on it. Come, now, don't take on so; you'll
+see that everything will look up again now. You must take care of
+yourself, you know, for my sake and your daughter's. You have duties to
+us as well as to others, remember."
+
+Quenu was now kneading the sausage-meat more gently. Another burst
+of emotion was thrilling him, but it was a softer emotion, which was
+already bringing a vague smile to his grief-stricken face. Lisa felt
+that she had convinced him, and she turned and called to Pauline, who
+was playing in the shop, and sat her on Quenu's knee.
+
+"Tell your father, Pauline, that he ought not to give way like this. Ask
+him nicely not to go on distressing us so."
+
+The child did as she was told, and their fat, sleek forms united in a
+general embrace. They all three looked at one another, already feeling
+cured of that twelve months' depression from which they had but just
+emerged. Their big, round faces smiled, and Lisa softly repeated, "And
+after all, my dear, there are only we three, you know, only we three."
+
+Two months later Florent was again sentenced to transportation. The
+affair caused a great stir. The newspapers published all possible
+details, and gave portraits of the accused, sketches of the banners and
+scarves, and plans of the places where the conspirators had met. For a
+fortnight nothing but the great plot of the central markets was talked
+of in Paris. The police kept on launching more and more alarming
+reports, and it was at last even declared that the whole of the
+Montmartre Quarter was undermined. The excitement in the Corps
+Legislatif was so intense that the members of the Centre and the Right
+forgot their temporary disagreement over the Imperial Grant Bill, and
+became reconciled. And then by an overwhelming majority they voted the
+unpopular tax, of which even the lower classes, in the panic which was
+sweeping over the city, dared no longer complain.
+
+The trial lasted a week. Florent was very much surprised at the number
+of accomplices with which he found himself credited. Out of the twenty
+and more who were placed in the dock with him, he knew only some six
+or seven. After the sentence of the court had been read, he fancied
+he could see Robine's innocent-looking hat and back going off quietly
+through the crowd. Logre was acquitted, as was also Lacaille; Alexandre
+was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for his child-like complicity
+in the conspiracy; while as for Gavard, he, like Florent, was condemned
+to transportation. This was a heavy blow, which quite crushed him amidst
+the final enjoyment that he derived from those lengthy proceedings in
+which he had managed to make himself so conspicuous. He was paying
+very dearly for the way in which he had vented the spirit of perpetual
+opposition peculiar to the Paris shopkeeping classes. Two big tears
+coursed down his scared face--the face of a white-haired child.
+
+And then one morning in August, amidst the busy awakening of the
+markets, Claude Lantier, sauntering about in the thick of the arriving
+vegetables, with his waist tightly girded by his red sash, came to grasp
+Madame Francois's hand close by Saint Eustache. She was sitting on her
+carrots and turnips, and her long face looked very sad. The artist, too,
+was gloomy, notwithstanding the bright sun which was already softening
+the deep-green velvet of the mountains of cabbages.
+
+"Well, it's all over now," he said. "They are sending him back again.
+He's already on his way to Brest, I believe."
+
+Madame Francois made a gesture of mute grief. Then she gently waved her
+hand around, and murmured in a low voice; "Ah, it is all Paris's doing,
+this villainous Paris!"
+
+"No, no, not quite that; but I know whose doing it is, the contemptible
+creatures!" exclaimed Claude, clenching his fists. "Do you know, Madame
+Francois, there was nothing too ridiculous for those fellows in the
+court to say! Why, they even went ferreting in a child's copy-books!
+That great idiot of a Public Prosecutor made a tremendous fuss over
+them, and ranted about the respect due to children, and the wickedness
+of demagogical education! It makes me quite sick to think of it all!"
+
+A shudder of disgust shook him, and then, burying himself more deeply
+in his discoloured cloak, he resumed: "To think of it! A man who was
+as gentle as a girl! Why, I saw him turn quite faint at seeing a pigeon
+killed! I couldn't help smiling with pity when I saw him between two
+gendarmes. Ah, well, we shall never see him again! He won't come back
+this time."
+
+"He ought to have listened to me," said Madame Francois, after a pause,
+"and have come to live at Nanterre with my fowls and rabbits. I was
+very fond of him, you see, for I could tell that he was a good-hearted
+fellow. Ah, we might have been so happy together! It's a sad pity. Well,
+we must bear it as best we can, Monsieur Claude. Come and see me one of
+these days. I'll have an omelet ready for you."
+
+Her eyes were dim with tears; but all at once she sprang up like a brave
+woman who bears her sorrows with fortitude.
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed, "here's old Mother Chantemesse coming to buy some
+turnips of me. The fat old lady's as sprightly as ever!"
+
+Claude went off, and strolled about the footways. The dawn had risen in
+the white sheaf of light at the end of the Rue Rambuteau; and the sun,
+now level with the house-tops, was diffusing rosy rays which already
+fell in warm patches on the pavements. Claude was conscious of a
+gay awakening in the huge resonant markets--indeed, all over the
+neighbourhood--crowded with piles of food. It was like the joy that
+comes after cure, the mirth of folks who are at last relieved of a heavy
+weight which has been pulling them down. He saw La Sarriette displaying
+a gold chain and singing amidst her plums and strawberries, while she
+playfully pulled the moustaches of Monsieur Jules, who was arrayed in a
+velvet jacket. He also caught sight of Madame Lecoeur and Mademoiselle
+Saget passing along one of the covered ways, and looking less sallow
+than usual--indeed, almost rosy--as they laughed like bosom friends
+over some amusing story. In the fish market, old Madame Mehudin, who
+had returned to her stall, was slapping her fish, abusing customers, and
+snubbing the new inspector, a presumptuous young man whom she had sworn
+to spank; while Claire, seemingly more languid and indolent than ever,
+extended her hands, blue from immersion in the water of her tanks, to
+gather together a great heap of edible snails, shimmering with silvery
+slime. In the tripe market Auguste and Augustine, with the foolish
+expression of newly-married people, had just been purchasing some
+pigs' trotters, and were starting off in a trap for their pork shop at
+Montrouge. Then, as it was now eight o'clock and already quite warm,
+Claude, on again coming to the Rue Rambuteau, perceived Muche and
+Pauline playing at horses. Muche was crawling along on all-fours, while
+Pauline sat on his back, and clung to his hair to keep herself from
+falling. However, a moving shadow which fell from the eaves of the
+market roof made Claude look up; and he then espied Cadine and Marjolin
+aloft, kissing and warming themselves in the sunshine, parading their
+loves before the whole neighbourhood like a pair of light-hearted
+animals.
+
+Claude shook his fist at them. All this joyousness down below and on
+high exasperated him. He reviled the Fat; the Fat, he declared, had
+conquered the Thin. All around him he could see none but the Fat
+protruding their paunches, bursting with robust health, and greeting
+with delight another day of gorging and digestion. And a last blow was
+dealt to him by the spectacle which he perceived on either hand as he
+halted opposite the Rue Pirouette.
+
+On his right, the beautiful Norman, or the beautiful Madame Lebigre, as
+she was now called, stood at the door of her shop. Her husband had at
+length been granted the privilege of adding a State tobacco agency[*] to
+his wine shop, a long-cherished dream of his which he had finally
+been able to realise through the great services he had rendered to the
+authorities. And to Claude the beautiful Madame Lebigre looked superb,
+with her silk dress and her frizzed hair, quite ready to take her seat
+behind her counter, whither all the gentlemen in the neighbourhood
+flocked to buy their cigars and packets of tobacco. She had become
+quite distinguished, quite the lady. The shop behind her had been newly
+painted, with borders of twining vine-branches showing against a soft
+background; the zinc-plated wine-counter gleamed brightly, and in the
+tall mirror the flasks of liqueurs set brighter flashes of colour than
+ever. And the mistress of all these things stood smiling radiantly at
+the bright sunshine.
+
+     [*] Most readers will remember that the tobacco trade is a
+     State monopoly in France. The retail tobacconists are merely
+     Government agents.--Translator.
+
+Then, on Claude's left, the beautiful Lisa blocked up the doorway of
+her shop as she stood on the threshold. Never before had her linen shone
+with such dazzling whiteness; never had her serene face and rosy cheeks
+appeared in a more lustrous setting of glossy locks. She displayed the
+deep calmness of repletion, a massive tranquillity unruffled even by a
+smile. She was a picture of absolute quietude, of perfect felicity, not
+only cloudless but lifeless, the simple felicity of basking in the warm
+atmosphere. Her tightly stretched bodice seemed to be still digesting
+the happiness of yesterday; while her dimpled hands, hidden in the folds
+of her apron, did not even trouble to grasp at the happiness of to-day,
+certain as they were that it would come of itself. And the shop-window
+at her side seemed to display the same felicity. It had recovered from
+its former blight; the tongues lolled out, red and healthy; the hams
+had regained their old chubbiness of form; the festoons of sausages no
+longer wore that mournful air which had so greatly distressed Quenu.
+Hearty laughter, accompanied by a jubilant clattering of pans, sounded
+from the kitchen in the rear. The whole place again reeked with fat
+health. The flitches of bacon and the sides of pork that hung against
+the marble showed roundly like paunches, triumphant paunches, whilst
+Lisa, with her imposing breadth of shoulders and dignity of mien, bade
+the markets good morning with those big eyes of hers which so clearly
+bespoke a gross feeder.
+
+However, the two women bowed to each other. Beautiful Madame Lebigre and
+beautiful Madame Quenu exchanged a friendly salute.
+
+And then Claude, who had certainly forgotten to dine on the previous
+day, was thrilled with anger at seeing them standing there, looking so
+healthy and well-to-do with their buxom bosoms; and tightening his sash,
+he growled in a tone of irritation:
+
+"What blackguards respectable people are!"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fat and the Thin, by Emile Zola
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fat and the Thin, by Emile Zola
+#9 in our series by Emile Zola
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Fat and the Thin
+
+Author: Emile Zola
+
+Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5744]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on August 22, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAT AND THE THIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com
+              and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz
+
+
+
+
+The Fat and the Thin
+By Emile Zola
+
+
+
+                         THE FAT AND THE THIN
+                         (LE VENTRE DE PARIS)
+
+                                  BY
+
+                              EMILE ZOLA
+
+
+
+                 TRANSLATED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY
+                       ERNEST ALFRED VIZETELLY
+
+
+
+  Let me have men about me that are fat:
+  Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights:
+  Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
+  He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
+      SHAKESPEARE: /Julius Caesar/, act i, sc. 2.
+
+
+
+                              INTRODUCTION
+
+"THE FAT AND THE THIN," or, to use the French title, "Le Ventre de
+Paris," is a story of life in and around those vast Central Markets
+which form a distinctive feature of modern Paris. Even the reader who
+has never crossed the Channel must have heard of the Parisian
+/Halles/, for much has been written about them, not only in English
+books on the French metropolis, but also in English newspapers,
+magazines, and reviews; so that few, I fancy, will commence the
+perusal of the present volume without having, at all events, some
+knowledge of its subject matter.
+
+The Paris markets form such a world of their own, and teem at certain
+hours of the day and night with such exuberance of life, that it was
+only natural they should attract the attention of a novelist like M.
+Zola, who, to use his own words, delights "in any subject in which
+vast masses of people can be shown in motion." Mr. Sherard tells us[*]
+that the idea of "Le Ventre de Paris" first occurred to M. Zola in
+1872, when he used continually to take his friend Paul Alexis for a
+ramble through the Halles. I have in my possession, however, an
+article written by M. Zola some five or six years before that time,
+and in this one can already detect the germ of the present work; just
+as the motif of another of M. Zola's novels, "La Joie de Vivre," can
+be traced to a short story written for a Russian review.
+
+[*] /Emile Zola: a Biographical and Critical Study/, by Robert
+    Harborough Sherard, pp. 103, 104. London, Chatto & Windus, 1893.
+
+Similar instances are frequently to be found in the writings of
+English as well as French novelists, and are, of course, easily
+explained. A young man unknown to fame, and unable to procure the
+publication of a long novel, often contents himself with embodying
+some particular idea in a short sketch or story, which finds its way
+into one or another periodical, where it lies buried and forgotten by
+everybody--excepting its author. Time goes by, however, the writer
+achieves some measure of success, and one day it occurs to him to
+elaborate and perfect that old idea of his, only a faint /apercu/ of
+which, for lack of opportunity, he had been able to give in the past.
+With a little research, no doubt, an interesting essay might be
+written on these literary resuscitations; but if one except certain
+novelists who are so deficient in ideas that they continue writing and
+rewriting the same story throughout their lives, it will, I think, be
+generally found that the revivals in question are due to some such
+reason as that given above.
+
+It should be mentioned that the article of M. Zola's young days to
+which I have referred is not one on market life in particular, but one
+on violets. It contains, however, a vigorous, if brief, picture of the
+Halles in the small hours of the morning, and is instinct with that
+realistic descriptive power of which M. Zola has since given so many
+proofs. We hear the rumbling and clattering of the market carts, we
+see the piles of red meat, the baskets of silvery fish, the mountains
+of vegetables, green and white; in a few paragraphs the whole market
+world passes in kaleidoscopic fashion before our eyes by the pale,
+dancing light of the gas lamps and the lanterns. Several years after
+the paper I speak of was published, when M. Zola began to issue "Le
+Ventre de Paris," M. Tournachon, better known as Nadar, the aeronaut
+and photographer, rushed into print to proclaim that the realistic
+novelist had simply pilfered his ideas from an account of the Halles
+which he (Tournachon) had but lately written. M. Zola, as is so often
+his wont, scorned to reply to this charge of plagiarism; but, had he
+chosen, he could have promptly settled the matter by producing his own
+forgotten article.
+
+At the risk of passing for a literary ghoul, I propose to exhume some
+portion of the paper in question, as, so far as translation can avail,
+it will show how M. Zola wrote and what he thought in 1867. After the
+description of the markets to which I have alluded, there comes the
+following passage:--
+
+
+  I was gazing at the preparations for the great daily orgy of Paris
+  when I espied a throng of people bustling suspiciously in a
+  corner. A few lanterns threw a yellow light upon this crowd.
+  Children, women, and men with outstretched hands were fumbling in
+  dark piles which extended along the footway. I thought that those
+  piles must be remnants of meat sold for a trifling price, and that
+  all those wretched people were rushing upon them to feed. I drew
+  near, and discovered my mistake. The heaps were not heaps of meat,
+  but heaps of violets. All the flowery poesy of the streets of
+  Paris lay there, on that muddy pavement, amidst mountains of food.
+  The gardeners of the suburbs had brought their sweet-scented
+  harvests to the markets and were disposing of them to the hawkers.
+  From the rough fingers of their peasant growers the violets were
+  passing to the dirty hands of those who would cry them in the
+  streets. At winter time it is between four and six o'clock in the
+  morning that the flowers of Paris are thus sold at the Halles.
+  Whilst the city sleeps and its butchers are getting all ready for
+  its daily attack of indigestion, a trade in poetry is plied in
+  dark, dank corners. When the sun rises the bright red meat will be
+  displayed in trim, carefully dressed joints, and the violets,
+  mounted on bits of osier, will gleam softly within their elegant
+  collars of green leaves. But when they arrive, in the dark night,
+  the bullocks, already ripped open, discharge black blood, and the
+  trodden flowers lie prone upon the footways. . . . I noticed just
+  in front of me one large bunch which had slipped off a
+  neighbouring mound and was almost bathing in the gutter. I picked
+  it up. Underneath, it was soiled with mud; the greasy, fetid sewer
+  water had left black stains upon the flowers. And then, gazing at
+  these exquisite daughters of our gardens and our woods, astray
+  amidst all the filth of the city, I began to ponder. On what
+  woman's bosom would those wretched flowerets open and bloom? Some
+  hawker would dip them in a pail of water, and of all the bitter
+  odours of the Paris mud they would retain but a slight pungency,
+  which would remain mingled with their own sweet perfume. The water
+  would remove their stains, they would pale somewhat, and become a
+  joy both for the smell and for the sight. Nevertheless, in the
+  depths of each corolla there would still remain some particle of
+  mud suggestive of impurity. And I asked myself how much love and
+  passion was represented by all those heaps of flowers shivering in
+  the bleak wind. To how many loving ones, and how many indifferent
+  ones, and how many egotistical ones, would all those thousands and
+  thousands of violets go! In a few hours' time they would be
+  scattered to the four corners of Paris, and for a paltry copper
+  the passers-by would purchase a glimpse and a whiff of springtide
+  in the muddy streets.
+
+
+Imperfect as the rendering may be, I think that the above passage will
+show that M. Zola was already possessed of a large amount of his
+acknowledged realistic power at the early date I have mentioned. I
+should also have liked to quote a rather amusing story of a priggish
+Philistine who ate violets with oil and vinegar, strongly peppered,
+but considerations of space forbid; so I will pass to another passage,
+which is of more interest and importance. Both French and English
+critics have often contended that although M. Zola is a married man,
+he knows very little of women, as there has virtually never been any
+/feminine romance/ in his life. There are those who are aware of the
+contrary, but whose tongues are stayed by considerations of delicacy
+and respect. Still, as the passage I am now about to reproduce is
+signed and acknowledged as fact by M. Zola himself, I see no harm in
+slightly raising the veil from a long-past episode in the master's
+life:--
+
+
+  The light was rising, and as I stood there before that footway
+  transformed into a bed of flowers my strange night-fancies gave
+  place to recollections at once sweet and sad. I thought of my last
+  excursion to Fontenay-aux-Roses, with the loved one, the good
+  fairy of my twentieth year. Springtime was budding into birth, the
+  tender foliage gleamed in the pale April sunshine. The little
+  pathway skirting the hill was bordered by large fields of violets.
+  As one passed along, a strong perfume seemed to penetrate one and
+  make one languid. /She/ was leaning on my arm, faint with love
+  from the sweet odour of the flowers. A whiteness hovered over the
+  country-side, little insects buzzed in the sunshine, deep silence
+  fell from the heavens, and so low was the sound of our kisses that
+  not a bird in all the hedges showed sign of fear. At a turn of the
+  path we perceived some old bent women, who with dry, withered
+  hands were hurriedly gathering violets and throwing them into
+  large baskets. She who was with me glanced longingly at the
+  flowers, and I called one of the women. "You want some violets?"
+  said she. "How much? A pound?"
+
+  God of Heaven! She sold her flowers by the pound! We fled in deep
+  distress. It seemed as though the country-side had been
+  transformed into a huge grocer's shop. . . . Then we ascended to
+  the woods of Verrieres, and there, in the grass, under the soft,
+  fresh foliage, we found some tiny violets which seemed to be
+  dreadfully afraid, and contrived to hide themselves with all sorts
+  of artful ruses. During two long hours I scoured the grass and
+  peered into every nook, and as soon as ever I found a fresh violet
+  I carried it to her. She bought it of me, and the price that I
+  exacted was a kiss. . . . And I thought of all those things, of
+  all that happiness, amidst the hubbub of the markets of Paris,
+  before those poor dead flowers whose graveyard the footway had
+  become. I remembered my good fairy, who is now dead and gone, and
+  the little bouquet of dry violets which I still preserve in a
+  drawer. When I returned home I counted their withered stems: there
+  were twenty of them, and over my lips there passed the gentle
+  warmth of my loved one's twenty kisses.
+
+
+And now from violets I must, with a brutality akin to that which M.
+Zola himself displays in some of his transitions, pass to very
+different things, for some time back a well-known English poet and
+essayist wrote of the present work that it was redolent of pork,
+onions, and cheese. To one of his sensitive temperament, with a muse
+strictly nourished on sugar and water, such gross edibles as pork and
+cheese and onions were peculiarly offensive. That humble plant the
+onion, employed to flavour wellnigh every savoury dish, can assuredly
+need no defence; in most European countries, too, cheese has long been
+known as the poor man's friend; whilst as for pork, apart from all
+other considerations, I can claim for it a distinct place in English
+literature. A greater essayist by far than the critic to whom I am
+referring, a certain Mr. Charles Lamb, of the India House, has left us
+an immortal page on the origin of roast pig and crackling. And, when
+everything is considered, I should much like to know why novels should
+be confined to the aspirations of the soul, and why they should not
+also treat of the requirements of our physical nature? From the days
+of antiquity we have all known what befell the members when, guided by
+the brain, they were foolish enough to revolt against the stomach. The
+latter plays a considerable part not only in each individual organism,
+but also in the life of the world. Over and over again--I could adduce
+a score of historical examples--it has thwarted the mightiest designs
+of the human mind. We mortals are much addicted to talking of our
+minds and our souls and treating our bodies as mere dross. But I hold
+--it is a personal opinion--that in the vast majority of cases the
+former are largely governed by the last. I conceive, therefore, that a
+novel which takes our daily sustenance as one of its themes has the
+best of all /raisons d'etre/. A foreign writer of far more consequence
+and ability than myself--Signor Edmondo de Amicis--has proclaimed the
+present book to be "one of the most original and happiest inventions
+of French genius," and I am strongly inclined to share his opinion.
+
+It should be observed that the work does not merely treat of the
+provisioning of a great city. That provisioning is its /scenario/; but
+it also embraces a powerful allegory, the prose song of "the eternal
+battle between the lean of this world and the fat--a battle in which,
+as the author shows, the latter always come off successful. It is,
+too, in its way an allegory of the triumph of the fat bourgeois, who
+lives well and beds softly, over the gaunt and Ishmael artist--an
+allegory which M. Zola has more than once introduced into his pages,
+another notable instance thereof being found in 'Germinal,' with the
+fat, well-fed Gregoires on the one hand, and the starving Maheus on
+the other."
+
+From this quotation from Mr. Sherard's pages it will be gathered that
+M. Zola had a distinct social aim in writing this book. Wellnigh the
+whole social question may, indeed, be summed up in the words "food and
+comfort"; and in a series of novels like "Les Rougon-Macquart,"
+dealing firstly with different conditions and grades of society, and,
+secondly, with the influence which the Second Empire exercised on
+France, the present volume necessarily had its place marked out from
+the very first.
+
+Mr. Sherard has told us of all the labour which M. Zola expended on
+the preparation of the work, of his multitudinous visits to the Paris
+markets, his patient investigation of their organism, and his keen
+artistic interest in their manifold phases of life. And bred as I was
+in Paris, a partaker as I have been of her exultations and her woes
+they have always had for me a strong attraction. My memory goes back
+to the earlier years of their existence, and I can well remember many
+of the old surroundings which have now disappeared. I can recollect
+the last vestiges of the antique /piliers/, built by Francis I, facing
+the Rue de la Tonnellerie. Paul Niquet's, with its "bowel-twisting
+brandy" and its crew of drunken ragpickers, was certainly before my
+time; but I can readily recall Baratte's and Bordier's and all the
+folly and prodigality which raged there; I knew, too, several of the
+noted thieves' haunts which took the place of Niquet's, and which one
+was careful never to enter without due precaution. And then, when the
+German armies were beleaguering Paris, and two millions of people were
+shut off from the world, I often strolled to the Halles to view their
+strangely altered aspect. The fish pavilion, of which M. Zola has so
+much to say, was bare and deserted. The railway drays, laden with the
+comestible treasures of the ocean, no longer thundered through the
+covered ways. At the most one found an auction going on in one or
+another corner, and a few Seine eels or gudgeons fetching wellnigh
+their weight in gold. Then, in the butter and cheese pavilions, one
+could only procure some nauseous melted fat, while in the meat
+department horse and mule and donkey took the place of beef and veal
+and mutton. Mule and donkey were very scarce, and commanded high
+prices, but both were of better flavour than horse; mule, indeed,
+being quite a delicacy. I also well remember a stall at which dog was
+sold, and, hunger knowing no law, I once purchased, cooked, and ate a
+couple of canine cutlets which cost me two francs apiece. The flesh
+was pinky and very tender, yet I would not willingly make such a
+repast again. However, peace and plenty at last came round once more,
+the Halles regained their old-time aspect, and in the years which
+followed I more than once saw the dawn rise slowly over the mounds of
+cabbages, carrots, leeks, and pumpkins, even as M. Zola describes in
+the following pages. He has, I think, depicted with remarkable
+accuracy and artistic skill the many varying effects of colour that
+are produced as the climbing sun casts its early beams on the giant
+larder and its masses of food--effects of colour which, to quote a
+famous saying of the first Napoleon, show that "the markets of Paris
+are the Louvre of the people" in more senses than one.
+
+The reader will bear in mind that the period dealt with by the author
+in this work is that of 1857-60, when the new Halles Centrales were
+yet young, and indeed not altogether complete. Still, although many
+old landmarks have long since been swept away, the picture of life in
+all essential particulars remained the same. Prior to 1860 the limits
+of Paris were the so-called /boulevards exterieurs/, from which a
+girdle of suburbs, such as Montmartre, Belleville, Passy, and
+Montrouge, extended to the fortifications; and the population of the
+city was then only 1,400,000 souls. Some of the figures which will be
+found scattered through M. Zola's work must therefore be taken as
+applying entirely to the past.
+
+Nowadays the amount of business transacted at the Halles has very
+largely increased, in spite of the multiplication of district markets.
+Paris seems to have an insatiable appetite, though, on the other hand,
+its cuisine is fast becoming all simplicity. To my thinking, few more
+remarkable changes have come over the Parisians of recent years than
+this change of diet. One by one great restaurants, formerly renowned
+for particular dishes and special wines, have been compelled through
+lack of custom to close their doors; and this has not been caused so
+much by inability to defray the cost of high feeding as by inability
+to indulge in it with impunity in a physical sense. In fact, Paris has
+become a city of impaired digestions, which nowadays seek the
+simplicity without the heaviness of the old English cuisine; and,
+should things continue in their present course, I fancy that Parisians
+anxious for high feeding will ultimately have to cross over to our
+side of the Channel.
+
+These remarks, I trust, will not be considered out of place in an
+introduction to a work which to no small extent treats of the appetite
+of Paris. The reader will find that the characters portrayed by M.
+Zola are all types of humble life, but I fail to see that their
+circumstances should render them any the less interesting. A faithful
+portrait of a shopkeeper, a workman, or a workgirl is artistically of
+far more value than all the imaginary sketches of impossible dukes and
+good and wicked baronets in which so many English novels abound.
+Several of M. Zola's personages seem to me extremely lifelike--Gavard,
+indeed, is a /chef-d'oeuvre/ of portraiture: I have known many men
+like him; and no one who lived in Paris under the Empire can deny the
+accuracy with which the author has delineated his hero Florent, the
+dreamy and hapless revolutionary caught in the toils of others. In
+those days, too, there was many such a plot as M. Zola describes,
+instigated by agents like Logre and Lebigre, and allowed to mature
+till the eve of an election or some other important event which
+rendered its exposure desirable for the purpose of influencing public
+opinion. In fact, in all that relates to the so-called "conspiracy of
+the markets," M. Zola, whilst changing time and place to suit the
+requirements of his story, has simply followed historical lines. As
+for the Quenus, who play such prominent parts in the narrative, the
+husband is a weakling with no soul above his stewpans, whilst his
+wife, the beautiful Lisa, in reality wears the breeches and rules the
+roast. The manner in which she cures Quenu of his political
+proclivities, though savouring of persuasiveness rather than violence,
+is worthy of the immortal Mrs. Caudle: Douglas Jerrold might have
+signed a certain lecture which she administers to her astounded
+helpmate. Of Pauline, the Quenus' daughter, we see but little in the
+story, but she becomes the heroine of another of M. Zola's novels, "La
+Joie de Vivre," and instead of inheriting the egotism of her parents,
+develops a passionate love and devotion for others. In a like way
+Claude Lantier, Florent's artist friend and son of Gervaise of the
+"Assommoir," figures more particularly in "L'Oeuvre," which tells how
+his painful struggle for fame resulted in madness and suicide. With
+reference to the beautiful Norman and the other fishwives and gossips
+scattered through the present volume, and those genuine types of
+Parisian /gaminerie/, Muche, Marjolin, and Cadine, I may mention that
+I have frequently chastened their language in deference to English
+susceptibilities, so that the story, whilst retaining every essential
+feature, contains nothing to which exception can reasonably be taken.
+
+E. A. V.
+
+
+
+
+
+                         THE FAT AND THE THIN
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I
+
+Amidst the deep silence and solitude prevailing in the avenue several
+market gardeners' carts were climbing the slope which led towards
+Paris, and the fronts of the houses, asleep behind the dim lines of
+elms on either side of the road, echoed back the rhythmical jolting of
+the wheels. At the Neuilly bridge a cart full of cabbages and another
+full of peas had joined the eight waggons of carrots and turnips
+coming down from Nanterre; and the horses, left to themselves, had
+continued plodding along with lowered heads, at a regular though lazy
+pace, which the ascent of the slope now slackened. The sleeping
+waggoners, wrapped in woollen cloaks, striped black and grey, and
+grasping the reins slackly in their closed hands, were stretched at
+full length on their stomachs atop of the piles of vegetables. Every
+now and then, a gas lamp, following some patch of gloom, would light
+up the hobnails of a boot, the blue sleeve of a blouse, or the peak of
+a cap peering out of the huge florescence of vegetables--red bouquets
+of carrots, white bouquets of turnips, and the overflowing greenery of
+peas and cabbages.
+
+And all along the road, and along the neighbouring roads, in front and
+behind, the distant rumbling of vehicles told of the presence of
+similar contingents of the great caravan which was travelling onward
+through the gloom and deep slumber of that matutinal hour, lulling the
+dark city to continued repose with its echoes of passing food.
+
+Madame Francois's horse, Balthazar, an animal that was far too fat,
+led the van. He was plodding on, half asleep and wagging his ears,
+when suddenly, on reaching the Rue de Longchamp, he quivered with fear
+and came to a dead stop. The horses behind, thus unexpectedly checked,
+ran their heads against the backs of the carts in front of them, and
+the procession halted amidst a clattering of bolts and chains and the
+oaths of the awakened waggoners. Madame Francois, who sat in front of
+her vehicle, with her back to a board which kept her vegetables in
+position, looked down; but, in the dim light thrown to the left by a
+small square lantern, which illuminated little beyond one of
+Balthazar's sheeny flanks, she could distinguish nothing.
+
+"Come, old woman, let's get on!" cried one of the men, who had raised
+himself to a kneeling position amongst his turnips; "it's only some
+drunken sot."
+
+Madame Francois, however, had bent forward and on her right hand had
+caught sight of a black mass, lying almost under the horse's hoofs,
+and blocking the road.
+
+"You wouldn't have us drive over a man, would you?" said she, jumping
+to the ground.
+
+It was indeed a man lying at full length upon the road, with his arms
+stretched out and his face in the dust. He seemed to be remarkably
+tall, but as withered as a dry branch, and the wonder was that
+Balthazar had not broken him in half with a blow from his hoof. Madame
+Francois thought that he was dead; but on stooping and taking hold of
+one of his hands, she found that it was quite warm.
+
+"Poor fellow!" she murmured softly.
+
+The waggoners, however, were getting impatient.
+
+"Hurry up, there!" said the man kneeling amongst the turnips, in a
+hoarse voice. "He's drunk till he can hold no more, the hog! Shove him
+into the gutter."
+
+Meantime, the man on the road had opened his eyes. He looked at Madame
+Francois with a startled air, but did not move. She herself now
+thought that he must indeed be drunk.
+
+"You mustn't stop here," she said to him, "or you'll get run over and
+killed. Where were you going?"
+
+"I don't know," replied the man in a faint voice.
+
+Then, with an effort and an anxious expression, he added: "I was going
+to Paris; I fell down, and don't remember any more."
+
+Madame Francois could now see him more distinctly, and he was truly a
+pitiable object, with his ragged black coat and trousers, through the
+rents in which you could espy his scraggy limbs. Underneath a black
+cloth cap, which was drawn low over his brows, as though he were
+afraid of being recognised, could be seen two large brown eyes,
+gleaming with peculiar softness in his otherwise stern and harassed
+countenance. It seemed to Madame Francois that he was in far too
+famished a condition to have got drunk.
+
+"And what part of Paris were you going to?" she continued.
+
+The man did not reply immediately. This questioning seemed to distress
+him. He appeared to be thinking the matter over, but at last said
+hesitatingly, "Over yonder, towards the markets."
+
+He had now, with great difficulty, got to his feet again, and seemed
+anxious to resume his journey. But Madame Francois noticed that he
+tottered, and clung for support to one of the shafts of her waggon.
+
+"Are you tired?" she asked him.
+
+"Yes, very tired," he replied.
+
+Then she suddenly assumed a grumpy tone, as though displeased, and,
+giving him a push, exclaimed: "Look sharp, then, and climb into my
+cart. You've made us lose a lot of time. I'm going to the markets, and
+I'll turn you out there with my vegetables."
+
+Then, as the man seemed inclined to refuse her offer, she pushed him
+up with her stout arms, and bundled him down upon the turnips and
+carrots.
+
+"Come, now, don't give us any more trouble," she cried angrily. "You
+are quite enough to provoke one, my good fellow. Don't I tell you that
+I'm going to the markets? Sleep away up there. I'll wake you when we
+arrive."
+
+She herself then clambered into the cart again, and settled herself
+with her back against the board, grasping the reins of Balthazar, who
+started off drowsily, swaying his ears once more. The other waggons
+followed, and the procession resumed its lazy march through the
+darkness, whilst the rhythmical jolting of the wheels again awoke the
+echoes of the sleepy house fronts, and the waggoners, wrapped in their
+cloaks, dozed off afresh. The one who had called to Madame Francois
+growled out as he lay down: "As if we'd nothing better to do than pick
+up every drunken sot we come across! You're a scorcher, old woman!"
+
+The waggons rumbled on, and the horses picked their own way, with
+drooping heads. The stranger whom Madame Francois had befriended was
+lying on his stomach, with his long legs lost amongst the turnips
+which filled the back part of the cart, whilst his face was buried
+amidst the spreading piles of carrot bunches. With weary, extended
+arms he clutched hold of his vegetable couch in fear of being thrown
+to the ground by one of the waggon's jolts, and his eyes were fixed on
+the two long lines of gas lamps which stretched away in front of him
+till they mingled with a swarm of other lights in the distance atop of
+the slope. Far away on the horizon floated a spreading, whitish
+vapour, showing where Paris slept amidst the luminous haze of all
+those flamelets.
+
+"I come from Nanterre, and my name's Madame Francois," said the
+market gardener presently. "Since my poor man died I go to the markets
+every morning myself. It's a hard life, as you may guess. And who are
+you?"
+
+"My name's Florent, I come from a distance," replied the stranger,
+with embarrassment. "Please excuse me, but I'm really so tired that it
+is painful to me to talk."
+
+He was evidently unwilling to say anything more, and so Madame
+Francois relapsed into silence, and allowed the reins to fall loosely
+on the back of Balthazar, who went his way like an animal acquainted
+with every stone of the road.
+
+Meantime, with his eyes still fixed upon the far-spreading glare of
+Paris, Florent was pondering over the story which he had refused to
+communicate to Madame Francois. After making his escape from Cayenne,
+whither he had been transported for his participation in the
+resistance to Louis Napoleon's Coup d'Etat, he had wandered about
+Dutch Guiana for a couple of years, burning to return to France, yet
+dreading the Imperial police. At last, however, he once more saw
+before him the beloved and mighty city which he had so keenly
+regretted and so ardently longed for. He would hide himself there, he
+told himself, and again lead the quiet, peaceable life that he had
+lived years ago. The police would never be any the wiser; and everyone
+would imagine, indeed, that he had died over yonder, across the sea.
+Then he thought of his arrival at Havre, where he had landed with only
+some fifteen francs tied up in a corner of his handkerchief. He had
+been able to pay for a seat in the coach as far as Rouen, but from
+that point he had been forced to continue his journey on foot, as he
+had scarcely thirty sous left of his little store. At Vernon his last
+copper had gone in bread. After that he had no clear recollection of
+anything. He fancied that he could remember having slept for several
+hours in a ditch, and having shown the papers with which he had
+provided himself to a gendarme; however, he had only a very confused
+idea of what had happened. He had left Vernon without any breakfast,
+seized every now and then with hopeless despair and raging pangs which
+had driven him to munch the leaves of the hedges as he tramped along.
+A prey to cramp and fright, his body bent, his sight dimmed, and his
+feet sore, he had continued his weary march, ever drawn onwards in a
+semi-unconscious state by a vision of Paris, which, far, far away,
+beyond the horizon, seemed to be summoning him and waiting for him.
+
+When he at length reached Courbevoie, the night was very dark. Paris,
+looking like a patch of star-sprent sky that had fallen upon the black
+earth, seemed to him to wear a forbidding aspect, as though angry at
+his return. Then he felt very faint, and his legs almost gave way
+beneath him as he descended the hill. As he crossed the Neuilly bridge
+he sustained himself by clinging to the parapet, and bent over and
+looked at the Seine rolling inky waves between its dense, massy banks.
+A red lamp on the water seemed to be watching him with a sanguineous
+eye. And then he had to climb the hill if he would reach Paris on its
+summit yonder. The hundreds of leagues which he had already travelled
+were as nothing to it. That bit of a road filled him with despair. He
+would never be able, he thought, to reach yonder light crowned summit.
+The spacious avenue lay before him with its silence and its darkness,
+its lines of tall trees and low houses, its broad grey footwalks,
+speckled with the shadows of overhanging branches, and parted
+occasionally by the gloomy gaps of side streets. The squat yellow
+flames of the gas lamps, standing erect at regular intervals, alone
+imparted a little life to the lonely wilderness. And Florent seemed to
+make no progress; the avenue appeared to grow ever longer and longer,
+to be carrying Paris away into the far depths of the night. At last he
+fancied that the gas lamps, with their single eyes, were running off
+on either hand, whisking the road away with them; and then, overcome
+by vertigo, he stumbled and fell on the roadway like a log.
+
+Now he was lying at ease on his couch of greenery, which seemed to him
+soft as a feather bed. He had slightly raised his head so as to keep
+his eyes on the luminous haze which was spreading above the dark roofs
+which he could divine on the horizon. He was nearing his goal, carried
+along towards it, with nothing to do but to yield to the leisurely
+jolts of the waggon; and, free from all further fatigue, he now only
+suffered from hunger. Hunger, indeed, had once more awoke within him
+with frightful and wellnigh intolerable pangs. His limbs seemed to
+have fallen asleep; he was only conscious of the existence of his
+stomach, horribly cramped and twisted as by a red-hot iron. The fresh
+odour of the vegetables, amongst which he was lying, affected him so
+keenly that he almost fainted away. He strained himself against that
+piled-up mass of food with all his remaining strength, in order to
+compress his stomach and silence its groans. And the nine other
+waggons behind him, with their mountains of cabbages and peas, their
+piles of artichokes, lettuces, celery, and leeks, seemed to him to be
+slowly overtaking him, as though to bury him whilst he was thus
+tortured by hunger beneath an avalanche of food. Presently the
+procession halted, and there was a sound of deep voices. They had
+reached the barriers, and the municipal customs officers were
+examining the waggons. A moment later Florent entered Paris, in a
+swoon, lying atop of the carrots, with clenched teeth.
+
+"Hallow! You up there!" Madame Francois called out sharply.
+
+And as the stranger made no attempt to move, she clambered up and
+shook him. Florent rose to a sitting posture. He had slept and no
+longer felt the pangs of hunger, but was dizzy and confused.
+
+"You'll help me to unload, won't you?" Madame Francois said to him, as
+she made him get down.
+
+He helped her. A stout man with a felt hat on his head and a badge in
+the top buttonhole of his coat was striking the ground with a stick
+and grumbling loudly:
+
+"Come, come, now, make haste! You must get on faster than that! Bring
+the waggon a little more forward. How many yards' standing have you?
+Four, isn't it?"
+
+Then he gave a ticket to Madame Francois, who took some coppers out of
+a little canvas bag and handed them to him; whereupon he went off to
+vent his impatience and tap the ground with his stick a little further
+away. Madame Francois took hold of Balthazar's bridle and backed him
+so as to bring the wheels of the waggon close to the footway. Then,
+having marked out her four yards with some wisps of straw, after
+removing the back of the cart, she asked Florent to hand her the
+vegetables bunch by bunch. She arranged them sort by sort on her
+standing, setting them out artistically, the "tops" forming a band of
+greenery around each pile; and it was with remarkable rapidity that
+she completed her show, which, in the gloom of early morning, looked
+like some piece of symmetrically coloured tapestry. When Florent had
+handed her a huge bunch of parsley, which he had found at the bottom
+of the cart, she asked him for still another service.
+
+"It would be very kind of you," said she, "if you would look after my
+goods while I put the horse and cart up. I'm only going a couple of
+yards, to the Golden Compasses, in the Rue Montorgueil."
+
+Florent told her that she might make herself easy. He preferred to
+remain still, for his hunger had revived since he had begun to move
+about. He sat down and leaned against a heap of cabbages beside Madame
+Francois's stock. He was all right there, he told himself, and would
+not go further afield, but wait. His head felt empty, and he had no
+very clear notion as to where he was. At the beginning of September it
+is quite dark in the early morning. Around him lighted lanterns were
+flitting or standing stationary in the depths of the gloom. He was
+sitting on one side of a broad street which he did not recognise; it
+stretched far away into the blackness of the night. He could make out
+nothing plainly, excepting the stock of which he had been left in
+charge. All around him along the market footways rose similar piles of
+goods. The middle of the roadway was blocked by huge grey tumbrels,
+and from one end of the street to the other a sound of heavy breathing
+passed, betokening the presence of horses which the eye could not
+distinguish.
+
+Shouts and calls, the noise of falling wood, or of iron chains
+slipping to the ground, the heavy thud of loads of vegetables
+discharged from the waggons, and the grating of wheels as the carts
+were backed against the footways, filled the yet sonorous awakening,
+whose near approach could be felt and heard in the throbbing gloom.
+Glancing over the pile of cabbages behind him. Florent caught sight of
+a man wrapped like a parcel in his cloak, and snoring away with his
+head upon some baskets of plums. Nearer to him, on his left, he could
+distinguish a lad, some ten years old, slumbering between two heaps of
+endive, with an angelic smile on his face. And as yet there seemed to
+be nothing on that pavement that was really awake except the lanterns
+waving from invisible arms, and flitting and skipping over the sleep
+of the vegetables and human beings spread out there in heaps pending
+the dawn. However, what surprised Florent was the sight of some huge
+pavilions on either side of the street, pavilions with lofty roofs
+that seemed to expand and soar out of sight amidst a swarm of gleams.
+In his weakened state of mind he fancied he beheld a series of
+enormous, symmetrically built palaces, light and airy as crystal,
+whose fronts sparkled with countless streaks of light filtering
+through endless Venetian shutters. Gleaming between the slender pillar
+shafts these narrow golden bars seemed like ladders of light mounting
+to the gloomy line of the lower roofs, and then soaring aloft till
+they reached the jumble of higher ones, thus describing the open
+framework of immense square halls, where in the yellow flare of the
+gas lights a multitude of vague, grey, slumbering things was gathered
+together.
+
+At last Florent turned his head to look about him, distressed at not
+knowing where he was, and filled with vague uneasiness by the sight of
+that huge and seemingly fragile vision. And now, as he raised his
+eyes, he caught sight of the luminous dial and the grey massive pile
+of Saint Eustache's Church. At this he was much astonished. He was
+close to Saint Eustache, yet all was novel to him.
+
+However, Madame Francois had come back again, and was engaged in a
+heated discussion with a man who carried a sack over his shoulder and
+offered to buy her carrots for a sou a bunch.
+
+"Really, now, you are unreasonable, Lacaille!" said she. "You know
+quite well that you will sell them again to the Parisians at four and
+five sous the bunch. Don't tell me that you won't! You may have them
+for two sous the bunch, if you like."
+
+Then, as the man went off, she continued: "Upon my word, I believe
+some people think that things grow of their own accord! Let him go and
+find carrots at a sou the bunch elsewhere, tipsy scoundrel that he is!
+He'll come back again presently, you'll see."
+
+These last remarks were addressed to Florent. And, seating herself by
+his side, Madame Francois resumed: "If you've been a long time away
+from Paris, you perhaps don't know the new markets. They haven't been
+built for more than five years at the most. That pavilion you see
+there beside us is the flower and fruit market. The fish and poultry
+markets are farther away, and over there behind us come the vegetables
+and the butter and cheese. There are six pavilions on this side, and
+on the other side, across the road, there are four more, with the meat
+and the tripe stalls. It's an enormous place, but it's horribly cold
+in the winter. They talk about pulling down the houses near the corn
+market to make room for two more pavilions. But perhaps you know all
+this?"
+
+"No, indeed," replied Florent; "I've been abroad. And what's the name
+of that big street in front of us?"
+
+"Oh, that's a new street. It's called the Rue du Pont Neuf. It leads
+from the Seine through here to the Rue Montmartre and the Rue
+Montorgueil. You would soon have recognized where you were if it had
+been daylight."
+
+Madame Francois paused and rose, for she saw a woman heading down to
+examine her turnips. "Ah, is that you, Mother Chantemesse?" she said
+in a friendly way.
+
+Florent meanwhile glanced towards the Rue Montorgueil. It was there
+that a body of police officers had arrested him on the night of
+December 4.[*] He had been walking along the Boulevard Montmartre at
+about two o'clock, quietly making his way through the crowd, and
+smiling at the number of soldiers that the Elysee had sent into the
+streets to awe the people, when the military suddenly began making a
+clean sweep of the thoroughfare, shooting folks down at close range
+during a quarter of an hour. Jostled and knocked to the ground,
+Florent fell at the corner of the Rue Vivienne and knew nothing
+further of what happened, for the panic-stricken crowd, in their wild
+terror of being shot, trampled over his body. Presently, hearing
+everything quiet, he made an attempt to rise; but across him there lay
+a young woman in a pink bonnet, whose shawl had slipped aside,
+allowing her chemisette, pleated in little tucks, to be seen. Two
+bullets had pierced the upper part of her bosom; and when Florent
+gently removed the poor creature to free his legs, two streamlets of
+blood oozed from her wounds on to his hands. Then he sprang up with a
+sudden bound, and rushed madly away, hatless and with his hands still
+wet with blood. Until evening he wandered about the streets, with his
+head swimming, ever seeing the young woman lying across his legs with
+her pale face, her blue staring eyes, her distorted lips, and her
+expression of astonishment at thus meeting death so suddenly. He was a
+shy, timid fellow. Albeit thirty years old he had never dared to stare
+women in the face; and now, for the rest of his life, he was to have
+that one fixed in his heart and memory. He felt as though he had lost
+some loved one of his own.
+
+[*] 1851. Two days after the Coup d'Etat.--Translator.
+
+In the evening, without knowing how he had got there, still dazed and
+horrified as he was by the terrible scenes of the afternoon, he had
+found himself at a wine shop in the Rue Montorgueil, where several men
+were drinking and talking of throwing up barricades. He went away with
+them, helped them to tear up a few paving-stones, and seated himself
+on the barricade, weary with his long wandering through the streets,
+and reflecting that he would fight when the soldiers came up. However,
+he had not even a knife with him, and was still bareheaded. Towards
+eleven o'clock he dozed off, and in his sleep could see the two holes
+in the dead woman's white chemisette glaring at him like eyes reddened
+by tears and blood. When he awoke he found himself in the grasp of
+four police officers, who were pummelling him with their fists. The
+men who had built the barricade had fled. The police officers treated
+him with still greater violence, and indeed almost strangled him when
+they noticed that his hands were stained with blood. It was the blood
+of the young woman.
+
+Florent raised his eyes to the luminous dial of Saint Eustache with
+his mind so full of these recollections that he did not notice the
+position of the pointers. It was, however, nearly four o'clock. The
+markets were as yet wrapped in sleep. Madame Francois was still
+talking to old Madame Chantemesse, both standing and arguing about the
+price of turnips, and Florent now called to mind how narrowly he had
+escaped being shot over yonder by the wall of Saint Eustache. A
+detachment of gendarmes had just blown out the brains of five unhappy
+fellows caught at a barricade in the Rue Greneta. The five corpses
+were lying on the footway, at a spot where he thought he could now
+distinguish a heap of rosy radishes. He himself had escaped being shot
+merely because the policemen only carried swords. They took him to a
+neighbouring police station and gave the officer in charge a scrap of
+paper, on which were these words written in pencil: "Taken with blood-
+stained hands. Very dangerous." Then he had been dragged from station
+to station till the morning came. The scrap of paper accompanied him
+wherever he went. He was manacled and guarded as though he were a
+raving madman. At the station in the Rue de la Lingerie some tipsy
+soldiers wanted to shoot him; and they had already lighted a lantern
+with that object when the order arrived for the prisoners to be taken
+to the depot of the Prefecture of Police. Two days afterwards he found
+himself in a casemate of the fort of Bicetre. Ever since then he had
+been suffering from hunger. He had felt hungry in the casemate, and
+the pangs of hunger had never since left him. A hundred men were pent
+in the depths of that cellar-like dungeon, where, scarce able to
+breathe, they devoured the few mouthfuls of bread that were thrown to
+them, like so many captive wild beasts.
+
+When Florent was brought before an investigating magistrate, without
+anyone to defend him, and without any evidence being adduced, he was
+accused of belonging to a secret society; and when he swore that this
+was untrue, the magistrate produced the scrap of paper from amongst
+the documents before him: "Taken with blood-stained hands. Very
+dangerous." That was quite sufficient. He was condemned to
+transportation. Six weeks afterwards, one January night, a gaoler
+awoke him and locked him up in a courtyard with more than four hundred
+other prisoners. An hour later this first detachment started for the
+pontoons and exile, handcuffed and guarded by a double file of
+gendarmes with loaded muskets. They crossed the Austerlitz bridge,
+followed the line of the boulevards, and so reached the terminus of
+the Western Railway line. It was a joyous carnival night. The windows
+of the restaurants on the boulevards glittered with lights. At the top
+of the Rue Vivienne, just at the spot where he ever saw the young
+woman lying dead--that unknown young woman whose image he always bore
+with him--he now beheld a large carriage in which a party of masked
+women, with bare shoulders and laughing voices, were venting their
+impatience at being detained, and expressing their horror of that
+endless procession of convicts. The whole of the way from Paris to
+Havre the prisoners never received a mouthful of bread or a drink of
+water. The officials had forgotten to give them their rations before
+starting, and it was not till thirty-six hours afterwards, when they
+had been stowed away in the hold of the frigate /Canada/, that they at
+last broke their fast.
+
+No, Florent had never again been free from hunger. He recalled all the
+past to mind, but could not recollect a single hour of satiety. He had
+become dry and withered; his stomach seemed to have shrunk; his skin
+clung to his bones. And now that he was back in Paris once more, he
+found it fat and sleek and flourishing, teeming with food in the midst
+of the darkness. He had returned to it on a couch of vegetables; he
+lingered in its midst encompassed by unknown masses of food which
+still and ever increased and disquieted him. Had that happy carnival
+night continued throughout those seven years, then? Once again he saw
+the glittering windows on the boulevards, the laughing women, the
+luxurious, greedy city which he had quitted on that far-away January
+night; and it seemed to him that everything had expanded and increased
+in harmony with those huge markets, whose gigantic breathing, still
+heavy from the indigestion of the previous day, he now began to hear.
+
+Old Mother Chantemesse had by this time made up her mind to buy a
+dozen bunches of turnips. She put them in her apron, which she held
+closely pressed to her person, thus making herself look yet more
+corpulent than she was; and for some time longer she lingered there,
+still gossiping in a drawling voice. When at last she went away,
+Madame Francois again sat down by the side of Florent.
+
+"Poor old Mother Chantemesse!" she said; "she must be at least
+seventy-two. I can remember her buying turnips of my father when I was
+a mere chit. And she hasn't a relation in the world; no one but a
+young hussy whom she picked up I don't know where and who does nothing
+but bring her trouble. Still, she manages to live, selling things by
+the ha'p'orth and clearing her couple of francs profit a day. For my
+own part, I'm sure that I could never spend my days on the foot-
+pavement in this horrid Paris! And she hasn't even any relations
+here!"
+
+"You have some relations in Paris, I suppose?" she asked presently,
+seeing that Florent seemed disinclined to talk.
+
+Florent did not appear to hear her. A feeling of distrust came back to
+him. His head was teeming with old stories of the police, stories of
+spies prowling about at every street corner, and of women selling the
+secrets which they managed to worm out of the unhappy fellows they
+deluded. Madame Francois was sitting close beside him and certainly
+looked perfectly straightforward and honest, with her big calm face,
+above which was bound a black and yellow handkerchief. She seemed
+about five and thirty years of age, and was somewhat stoutly built,
+with a certain hardy beauty due to her life in the fresh air. A pair
+of black eyes, which beamed with kindly tenderness, softened the more
+masculine characteristics of her person. She certainly was
+inquisitive, but her curiosity was probably well meant.
+
+"I've a nephew in Paris," she continued, without seeming at all
+offended by Florent's silence. "He's turned out badly though, and has
+enlisted. It's a pleasant thing to have somewhere to go to and stay
+at, isn't it? I dare say there's a big surprise in store for your
+relations when they see you. But it's always a pleasure to welcome one
+of one's own people back again, isn't it?"
+
+She kept her eyes fixed upon him while she spoke, doubtless
+compassionating his extreme scragginess; fancying, too, that there was
+a "gentleman" inside those old black rags, and so not daring to slip a
+piece of silver into his hand. At last, however, she timidly murmured:
+"All the same, if you should happen just at present to be in want of
+anything----"
+
+But Florent checked her with uneasy pride. He told her that he had
+everything he required, and had a place to go to. She seemed quite
+pleased to hear this, and, as though to tranquillise herself
+concerning him, repeated several times: "Well, well, in that case
+you've only got to wait till daylight."
+
+A large bell at the corner of the fruit market, just over Florent's
+head, now began to ring. The slow regular peals seemed to gradually
+dissipate the slumber that yet lingered all around. Carts were still
+arriving, and the shouts of the waggoners, the cracking of their
+whips, and the grinding of the paving-stones beneath the iron-bound
+wheels and the horses' shoes sounded with an increasing din. The carts
+could now only advance by a series of spasmodic jolts, and stretched
+in a long line, one behind the other, till they were lost to sight in
+the distant darkness, whence a confused roar ascended.
+
+Unloading was in progress all along the Rue du Pont Neuf, the vehicles
+being drawn up close to the edge of the footways, while their teams
+stood motionless in close order as at a horse fair. Florent felt
+interested in one enormous tumbrel which was piled up with magnificent
+cabbages, and had only been backed to the kerb with the greatest
+difficulty. Its load towered above the lofty gas lamp whose bright
+light fell full upon the broad leaves which looked like pieces of dark
+green velvet, scalloped and goffered. A young peasant girl, some
+sixteen years old, in a blue linen jacket and cap, had climbed on to
+the tumbrel, where, buried in the cabbages to her shoulders, she took
+them one by one and threw them to somebody concealed in the shade
+below. Every now and then the girl would slip and vanish, overwhelmed
+by an avalanche of the vegetables, but her rosy nose soon reappeared
+amidst the teeming greenery, and she broke into a laugh while the
+cabbages again flew down between Florent and the gas lamp. He counted
+them mechanically as they fell. When the cart was emptied he felt
+worried.
+
+The piles of vegetables on the pavement now extended to the verge of
+the roadway. Between the heaps, the market gardeners left narrow paths
+to enable people to pass along. The whole of the wide footway was
+covered from end to end with dark mounds. As yet, in the sudden
+dancing gleams of light from the lanterns, you only just espied the
+luxuriant fulness of the bundles of artichokes, the delicate green of
+the lettuces, the rosy coral of the carrots, and dull ivory of the
+turnips. And these gleams of rich colour flitted along the heaps,
+according as the lanterns came and went. The footway was now becoming
+populated: a crowd of people had awakened, and was moving hither and
+thither amidst the vegetables, stopping at times, and chattering and
+shouting. In the distance a loud voice could be heard crying, "Endive!
+who's got endive?" The gates of the pavilion devoted to the sale of
+ordinary vegetables had just been opened; and the retail dealers who
+had stalls there, with white caps on their heads, fichus knotted over
+their black jackets, and skirts pinned up to keep them from getting
+soiled, now began to secure their stock for the day, depositing their
+purchases in some huge porters' baskets placed upon the ground.
+Between the roadway and the pavilion these baskets were to be seen
+coming and going on all sides, knocking against the crowded heads of
+the bystanders, who resented the pushing with coarse expressions,
+whilst all around was a clamour of voices growing hoarse by prolonged
+wrangling over a sou or two. Florent was astonished by the calmness of
+the female market gardeners, with bandanas and bronzed faces,
+displayed amidst all this garrulous bargaining of the markets.
+
+Behind him, on the footway of the Rue Rambuteau, fruit was being sold.
+Hampers and low baskets covered with canvas or straw stood there in
+long lines, a strong odour of over-ripe mirabelle plums was wafted
+hither and thither. At last a subdued and gentle voice, which he had
+heard for some time past, induced him to turn his head, and he saw a
+charming darksome little woman sitting on the ground and bargaining.
+
+"Come now, Marcel," said she, "you'll take a hundred sous, won't you?"
+
+The man to whom she was speaking was closely wrapped in his cloak and
+made no reply; however, after a silence of five minutes or more, the
+young woman returned to the charge.
+
+"Come now, Marcel; a hundred sous for that basket there, and four
+francs for the other one; that'll make nine francs altogether."
+
+Then came another interval.
+
+"Well, tell me what you will take."
+
+"Ten francs. You know that well enough already; I told you so before.
+But what have you done with your Jules this morning, La Sarriette?"
+
+The young woman began to laugh as she took a handful of small change
+out of her pocket.
+
+"Oh," she replied, "Jules is still in bed. He says that men were not
+intended to work."
+
+She paid for the two baskets, and carried them into the fruit
+pavilion, which had just been opened. The market buildings still
+retained their gloom-wrapped aspect of airy fragility, streaked with
+the thousand lines of light that gleamed from the venetian shutters.
+People were beginning to pass along the broad covered streets
+intersecting the pavilions, but the more distant buildings still
+remained deserted amidst the increasing buzz of life on the footways.
+By Saint Eustache the bakers and wine sellers were taking down their
+shutters, and the ruddy shops, with their gas lights flaring, showed
+like gaps of fire in the gloom in which the grey house-fronts were yet
+steeped. Florent noticed a baker's shop on the left-hand side of the
+Rue Montorgueil, replete and golden with its last baking, and fancied
+he could scent the pleasant smell of the hot bread. It was now half
+past four.
+
+Madame Francois by this time had disposed of nearly all her stock. She
+had only a few bunches of carrots left when Lacaille once more made
+his appearance with his sack.
+
+"Well," said he, "will you take a sou now?"
+
+"I knew I should see you again," the good woman quietly answered.
+"You'd better take all I have left. There are seventeen bunches."
+
+"That makes seventeen sous."
+
+"No; thirty-four."
+
+At last they agreed to fix the price at twenty-five sous. Madame
+Francois was anxious to be off.
+
+"He'd been keeping his eye upon me all the time," she said to Florent,
+when Lacaille had gone off with the carrots in his sack. "That old
+rogue runs things down all over the markets, and he often waits till
+the last peal of the bell before spending four sous in purchase. Oh,
+these Paris folk! They'll wrangle and argue for an hour to save half a
+sou, and then go off and empty their purses at the wine shop."
+
+Whenever Madame Francois talked of Paris she always spoke in a tone of
+disdain, and referred to the city as though it were some ridiculous,
+contemptible, far-away place, in which she only condescended to set
+foot at nighttime.
+
+"There!" she continued, sitting down again, beside Florent, on some
+vegetables belonging to a neighbour, "I can get away now."
+
+Florent bent his head. He had just committed a theft. When Lacaille
+went off he had caught sight of a carrot lying on the ground, and
+having picked it up he was holding it tightly in his right hand.
+Behind him were some bundles of celery and bunches of parsley were
+diffusing pungent odours which painfully affected him.
+
+"Well, I'm off now!" said Madame Francois.
+
+However, she felt interested in this stranger, and could divine that
+he was suffering there on that foot-pavement, from which he had never
+stirred. She made him fresh offers of assistance, but he again refused
+them, with a still more bitter show of pride. He even got up and
+remained standing to prove that he was quite strong again. Then, as
+Madame Francois turned her head away, he put the carrot to his mouth.
+But he had to remove it for a moment, in spite of the terrible longing
+which he felt to dig his teeth into it; for Madame Francois turned
+round again and looking him full in the face, began to question him
+with her good-natured womanly curiosity. Florent, to avoid speaking,
+merely answered by nods and shakes of the head. Then, slowly and
+gently, he began to eat the carrot.
+
+The worthy woman was at last on the point of going off, when a
+powerful voice exclaimed close beside her, "Good morning, Madame
+Francois."
+
+The speaker was a slim young man, with big bones and a big head. His
+face was bearded, and he had a very delicate nose and narrow sparkling
+eyes. He wore on his head a rusty, battered, black felt hat, and was
+buttoned up in an immense overcoat, which had once been of a soft
+chestnut hue, but which rain had discoloured and streaked with long
+greenish stains. Somewhat bent, and quivering with a nervous
+restlessness which was doubtless habitual with him, he stood there in
+a pair of heavy laced shoes, and the shortness of his trousers allowed
+a glimpse of his coarse blue hose.
+
+"Good morning, Monsieur Claude," the market gardener replied
+cheerfully. "I expected you, you know, last Monday, and, as you didn't
+come, I've taken care of your canvas for you. I've hung it up on a
+nail in my room."
+
+"You are really very kind, Madame Francois. I'll go to finish that
+study of mine one of these days. I wasn't able to go on Monday. Has
+your big plum tree still got all its leaves?"
+
+"Yes, indeed."
+
+"I wanted to know, because I mean to put it in a corner of the
+picture. It will come in nicely by the side of the fowl house. I have
+been thinking about it all the week. What lovely vegetables are in the
+market this morning! I came down very early, expecting a fine sunrise
+effect upon all these heaps of cabbages."
+
+With a wave of the arm he indicated the footway.
+
+"Well, well, I must be off now," said Madame Francois. "Good-bye for
+the present. We shall meet again soon, I hope, Monsieur Claude."
+
+However, as she turned to go, she introduced Florent to the young
+artist.
+
+"This gentleman, it seems, has just come from a distance," said she.
+"He feels quite lost in your scampish Paris. I dare say you might be
+of service to him."
+
+Then she at last took her departure, feeling pleased at having left
+the two men together. Claude looked at Florent with a feeling of
+interest. That tall, slight, wavy figure seemed to him original.
+Madame Francois's hasty presentation was in his eyes quite sufficient,
+and he addressed Florent with the easy familiarity of a lounger
+accustomed to all sorts of chance encounters.
+
+"I'll accompany you," he said; "which way are you going?"
+
+Florent felt ill at ease; he was not wont to unbosom himself so
+readily. However, ever since his arrival in Paris, a question had been
+trembling on his lips, and now he ventured to ask it, with the evident
+fear of receiving an unfavourable reply.
+
+"Is the Rue Pirouette still in existence?"
+
+"Oh, yes," answered the artist. "A very curious corner of old Paris is
+the Rue Pirouette. It twists and turns like a dancing girl, and the
+houses bulge out like pot-bellied gluttons. I've made an etching of it
+that isn't half bad. I'll show it to you when you come to see me. Is
+it to the Rue Pirouette that you want to go?"
+
+Florent, who felt easier and more cheerful now that he knew the street
+still existed, declared that he did not want to go there; in fact, he
+did not want to go anywhere in particular. All his distrust awoke into
+fresh life at Claude's insistence.
+
+"Oh! never mind," said the artist, "let's go to the Rue Pirouette all
+the same. It has such a fine colour at night time. Come along; it's
+only a couple of yards away."
+
+Florent felt constrained to follow him, and the two men walked off,
+side by side, stepping over the hampers and vegetables like a couple
+of old friends. On the footway of the Rue Rambuteau there were some
+immense heaps of cauliflowers, symmetrically piled up like so many
+cannonballs. The soft-white flowers spread out like huge roses in the
+midst of their thick green leaves, and the piles had something of the
+appearance of bridal bouquets ranged in a row in colossal flower
+stands. Claude stopped in front of them, venting cries of admiration.
+
+Then, on turning into the Rue Pirouette, which was just opposite, he
+pointed out each house to his companion, and explained his views
+concerning it. There was only a single gas lamp, burning in a corner.
+The buildings, which had settled down and swollen, threw their pent-
+houses forward in such wise as to justify Claude's allusion to pot-
+bellied gluttons, whilst their gables receded, and on either side they
+clung to their neighbours for support. Three or four, however,
+standing in gloomy recesses, appeared to be on the point of toppling
+forward. The solitary gas lamp illumined one which was snowy with a
+fresh coat of whitewash, suggesting some flabby broken-down old
+dowager, powdered and bedaubed in the hope of appearing young. Then
+the others stretched away into the darkness, bruised, dented, and
+cracked, greeny with the fall of water from their roofs, and
+displaying such an extraordinary variety of attitudes and tints that
+Claude could not refrain from laughing as he contemplated them.
+
+Florent, however, came to stand at the corner of the rue de Mondetour,
+in front of the last house but one on the left. Here the three floors,
+each with two shutterless windows, having little white curtains
+closely drawn, seemed wrapped in sleep; but, up above, a light could
+be seen flitting behind the curtains of a tiny gable casement.
+However, the sight of the shop beneath the pent-house seemed to fill
+Florent with the deepest emotion. It was kept by a dealer in cooked
+vegetables, and was just being opened. At its far end some metal pans
+were glittering, while on several earthen ones in the window there was
+a display of cooked spinach and endive, reduced to a paste and
+arranged in conical mounds from which customers were served with
+shovel-like carvers of white metal, only the handles of which were
+visible. This sight seemed to rivet Florent to the ground with
+surprise. He evidently could not recognize the place. He read the name
+of the shopkeeper, Godeboeuf, which was painted on a red sign board up
+above, and remained quite overcome by consternation. His arms dangling
+beside him, he began to examine the cooked spinach, with the
+despairing air of one on whom some supreme misfortune falls.
+
+However, the gable casement was now opened, and a little old woman
+leaned out of it, and looked first at the sky and then at the markets
+in the distance.
+
+"Ah, Mademoiselle Saget is an early riser," exclaimed Claude, who had
+just raised his head. And, turning to his companion, he added: "I once
+had an aunt living in that house. It's a regular hive of tittle-
+tattle! Ah, the Mehudins are stirring now, I see. There's a light on
+the second floor."
+
+Florent would have liked to question his companion, but the latter's
+long discoloured overcoat give him a disquieting appearance. So
+without a word Florent followed him, whilst he went on talking about
+the Mehudins. These Mehudins were fish-girls, it seemed; the older one
+was a magnificent creature, while the younger one, who sold fresh-
+water fish, reminded Claude of one of Murillo's virgins, whenever he
+saw her standing with her fair face amidst her carps and eels.
+
+From this Claude went on to remark with asperity that Murillo painted
+like an ignoramus. But all at once he stopped short in the middle of
+the street.
+
+"Come!" he exclaimed, "tell me where it is that you want to go."
+
+"I don't want to go anywhere just at present," replied Florent in
+confusion. "Let's go wherever you like."
+
+Just as they were leaving the Rue Pirouette, some one called to Claude
+from a wine shop at the corner of the street. The young man went in,
+dragging Florent with him. The shutters had been taken down on one
+side only, and the gas was still burning in the sleepy atmosphere of
+the shop. A forgotten napkin and some cards that had been used in the
+previous evening's play were still lying on the tables; and the fresh
+breeze that streamed in through the open doorway freshened the close,
+warm vinous air. The landlord, Monsieur Lebigre, was serving his
+customers. He wore a sleeved waistcoat, and his fat regular features,
+fringed by an untidy beard, were still pale with sleep. Standing in
+front of the counter, groups of men, with heavy, tired eyes, were
+drinking, coughing, and spitting, whilst trying to rouse themselves by
+the aid of white wine and brandy. Amongst them Florent recognised
+Lacaille, whose sack now overflowed with various sorts of vegetables.
+He was taking his third dram with a friend, who was telling him a long
+story about the purchase of a hamper of potatoes.[*] When he had
+emptied his glass, he went to chat with Monsieur Lebigre in a little
+glazed compartment at the end of the room, where the gas had not yet
+been lighted.
+
+[*] At the Paris central markets potatoes are sold by the hamper, not
+    by the sack as in England.--Translator.
+
+"What will you take?" Claude asked of Florent.
+
+He had on entering grasped the hand of the person who had called out
+to him. This was a market porter,[*] a well-built young man of two and
+twenty at the most. His cheeks and chin were clean-shaven, but he wore
+a small moustache, and looked a sprightly, strapping fellow with his
+broad-brimmed hat covered with chalk, and his wool-worked neck-piece,
+the straps falling from which tightened his short blue blouse. Claude,
+who called him Alexandre, patted his arms, and asked him when they
+were going to Charentonneau again. Then they talked about a grand
+excursion they had made together in a boat on the Marne, when they had
+eaten a rabbit for supper in the evening.
+
+[*] /Fort/ is the French term, literally "a strong man," as every
+    market porter needs to be.--Translator.
+
+"Well, what will you take?" Claude again asked Florent.
+
+The latter looked at the counter in great embarrassment. At one end of
+it some stoneware pots, encircled with brass bands and containing
+punch and hot wine, were standing over the short blue flames of a gas
+stove. Florent at last confessed that a glass of something warm would
+be welcome. Monsieur Lebigre thereupon served them with three glasses
+of punch. In a basket near the pots were some smoking hot rolls which
+had only just arrived. However, as neither of the others took one,
+Florent likewise refrained, and drank his punch. He felt it slipping
+down into his empty stomach, like a steam of molten lead. It was
+Alexandre who paid for the "shout."
+
+"He's a fine fellow, that Alexandre!" said Claude, when he and Florent
+found themselves alone again on the footway of the Rue Rambuteau.
+"He's a very amusing companion to take into the country. He's fond of
+showing his strength. And then he's so magnificently built! I have
+seen him stripped. Ah, if I could only get him to pose for me in the
+nude out in the open air! Well, we'll go and take a turn through the
+markets now, if you like."
+
+Florent followed, yielding entirely to his new friend's guidance. A
+bright glow at the far end of the Rue Rambuteau announced the break of
+day. The far-spreading voice of the markets was become more sonorous,
+and every now and then the peals of a bell ringing in some distant
+pavilion mingled with the swelling, rising clamour. Claude and Florent
+entered one of the covered streets between the fish and poultry
+pavilions. Florent raised his eyes and looked at the lofty vault
+overhead, the inner timbers of which glistened amidst a black lacework
+of iron supports. As he turned into the great central thoroughfare he
+pictured himself in some strange town, with its various districts and
+suburbs, promenades and streets, squares and cross-roads, all suddenly
+placed under shelter on a rainy day by the whim of some gigantic
+power. The deep gloom brooding in the hollows of the roofs multiplied,
+as it were, the forest of pillars, and infinitely increased the number
+of the delicate ribs, railed galleries, and transparent shutters. And
+over the phantom city and far away into the depths of the shade, a
+teeming, flowering vegetation of luxuriant metal-work, with spindle-
+shaped stems and twining knotted branches, covered the vast expanse as
+with the foliage of some ancient forest. Several departments of the
+markets still slumbered behind their closed iron gates. The butter and
+poultry pavilions displayed rows of little trellised stalls and long
+alleys, which lines of gas lights showed to be deserted. The fish
+market, however, had just been opened, and women were flitting to and
+fro amongst the white slabs littered with shadowy hampers and cloths.
+Among the vegetables and fruit and flowers the noise and bustle were
+gradually increasing. The whole place was by degree waking up, from
+the popular quarter where the cabbages are piled at four o'clock in
+the morning, to the lazy and wealthy district which only hangs up its
+pullets and pheasants when the hands of the clock point to eight.
+
+The great covered alleys were now teeming with life. All along the
+footways on both sides of the road there were still many market
+gardeners, with other small growers from the environs of Paris, who
+displayed baskets containing their "gatherings" of the previous
+evening--bundles of vegetables and clusters of fruit. Whilst the crowd
+incessantly paced hither and thither, vehicles barred the road; and
+Florent, in order to pass them, had to press against some dingy sacks,
+like coal-sacks in appearance, and so numerous and heavy that the
+axle-trees of the vans bent beneath them. They were quite damp, and
+exhaled a fresh odour of seaweed. From a rent low down in the side of
+one of them a black stream of big mussels was trickling.
+
+Florent and Claude had now to pause at every step. The fish was
+arriving and one after another the drays of the railway companies
+drove up laden with wooden cages full of the hampers and baskets that
+had come by train from the sea coast. And to get out of the way of the
+fish drays, which became more and more numerous and disquieting, the
+artist and Florent rushed amongst the wheels of the drays laden with
+butter and eggs and cheese, huge yellow vehicles bearing coloured
+lanterns, and drawn by four horses. The market porters carried the
+cases of eggs, and baskets of cheese and butter, into the auction
+pavilion, where clerks were making entries in note books by the light
+of the gas.
+
+Claude was quite charmed with all this uproar, and forgot everything
+to gaze at some effect of light, some group of blouses, or the
+picturesque unloading of a cart. At last they extricated themselves
+from the crowd, and as they continued on their way along the main
+artery they presently found themselves amidst an exquisite perfume
+which seemed to be following them. They were in the cut-flower market.
+All over the footways, to the right and left, women were seated in
+front of large rectangular baskets full of bunches of roses, violets,
+dahlias, and marguerites. At times the clumps darkened and looked like
+splotches of blood, at others they brightened into silvery greys of
+the softest tones. A lighted candle, standing near one basket, set
+amidst the general blackness quite a melody of colour--the bright
+variegations of marguerites, the blood-red crimson of dahlias, the
+bluey purple of violets, and the warm flesh tints of roses. And
+nothing could have been sweeter or more suggestive of springtide than
+this soft breath of perfume encountered on the footway, on emerging
+from the sharp odours of the fish market and the pestilential smell of
+the butter and the cheese.
+
+Claude and Florent turned round and strolled about, loitering among
+the flowers. They halted with some curiosity before several women who
+were selling bunches of fern and bundles of vine-leaves, neatly tied
+up in packets of five and twenty. Then they turned down another
+covered alley, which was almost deserted, and where their footsteps
+echoed as though they had been walking through a church. Here they
+found a little cart, scarcely larger than a wheelbarrow, to which was
+harnessed a diminutive donkey, who, no doubt, felt bored, for at sight
+of them he began braying with such prolonged and sonorous force that
+the vast roofing of the markets fairly trembled. Then the horses began
+to neigh in reply, there was a sound of pawing and tramping, a distant
+uproar, which swelled, rolled along, then died away.
+
+Meantime, in the Rue Berger in front of them, Claude and Florent
+perceived a number of bare, frontless, salesmen's shops, where, by the
+light of flaring gas jets, they could distinguish piles of hampers and
+fruit, enclosed by three dirty walls which were covered with addition
+sums in pencil. And the two wanderers were still standing there,
+contemplating this scene, when they noticed a well-dressed woman
+huddled up in a cab which looked quite lost and forlorn in the block
+of carts as it stealthily made its way onwards.
+
+"There's Cinderella coming back without her slippers," remarked Claude
+with a smile.
+
+They began chatting together as they went back towards the markets.
+Claude whistled as he strolled along with his hands in his pockets,
+and expatiated on his love for this mountain of food which rises every
+morning in the very centre of Paris. He prowled about the footways
+night after night, dreaming of colossal still-life subjects, paintings
+of an extraordinary character. He had even started on one, having his
+friend Marjolin and that jade Cadine to pose for him; but it was hard
+work to paint those confounded vegetables and fruit and fish and meat
+--they were all so beautiful! Florent listened to the artist's
+enthusiastic talk with a void and hunger-aching stomach. It did not
+seem to occur to Claude that all those things were intended to be
+eaten. Their charm for him lay in their colour. Suddenly, however, he
+ceased speaking and, with a gesture that was habitual to him,
+tightened the long red sash which he wore under his green-stained
+coat.
+
+And then with a sly expression he resumed:
+
+"Besides, I breakfast here, through my eyes, at any rate, and that's
+better than getting nothing at all. Sometimes, when I've forgotten to
+dine on the previous day, I treat myself to a perfect fit of
+indigestion in the morning by watching the carts arrive here laden
+with all sorts of good things. On such mornings as those I love my
+vegetables more than ever. Ah! the exasperating part, the rank
+injustice of it all, is that those rascally Philistines really eat
+these things!"
+
+Then he went on to tell Florent of a supper to which a friend had
+treated him at Baratte's on a day of affluence. They had partaken of
+oysters, fish, and game. But Baratte's had sadly fallen, and all the
+carnival life of the old Marche des Innocents was now buried. In place
+thereof they had those huge central markets, that colossus of
+ironwork, that new and wonderful town. Fools might say what they
+liked; it was the embodiment of the spirit of the times. Florent,
+however, could not at first make out whether he was condemning the
+picturesqueness of Baratte's or its good cheer.
+
+But Claude next began to inveigh against romanticism. He preferred his
+piles of vegetables, he said, to the rags of the middle ages; and he
+ended by reproaching himself with guilty weakness in making an etching
+of the Rue Pirouette. All those grimy old places ought to be levelled
+to the ground, he declared, and modern houses ought to be built in
+their stead.
+
+"There!" he exclaimed, coming to a halt, "look at the corner of the
+footway yonder! Isn't that a picture readymade, ever so much more
+human and natural than all their confounded consumptive daubs?"
+
+Along the covered way women were now selling hot soup and coffee. At
+one corner of the foot-pavement a large circle of customers clustered
+round a vendor of cabbage soup. The bright tin caldron, full of broth,
+was steaming over a little low stove, through the holes of which came
+the pale glow of the embers. From a napkin-lined basket the woman took
+some thin slices of bread and dropped them into yellow cups; then with
+a ladle she filled the cups with liquor. Around her were saleswomen
+neatly dressed, market gardeners in blouses, porters with coats soiled
+by the loads they had carried, poor ragged vagabonds--in fact, all the
+early hungry ones of the markets, eating, and scalding their mouths,
+and drawing back their chins to avoid soiling them with the drippings
+from their spoons. The delighted artist blinked, and sought a point of
+view so as to get a good ensemble of the picture. That cabbage soup,
+however, exhaled a very strong odour. Florent, for his part, turned
+his head away, distressed by the sight of the full cups which the
+customers emptied in silence, glancing around them the while like
+suspicious animals. As the woman began serving a fresh customer,
+Claude himself was affected by the odorous steam of the soup, which
+was wafted full in his face.
+
+He again tightened his sash, half amused and half annoyed. Then
+resuming his walk, and alluding to the punch paid for by Alexandre, he
+said to Florent in a low voice:
+
+"It's very odd, but have you ever noticed that although a man can
+always find somebody to treat him to something to drink, he can never
+find a soul who will stand him anything to eat?"
+
+The dawn was now rising. The houses on the Boulevard de Sebastopol at
+the end of the Rue de la Cossonnerie were still black; but above the
+sharp line of their slate roofs a patch of pale blue sky,
+circumscribed by the arch-pieces of the covered way, showed like a
+gleaming half-moon. Claude, who had been bending over some grated
+openings on a level with the ground, through which a glimpse could be
+obtained of deep cellars where gas lights glimmered, now glanced up
+into the air between the lofty pillars, as though scanning the dark
+roofs which fringed the clear sky. Then he halted again, with his eyes
+fixed on one of the light iron ladders which connect the superposed
+market roofs and give access from one to the other. Florent asked him
+what he was seeking there.
+
+"I'm looking for that scamp of a Marjolin," replied the artist. "He's
+sure to be in some guttering up there, unless, indeed, he's been
+spending the night in the poultry cellars. I want him to give me a
+sitting."
+
+Then he went on to relate how a market saleswoman had found his friend
+Marjolin one morning in a pile of cabbages, and how Marjolin had grown
+up in all liberty on the surrounding footways. When an attempt had
+been made to send him to school he had fallen ill, and it had been
+necessary to bring him back to the markets. He knew every nook and
+corner of them, and loved them with a filial affection, leading the
+agile life of a squirrel in that forest of ironwork. He and Cadine,
+the hussy whom Mother Chantemesse had picked up one night in the old
+Market of the Innocents, made a pretty couple--he, a splendid foolish
+fellow, as glowing as a Rubens, with a ruddy down on his skin which
+attracted the sunlight; and she, slight and sly, with a comical phiz
+under her tangle of black curly hair.
+
+Whilst talking Claude quickened his steps, and soon brought his
+companion back to Saint Eustache again. Florent, whose legs were once
+more giving way, dropped upon a bench near the omnibus office. The
+morning air was freshening. At the far end of the Rue Rambuteau rosy
+gleams were streaking the milky sky, which higher up was slashed by
+broad grey rifts. Such was the sweet balsamic scent of this dawn, that
+Florent for a moment fancied himself in the open country, on the brow
+of a hill. But behind the bench Claude pointed out to him the many
+aromatic herbs and bulbs on sale. All along the footway skirting the
+tripe market there were, so to say, fields of thyme and lavender,
+garlic and shallots; and round the young plane-trees on the pavement
+the vendors had twined long branches of laurel, forming trophies of
+greenery. The strong scent of the laurel leaves prevailed over every
+other odour.
+
+At present the luminous dial of Saint Eustache was paling as a night-
+light does when surprised by the dawn. The gas jets in the wine shops
+in the neighbouring streets went out one by one, like stars
+extinguished by the brightness. And Florent gazed at the vast markets
+now gradually emerging from the gloom, from the dreamland in which he
+had beheld them, stretching out their ranges of open palaces.
+Greenish-grey in hue, they looked more solid now, and even more
+colossal with their prodigious masting of columns upholding an endless
+expanse of roofs. They rose up in geometrically shaped masses; and
+when all the inner lights had been extinguished and the square uniform
+buildings were steeped in the rising dawn, they seemed typical of some
+gigantic modern machine, some engine, some caldron for the supply of a
+whole people, some colossal belly, bolted and riveted, built up of
+wood and glass and iron, and endowed with all the elegance and power
+of some mechanical motive appliance working there with flaring
+furnaces, and wild, bewildering revolutions of wheels.
+
+Claude, however, had enthusiastically sprung on to the bench, and
+stood upon it. He compelled his companion to admire the effect of the
+dawn rising over the vegetables. There was a perfect sea of these
+extending between the two clusters of pavilions from Saint Eustache to
+the Rue des Halles. And in the two open spaces at either end the flood
+of greenery rose to even greater height, and quite submerged the
+pavements. The dawn appeared slowly, softly grey in hue, and spreading
+a light water-colour tint over everything. These surging piles akin to
+hurrying waves, this river of verdure rushing along the roadway like
+an autumn torrent, assumed delicate shadowy tints--tender violet,
+blush-rose, and greeny yellow, all the soft, light hues which at
+sunrise make the sky look like a canopy of shot silk. And by degrees,
+as the fires of dawn rose higher and higher at the far end of the Rue
+Rambuteau, the mass of vegetation grew brighter and brighter, emerging
+more and more distinctly from the bluey gloom that clung to the
+ground. Salad herbs, cabbage-lettuce, endive, and succory, with rich
+soil still clinging to their roots, exposed their swelling hearts;
+bundles of spinach, bundles of sorrel, clusters of artichokes, piles
+of peas and beans, mounds of cos-lettuce, tied round with straws,
+sounded every note in the whole gamut of greenery, from the sheeny
+lacquer-like green of the pods to the deep-toned green of the foliage;
+a continuous gamut with ascending and descending scales which died
+away in the variegated tones of the heads of celery and bundles of
+leeks. But the highest and most sonorous notes still came from the
+patches of bright carrots and snowy turnips, strewn in prodigious
+quantities all along the markets and lighting them up with the medley
+of their two colours.
+
+At the crossway in the Rue des Halles cabbages were piled up in
+mountains; there were white ones, hard and compact as metal balls,
+curly savoys, whose great leaves made them look like basins of green
+bronze, and red cabbages, which the dawn seemed to transform into
+superb masses of bloom with the hue of wine-lees, splotched with dark
+purple and carmine. At the other side of the markets, at the crossway
+near Saint Eustache, the end of the Rue Rambuteau was blocked by a
+barricade of orange-hued pumpkins, sprawling with swelling bellies in
+two superposed rows. And here and there gleamed the glistening ruddy
+brown of a hamper of onions, the blood-red crimson of a heap of
+tomatoes, the quiet yellow of a display of marrows, and the sombre
+violet of the fruit of the eggplant; while numerous fat black
+radishes still left patches of gloom amidst the quivering brilliance
+of the general awakening.
+
+Claude clapped his hands at the sight. He declared that those
+"blackguard vegetables" were wild, mad, sublime! He stoutly maintained
+that they were not yet dead, but, gathered in the previous evening,
+waited for the morning sun to bid him good-bye from the flag-stones of
+the market. He could observe their vitality, he declared, see their
+leaves stir and open as though their roots were yet firmly and warmly
+embedded in well-manured soil. And here, in the markets, he added, he
+heard the death-rattle of all the kitchen gardens of the environs of
+Paris.
+
+A crowd of white caps, loose black jackets, and blue blouses was
+swarming in the narrow paths between the various piles. The big
+baskets of the market porters passed along slowly, above the heads of
+the throng. Retail dealers, costermongers, and greengrocers were
+making their purchases in haste. Corporals and nuns clustered round
+the mountains of cabbages, and college cooks prowled about
+inquisitively, on the look-out for good bargains. The unloading was
+still going on; heavy tumbrels, discharging their contents as though
+these were so many paving-stones, added more and more waves to the sea
+of greenery which was now beating against the opposite footways. And
+from the far end of the Rue du Pont Neuf fresh rows of carts were
+still and ever arriving.
+
+"What a fine sight it is!" exclaimed Claude in an ecstasy of
+enthusiasm.
+
+Florent was suffering keenly. He fancied that all this was some
+supernatural temptation, and, unwilling to look at the markets any
+longer, turned towards Saint Eustache, a side view of which he
+obtained from the spot where he now stood. With its roses, and broad
+arched windows, its bell-turret, and roofs of slate, it looked as
+though painted in sepia against the blue of the sky. He fixed his eyes
+at last on the sombre depths of the Rue Montorgueil, where fragments
+of gaudy sign boards showed conspicuously, and on the corner of the
+Rue Montmartre, where there were balconies gleaming with letters of
+gold. And when he again glanced at the cross-roads, his gaze was
+solicited by other sign boards, on which such inscriptions as
+"Druggist and Chemist," "Flour and Grain" appeared in big red and
+black capital letters upon faded backgrounds. Near these corners,
+houses with narrow windows were now awakening, setting amidst the
+newness and airiness of the Rue du Pont Neuf a few of the yellow
+ancient facades of olden Paris. Standing at the empty windows of the
+great drapery shop at the corner of the Rue Rambuteau a number of
+spruce-looking counter-jumpers in their shirt sleeves, with snowy-
+white wristbands and tight-fitting pantaloons, were "dressing" their
+goods. Farther away, in the windows of the severe looking, barrack-
+like Guillot establishment, biscuits in gilt wrappers and fancy cakes
+on glass stands were tastefully set out. All the shops were now open;
+and workmen in white blouses, with tools under their arms, were
+hurrying along the road.
+
+Claude had not yet got down from the bench. He was standing on tiptoe
+in order to see the farther down the streets. Suddenly, in the midst
+of the crowd which he overlooked, he caught sight of a fair head with
+long wavy locks, followed by a little black one covered with curly
+tumbled hair.
+
+"Hallo, Marjolin! Hallo, Cadine!" he shouted; and then, as his voice
+was drowned by the general uproar, he jumped to the ground and started
+off. But all at once, recollecting that he had left Florent behind
+him, he hastily came back. "I live at the end of the Impasse des
+Bourdonnais," he said rapidly. "My name's written in chalk on the
+door, Claude Lantier. Come and see the etching of the Rue Pirouette."
+
+Then he vanished. He was quite ignorant of Florent's name, and, after
+favouring him with his views on art, parted from him as he had met
+him, at the roadside.
+
+Florent was now alone, and at first this pleased him. Ever since
+Madame Francoise had picked him up in the Avenue de Neuilly he had
+been coming and going in a state of pain fraught somnolence which had
+quite prevented him from forming any definite ideas of his
+surroundings. Now at last he was at liberty to do what he liked, and
+he tried to shake himself free from that intolerable vision of teeming
+food by which he was pursued. But his head still felt empty and dizzy,
+and all that he could find within him was a kind of vague fear. The
+day was now growing quite bright, and he could be distinctly seen. He
+looked down at his wretched shabby coat and trousers. He buttoned the
+first, dusted the latter, and strove to make a bit of a toilet,
+fearing lest those black rags of his should proclaim aloud whence he
+had come. He was seated in the middle of the bench, by the side of
+some wandering vagabonds who had settled themselves there while
+waiting for the sunrise. The neighbourhood of the markets is a
+favourite spot with vagrants in the small hours of the morning.
+However, two constables, still in night uniform, with cloaks and
+/kepis/, paced up and down the footway side by side, their hands
+resting behind their backs; and every time they passed the bench they
+glanced at the game which they scented there. Florent felt sure that
+they recognised him, and were consulting together about arresting him.
+At this thought his anguish of mind became extreme. He felt a wild
+desire to get up and run away; but he did not dare to do so, and was
+quite at a loss as to how he might take himself off. The repeated
+glances of the constables, their cold, deliberate scrutiny caused him
+the keenest torture. At length he rose from the bench, making a great
+effort to restrain himself from rushing off as quickly as his long
+legs could carry him; and succeeded in walking quietly away, though
+his shoulders quivered in the fear he felt of suddenly feeling the
+rough hands of the constables clutching at his collar from behind.
+
+He had now only one thought, one desire, which was to get away from
+the markets as quickly as possible. He would wait and make his
+investigations later on, when the footways should be clear. The three
+streets which met here--the Rue Montmartre, Rue Montorgueil, and Rue
+Turbigo--filled him with uneasiness. They were blocked by vehicles of
+all kinds, and their footways were crowded with vegetables. Florent
+went straight along as far as the Rue Pierre Lescot, but there the
+cress and the potato markets seemed to him insuperable obstacles. So
+he resolved to take the Rue Rambuteau. On reaching the Boulevard de
+Sebastopol, however, he came across such a block of vans and carts and
+waggonettes that he turned back and proceeded along the Rue Saint
+Denis. Then he got amongst the vegetables once more. Retail dealers
+had just set up their stalls, formed of planks resting on tall
+hampers; and the deluge of cabbages and carrots and turnips began all
+over again. The markets were overflowing. Florent tried to make his
+escape from this pursuing flood which ever overtook him in his flight.
+He tried the Rue de la Cossonnerie, the Rue Berger, the Square des
+Innocents, the Rue de la Ferronnerie, and the Rue des Halles. And at
+last he came to a standstill, quite discouraged and scared at finding
+himself unable to escape from the infernal circle of vegetables, which
+now seemed to dance around him, twining clinging verdure about his
+legs.
+
+The everlasting stream of carts and horses stretched away as far as
+the Rue de Rivoli and the Place de l'Hotel de Ville. Huge vans were
+carrying away supplies for all the greengrocers and fruiterers of an
+entire district; /chars-a-bancs/ were starting for the suburbs with
+straining, groaning sides. In the Rue de Pont Neuf Florent got
+completely bewildered. He stumbled upon a crowd of hand-carts, in
+which numerous costermongers were arranging their purchases. Amongst
+them he recognised Lacaille, who went off along the Rue Saint Honore,
+pushing a barrow of carrots and cauliflowers before him. Florent
+followed him, in the hope that he would guide him out of the mob. The
+pavement was now quite slippery, although the weather was dry, and the
+litter of artichoke stalks, turnip tops, and leaves of all kinds made
+walking somewhat dangerous. Florent stumbled at almost every step. He
+lost sight of Lacaille in the Rue Vauvilliers, and on approaching the
+corn market he again found the streets barricaded with vehicles. Then
+he made no further attempt to struggle; he was once more in the clutch
+of the markets, and their stream of life bore him back. Slowly
+retracing his steps, he presently found himself by Saint Eustache
+again.
+
+He now heard the loud continuous rumbling of the waggons that were
+setting out from the markets. Paris was doling out the daily food of
+its two million inhabitants. These markets were like some huge central
+organ beating with giant force, and sending the blood of life through
+every vein of the city. The uproar was akin to that of colossal jaws--
+a mighty sound to which each phase of the provisioning contributed,
+from the whip-cracking of the larger retail dealers as they started
+off for the district markets to the dragging pit-a-pat of the old
+shoes worn by the poor women who hawked their lettuces in baskets from
+door to door.
+
+Florent turned into a covered way on the left, intersecting the group
+of four pavilions whose deep silent gloom he had remarked during the
+night. He hoped that he might there find a refuge, discover some
+corner in which he could hide himself. But these pavilions were now as
+busy, as lively as the others. Florent walked on to the end of the
+street. Drays were driving up at a quick trot, crowding the market
+with cages full of live poultry, and square hampers in which dead
+birds were stowed in deep layers. On the other side of the way were
+other drays from which porters were removing freshly killed calves,
+wrapped in canvas, and laid at full length in baskets, whence only the
+four bleeding stumps of their legs protruded. There were also whole
+sheep, and sides and quarters of beef. Butchers in long white aprons
+marked the meat with a stamp, carried it off, weighted it, and hung it
+up on hooks in the auction room. Florent, with his face close to the
+grating, stood gazing at the rows of hanging carcasses, at the ruddy
+sheep and oxen and paler calves, all streaked with yellow fat and
+sinews, and with bellies yawning open. Then he passed along the
+sidewalk where the tripe market was held, amidst the pallid calves'
+feet and heads, the rolled tripe neatly packed in boxes, the brains
+delicately set out in flat baskets, the sanguineous livers, and
+purplish kidneys. He checked his steps in front of some long two-
+wheeled carts, covered with round awnings, and containing sides of
+pork hung on each side of the vehicle over a bed of straw. Seen from
+the back end, the interiors of the carts looked like recesses of some
+tabernacle, like some taper-lighted chapel, such was the glow of all
+the bare flesh they contained. And on the beds of straw were lines of
+tin cans, full of the blood that had trickled from the pigs. Thereupon
+Florent was attacked by a sort of rage. The insipid odour of the meat,
+the pungent smell of the tripe exasperated him. He made his way out of
+the covered road, preferring to return once more to the footwalk of
+the Rue de Pont Neuf.
+
+He was enduring perfect agony. The shiver of early morning came upon
+him; his teeth chattered, and he was afraid of falling to the ground
+and finding himself unable to rise again. He looked about, but could
+see no vacant place on any bench. Had he found one he would have
+dropped asleep there, even at the risk of being awakened by the
+police. Then, as giddiness nearly blinded him, he leaned for support
+against a tree, with his eyes closed and his ears ringing. The raw
+carrot, which he had swallowed almost without chewing, was torturing
+his stomach, and the glass of punch which he had drunk seemed to have
+intoxicated him. He was indeed intoxicated with misery, weariness, and
+hunger. Again he felt a burning fire in the pit of the stomach, to
+which he every now and then carried his hands, as though he were
+trying to stop up a hole through which all his life was oozing away.
+As he stood there he fancied that the foot-pavement rocked beneath
+him; and thinking that he might perhaps lessen his sufferings by
+walking, he went straight on through the vegetables again. He lost
+himself among them. He went along a narrow footway, turned down
+another, was forced to retrace his steps, bungled in doing so, and
+once more found himself amidst piles of greenery. Some heaps were so
+high that people seemed to be walking between walls of bundles and
+bunches. Only their heads slightly overtopped these ramparts, and
+passed along showing whitely or blackly according to the colour of
+their hats or caps; whilst the huge swinging baskets, carried aloft on
+a level with the greenery, looked like osier boats floating on a
+stagnant, mossy lake.
+
+Florent stumbled against a thousand obstacles--against porters taking
+up their burdens, and saleswomen disputing in rough tones. He slipped
+over the thick bed of waste leaves and stumps which covered the
+footway, and was almost suffocated by the powerful odour of crushed
+verdure. At last he halted in a sort of confused stupor, and
+surrendered to the pushing of some and the insults of others; and then
+he became a mere waif, a piece of wreckage tossed about on the surface
+of that surging sea.
+
+He was fast losing all self-respect, and would willingly have begged.
+The recollection of his foolish pride during the night exasperated
+him. If he had accepted Madame Francois's charity, if he had not felt
+such idiotic fear of Claude, he would not now have been stranded there
+groaning in the midst of these cabbages. And he was especially angry
+with himself for not having questioned the artist when they were in
+the Rue Pirouette. Now, alas! he was alone and deserted, liable to die
+in the streets like a homeless dog.
+
+For the last time he raised his eyes and looked at the markets. At
+present they were glittering in the sun. A broad ray was pouring
+through the covered road from the far end, cleaving the massy
+pavilions with an arcade of light, whilst fiery beams rained down upon
+the far expanse of roofs. The huge iron framework grew less distinct,
+assumed a bluey hue, became nothing but a shadowy silhouette outlined
+against the flaming flare of the sunrise. But up above a pane of glass
+took fire, drops of light trickled down the broad sloping zinc plates
+to the gutterings; and then, below, a tumultuous city appeared amidst
+a haze of dancing golden dust. The general awakening had spread, from
+the first start of the market gardeners snoring in their cloaks, to
+the brisk rolling of the food-laden railway drays. And the whole city
+was opening its iron gates, the footways were humming, the pavilions
+roaring with life. Shouts and cries of all kinds rent the air; it was
+as though the strain, which Florent had heard gathering force in the
+gloom ever since four in the morning, had now attained its fullest
+volume. To the right and left, on all sides indeed, the sharp cries
+accompanying the auction sales sounded shrilly like flutes amidst the
+sonorous bass roar of the crowd. It was the fish, the butter, the
+poultry, and the meat being sold.
+
+The pealing of bells passed through the air, imparting a quiver to the
+buzzing of the opening markets. Around Florent the sun was setting the
+vegetables aflame. He no longer perceived any of those soft water-
+colour tints which had predominated in the pale light of early
+morning. The swelling hearts of the lettuces were now gleaming
+brightly, the scales of greenery showed forth with wondrous vigour,
+the carrots glowed blood-red, the turnips shone as if incandescent in
+the triumphant radiance of the sun.
+
+On Florent's left some waggons were discharging fresh loads of
+cabbages. He turned his eyes, and away in the distance saw carts yet
+streaming out of the Rue Turbigo. The tide was still and ever rising.
+He had felt it about his ankles, then on a level with his stomach, and
+now it was threatening to drown him altogether. Blinded and submerged,
+his ears buzzing, his stomach overpowered by all that he had seen, he
+asked for mercy; and wild grief took possession of him at the thought
+of dying there of starvation in the very heart of glutted Paris,
+amidst the effulgent awakening of her markets. Big hot tears started
+from his eyes.
+
+Walking on, he had now reached one of the larger alleys. Two women,
+one short and old, the other tall and withered, passed him, talking
+together as they made their way towards the pavilions.
+
+"So you've come to do your marketing, Mademoiselle Saget?" said the
+tall withered woman.
+
+"Well, yes, Madame Lecoeur, if you can give it such a name as
+marketing. I'm a lone woman, you know, and live on next to nothing. I
+should have liked a small cauliflower, but everything is so dear. How
+is butter selling to-day?"
+
+"At thirty-four sous. I have some which is first rate. Will you come
+and look at it?"
+
+"Well, I don't know if I shall want any to-day; I've still a little
+lard left."
+
+Making a supreme effort, Florent followed these two women. He
+recollected having heard Claude name the old one--Mademoiselle Saget--
+when they were in the Rue Pirouette; and he made up his mind to
+question her when she should have parted from her tall withered
+acquaintance.
+
+"And how's your niece?" Mademoiselle Saget now asked.
+
+"Oh, La Sarriette does as she likes," Madame Lecoeur replied in a
+bitter tone. "She's chosen to set up for herself and her affairs no
+longer concern me. When her lovers have beggared her, she needn't come
+to me for any bread."
+
+"And you were so good to her, too! She ought to do well this year;
+fruit is yielding big profits. And your brother-in-law, how is he?"
+
+"Oh, he----"
+
+Madame Lecoeur bit her lips, and seemed disinclined to say anything
+more.
+
+"Still the same as ever, I suppose?" continued Mademoiselle Saget.
+"He's a very worthy man. Still, I once heard it said that he spent his
+money in such a way that--"
+
+"But does anyone know how he spends his money?" interrupted Madame
+Lecoeur, with much asperity. "He's a miserly niggard, a scurvy fellow,
+that's what I say! Do you know, mademoiselle, he'd see me die of
+starvation rather than lend me five francs! He knows quite well that
+there's nothing to be made out of butter this season, any more than
+out of cheese and eggs; whereas he can sell as much poultry as ever he
+chooses. But not once, I assure you, not once has he offered to help
+me. I am too proud, as you know, to accept any assistance from him;
+still it would have pleased me to have had it offered."
+
+"Ah, by the way, there he is, your brother-in-law!" suddenly exclaimed
+Mademoiselle Saget, lowering her voice.
+
+The two women turned and gazed at a man who was crossing the road to
+enter the covered way close by.
+
+"I'm in a hurry," murmured Madame Lecoeur. "I left my stall without
+anyone to look after it; and, besides, I don't want to speak to him."
+
+However, Florent also had mechanically turned round and glanced at the
+individual referred to. This was a short, squarely-built man, with a
+cheery look and grey, close-cut brush-like hair. Under each arm he was
+carrying a fat goose, whose head hung down and flapped against his
+legs. And then all at once Florent made a gesture of delight.
+Forgetting his fatigue, he ran after the man, and, overtaking him,
+tapped him on the shoulder.
+
+"Gavard!" he exclaimed.
+
+The other raised his head and stared with surprise at Florent's tall
+black figure, which he did not at first recognise. Then all at once:
+"What! is it you?" he cried, as if overcome with amazement. "Is it
+really you?"
+
+He all but let his geese fall, and seemed unable to master his
+surprise. On catching sight, however, of his sister-in-law and
+Mademoiselle Saget, who were watching the meeting at a distance, he
+began to walk on again.
+
+"Come along; don't let us stop here," he said. "There are too many
+eyes and tongues about."
+
+When they were in the covered way they began to chat. Florent related
+how he had gone to the Rue Pirouette, at which Gavard seemed much
+amused and laughed heartily. Then he told Florent that his brother
+Quenu had moved from that street and had reopened his pork shop close
+by, in the Rue Rambuteau, just in front of the markets. And afterwards
+he was again highly amused to hear that Florent had been wandering
+about all that morning with Claude Lantier, an odd kind of fish, who,
+strangely enough, said he, was Madame Quenu's nephew. Thus chatting,
+Gavard was on the point of taking Florent straight to the pork shop,
+but, on hearing that he had returned to France with false papers, he
+suddenly assumed all sorts of solemn and mysterious airs, and insisted
+upon walking some fifteen paces in front of him, to avoid attracting
+attention. After passing through the poultry pavilion, where he hung
+his geese up in his stall, he began to cross the Rue Rambuteau, still
+followed by Florent; and then, halting in the middle of the road, he
+glanced significantly towards a large and well-appointed pork shop.
+
+The sun was obliquely enfilading the Rue Rambuteau, lighting up the
+fronts of the houses, in the midst of which the Rue Pirouette formed a
+dark gap. At the other end the great pile of Saint Eustache glittered
+brightly in the sunlight like some huge reliquary. And right through
+the crowd, from the distant crossway, an army of street-sweepers was
+advancing in file down the road, the brooms swishing rhythmically,
+while scavengers provided with forks pitched the collected refuse into
+tumbrels, which at intervals of a score of paces halted with a noise
+like the chattering of broken pots. However, all Florent's attention
+was concentrated on the pork shop, open and radiant in the rising sun.
+
+It stood very near the corner of the Rue Pirouette and provided quite
+a feast for the eyes. Its aspect was bright and smiling, touches of
+brilliant colour showing conspicuously amidst all the snowy marble.
+The sign board, on which the name of QUENU-GRADELLE glittered in fat
+gilt letters encircled by leaves and branches painted on a soft-hued
+background, was protected by a sheet of glass. On two panels, one on
+each side of the shop-front, and both, like the board above, covered
+with glass, were paintings representing various chubby little cupids
+playing amidst boars' heads, pork chops and strings of sausages; and
+these latter still-life subjects, embellished with scrolls and bows,
+had been painted in such soft tones that the uncooked pork which they
+represented had the pinkiness of raspberry jam. Within this pleasing
+framework arose the window display, arranged upon a bed of fine blue-
+paper shavings. Here and there fern-leaves, tastefully disposed,
+changed the plates which they encircled into bouquets fringed with
+foliage. There was a wealth of rich, luscious, melting things. Down
+below, quite close to the window, jars of preserved sausage-meat were
+interspersed with pots of mustard. Above these were some small, plump,
+boned hams. Golden with their dressings of toasted bread-crumbs, and
+adorned at the knuckles with green rosettes. Next came the larger
+dishes, some containing preserved Strasburg tongues, enclosed in
+bladders coloured a bright red and varnished, so that they looked
+quite sanguineous beside the pale sausages and trotters; then there
+were black-puddings coiled like harmless snakes, healthy looking
+chitterlings piled up two by two; Lyons sausages in little silver
+copes that made them look like choristers; hot pies, with little
+banner-like tickets stuck in them; big hams, and great glazed joints
+of veal and pork, whose jelly was as limpid as sugar-candy. In the
+rear were other dishes and earthen pans in which meat, minced and
+sliced, slumbered beneath lakes of melted fat. And betwixt the various
+plates and dishes, jars and bottle of sauce, cullis, stock and
+preserved truffles, pans of /foie gras/ and boxes of sardines and
+tunny-fish were strewn over the bed of paper shavings. A box of creamy
+cheeses, and one of edible snails, the apertures of whose shells were
+dressed with butter and parsley, had been placed carelessly at either
+corner. Finally, from a bar overhead strings of sausages and saveloys
+of various sizes hung down symmetrically like cords and tassels; while
+in the rear fragments of intestinal membranes showed like lacework,
+like some /guipure/ of white flesh. And on the highest tier in this
+sanctuary of gluttony, amidst the membranes and between two bouquets
+of purple gladioli, the window stand was crowned by a small square
+aquarium, ornamented with rock-work, and containing a couple of gold-
+fish, which were continually swimming round it.
+
+Florent's whole body thrilled at the sight. Then he perceived a woman
+standing in the sunlight at the door of the shop. With her prosperous,
+happy look in the midst of all those inviting things she added to the
+cherry aspect of the place. She was a fine woman and quite blocked the
+doorway. Still, she was not over stout, but simply buxom, with the
+full ripeness of her thirty years. She had only just risen, yet her
+glossy hair was already brushed smooth and arranged in little flat
+bands over her temples, giving her an appearance of extreme neatness.
+She had the fine skin, the pinky-white complexion common to those
+whose life is spent in an atmosphere of raw meat and fat. There was a
+touch of gravity about her demeanour, her movements were calm and
+slow; what mirth or pleasure she felt she expressed by her eyes, her
+lips retaining all their seriousness. A collar of starched linen
+encircled her neck, white sleevelets reached to her elbows, and a
+white apron fell even over the tips of her shoes, so that you saw but
+little of her black cashmere dress, which clung tightly to her well-
+rounded shoulders and swelling bosom. The sun rays poured hotly upon
+all the whiteness she displayed. However, although her bluish-black
+hair, her rosy face, and bright sleeves and apron were steeped in the
+glow of light, she never once blinked, but enjoyed her morning bath of
+sunshine with blissful tranquillity, her soft eyes smiling the while
+at the flow and riot of the markets. She had the appearance of a very
+worthy woman.
+
+"That is your brother's wife, your sister-in-law, Lisa," Gavard said
+to Florent.
+
+He had saluted her with a slight inclination of the head. Then he
+darted along the house passage, continuing to take the most minute
+precautions, and unwilling to let Florent enter the premises through
+the shop, though there was no one there. It was evident that he felt
+great pleasure in dabbling in what he considered to be a compromising
+business.
+
+"Wait here," he said, "while I go to see whether your brother is
+alone. You can come in when I clap my hands."
+
+Thereupon he opened a door at the end of the passage. But as soon as
+Florent heard his brother's voice behind it, he sprang inside at a
+bound. Quenu, who was much attached to him, threw his arms round his
+neck, and they kissed each other like children.
+
+"Ah! dash it all! Is it really you, my dear fellow?" stammered the
+pork butcher. "I never expected to see you again. I felt sure you were
+dead! Why, only yesterday I was saying to Lisa, 'That poor fellow,
+Florent!'"
+
+However, he stopped short, and popping his head into the shop, called
+out, "Lisa! Lisa!" Then turning towards a little girl who had crept
+into a corner, he added, "Pauline, go and find your mother."
+
+The little one did not stir, however. She was an extremely fine child,
+five years of age, with a plump chubby face, bearing a strong
+resemblance to that of the pork butcher's wife. In her arms she was
+holding a huge yellow cat, which had cheerfully surrendered itself to
+her embrace, with its legs dangling downwards; and she now squeezed it
+tightly with her little arms, as if she were afraid that yonder
+shabby-looking gentleman might rob her of it.
+
+Lisa, however, leisurely made her appearance.
+
+"Here is my brother Florent!" exclaimed Quenu.
+
+Lisa addressed him as "Monsieur," and gave him a kindly welcome. She
+scanned him quietly from head to foot, without evincing any
+disagreeable surprise. Merely a faint pout appeared for a moment on
+her lips. Then, standing by, she began to smile at her husband's
+demonstrations of affection. Quenu, however, at last recovered his
+calmness, and noticing Florent's fleshless, poverty-stricken
+appearance, exclaimed: "Ah, my poor fellow, you haven't improved in
+your looks since you were over yonder. For my part, I've grown fat;
+but what would you have!"
+
+He had indeed grown fat, too fat for his thirty years. He seemed to be
+bursting through his shirt and apron, through all the snowy-white
+linen in which he was swathed like a huge doll. With advancing years
+his clean-shaven face had become elongated, assuming a faint
+resemblance to the snout of one of those pigs amidst whose flesh his
+hands worked and lived the whole day through. Florent scarcely
+recognised him. He had now seated himself, and his glance turned from
+his brother to handsome Lisa and little Pauline. They were all brimful
+of health, squarely built, sleek, in prime condition; and in their
+turn they looked at Florent with the uneasy astonishment which
+corpulent people feel at the sight of a scraggy person. The very cat,
+whose skin was distended by fat, dilated its yellow eyes and
+scrutinised him with an air of distrust.
+
+"You'll wait till we have breakfast, won't you?" asked Quenu. "We have
+it early, at ten o'clock."
+
+A penetrating odour of cookery pervaded the place; and Florent looked
+back upon the terrible night which he had just spent, his arrival
+amongst the vegetables, his agony in the midst of the markets, the
+endless avalanches of food from which he had just escaped. And then in
+a low tone and with a gentle smile he responded:
+
+"No; I'm really very hungry, you see."
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II
+
+Florent had just begun to study law in Paris when his mother died. She
+lived at Le Vigan, in the department of the Gard, and had taken for
+her second husband one Quenu, a native of Yvetot in Normandy, whom
+some sub-prefect had transplanted to the south and then forgotten
+there. He had remained in employment at the sub-prefecture, finding
+the country charming, the wine good, and the women very amiable. Three
+years after his marriage he had been carried off by a bad attack of
+indigestion, leaving as sole legacy to his wife a sturdy boy who
+resembled him. It was only with very great difficulty that the widow
+could pay the college fees of Florent, her elder son, the issue of her
+first marriage. He was a very gentle youth, devoted to his studies,
+and constantly won the chief prizes at school. It was upon him that
+his mother lavished all her affection and based all her hopes.
+Perhaps, in bestowing so much love on this slim pale youth, she was
+giving evidence of her preference for her first husband, a tender-
+hearted, caressing Provencal, who had loved her devotedly. Quenu,
+whose good humour and amiability had at first attracted her, had
+perhaps displayed too much self-satisfaction, and shown too plainly
+that he looked upon himself as the main source of happiness. At all
+events she formed the opinion that her younger son--and in southern
+families younger sons are still often sacrificed--would never do any
+good; so she contented herself with sending him to a school kept by a
+neighbouring old maid, where the lad learned nothing but how to idle
+his time away. The two brothers grew up far apart from each other, as
+though they were strangers.
+
+When Florent arrived at Le Vigan his mother was already buried. She
+had insisted upon having her illness concealed from him till the very
+last moment, for fear of disturbing his studies. Thus he found little
+Quenu, who was then twelve years old, sitting and sobbing alone on a
+table in the middle of the kitchen. A furniture dealer, a neighbour,
+gave him particulars of his mother's last hours. She had reached the
+end of her resources, had killed herself by the hard work which she
+had undertaken to earn sufficient money that her elder son might
+continue his legal studies. To her modest trade in ribbons, the
+profits of which were but small, she had been obliged to add other
+occupations, which kept her up very late at night. Her one idea of
+seeing Florent established as an advocate, holding a good position in
+the town, had gradually caused her to become hard and miserly, without
+pity for either herself or others. Little Quenu was allowed to wander
+about in ragged breeches, and in blouses from which the sleeves were
+falling away. He never dared to serve himself at table, but waited
+till he received his allowance of bread from his mother's hands. She
+gave herself equally thin slices, and it was to the effects of this
+regimen that she had succumbed, in deep despair at having failed to
+accomplish her self-allotted task.
+
+This story made a most painful impression upon Florent's tender
+nature, and his sobs wellnigh choked him. He took his little half
+brother in his arms, held him to his breast, and kissed him as though
+to restore to him the love of which he had unwittingly deprived him.
+Then he looked at the lad's gaping shoes, torn sleeves, and dirty
+hands, at all the manifest signs of wretchedness and neglect. And he
+told him that he would take him away, and that they would both live
+happily together. The next day, when he began to inquire into affairs,
+he felt afraid that he would not be able to keep sufficient money to
+pay for the journey back to Paris. However, he was determined to leave
+Le Vigan at any cost. He was fortunately able to sell the little
+ribbon business, and this enabled him to discharge his mother's debts,
+for despite her strictness in money matters she had gradually run up
+bills. Then, as there was nothing left, his mother's neighbour, the
+furniture dealer, offered him five hundred francs for her chattels and
+stock of linen. It was a very good bargain for the dealer, but the
+young man thanked him with tears in his eyes. He bought his brother
+some new clothes, and took him away that same evening.
+
+On his return to Paris he gave up all thought of continuing to attend
+the Law School, and postponed every ambitious project. He obtained a
+few pupils, and established himself with little Quenu in the Rue Royer
+Collard, at the corner of the Rue Saint Jacques, in a big room which
+he furnished with two iron bedsteads, a wardrobe, a table, and four
+chairs. He now had a child to look after, and this assumed paternity
+was very pleasing to him. During the earlier days he attempted to give
+the lad some lessons when he returned home in the evening, but Quenu
+was an unwilling pupil. He was dull of understanding, and refused to
+learn, bursting into tears and regretfully recalling the time when his
+mother had allowed him to run wild in the streets. Florent thereupon
+stopped his lessons in despair, and to console the lad promised him a
+holiday of indefinite length. As an excuse for his own weakness he
+repeated that he had not brought his brother to Paris to distress him.
+To see him grow up in happiness became his chief desire. He quite
+worshipped the boy, was charmed with his merry laughter, and felt
+infinite joy in seeing him about him, healthy and vigorous, and
+without a care. Florent for his part remained very slim and lean in
+his threadbare coat, and his face began to turn yellow amidst all the
+drudgery and worry of teaching; but Quenu grew up plump and merry, a
+little dense, indeed, and scarce able to read or write, but endowed
+with high spirits which nothing could ruffle, and which filled the big
+gloomy room in the Rue Royer Collard with gaiety.
+
+Years, meantime, passed by. Florent, who had inherited all his
+mother's spirit of devotion, kept Quenu at home as though he were a
+big, idle girl. He did not even suffer him to perform any petty
+domestic duties, but always went to buy the provisions himself, and
+attended to the cooking and other necessary matters. This kept him, he
+said, from indulging in his own bad thoughts. He was given to
+gloominess, and fancied that he was disposed to evil. When he returned
+home in the evening, splashed with mud, and his head bowed by the
+annoyances to which other people's children had subjected him, his
+heart melted beneath the embrace of the sturdy lad whom he found
+spinning his top on the tiled flooring of the big room. Quenu laughed
+at his brother's clumsiness in making omelettes, and at the serious
+fashion in which he prepared the soup-beef and vegetables. When the
+lamp was extinguished, and Florent lay in bed, he sometimes gave way
+to feelings of sadness. He longed to resume his legal studies, and
+strove to map out his duties in such wise as to secure time to follow
+the programme of the faculty. He succeeded in doing this, and was then
+perfectly happy. But a slight attack of fever, which confined him to
+his room for a week, made such a hole in his purse, and caused him so
+much alarm, that he abandoned all idea of completing his studies. The
+boy was now getting a big fellow, and Florent took a post as teacher
+in a school in the Rue de l'Estrapade, at a salary of eighteen hundred
+francs per annum. This seemed like a fortune to him. By dint of
+economy he hoped to be able to amass a sum of money which would set
+Quenu going in the world. When the lad reached his eighteenth year
+Florent still treated him as though he were a daughter for whom a
+dowry must be provided.
+
+However, during his brother's brief illness Quenu himself had made
+certain reflections. One morning he proclaimed his desire to work,
+saying that he was now old enough to earn his own living. Florent was
+deeply touched at this. Just opposite, on the other side of the
+street, lived a working watchmaker whom Quenu, through the curtainless
+window, could see leaning over a little table, manipulating all sorts
+of delicate things, and patiently gazing at them through a magnifying
+glass all day long. The lad was much attracted by the sight, and
+declared that he had a taste for watchmaking. At the end of a
+fortnight, however, he became restless, and began to cry like a child
+of ten, complaining that the work was too complicated, and that he
+would never be able to understand all the silly little things that
+enter into the construction of a watch.
+
+His next whim was to be a locksmith; but this calling he found too
+fatiguing. In a couple of years he tried more than ten different
+trades. Florent opined that he acted rightly, that it was wrong to
+take up a calling one did not like. However, Quenu's fine eagerness to
+work for his living strained the resources of the little establishment
+very seriously. Since he had begun flitting from one workshop to
+another there had been a constant succession of fresh expenses; money
+had gone in new clothes, in meals taken away from home, and in the
+payment of footings among fellow workmen. Florent's salary of eighteen
+hundred francs was no longer sufficient, and he was obliged to take a
+couple of pupils in the evenings. For eight years he had continued to
+wear the same old coat.
+
+However, the two brothers had made a friend. One side of the house in
+which they lived overlooked the Rue Saint Jacques, where there was a
+large poultry-roasting establishment[*] kept by a worthy man called
+Gavard, whose wife was dying from consumption amidst an atmosphere
+redolent of plump fowls. When Florent returned home too late to cook a
+scrap of meat, he was in the habit of laying out a dozen sous or so on
+a small portion of turkey or goose at this shop. Such days were feast
+days. Gavard in time grew interested in this tall, scraggy customer,
+learned his history, and invited Quenu into his shop. Before long the
+young fellow was constantly to be found there. As soon as his brother
+left the house he came downstairs and installed himself at the rear of
+the roasting shop, quite enraptured with the four huge spits which
+turned with a gentle sound in front of the tall bright flames.
+
+[*] These rotisseries, now all but extinct, were at one time a
+    particular feature of the Parisian provision trade. I can myself
+    recollect several akin to the one described by M. Zola. I suspect
+    that they largely owed their origin to the form and dimensions of
+    the ordinary Parisian kitchen stove, which did not enable people
+    to roast poultry at home in a convenient way. In the old French
+    cuisine, moreover, roast joints of meat were virtually unknown;
+    roasting was almost entirely confined to chickens, geese, turkeys,
+    pheasants, etc.; and among the middle classes people largely
+    bought their poultry already cooked of the /rotisseur/, or else
+    confided it to him for the purpose of roasting, in the same way as
+    our poorer classes still send their joints to the baker's.
+    Roasting was also long looked upon in France as a very delicate
+    art. Brillat-Savarin, in his famous /Physiologie du Gout/, lays
+    down the dictum that "A man may become a cook, but is born a
+    /rotisseur/."--Translator.
+
+The broad copper bands of the fireplace glistened brightly, the
+poultry steamed, the fat bubbled melodiously in the dripping-pan, and
+the spits seemed to talk amongst themselves and to address kindly
+words to Quenu, who, with a long ladle, devoutly basted the golden
+breasts of the fat geese and turkeys. He would stay there for hours,
+quite crimson in the dancing glow of the flames, and laughing vaguely,
+with a somewhat stupid expression, at the birds roasting in front of
+him. Indeed, he did not awake from this kind of trance until the geese
+and turkeys were unspitted. They were placed on dishes, the spits
+emerged from their carcasses smoking hot, and a rich gravy flowed from
+either end and filled the shop with a penetrating odour. Then the lad,
+who, standing up, had eagerly followed every phase of the dishing,
+would clap his hands and begin to talk to the birds, telling them that
+they were very nice, and would be eaten up, and that the cats would
+have nothing but their bones. And he would give a start of delight
+whenever Gavard handed him a slice of bread, which he forthwith put
+into the dripping-pan that it might soak and toast there for half an
+hour.
+
+It was in this shop, no doubt, that Quenu's love of cookery took its
+birth. Later on, when he had tried all sorts of crafts, he returned,
+as though driven by fate, to the spits and the poultry and the savoury
+gravy which induces one to lick one's fingers. At first he was afraid
+of vexing his brother, who was a small eater and spoke of good fare
+with the disdain of a man who is ignorant of it; but afterwards, on
+seeing that Florent listened to him when he explained the preparation
+of some very elaborate dish, he confessed his desires and presently
+found a situation at a large restaurant. From that time forward the
+life of the two brothers was settled. They continued to live in the
+room in the Rue Royer Collard, whither they returned every evening;
+the one glowing and radiant from his hot fire, the other with the
+depressed countenance of a shabby, impecunious teacher. Florent still
+wore his old black coat, as he sat absorbed in correcting his pupils'
+exercises; while Quenu, to put himself more at ease, donned his white
+apron, cap, and jacket, and, flitting about in front of the stove,
+amused himself by baking some dainty in the oven. Sometimes they
+smiled at seeing themselves thus attired, the one all in black, the
+other all in white. These different garbs, one bright and the other
+sombre, seemed to make the big room half gay and half mournful. Never,
+however, was there so much harmony in a household marked by such
+dissimilarity. Though the elder brother grew thinner and thinner,
+consumed by the ardent temperament which he had inherited from his
+Provencal father, and the younger one waxed fatter and fatter like a
+true son of Normandy, they loved each other in the brotherhood they
+derived from their mother--a mother who had been all devotion.
+
+They had a relation in Paris, a brother of their mother's, one
+Gradelle, who was in business as a pork butcher in the Rue Pirouette,
+near the central markets. He was a fat, hard-hearted, miserly fellow,
+and received his nephews as though they were starving paupers the
+first time they paid him a visit. They seldom went to see him
+afterwards. On his nameday Quenu would take him a bunch of flowers,
+and receive a half-franc piece in return for it. Florent's proud and
+sensitive nature suffered keenly when Gradelle scrutinised his shabby
+clothes with the anxious, suspicious glance of a miser apprehending a
+request for a dinner, or the loan of a five-franc piece. One day,
+however, it occurred to Florent in all artlessness to ask his uncle to
+change a hundred-franc note for him, and after this the pork butcher
+showed less alarm at sight of the lads, as he called them. Still,
+their friendship got no further than these infrequent visits.
+
+These years were like a long, sweet, sad dream to Florent. As they
+passed he tasted to the full all the bitter joys of self-sacrifice. At
+home, in the big room, life was all love and tenderness; but out in
+the world, amidst the humiliations inflicted on him by his pupils, and
+the rough jostling of the streets, he felt himself yielding to wicked
+thoughts. His slain ambitions embittered him. It was long before he
+could bring himself to bow to his fate, and accept with equanimity the
+painful lot of a poor, plain, commonplace man. At last, to guard
+against the temptations of wickedness, he plunged into ideal goodness,
+and sought refuge in a self-created sphere of absolute truth and
+justice. It was then that he became a republican, entering into the
+republican idea even as heart-broken girls enter a convent. And not
+finding a republic where sufficient peace and kindliness prevailed to
+lull his troubles to sleep, he created one for himself. He took no
+pleasure in books. All the blackened paper amidst which he lived spoke
+of evil-smelling class-rooms, of pellets of paper chewed by unruly
+schoolboys, of long, profitless hours of torture. Besides, books only
+suggested to him a spirit of mutiny and pride, whereas it was of peace
+and oblivion that he felt most need. To lull and soothe himself with
+the ideal imaginings, to dream that he was perfectly happy, and that
+all the world would likewise become so, to erect in his brain the
+republican city in which he would fain have lived, such now became his
+recreation, the task, again and again renewed, of all his leisure
+hours. He no longer read any books beyond those which his duties
+compelled him to peruse; he preferred to tramp along the Rue Saint
+Jacques as far as the outer boulevards, occasionally going yet a
+greater distance and returning by the Barriere d'Italie; and all along
+the road, with his eyes on the Quartier Mouffetard spread out at his
+feet, he would devise reforms of great moral and humanitarian scope,
+such as he thought would change that city of suffering into an abode
+of bliss. During the turmoil of February 1848, when Paris was stained
+with blood he became quite heartbroken, and rushed from one to another
+of the public clubs demanding that the blood which had been shed
+should find atonement in "the fraternal embrace of all republicans
+throughout the world." He became one of those enthusiastic orators who
+preached revolution as a new religion, full of gentleness and
+salvation. The terrible days of December 1851, the days of the Coup
+d'Etat, were required to wean him from his doctrines of universal
+love. He was then without arms; allowed himself to be captured like a
+sheep, and was treated as though he were a wolf. He awoke from his
+sermon on universal brotherhood to find himself starving on the cold
+stones of a casemate at Bicetre.
+
+Quenu, when two and twenty, was distressed with anguish when his
+brother did not return home. On the following day he went to seek his
+corpse at the cemetery of Montmartre, where the bodies of those shot
+down on the boulevards had been laid out in a line and covered with
+straw, from beneath which only their ghastly heads projected. However,
+Quenu's courage failed him, he was blinded by his tears, and had to
+pass twice along the line of corpses before acquiring the certainty
+that Florent's was not among them. At last, at the end of a long and
+wretched week, he learned at the Prefecture of Police that his brother
+was a prisoner. He was not allowed to see him, and when he pressed the
+matter the police threatened to arrest him also. Then he hastened off
+to his uncle Gradelle, whom he looked upon as a person of importance,
+hoping that he might be able to enlist his influence in Florent's
+behalf. But Gradelle waxed wrathful, declared that Florent deserved
+his fate, that he ought to have known better than to have mixed
+himself up with those rascally republicans. And he even added that
+Florent was destined to turn out badly, that it was written on his
+face.
+
+Quenu wept copiously and remained there, almost choked by his sobs.
+His uncle, a little ashamed of his harshness, and feeling that he
+ought to do something for him, offered to receive him into his house.
+He wanted an assistant, and knew that his nephew was a good cook.
+Quenu was so much alarmed by the mere thought of going back to live
+alone in the big room in the Rue Royer Collard, that then and there he
+accepted Gradelle's offer. That same night he slept in his uncle's
+house, in a dark hole of a garret just under the room, where there was
+scarcely space for him to lie at full length. However, he was less
+wretched there than he would have been opposite his brother's empty
+couch.
+
+He succeeded at length in obtaining permission to see Florent; but on
+his return from Bicetre he was obliged to take to his bed. For nearly
+three weeks he lay fever-stricken, in a stupefied, comatose state.
+Gradelle meantime called down all sorts of maledictions on his
+republican nephew; and one morning, when he heard of Florent's
+departure for Cayenne, he went upstairs, tapped Quenu on the hands,
+awoke him, and bluntly told him the news, thereby bringing about such
+a reaction that on the following day the young man was up and about
+again. His grief wore itself out, and his soft flabby flesh seemed to
+absorb his tears. A month later he laughed again, and then grew vexed
+and unhappy with himself for having been merry; but his natural light-
+heartedness soon gained the mastery, and he laughed afresh in
+unconscious happiness.
+
+He now learned his uncle's business, from which he derived even more
+enjoyment than from cookery. Gradelle told him, however, that he must
+not neglect his pots and pans, that it was rare to find a pork butcher
+who was also a good cook, and that he had been lucky in serving in a
+restaurant before coming to the shop. Gradelle, moreover, made full
+use of his nephew's acquirements, employed him to cook the dinners
+sent out to certain customers, and placed all the broiling, and the
+preparation of pork chops garnished with gherkins in his special
+charge. As the young man was of real service to him, he grew fond of
+him after his own fashion, and would nip his plump arms when he was in
+a good humour. Gradelle had sold the scanty furniture of the room in
+the Rue Royer Collard and retained possession of the proceeds--some
+forty francs or so--in order, said he, to prevent the foolish lad,
+Quenu, from making ducks and drakes of the cash. After a time,
+however, he allowed his nephew six francs a month a pocket-money.
+
+Quenu now became quite happy, in spite of the emptiness of his purse
+and the harshness with which he was occasionally treated. He liked to
+have life doled out to him; Florent had treated him too much like an
+indolent girl. Moreover, he had made a friend at his uncle's.
+Gradelle, when his wife died, had been obliged to engage a girl to
+attend to the shop, and had taken care to choose a healthy and
+attractive one, knowing that a good-looking girl would set off his
+viands and help to tempt custom. Amongst his acquaintances was a
+widow, living in the Rue Cuvier, near the Jardin des Plantes, whose
+deceased husband had been postmaster at Plassans, the seat of a
+sub-prefecture in the south of France. This lady, who lived in a very
+modest fashion on a small annuity, had brought with her from Plassans
+a plump, pretty child, whom she treated as her own daughter. Lisa, as
+the young one was called, attended upon her with much placidity and
+serenity of disposition. Somewhat seriously inclined, she looked quite
+beautiful when she smiled. Indeed, her great charm came from the
+exquisite manner in which she allowed this infrequent smile of hers to
+escape her. Her eyes then became most caressing, and her habitual
+gravity imparted inestimable value to these sudden, seductive flashes.
+The old lady had often said that one of Lisa's smiles would suffice to
+lure her to perdition.
+
+When the widow died she left all her savings, amounting to some ten
+thousand francs, to her adopted daughter. For a week Lisa lived alone
+in the Rue Cuvier; it was there that Gradelle came in search of her.
+He had become acquainted with her by often seeing her with her
+mistress when the latter called on him in the Rue Pirouette; and at
+the funeral she had struck him as having grown so handsome and sturdy
+that he had followed the hearse all the way to the cemetery, though he
+had not intended to do so. As the coffin was being lowered into the
+grave, he reflected what a splendid girl she would be for the counter
+of a pork butcher's shop. He thought the matter over, and finally
+resolved to offer her thirty francs a month, with board and lodging.
+When he made this proposal, Lisa asked for twenty-four hours to
+consider it. Then she arrived one morning with a little bundle of
+clothes, and her ten thousand francs concealed in the bosom of her
+dress. A month later the whole place belonged to her; she enslaved
+Gradelle, Quenu, and even the smallest kitchen-boy. For his part,
+Quenu would have cut off his fingers to please her. When she happened
+to smile, he remained rooted to the floor, laughing with delight as he
+gazed at her.
+
+Lisa was the eldest daughter of the Macquarts of Plassans, and her
+father was still alive.[*] But she said that he was abroad, and never
+wrote to him. Sometimes she just dropped a hint that her mother, now
+deceased, had been a hard worker, and that she took after her. She
+worked, indeed, very assiduously. However, she sometimes added that
+the worthy woman had slaved herself to death in striving to support
+her family. Then she would speak of the respective duties of husband
+and wife in such a practical though modest fashion as to enchant
+Quenu. He assured her that he fully shared her ideas. These were that
+everyone, man or woman, ought to work for his or her living, that
+everyone was charged with the duty of achieving personal happiness,
+that great harm was done by encouraging habits of idleness, and that
+the presence of so much misery in the world was greatly due to sloth.
+This theory of hers was a sweeping condemnation of drunkenness, of all
+the legendary loafing ways of her father Macquart. But, though she did
+not know it, there was much of Macquart's nature in herself. She was
+merely a steady, sensible Macquart with a logical desire for comfort,
+having grasped the truth of the proverb that as you make your bed so
+you lie on it. To sleep in blissful warmth there is no better plan
+than to prepare oneself a soft and downy couch; and to the preparation
+of such a couch she gave all her time and all her thoughts. When no
+more than six years old she had consented to remain quietly on her
+chair the whole day through on condition that she should be rewarded
+with a cake in the evening.
+
+[*] See M. Zola's novel, /The Fortune of the Rougons/.--Translator
+
+At Gradelle's establishment Lisa went on leading the calm, methodical
+life which her exquisite smiles illumined. She had not accepted the
+pork butcher's offer at random. She reckoned upon finding a guardian
+in him; with the keen scent of those who are born lucky she perhaps
+foresaw that the gloomy shop in the Rue Pirouette would bring her the
+comfortable future she dreamed of--a life of healthy enjoyment, and
+work without fatigue, each hour of which would bring its own reward.
+She attended to her counter with the quiet earnestness with which she
+had waited upon the postmaster's widow; and the cleanliness of her
+aprons soon became proverbial in the neighbourhood. Uncle Gradelle was
+so charmed with this pretty girl that sometimes, as he was stringing
+his sausages, he would say to Quenu: "Upon my word, if I weren't
+turned sixty, I think I should be foolish enough to marry her. A wife
+like she'd make is worth her weight in gold to a shopkeeper, my lad."
+
+Quenu himself was growing still fonder of her, though he laughed
+merrily one day when a neighbour accused him of being in love with
+Lisa. He was not worried with love-sickness. The two were very good
+friends, however. In the evening they went up to their bedrooms
+together. Lisa slept in a little chamber adjoining the dark hole which
+the young man occupied. She had made this room of hers quite bright by
+hanging it with muslin curtains. The pair would stand together for a
+moment on the landing, holding their candles in their hands, and
+chatting as they unlocked their doors. Then, as they closed them, they
+said in friendly tones:
+
+"Good night, Mademoiselle Lisa."
+
+"Good night, Monsieur Quenu."
+
+As Quenu undressed himself he listened to Lisa making her own
+preparations. The partition between the two rooms was very thin.
+"There, she is drawing her curtains now," he would say to himself;
+"what can she be doing, I wonder, in front of her chest of drawers?
+Ah! she's sitting down now and taking off her shoes. Now she's blown
+her candle out. Well, good night. I must get to sleep"; and at times,
+when he heard her bed creak as she got into it, he would say to
+himself with a smile, "Dash it all! Mademoiselle Lisa is no feather."
+This idea seemed to amuse him, and presently he would fall asleep
+thinking about the hams and salt pork that he had to prepare the next
+morning.
+
+This state of affairs went on for a year without causing Lisa a single
+blush or Quenu a moment's embarrassment. When the girl came into the
+kitchen in the morning at the busiest moment of the day's work, they
+grasped hands over the dishes of sausage-meat. Sometimes she helped
+him, holding the skins with her plump fingers while he filled them
+with meat and fat. Sometimes, too, with the tips of their tongues they
+just tasted the raw sausage-meat, to see if it was properly seasoned.
+She was able to give Quenu some useful hints, for she knew of many
+favourite southern recipes, with which he experimented with much
+success. He was often aware that she was standing behind his shoulder,
+prying into the pans. If he wanted a spoon or a dish, she would hand
+it to him. The heat of the fire would bring their blood to their
+skins; still, nothing in the world would have induced the young man to
+cease stirring the fatty /bouillis/ which were thickening over the
+fire while the girl stood gravely by him, discussing the amount of
+boiling that was necessary. In the afternoon, when the shop lacked
+customers, they quietly chatted together for hours at a time. Lisa sat
+behind the counter, leaning back, and knitting in an easy, regular
+fashion; while Quenu installed himself on a big oak block, dangling
+his legs and tapping his heels against the wood. They got on
+wonderfully well together, discussing all sorts of subjects, generally
+cookery, and then Uncle Gradelle and the neighbours. Lisa also amused
+the young man with stories, just as though he were a child. She knew
+some very pretty ones--some miraculous legends, full of lambs and
+little angels, which she narrated in a piping voice, with all her
+wonted seriousness. If a customer happened to come in, she saved
+herself the trouble of moving by asking Quenu to get the required pot
+of lard or box of snails. And at eleven o'clock they went slowly up to
+bed as on the previous night. As they closed their doors, they calmly
+repeated the words:
+
+"Good night, Mademoiselle Lisa."
+
+"Good night, Monsieur Quenu."
+
+One morning Uncle Gradelle was struck dead by apoplexy while preparing
+a galantine. He fell forward, with his face against the chopping-
+block. Lisa did not lose her self-possession. She remarked that the
+dead man could not be left lying in the middle of the kitchen, and had
+the body removed into a little back room where Gradelle had slept.
+Then she arranged with the assistants what should be said. It must be
+given out that the master had died in his bed; otherwise the whole
+district would be disgusted, and the shop would lose its customers.
+Quenu helped to carry the dead man away, feeling quite confused, and
+astonished at being unable to shed any tears. Presently, however, he
+and Lisa cried together. Quenu and his brother Florent were the sole
+heirs. The gossips of the neighbourhood credited old Gradelle with the
+possession of a considerable fortune. However, not a single crown
+could be discovered. Lisa seemed very restless and uneasy. Quenu
+noticed how pensive she became, how she kept on looking around her
+from morning till night, as though she had lost something. At last she
+decided to have a thorough cleaning of the premises, declaring that
+people were beginning to talk, that the story of the old man's death
+had got about, and that it was necessary they should make a great show
+of cleanliness. One afternoon, after remaining in the cellar for a
+couple of hours, whither she herself had gone to wash the salting-
+tubs, she came up again, carrying something in her apron. Quenu was
+just then cutting up a pig's fry. She waited till he had finished,
+talking awhile in an easy, indifferent fashion. But there was an
+unusual glitter in her eyes, and she smiled her most charming smile as
+she told him that she wanted to speak to him. She led the way upstairs
+with seeming difficulty, impeded by what she had in her apron, which
+was strained almost to bursting.
+
+By the time she reached the third floor she found herself short of
+breath, and for a moment was obliged to lean against the balustrade.
+Quenu, much astonished, followed her into her bedroom without saying a
+word. It was the first time she had ever invited him to enter it. She
+closed the door, and letting go the corners of her apron, which her
+stiffened fingers could no longer hold up, she allowed a stream of
+gold and silver coins to flow gently upon her bed. She had discovered
+Uncle Gradelle's treasure at the bottom of a salting-tub. The heap of
+money made a deep impression in the softy downy bed.
+
+Lisa and Quenu evinced a quiet delight. They sat down on the edge of
+the bed, Lisa at the head and Quenu at the foot, on either side of the
+heap of coins, and they counted the money out upon the counterpane, so
+as to avoid making any noise. There were forty thousand francs in
+gold, and three thousand francs in silver, whilst in a tin box they
+found bank notes to the value of forty-two thousand francs. It took
+them two hours to count up the treasure. Quenu's hands trembled
+slightly, and it was Lisa who did most of the work.
+
+They arranged the gold on the pillow in little heaps, leaving the
+silver in the hollow depression of the counterpane. When they had
+ascertained the total amount--eighty-five thousand francs, to them an
+enormous sum--they began to chat. And their conversation naturally
+turned upon their future, and they spoke of their marriage, although
+there had never been any previous mention of love between them. But
+this heap of money seemed to loosen their tongues. They had gradually
+seated themselves further back on the bed, leaning against the wall,
+beneath the white muslin curtains; and as they talked together, their
+hands, playing with the heap of silver between them, met, and remained
+linked amidst the pile of five-franc pieces. Twilight surprised them
+still sitting together. Then, for the first time, Lisa blushed at
+finding the young man by her side. For a few moments, indeed, although
+not a thought of evil had come to them, they felt much embarrassed.
+Then Lisa went to get her own ten thousand francs. Quenu wanted her to
+put them with his uncle's savings. He mixed the two sums together,
+saying with a laugh that the money must be married also. Then it was
+agreed that Lisa should keep the hoard in her chest of drawers. When
+she had locked it up they both quietly went downstairs. They were now
+practically husband and wife.
+
+The wedding took place during the following month. The neighbours
+considered the match a very natural one, and in every way suitable.
+They had vaguely heard the story of the treasure, and Lisa's honesty
+was the subject of endless eulogy. After all, said the gossips, she
+might well have kept the money herself, and not have spoken a word to
+Quenu about it; if she had spoken, it was out of pure honesty, for no
+one had seen her find the hoard. She well deserved, they added, that
+Quenu should make her his wife. That Quenu, by the way, was a lucky
+fellow; he wasn't a beauty himself, yet he had secured a beautiful
+wife, who had disinterred a fortune for him. Some even went so far as
+to whisper that Lisa was a simpleton for having acted as she had done;
+but the young woman only smiled when people speaking to her vaguely
+alluded to all these things. She and her husband lived on as
+previously, in happy placidity and quiet affection. She still assisted
+him as before, their hands still met amidst the sausage-meat, she
+still glanced over his shoulder into the pots and pans, and still
+nothing but the great fire in the kitchen brought the blood to their
+cheeks.
+
+However, Lisa was a woman of practical common sense, and speedily saw
+the folly of allowing eighty-five thousand francs to lie idle in a
+chest of drawers. Quenu would have willingly stowed them away again at
+the bottom of the salting-tub until he had gained as much more, when
+they could have retired from business and have gone to live at
+Suresnes, a suburb to which both were partial. Lisa, however, had
+other ambitions. The Rue Pirouette did not accord with her ideas of
+cleanliness, her craving for fresh air, light, and healthy life. The
+shop where Uncle Gradelle had accumulated his fortune, sou by sou, was
+a long, dark place, one of those suspicious looking pork butchers'
+shops of the old quarters of the city, where the well-worn flagstones
+retain a strong odour of meat in spite of constant washings. Now the
+young woman longed for one of those bright modern shops, ornamented
+like a drawing-room, and fringing the footway of some broad street
+with windows of crystalline transparence. She was not actuated by any
+petty ambition to play the fine lady behind a stylish counter, but
+clearly realised that commerce in its latest development needed
+elegant surroundings. Quenu showed much alarm the first time his wife
+suggested that they ought to move and spend some of their money in
+decorating a new shop. However, Lisa only shrugged her shoulders and
+smiled at finding him so timorous.
+
+One evening, when night was falling and the shop had grown dark, Quenu
+and Lisa overheard a woman of the neighbourhood talking to a friend
+outside their door.
+
+"No, indeed! I've given up dealing with them," said she. "I wouldn't
+buy a bit of black-pudding from them now on any account. They had a
+dead man in their kitchen, you know."
+
+Quenu wept with vexation. The story of Gradelle's death in the kitchen
+was clearly getting about; and his nephew began to blush before his
+customers when he saw them sniffing his wares too closely. So, of his
+own accord, he spoke to his wife of her proposal to take a new shop.
+Lisa, without saying anything, had already been looking out for other
+premises, and had found some, admirably situated, only a few yards
+away, in the Rue Rambuteau. The immediate neighbourhood of the central
+markets, which were being opened just opposite, would triple their
+business, and make their shop known all over Paris.
+
+Quenu allowed himself to be drawn into a lavish expenditure of money;
+he laid out over thirty thousand francs in marble, glass, and gilding.
+Lisa spent hours with the workmen, giving her views about the
+slightest details. When she was at last installed behind the counter,
+customers arrived in a perfect procession, merely for the sake of
+examining the shop. The inside walls were lined from top to bottom
+with white marble. The ceiling was covered with a huge square mirror,
+framed by a broad gilded cornice, richly ornamented, whilst from the
+centre hung a crystal chandelier with four branches. And behind the
+counter, and on the left, and at the far end of the shop were other
+mirrors, fitted between the marble panels and looking like doors
+opening into an infinite series of brightly lighted halls, where all
+sorts of appetising edibles were displayed. The huge counter on the
+right hand was considered a very fine piece of work. At intervals
+along the front were lozenge-shaped panels of pinky marble. The
+flooring was of tiles, alternately white and pink, with a deep red
+fretting as border. The whole neighbourhood was proud of the shop, and
+no one again thought of referring to the kitchen in the Rue Pirouette,
+where a man had died. For quite a month women stopped short on the
+footway to look at Lisa between the saveloys and bladders in the
+window. Her white and pink flesh excited as much admiration as the
+marbles. She seemed to be the soul, the living light, the healthy,
+sturdy idol of the pork trade; and thenceforth one and all baptised
+her "Lisa the beauty."
+
+To the right of the shop was the dining-room, a neat looking apartment
+containing a sideboard, a table, and several cane-seated chairs of
+light oak. The matting on the floor, the wallpaper of a soft yellow
+tint, the oil-cloth table-cover, coloured to imitate oak, gave the
+room a somewhat cold appearance, which was relieved only by the
+glitter of a brass hanging lamp, suspended from the ceiling, and
+spreading its big shade of transparent porcelain over the table. One
+of the dining-room doors opened into the huge square kitchen, at the
+end of which was a small paved courtyard, serving for the storage of
+lumber--tubs, barrels and pans, and all kinds of utensils not in use.
+To the left of the water-tap, alongside the gutter which carried off
+the greasy water, stood pots of faded flowers, removed from the shop
+window, and slowly dying.
+
+Business was excellent. Quenu, who had been much alarmed by the
+initial outlay, now regarded his wife with something like respect, and
+told his friends that she had "a wonderful head." At the end of five
+years they had nearly eighty thousand francs invested in the State
+funds. Lisa would say that they were not ambitious, that they had no
+desire to pile up money too quickly, or else she would have enabled
+her husband to gain hundreds and thousands of francs by prompting him
+to embark in the wholesale pig trade. But they were still young, and
+had plenty of time before them; besides, they didn't care about a
+rough, scrambling business, but preferred to work at their ease, and
+enjoy life, instead of wearing themselves out with endless anxieties.
+
+"For instance," Lisa would add in her expansive moments, "I have, you
+know, a cousin in Paris. I never see him, as the two families have
+fallen out. He has taken the name of Saccard,[*] on account of certain
+matters which he wants to be forgotten. Well, this cousin of mine, I'm
+told, makes millions and millions of francs; but he gets no enjoyment
+out of life. He's always in a state of feverish excitement, always
+rushing hither and thither, up to his neck in all sorts of worrying
+business. Well, it's impossible, isn't it, for such a man to eat his
+dinner peaceably in the evening? We, at any rate, can take our meals
+comfortably, and make sure of what we eat, and we are not harassed by
+worries as he is. The only reason why people should care for money is
+that money's wanted for one to live. People like comfort; that's
+natural. But as for making money simply for the sake of making it, and
+giving yourself far more trouble and anxiety to gain it than you can
+ever get pleasure from it when it's gained, why, as for me, I'd rather
+sit still and cross my arms. And besides, I should like to see all
+those millions of my cousin's. I can't say that I altogether believe
+in them. I caught sight of him the other day in his carriage. He was
+quite yellow, and looked ever so sly. A man who's making money doesn't
+have that kind of expression. But it's his business, and not mine. For
+our part, we prefer to make merely a hundred sous at a time, and to
+get a hundred sous' worth of enjoyment out of them."
+
+[*] See M. Zola's novel, /Money/.
+
+The household was undoubtedly thriving. A daughter had been born to
+the young couple during their first year of wedlock, and all three of
+them looked blooming. The business went on prosperously, without any
+laborious fatigue, just as Lisa desired. She had carefully kept free
+of any possible source of trouble or anxiety, and the days went by in
+an atmosphere of peaceful, unctuous prosperity. Their home was a nook
+of sensible happiness--a comfortable manger, so to speak, where
+father, mother, and daughter could grow sleek and fat. It was only
+Quenu who occasionally felt sad, through thinking of his brother
+Florent. Up to the year 1856 he had received letters from him at long
+intervals. Then no more came, and he had learned from a newspaper that
+three convicts having attempted to escape from the Ile du Diable, had
+been drowned before they were able to reach the mainland. He had made
+inquiries at the Prefecture of Police, but had not learnt anything
+definite; it seemed probable that his brother was dead. However, he
+did not lose all hope, though months passed without any tidings.
+Florent, in the meantime, was wandering about Dutch Guiana, and
+refrained from writing home as he was ever in hope of being able to
+return to France. Quenu at last began to mourn for him as one mourns
+for those whom one has been unable to bid farewell. Lisa had never
+known Florent, but she spoke very kindly whenever she saw her husband
+give way to his sorrow; and she evinced no impatience when for the
+hundredth time or so he began to relate stories of his early days, of
+his life in the big room in the Rue Royer Collard, the thirty-six
+trades which he had taken up one after another, and the dainties which
+he had cooked at the stove, dressed all in white, while Florent was
+dressed all in black. To such talk as this, indeed, she listened
+placidly, with a complacency which never wearied.
+
+It was into the midst of all this happiness, ripening after careful
+culture, that Florent dropped one September morning just as Lisa was
+taking her matutinal bath of sunshine, and Quenu, with his eyes still
+heavy with sleep, was lazily applying his fingers to the congealed fat
+left in the pans from the previous evening. Florent's arrival caused a
+great commotion. Gavard advised them to conceal the "outlaw," as he
+somewhat pompously called Florent. Lisa, who looked pale, and more
+serious than was her wont, at last took him to the fifth floor, where
+she gave him the room belonging to the girl who assisted her in the
+shop. Quenu had cut some slices of bread and ham, but Florent was
+scarcely able to eat. He was overcome by dizziness and nausea, and
+went to bed, where he remained for five days in a state of delirium,
+the outcome of an attack of brain-fever, which fortunately received
+energetic treatment. When he recovered consciousness he perceived Lisa
+sitting by his bedside, silently stirring some cooling drink in a cup.
+As he tried to thank her, she told him that he must keep perfectly
+quiet, and that they could talk together later on. At the end of
+another three days Florent was on his feet again. Then one morning
+Quenu went up to tell him that Lisa awaited them in her room on the
+first floor.
+
+Quenu and his wife there occupied a suite of three rooms and a
+dressing-room. You first passed through an antechamber, containing
+nothing but chairs, and then a small sitting-room, whose furniture,
+shrouded in white covers, slumbered in the gloom cast by the Venetian
+shutters, which were always kept closed so as to prevent the light
+blue of the upholstery from fading. Then came the bedroom, the only
+one of the three which was really used. It was very comfortably
+furnished in mahogany. The bed, bulky and drowsy of aspect in the
+depths of the damp alcove, was really wonderful, with its four
+mattresses, its four pillows, its layers of blankets, and its
+corpulent /edredon/. It was evidently a bed intended for slumber. A
+mirrored wardrobe, a washstand with drawers, a small central table
+with a worked cover, and several chairs whose seats were protected by
+squares of lace, gave the room an aspect of plain but substantial
+middle-class luxury. On the left-hand wall, on either side of the
+mantelpiece, which was ornamented with some landscape-painted vases
+mounted on bronze stands, and a gilt timepiece on which a figure of
+Gutenberg, also gilt, stood in an attitude of deep thought, hung
+portraits in oils of Quenu and Lisa, in ornate oval frames. Quenu had
+a smiling face, while Lisa wore an air of grave propriety; and both
+were dressed in black and depicted in flattering fashion, their
+features idealised, their skins wondrously smooth, their complexions
+soft and pinky. A carpet, in the Wilton style, with a complicated
+pattern of roses mingling with stars, concealed the flooring; while in
+front of the bed was a fluffy mat, made out of long pieces of curly
+wool, a work of patience at which Lisa herself had toiled while seated
+behind her counter. But the most striking object of all in the midst
+of this array of new furniture was a great square, thick-set
+secretaire, which had been re-polished in vain, for the cracks and
+notches in the marble top and the scratches on the old mahogany front,
+quite black with age, still showed plainly. Lisa had desired to retain
+this piece of furniture, however, as Uncle Gradelle had used it for
+more than forty years. It would bring them good luck, she said. It's
+metal fastenings were truly something terrible, it's lock was like
+that of a prison gate, and it was so heavy that it could scarcely be
+moved.
+
+When Florent and Quenu entered the room they found Lisa seated at the
+lowered desk of the secretaire, writing and putting down figures in a
+big, round, and very legible hand. She signed to them not to disturb
+her, and the two men sat down. Florent looked round the room, and
+notably at the two portraits, the bed and the timepiece, with an air
+of surprise.
+
+"There!" at last exclaimed Lisa, after having carefully verified a
+whole page of calculations. "Listen to me now; we have an account to
+render to you, my dear Florent."
+
+It was the first time that she had so addressed him. However, taking
+up the page of figures, she continued: "Your Uncle Gradelle died
+without leaving a will. Consequently you and your brother are his sole
+heirs. We now have to hand your share over to you."
+
+"But I do not ask you for anything!" exclaimed Florent, "I don't wish
+for anything!"
+
+Quenu had apparently been in ignorance of his wife's intentions. He
+turned rather pale and looked at her with an expression of
+displeasure. Of course, he certainly loved his brother dearly; but
+there was no occasion to hurl his uncle's money at him in this way.
+There would have been plenty of time to go into the matter later on.
+
+"I know very well, my dear Florent," continued Lisa, "that you did not
+come back with the intention of claiming from us what belongs to you;
+but business is business, you know, and we had better get things
+settled at once. Your uncle's savings amounted to eighty-five thousand
+francs. I have therefore put down forty-two thousand five hundred to
+your credit. See!"
+
+She showed him the figures on the sheet of paper.
+
+"It is unfortunately not so easy to value the shop, plant, stock-in-
+trade, and goodwill. I have only been able to put down approximate
+amounts, but I don't think I have underestimated anything. Well, the
+total valuation which I have made comes to fifteen thousand three
+hundred and ten francs; your half of which is seven thousand six
+hundred and fifty-five francs, so that your share amounts, in all, to
+fifty thousand one hundred and fifty-five francs. Please verify it for
+yourself, will you?"
+
+She had called out the figures in a clear, distinct voice, and she now
+handed the paper to Florent, who was obliged to take it.
+
+"But the old man's business was certainly never worth fifteen thousand
+francs!" cried Quenu. "Why, I wouldn't have given ten thousand for
+it!"
+
+He had ended by getting quite angry with his wife. Really, it was
+absurd to carry honesty to such a point as that! Had Florent said one
+word about the business? No, indeed, he had declared that he didn't
+wish for anything.
+
+"The business was worth fifteen thousand three hundred and ten
+francs," Lisa re-asserted, calmly. "You will agree with me, my dear
+Florent, that it is quite unnecessary to bring a lawyer into our
+affairs. It is for us to arrange the division between ourselves, since
+you have now turned up again. I naturally thought of this as soon as
+you arrived; and, while you were in bed with the fever, I did my best
+to draw up this little inventory. It contains, as you see, a fairly
+complete statement of everything. I have been through our old books,
+and have called up my memory to help me. Read it aloud, and I will
+give you any additional information you may want."
+
+Florent ended by smiling. He was touched by this easy and, as it were,
+natural display of probity. Placing the sheet of figures on the young
+woman's knee, he took hold of her hand and said, "I am very glad, my
+dear Lisa, to hear that you are prosperous, but I will not take your
+money. The heritage belongs to you and my brother, who took care of my
+uncle up to the last. I don't require anything, and I don't intend to
+hamper you in carrying on your business."
+
+Lisa insisted, and even showed some vexation, while Quenu gnawed his
+thumbs in silence to restrain himself.
+
+"Ah!" resumed Florent with a laugh, "if Uncle Gradelle could hear you,
+I think he'd come back and take the money away again. I was never a
+favourite of his, you know."
+
+"Well, no," muttered Quenu, no longer able to keep still, "he
+certainly wasn't over fond of you."
+
+Lisa, however, still pressed the matter. She did not like to have
+money in her secretaire that did not belong to her; it would worry
+her, said she; the thought of it would disturb her peace. Thereupon
+Florent, still in a joking way, proposed to invest his share in the
+business. Moreover, said he, he did not intend to refuse their help;
+he would, no doubt, be unable to find employment all at once; and
+then, too, he would need a complete outfit, for he was scarcely
+presentable.
+
+"Of course," cried Quenu, "you will board and lodge with us, and we
+will buy you all that you want. That's understood. You know very well
+that we are not likely to leave you in the streets, I hope!"
+
+He was quite moved now, and even felt a trifle ashamed of the alarm he
+had experienced at the thought of having to hand over a large amount
+of money all at once. He began to joke, and told his brother that he
+would undertake to fatten him. Florent gently shook his hand; while
+Lisa folded up the sheet of figures and put it away in a drawer of the
+secretaire.
+
+"You are wrong," she said by way of conclusion. "I have done what I
+was bound to do. Now it shall be as you wish. But, for my part, I
+should never have had a moment's peace if I had not put things before
+you. Bad thoughts would quite upset me."
+
+They then began to speak of another matter. It would be necessary to
+give some reason for Florent's presence, and at the same time avoid
+exciting the suspicion of the police. He told them that in order to
+return to France he had availed himself of the papers of a poor fellow
+who had died in his arms at Surinam from yellow fever. By a singular
+coincidence this young fellow's Christian name was Florent.
+
+Florent Laquerriere, to give him his name in full, had left but one
+relation in Paris, a female cousin, and had been informed of her death
+while in America. Nothing could therefore be easier than for Quenu's
+half brother to pass himself off as the man who had died at Surinam.
+Lisa offered to take upon herself the part of the female cousin. They
+then agreed to relate that their cousin Florent had returned from
+abroad, where he had failed in his attempts to make a fortune, and
+that they, the Quenu-Gradelles, as they were called in the
+neighbourhood, had received him into their house until he could find
+suitable employment. When this was all settled, Quenu insisted upon
+his brother making a thorough inspection of the rooms, and would not
+spare him the examination of a single stool. Whilst they were in the
+bare looking chamber containing nothing but chairs, Lisa pushed open a
+door, and showing Florent a small dressing room, told him that the
+shop girl should sleep in it, so that he could retain the bedroom on
+the fifth floor.
+
+In the evening Florent was arrayed in new clothes from head to foot.
+He had insisted upon again having a black coat and black trousers,
+much against the advice of Quenu, upon whom black had a depressing
+effect. No further attempts were made to conceal his presence in the
+house, and Lisa told the story which had been planned to everyone who
+cared to hear it. Henceforth Florent spent almost all his time on the
+premises, lingering on a chair in the kitchen or leaning against the
+marble-work in the shop. At meal times Quenu plied him with food, and
+evinced considerable vexation when he proved such a small eater and
+left half the contents of his liberally filled plate untouched. Lisa
+had resumed her old life, evincing a kindly tolerance of her brother-
+in-law's presence, even in the morning, when he somewhat interfered
+with the work. Then she would momentarily forget him, and on suddenly
+perceiving his black form in front of her give a slight start of
+surprise, followed, however, by one of her sweet smiles, lest he might
+feel at all hurt. This skinny man's disinterestedness had impressed
+her, and she regarded him with a feeling akin to respect, mingled with
+vague fear. Florent had for his part only felt that there was great
+affection around him.
+
+When bedtime came he went upstairs, a little wearied by his lazy day,
+with the two young men whom Quenu employed as assistants, and who
+slept in attics adjoining his own. Leon, the apprentice, was barely
+fifteen years of age. He was a slight, gentle looking lad, addicted to
+stealing stray slices of ham and bits of sausages. These he would
+conceal under his pillow, eating them during the night without any
+bread. Several times at about one o'clock in the morning Florent
+almost fancied that Leon was giving a supper-party; for he heard low
+whispering followed by a sound of munching jaws and rustling paper.
+And then a rippling girlish laugh would break faintly on the deep
+silence of the sleeping house like the soft trilling of a flageolet.
+
+The other assistant, Auguste Landois, came from Troyes. Bloated with
+unhealthy fat, he had too large a head, and was already bald, although
+only twenty-eight years of age. As he went upstairs with Florent on
+the first evening, he told him his story in a confused, garrulous way.
+He had at first come to Paris merely for the purpose of perfecting
+himself in the business, intending to return to Troyes, where his
+cousin, Augustine Landois, was waiting for him, and there setting up
+for himself as a pork butcher. He and she had had the game godfather
+and bore virtually the same Christian name. However, he had grown
+ambitious; and now hoped to establish himself in business in Paris by
+the aid of the money left him by his mother, which he had deposited
+with a notary before leaving Champagne.
+
+Auguste had got so far in his narrative when the fifth floor was
+reached; however, he still detained Florent, in order to sound the
+praises of Madame Quenu, who had consented to send for Augustine
+Landois to replace an assistant who had turned out badly. He himself
+was now thoroughly acquainted with his part of the business, and his
+cousin was perfecting herself in shop management. In a year or
+eighteen months they would be married, and then they would set up on
+their own account in some populous corner of Paris, at Plaisance most
+likely. They were in no great hurry, he added, for the bacon trade was
+very bad that year. Then he proceeded to tell Florent that he and his
+cousin had been photographed together at the fair of St. Ouen, and he
+entered the attic to have another look at the photograph, which
+Augustine had left on the mantelpiece, in her desire that Madame
+Quenu's cousin should have a pretty room. Auguste lingered there for a
+moment, looking quite livid in the dim yellow light of his candle, and
+casting his eyes around the little chamber which was still full of
+memorials of the young girl. Next, stepping up to the bed, he asked
+Florent if it was comfortable. His cousin slept below now, said he,
+and would be better there in the winter, for the attics were very
+cold. Then at last he went off, leaving Florent alone with the bed,
+and standing in front of the photograph. As shown on the latter
+Auguste looked like a sort of pale Quenu, and Augustine like an
+immature Lisa.
+
+Florent, although on friendly terms with the assistants, petted by his
+brother, and cordially treated by Lisa, presently began to feel very
+bored. He had tried, but without success, to obtain some pupils;
+moreover, he purposely avoided the students' quarter for fear of being
+recognised. Lisa gently suggested to him that he had better try to
+obtain a situation in some commercial house, where he could take
+charge of the correspondence and keep the books. She returned to this
+subject again and again, and at last offered to find a berth for him
+herself. She was gradually becoming impatient at finding him so often
+in her way, idle, and not knowing what to do with himself. At first
+this impatience was merely due to the dislike she felt of people who
+do nothing but cross their arms and eat, and she had no thought of
+reproaching him for consuming her substance.
+
+"For my own part," she would say to him, "I could never spend the
+whole day in dreamy lounging. You can't have any appetite for your
+meals. You ought to tire yourself."
+
+Gavard, also, was seeking a situation for Florent, but in a very
+extraordinary and most mysterious fashion. He would have liked to find
+some employment of a dramatic character, or in which there should be a
+touch of bitter irony, as was suitable for an outlaw. Gavard was a man
+who was always in opposition. He had just completed his fiftieth year,
+and he boasted that he had already passed judgment on four
+Governments. He still contemptuously shrugged his shoulders at the
+thought of Charles X, the priests and nobles and other attendant
+rabble, whom he had helped to sweep away. Louis Philippe, with his
+bourgeois following, had been an imbecile, and he could tell how the
+citizen-king had hoarded his coppers in a woollen stocking. As for the
+Republic of '48, that had been a mere farce, the working classes had
+deceived him; however, he no longer acknowledged that he had applauded
+the Coup d'Etat, for he now looked upon Napoleon III as his personal
+enemy, a scoundrel who shut himself up with Morny and others to
+indulge in gluttonous orgies. He was never weary of holding forth upon
+this subject. Lowering his voice a little, he would declare that women
+were brought to the Tuileries in closed carriages every evening, and
+that he, who was speaking, had one night heard the echoes of the
+orgies while crossing the Place du Carrousel. It was Gavard's religion
+to make himself as disagreeable as possible to any existing
+Government. He would seek to spite it in all sorts of ways, and laugh
+in secret for several months at the pranks he played. To begin with,
+he voted for candidates who would worry the Ministers at the Corps
+Legislatif. Then, if he could rob the revenue, or baffle the police,
+and bring about a row of some kind or other, he strove to give the
+affair as much of an insurrectionary character as possible. He told a
+great many lies, too; set himself up as being a very dangerous man;
+talked as though "the satellites of the Tuileries" were well
+acquainted with him and trembled at the sight of him; and asserted
+that one half of them must be guillotined, and the other half
+transported, the next time there was "a flare-up." His violent
+political creed found food in boastful, bragging talk of this sort; he
+displayed all the partiality for a lark and a rumpus which prompts a
+Parisian shopkeeper to take down his shutters on a day of barricade-
+fighting to get a good view of the corpses of the slain. When Florent
+returned from Cayenne, Gavard opined that he had got hold of a
+splendid chance for some abominable trick, and bestowed much thought
+upon the question of how he might best vent his spleen on the Emperor
+and Ministers and everyone in office, down to the very lowest police
+constable.
+
+Gavard's manners with Florent were altogether those of a man tasting
+some forbidden pleasure. He contemplated him with blinking eyes,
+lowered his voice even when making the most trifling remark, and
+grasped his hand with all sorts of masonic flummery. He had at last
+lighted upon something in the way of an adventure; he had a friend who
+was really compromised, and could, without falsehood speak of the
+dangers he incurred. He undoubtedly experienced a secret alarm at the
+sight of this man who had returned from transportation, and whose
+fleshlessness testified to the long sufferings he had endured;
+however, this touch of alarm was delightful, for it increased his
+notion of his own importance, and convinced him that he was really
+doing something wonderful in treating a dangerous character as a
+friend. Florent became a sort of sacred being in his eyes: he swore by
+him alone, and had recourse to his name whenever arguments failed him
+and he wanted to crush the Government once and for all.
+
+Gavard had lost his wife in the Rue Saint Jacques some months after
+the Coup d'Etat; however, he had kept on his roasting shop till 1856.
+At that time it was reported that he had made large sums of money by
+going into partnership with a neighbouring grocer who had obtained a
+contract for supplying dried vegetables to the Crimean expeditionary
+corps. The truth was, however, that, having sold his shop, he lived on
+his income for a year without doing anything. He himself did not care
+to talk about the real origin of his fortune, for to have revealed it
+would have prevented him from plainly expressing his opinion of the
+Crimean War, which he referred to as a mere adventurous expedition,
+"undertaken simply to consolidate the throne and to fill certain
+persons' pockets." At the end of a year he had grown utterly weary of
+life in his bachelor quarters. As he was in the habit of visiting the
+Quenu-Gradelles almost daily, he determined to take up his residence
+nearer to them, and came to live in the Rue de la Cossonnerie. The
+neighbouring markets, with their noisy uproar and endless chatter,
+quite fascinated him; and he decided to hire a stall in the poultry
+pavilion, just for the purpose of amusing himself and occupying his
+idle hours with all the gossip. Thenceforth he lived amidst ceaseless
+tittle-tattle, acquainted with every little scandal in the
+neighbourhood, his head buzzing with the incessant yelping around him.
+He blissfully tasted a thousand titillating delights, having at last
+found his true element, and bathing in it, with the voluptuous
+pleasure of a carp swimming in the sunshine. Florent would sometimes
+go to see him at his stall. The afternoons were still very warm. All
+along the narrow alleys sat women plucking poultry. Rays of light
+streamed in between the awnings, and in the warm atmosphere, in the
+golden dust of the sunbeams, feathers fluttered hither and thither
+like dancing snowflakes. A trail of coaxing calls and offers followed
+Florent as he passed along. "Can I sell you a fine duck, monsieur?"
+"I've some very fine fat chickens here, monsieur; come and see!"
+"Monsieur! monsieur, do just buy this pair of pigeons!" Deafened and
+embarrassed he freed himself from the women, who still went on
+plucking as they fought for possession of him; and the fine down flew
+about and wellnigh choked him, like hot smoke reeking with the strong
+odour of the poultry. At last, in the middle of the alley, near the
+water-taps, he found Gavard ranting away in his shirt-sleeves, in
+front of his stall, with his arms crossed over the bib of his blue
+apron. He reigned there, in a gracious, condescending way, over a
+group of ten or twelve women. He was the only male dealer in that part
+of the market. He was so fond of wagging his tongue that he had
+quarrelled with five or six girls whom he had successively engaged to
+attend to his stall, and had now made up his mind to sell his goods
+himself, naively explaining that the silly women spent the whole
+blessed day in gossiping, and that it was beyond his power to manage
+them. As someone, however, was still necessary to supply his place
+whenever he absented himself he took in Marjolin, who was prowling
+about, after attempting in turn all the petty market callings.
+
+Florent sometimes remained for an hour with Gavard, amazed by his
+ceaseless flow of chatter, and his calm serenity and assurance amid
+the crowd of petticoats. He would interrupt one woman, pick a quarrel
+with another ten stalls away, snatch a customer from a third, and make
+as much noise himself as his hundred and odd garrulous neighbours,
+whose incessant clamour kept the iron plates of the pavilion vibrating
+sonorously like so many gongs.
+
+The poultry dealer's only relations were a sister-in-law and a niece.
+When his wife died, her eldest sister, Madame Lecoeur, who had become
+a widow about a year previously, had mourned for her in an exaggerated
+fashion, and gone almost every evening to tender consolation to the
+bereaved husband. She had doubtless cherished the hope that she might
+win his affection and fill the yet warm place of the deceased. Gavard,
+however, abominated lean women; and would, indeed, only stroke such
+cats and dogs as were very fat; so that Madame Lecoeur, who was long
+and withered, failed in her designs.
+
+With her feelings greatly hurt, furious at the ex-roaster's five-franc
+pieces eluding her grasp, she nurtured great spite against him. He
+became the enemy to whom she devoted all her time. When she saw him
+set up in the markets only a few yards away from the pavilion where
+she herself sold butter and eggs and cheese, she accused him of doing
+so simply for the sake of annoying her and bringing her bad luck. From
+that moment she began to lament, and turned so yellow and melancholy
+that she indeed ended by losing her customers and getting into
+difficulties. She had for a long time kept with her the daughter of
+one of her sisters, a peasant woman who had sent her the child and
+then taken no further trouble about it.
+
+This child grew up in the markets. Her surname was Sarriet, and so she
+soon became generally known as La Sarriette. At sixteen years of age
+she had developed into such a charming sly-looking puss that gentlemen
+came to buy cheeses at her aunt's stall simply for the purpose of
+ogling her. She did not care for the gentlemen, however; with her dark
+hair, pale face, and eyes glistening like live embers, her sympathies
+were with the lower ranks of the people. At last she chose as her
+lover a young man from Menilmontant who was employed by her aunt as a
+porter. At twenty she set up in business as a fruit dealer with the
+help of some funds procured no one knew how; and thenceforth Monsieur
+Jules, as her lover was called, displayed spotless hands, a clean
+blouse, and a velvet cap; and only came down to the market in the
+afternoon, in his slippers. They lived together on the third storey of
+a large house in the Rue Vauvilliers, on the ground floor of which was
+a disreputable cafe.
+
+Madame Lecoeur's acerbity of temper was brought to a pitch by what she
+called La Sarriette's ingratitude, and she spoke of the girl in the
+most violent and abusive language. They broke off all intercourse, the
+aunt fairly exasperated, and the niece and Monsieur Jules concocting
+stories about the aunt, which the young man would repeat to the other
+dealers in the butter pavilion. Gavard found La Sarriette very
+entertaining, and treated her with great indulgence. Whenever they met
+he would good-naturedly pat her cheeks.
+
+One afternoon, whilst Florent was sitting in his brother's shop, tired
+out with the fruitless pilgrimages he had made during the morning in
+search of work, Marjolin made his appearance there. This big lad, who
+had the massiveness and gentleness of a Fleming, was a protege of
+Lisa's. She would say that there was no evil in him; that he was
+indeed a little bit stupid, but as strong as a horse, and particularly
+interesting from the fact that nobody knew anything of his parentage.
+It was she who had got Gavard to employ him.
+
+Lisa was sitting behind the counter, feeling annoyed by the sight of
+Florent's muddy boots which were soiling the pink and white tiles of
+the flooring. Twice already had she risen to scatter sawdust about the
+shop. However, she smiled at Marjolin as he entered.
+
+"Monsieur Gavard," began the young man, "has sent me to ask--"
+
+But all at once he stopped and glanced round; then in a lower voice he
+resumed: "He told me to wait till there was no one with you, and then
+to repeat these words, which he made me learn by heart: 'Ask them if
+there is no danger, and if I can come and talk to them of the matter
+they know about.'"
+
+"Tell Monsieur Gavard that we are expecting him," replied Lisa, who
+was quite accustomed to the poultry dealer's mysterious ways.
+
+Marjolin, however, did not go away; but remained in ecstasy before the
+handsome mistress of the shop, contemplating her with an expression of
+fawning humility.
+
+Touched, as it were, by this mute adoration, Lisa spoke to him again.
+
+"Are you comfortable with Monsieur Gavard?" she asked. "He's not an
+unkind man, and you ought to try to please him."
+
+"Yes, Madame Lisa."
+
+"But you don't behave as you should, you know. Only yesterday I saw
+you clambering about the roofs of the market again; and, besides, you
+are constantly with a lot of disreputable lads and lasses. You ought
+to remember that you are a man now, and begin to think of the future."
+
+"Yes, Madame Lisa."
+
+However, Lisa had to get up to wait upon a lady who came in and wanted
+a pound of pork chops. She left the counter and went to the block at
+the far end of the shop. Here, with a long, slender knife, she cut
+three chops in a loin of pork; and then, raising a small cleaver with
+her strong hand, dealt three sharp blows which separated the chops
+from the loin. At each blow she dealt, her black merino dress rose
+slightly behind her, and the ribs of her stays showed beneath her
+tightly stretched bodice. She slowly took up the chops and weighed
+them with an air of gravity, her eyes gleaming and her lips tightly
+closed.
+
+When the lady had gone, and Lisa perceived Marjolin still full of
+delight at having seen her deal those three clean, forcible blows with
+the cleaver, she at once called out to him, "What! haven't you gone
+yet?"
+
+He thereupon turned to go, but she detained him for a moment longer.
+
+"Now, don't let me see you again with that hussy Cadine," she said.
+"Oh, it's no use to deny it! I saw you together this morning in the
+tripe market, watching men breaking the sheep's heads. I can't
+understand what attraction a good-looking young fellow like you can
+find in such a slipshod slattern as Cadine. Now then, go and tell
+Monsieur Gavard that he had better come at once, while there's no one
+about."
+
+Marjolin thereupon went off in confusion, without saying a word.
+
+Handsome Lisa remained standing behind her counter, with her head
+turned slightly in the direction of her markets, and Florent gazed at
+her in silence, surprised to see her looking so beautiful. He had
+never looked at her properly before; indeed, he did not know the right
+way to look at a woman. He now saw her rising above the viands on the
+counter. In front of her was an array of white china dishes,
+containing long Arles and Lyons sausages, slices of which had already
+been cut off, with tongues and pieces of boiled pork; then a pig's
+head in a mass of jelly; an open pot of preserved sausage-meat, and a
+large box of sardines disclosing a pool of oil. On the right and left,
+upon wooden platters, were mounds of French and Italian brawn, a
+common French ham, of a pinky hue, and a Yorkshire ham, whose deep red
+lean showed beneath a broad band of fat. There were other dishes too,
+round ones and oval ones, containing spiced tongue, truffled
+galantine, and a boar's head stuffed with pistachio nuts; while close
+to her, in reach of her hand, stood some yellow earthen pans
+containing larded veal, /pate de foie gras/, and hare-pie.
+
+As there were no signs of Gavard's coming, she arranged some fore-end
+bacon upon a little marble shelf at the end of the counter, put the
+jars of lard and dripping back into their places, wiped the plates of
+each pair of scales, and saw to the fire of the heater, which was
+getting low. Then she turned her head again, and gazed in silence
+towards the markets. The smell of all the viands ascended around her,
+she was enveloped, as it were, by the aroma of truffles. She looked
+beautifully fresh that afternoon. The whiteness of all the dishes was
+supplemented by that of her sleevelets and apron, above which appeared
+her plump neck and rosy cheeks, which recalled the soft tones of the
+hams and the pallor of all the transparent fat.
+
+As Florent continued to gaze at her he began to feel intimidated,
+disquieted by her prim, sedate demeanour; and in lieu of openly
+looking at her he ended by glancing surreptitiously in the mirrors
+around the shop, in which her back and face and profile could be seen.
+The mirror on the ceiling, too, reflected the top of her head, with
+its tightly rolled chignon and the little bands lowered over her
+temples. There seemed, indeed, to be a perfect crowd of Lisas, with
+broad shoulders, powerful arms, and round, full bosoms. At last
+Florent checked his roving eyes, and let them rest on a particularly
+pleasing side view of the young woman as mirrored between two pieces
+of pork. From the hooks running along the whole line of mirrors and
+marbles hung sides of pork and bands of larding fat; and Lisa, with
+her massive neck, rounded hips, and swelling bosom seen in profile,
+looked like some waxwork queen in the midst of the dangling fat and
+meat. However, she bent forward and smiled in a friendly way at the
+two gold-fish which were ever and ever swimming round the aquarium in
+the window.
+
+Gavard entered the shop. With an air of great importance he went to
+fetch Quenu from the kitchen. Then he seated himself upon a small
+marble-topped table, while Florent remained on his chair and Lisa
+behind the counter; Quenu meantime leaning his back against a side of
+pork. And thereupon Gavard announced that he had at last found a
+situation for Florent. They would be vastly amused when they heard
+what it was, and the Government would be nicely caught.
+
+But all at once he stopped short, for a passing neighbour,
+Mademoiselle Saget, having seen such a large party gossiping together
+at the Quenu-Gradelles', had opened the door and entered the shop.
+Carrying her everlasting black ribbonless straw hat, which
+appropriately cast a shadow over her prying white face, she saluted
+the men with a slight bow and Lisa with a sharp smile.
+
+She was an acquaintance of the family, and still lived in the house in
+the Rue Pirouette where she had resided for the last forty years,
+probably on a small private income; but of that she never spoke. She
+had, however, one day talked of Cherbourg, mentioning that she had
+been born there. Nothing further was ever known of her antecedents.
+All her conversation was about other people; she could tell the whole
+story of their daily lives, even to the number of things they sent to
+be washed each month; and she carried her prying curiosity concerning
+her neighbours' affairs so far as to listen behind their doors and
+open their letters. Her tongue was feared from the Rue Saint Denis to
+the Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and from the Rue Saint Honore to the
+Rue Mauconseil. All day long she went ferreting about with her empty
+bag, pretending that she was marketing, but in reality buying nothing,
+as her sole purpose was to retail scandal and gossip, and keep herself
+fully informed of every trifling incident that happened. Indeed, she
+had turned her brain into an encyclopaedia brimful of every possible
+particular concerning the people of the neighbourhood and their homes.
+
+Quenu had always accused her of having spread the story of his Uncle
+Gradelle's death on the chopping-block, and had borne her a grudge
+ever since. She was extremely well posted in the history of Uncle
+Gradelle and the Quenus, and knew them, she would say, by heart. For
+the last fortnight, however, Florent's arrival had greatly perplexed
+her, filled her, indeed, with a perfect fever of curiosity. She became
+quite ill when she discovered any unforeseen gap in her information.
+And yet she could have sworn that she had seen that tall lanky fellow
+somewhere or other before.
+
+She remained standing in front of the counter, examining the dishes
+one after another, and saying in a shrill voice:
+
+"I hardly know what to have. When the afternoon comes I feel quite
+famished for my dinner, and then, later on, I don't seem able to fancy
+anything at all. Have you got a cutlet rolled in bread-crumbs left,
+Madame Quenu?"
+
+Without waiting for a reply, she removed one of the covers of the
+heater. It was that of the compartment reserved for the chitterlings,
+sausages, and black-puddings. However, the chafing-dish was quite
+cold, and there was nothing left but one stray forgotten sausage.
+
+"Look under the other cover, Mademoiselle Saget," said Lisa. "I
+believe there's a cutlet there."
+
+"No, it doesn't tempt me," muttered the little old woman, poking her
+nose under the other cover, however, all the same. "I felt rather a
+fancy for one, but I'm afraid a cutlet would be rather too heavy in
+the evening. I'd rather have something, too, that I need not warm."
+
+While speaking she had turned towards Florent and looked at him; then
+she looked at Gavard, who was beating a tattoo with his finger-tips on
+the marble table. She smiled at them, as though inviting them to
+continue their conversation.
+
+"Wouldn't a little piece of salt pork suit you?" asked Lisa.
+
+"A piece of salt pork? Yes, that might do."
+
+Thereupon she took up the fork with plated handle, which was lying at
+the edge of the dish, and began to turn all the pieces of pork about,
+prodding them, lightly tapping the bones to judge of their thickness,
+and minutely scrutinising the shreds of pinky meat. And as she turned
+them over she repeated, "No, no; it doesn't tempt me."
+
+"Well, then, have a sheep's tongue, or a bit of brawn, or a slice of
+larded veal," suggested Lisa patiently.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget, however, shook her head. She remained there for a
+few minutes longer, pulling dissatisfied faces over the different
+dishes; then, seeing that the others were determined to remain silent,
+and that she would not be able to learn anything, she took herself
+off.
+
+"No; I rather felt a fancy for a cutlet rolled in bread-crumbs," she
+said as she left the shop, "but the one you have left is too fat. I
+must come another time."
+
+Lisa bent forward to watch her through the sausage-skins hanging in
+the shop-front, and saw her cross the road and enter the fruit market.
+
+"The old she-goat!" growled Gavard.
+
+Then, as they were now alone again, he began to tell them of the
+situation he had found for Florent. A friend of his, he said, Monsieur
+Verlaque, one of the fish market inspectors, was so ill that he was
+obliged to take a rest; and that very morning the poor man had told
+him that he should be very glad to find a substitute who would keep
+his berth open for him in case he should recover.
+
+"Verlaque, you know, won't last another six months," added Gavard,
+"and Florent will keep the place. It's a splendid idea, isn't it? And
+it will be such a take-in for the police! The berth is under the
+Prefecture, you know. What glorious fun to see Florent getting paid by
+the police, eh?"
+
+He burst into a hearty laugh; the idea struck him as so extremely
+comical.
+
+"I won't take the place," Florent bluntly replied. "I've sworn I'll
+never accept anything from the Empire, and I would rather die of
+starvation than serve under the Prefecture. It is quite out of the
+question, Gavard, quite so!"
+
+Gavard seemed somewhat put out on hearing this. Quenu had lowered his
+head, while Lisa, turning round, looked keenly at Florent, her neck
+swollen, her bosom straining her bodice almost to bursting point. She
+was just going to open her mouth when La Sarriette entered the shop,
+and there was another pause in the conversation.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed La Sarriette with her soft laugh, "I'd almost
+forgotten to get any bacon fat. Please, Madame Quenu, cut me a dozen
+thin strips--very thin ones, you know; I want them for larding larks.
+Jules has taken it into his head to eat some larks. Ah! how do you do,
+uncle?"
+
+She filled the whole shop with her dancing skirts and smiled brightly
+at everyone. Her face looked fresh and creamy, and on one side her
+hair was coming down, loosened by the wind which blew through the
+markets. Gavard grasped her hands, while she with merry impudence
+resumed: "I'll bet that you were talking about me just as I came in.
+Tell me what you were saying, uncle."
+
+However, Lisa now called to her, "Just look and tell me if this is
+thin enough."
+
+She was cutting the strips of bacon fat with great care on a piece of
+board in front of her. Then as she wrapped them up she inquired, "Can
+I give you anything else?"
+
+"Well, yes," replied La Sarriette; "since I'm about it, I think I'll
+have a pound of lard. I'm awfully fond of fried potatoes; I can make a
+breakfast off a penn'orth of potatoes and a bunch of radishes. Yes,
+I'll have a pound of lard, please, Madame Quenu."
+
+Lisa placed a sheet of stout paper in the pan of the scales. Then she
+took the lard out of a jar under the shelves with a boxwood spatula,
+gently adding small quantities to the fatty heap, which began to melt
+and run slightly. When the plate of the scale fell, she took up the
+paper, folded it, and rapidly twisted the ends with her finger-tips.
+
+"That makes twenty-four sous," she said; "the bacon is six sous--
+thirty sous altogether. There's nothing else you want, is there?"
+
+"No," said La Sarriette, "nothing." She paid her money, still laughing
+and showing her teeth, and staring the men in the face. Her grey skirt
+was all awry, and her loosely fastened red neckerchief allowed a
+little of her white bosom to appear. Before she went away she stepped
+up to Gavard again, and pretending to threaten him exclaimed: "So you
+won't tell me what you were talking about as I came in? I could see
+you laughing from the street. Oh, you sly fellow! Ah! I sha'n't love
+you any longer!"
+
+Then she left the shop and ran across the road.
+
+"It was Mademoiselle Saget who sent her here," remarked handsome Lisa
+drily.
+
+Then silence fell again for some moments. Gavard was dismayed at
+Florent's reception of his proposal. Lisa was the first to speak. "It
+was wrong of you to refuse the post, Florent," she said in the most
+friendly tones. "You know how difficult it is to find any employment,
+and you are not in a position to be over-exacting."
+
+"I have my reasons," Florent replied.
+
+Lisa shrugged her shoulders. "Come now," said she, "you really can't
+be serious, I'm sure. I can understand that you are not in love with
+the Government, but it would be too absurd to let your opinions
+prevent you from earning your living. And, besides, my dear fellow,
+the Emperor isn't at all a bad sort of man. You don't suppose, do you,
+that he knew you were eating mouldy bread and tainted meat? He can't
+be everywhere, you know, and you can see for yourself that he hasn't
+prevented us here from doing pretty well. You are not at all just;
+indeed you are not."
+
+Gavard, however, was getting very fidgety. He could not bear to hear
+people speak well of the Emperor.
+
+"No, no, Madame Quenu," he interrupted; "you are going too far. It is
+a scoundrelly system altogether."
+
+"Oh, as for you," exclaimed Lisa vivaciously, "you'll never rest until
+you've got yourself plundered and knocked on the head as the result of
+all your wild talk. Don't let us discuss politics; you would only make
+me angry. The question is Florent, isn't it? Well, for my part, I say
+that he ought to accept this inspectorship. Don't you think so too,
+Quenu?"
+
+Quenu, who had not yet said a word, was very much put out by his
+wife's sudden appeal.
+
+"It's a good berth," he replied, without compromising himself.
+
+Then, amidst another interval of awkward silence, Florent resumed: "I
+beg you, let us drop the subject. My mind is quite made up. I shall
+wait."
+
+"You will wait!" cried Lisa, losing patience.
+
+Two rosy fires had risen to her cheeks. As she stood there, erect, in
+her white apron, with rounded, swelling hips, it was with difficulty
+that she restrained herself from breaking out into bitter words.
+However, the entrance of another person into the shop arrested her
+anger. The new arrival was Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"Can you let me have half a pound of mixed meats at fifty sous the
+pound?" she asked.
+
+She at first pretended not to notice her brother-in-law; but presently
+she just nodded her head to him, without speaking. Then she
+scrutinised the three men from head to foot, doubtless hoping to
+divine their secret by the manner in which they waited for her to go.
+She could see that she was putting them out, and the knowledge of this
+rendered her yet more sour and angular, as she stood there in her limp
+skirts, with her long, spider-like arms bent and her knotted fingers
+clasped beneath her apron. Then, as she coughed slightly, Gavard, whom
+the silence embarrassed, inquired if she had a cold.
+
+She curtly answered in the negative. Her tightly stretched skin was of
+a red-brick colour on those parts of her face where her bones
+protruded, and the dull fire burning in her eyes and scorching their
+lids testified to some liver complaint nurtured by the querulous
+jealousy of her disposition. She turned round again towards the
+counter, and watched each movement made by Lisa as she served her with
+the distrustful glance of one who is convinced that an attempt will be
+made to defraud her.
+
+"Don't give me any saveloy," she exclaimed; "I don't like it."
+
+Lisa had taken up a slender knife, and was cutting some thin slices of
+sausage. She next passed on to the smoked ham and the common ham,
+cutting delicate slices from each, and bending forward slightly as she
+did so, with her eyes ever fixed on the knife. Her plump rosy hands,
+flitting about the viands with light and gentle touches, seemed to
+have derived suppleness from contact with all the fat.
+
+"You would like some larded veal, wouldn't you?" she asked, bringing a
+yellow pan towards her.
+
+Madame Lecoeur seemed to be thinking the matter over at considerable
+length; however, she at last said that she would have some. Lisa had
+now begun to cut into the contents of the pans, from which she removed
+slices of larded veal and hare /pate/ on the tip of a broad-bladed
+knife. And she deposited each successive slice on the middle of a
+sheet of paper placed on the scales.
+
+"Aren't you going to give me some of the boar's head with pistachio
+nuts?" asked Madame Lecoeur in her querulous voice.
+
+Lisa was obliged to add some of the boar's head. But the butter dealer
+was getting exacting, and asked for two slices of galantine. She was
+very fond of it. Lisa, who was already irritated, played impatiently
+with the handles of the knives, and told her that the galantine was
+truffled, and that she could only include it in an "assortment" at
+three francs the pound. Madame Lecoeur, however, continued to pry into
+the dishes, trying to find something else to ask for. When the
+"assortment" was weighed she made Lisa add some jelly and gherkins to
+it. The block of jelly, shaped like a Savoy cake, shook on its white
+china dish beneath the angry violence of Lisa's hand; and as with her
+finger-tips she took a couple of gherkins from a jar behind the
+heater, she made the vinegar spurt over the sides.
+
+"Twenty-five sous, isn't it?" Madame Lecoeur leisurely inquired.
+
+She fully perceived Lisa's covert irritation, and greatly enjoyed the
+sight of it, producing her money as slowly as possible, as though,
+indeed, her silver had got lost amongst the coppers in her pocket. And
+she glanced askance at Gavard, relishing the embarrassed silence which
+her presence was prolonging, and vowing that she would not go off,
+since they were hiding some trickery or other from her. However, Lisa
+at last put the parcel in her hands, and she was then obliged to make
+her departure. She went away without saying a word, but darting a
+searching glance all round the shop.
+
+"It was that Saget who sent her too!" burst out Lisa, as soon as the
+old woman was gone. "Is the old wretch going to send the whole market
+here to try to find out what we talk about? What a prying, malicious
+set they are! Did anyone ever hear before of crumbed cutlets and
+"assortments" being bought at five o'clock in the afternoon? But then
+they'd rack themselves with indigestion rather than not find out! Upon
+my word, though, if La Saget sends anyone else here, you'll see the
+reception she'll get. I would bundle her out of the shop, even if she
+were my own sister!"
+
+The three men remained silent in presence of this explosion of anger.
+Gavard had gone to lean over the brass rail of the window-front,
+where, seemingly lost in thought, he began playing with one of the
+cut-glass balusters detached from its wire fastening. Presently,
+however, he raised his head. "Well, for my part," he said, "I looked
+upon it all as an excellent joke."
+
+"Looked upon what as a joke?" asked Lisa, still quivering with
+indignation.
+
+"The inspectorship."
+
+She raised her hands, gave a last glance at Florent, and then sat down
+upon the cushioned bench behind the counter and said nothing further.
+Gavard, however, began to explain his views at length; the drift of
+his argument being that it was the Government which would look foolish
+in the matter, since Florent would be taking its money.
+
+"My dear fellow," he said complacently, "those scoundrels all but
+starved you to death, didn't they? Well, you must make them feed you
+now. It's a splendid idea; it caught my fancy at once!"
+
+Florent smiled, but still persisted in his refusal. Quenu, in the hope
+of pleasing his wife, did his best to find some good arguments. Lisa,
+however, appeared to pay no further attention to them. For the last
+moment or two she had been looking attentively in the direction of the
+markets. And all at once she sprang to her feet again, exclaiming,
+"Ah! it is La Normande that they are sending to play the spy on us
+now! Well, so much the worse for La Normande; she shall pay for the
+others!"
+
+A tall female pushed the shop door open. It was the handsome fish-
+girl, Louise Mehudin, generally known as La Normande. She was a bold-
+looking beauty, with a delicate white skin, and was almost as plump as
+Lisa, but there was more effrontery in her glance, and her bosom
+heaved with warmer life. She came into the shop with a light swinging
+step, her gold chain jingling on her apron, her bare hair arranged in
+the latest style, and a bow at her throat, a lace bow, which made her
+one of the most coquettish-looking queens of the markets. She brought
+a vague odour of fish with her, and a herring-scale showed like a tiny
+patch of mother-of-pearl near the little finger of one of her hands.
+She and Lisa having lived in the same house in the Rue Pirouette, were
+intimate friends, linked by a touch of rivalry which kept each of them
+busy with thoughts of the other. In the neighbourhood people spoke of
+"the beautiful Norman," just as they spoke of "beautiful Lisa." This
+brought them into opposition and comparison, and compelled each of
+them to do her utmost to sustain her reputation for beauty. Lisa from
+her counter could, by stooping a little, perceive the fish-girl amidst
+her salmon and turbot in the pavilion opposite; and each kept a watch
+on the other. Beautiful Lisa laced herself more tightly in her stays;
+and the beautiful Norman replied by placing additional rings on her
+fingers and additional bows on her shoulders. When they met they were
+very bland and unctuous and profuse in compliments; but all the while
+their eyes were furtively glancing from under their lowered lids, in
+the hope of discovering some flaw. They made a point of always dealing
+with each other, and professed great mutual affection.
+
+"I say," said La Normande, with her smiling air, "it's to-morrow
+evening that you make your black-puddings, isn't it?"
+
+Lisa maintained a cold demeanour. She seldom showed any anger; but
+when she did it was tenacious, and slow to be appeased. "Yes," she
+replied drily, with the tips of her lips.
+
+"I'm so fond of black-puddings, you know, when they come straight out
+of the pot," resumed La Normande. "I'll come and get some of you
+to-morrow."
+
+She was conscious of her rival's unfriendly greeting. However, she
+glanced at Florent, who seemed to interest her; and then, unwilling to
+go off without having the last word, she was imprudent enough to add:
+"I bought some black-pudding of you the day before yesterday, you
+know, and it wasn't quite sweet."
+
+"Not quite sweet!" repeated Lisa, very pale, and her lips quivering.
+
+She might, perhaps, have once more restrained herself, for fear of La
+Normande imagining that she was overcome by envious spite at the sight
+of the lace bow; but the girl, not content with playing the spy,
+proceeded to insult her, and that was beyond endurance. So, leaning
+forward, with her hands clenched on the counter, she exclaimed, in a
+somewhat hoarse voice: "I say! when you sold me that pair of soles
+last week, did I come and tell you, before everybody that they were
+stinking?"
+
+"Stinking! My soles stinking!" cried the fish dealer, flushing
+scarlet.
+
+For a moment they remained silent, choking with anger, but glaring
+fiercely at each other over the array of dishes. All their honeyed
+friendship had vanished; a word had sufficed to reveal what sharp
+teeth there were behind their smiling lips.
+
+"You're a vulgar, low creature!" cried the beautiful Norman. "You'll
+never catch me setting foot in here again, I can tell you!"
+
+"Get along with you, get along with you," exclaimed beautiful Lisa. "I
+know quite well whom I've got to deal with!"
+
+The fish-girl went off, hurling behind her a coarse expression which
+left Lisa quivering. The whole scene had passed so quickly that the
+three men, overcome with amazement, had not had time to interfere.
+Lisa soon recovered herself, and was resuming the conversation,
+without making any allusion to what had just occurred, when the shop
+girl, Augustine, returned from an errand on which she had been sent.
+Lisa thereupon took Gavard aside, and after telling him to say nothing
+for the present to Monsieur Verlaque, promised that she would
+undertake to convince her brother-in-law in a couple of days' time at
+the utmost. Quenu then returned to his kitchen, while Gavard took
+Florent off with him. And as they were just going into Monsieur
+Lebigre's to drink a drop of vermouth together he called his attention
+to three women standing in the covered way between the fish and
+poultry pavilions.
+
+"They're cackling together!" he said with an envious air.
+
+The markets were growing empty, and Mademoiselle Saget, Madame
+Lecoeur, and La Sarriette alone lingered on the edge of the footway.
+The old maid was holding forth.
+
+"As I told you before, Madame Lecoeur," said she, "they've always got
+your brother-in-law in their shop. You saw him there yourself just
+now, didn't you?"
+
+"Oh yes, indeed! He was sitting on a table, and seemed quite at home."
+
+"Well, for my part," interrupted La Sarriette, "I heard nothing wrong;
+and I can't understand why you're making such a fuss."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget shrugged her shoulders. "Ah, you're very innocent
+yet, my dear," she said. "Can't you see why the Quenus are always
+attracting Monsieur Gavard to their place? Well, I'll wager that he'll
+leave all he has to their little Pauline."
+
+"You believe that, do you?" cried Madame Lecoeur, white with rage.
+Then, in a mournful voice, as though she had just received some heavy
+blow, she continued: "I am alone in the world, and have no one to take
+my part; he is quite at liberty to do as he pleases. His niece sides
+with him too--you heard her just now. She has quite forgotten all that
+she cost me, and wouldn't stir a hand to help me."
+
+"Indeed, aunt," exclaimed La Sarriette, "you are quite wrong there!
+It's you who've never had anything but unkind words for me."
+
+They became reconciled on the spot, and kissed one another. The niece
+promised that she would play no more pranks, and the aunt swore by all
+she held most sacred that she looked upon La Sarriette as her own
+daughter. Then Mademoiselle Saget advised them as to the steps they
+ought to take to prevent Gavard from squandering his money. And they
+all agreed that the Quenu-Gradelles were very disreputable folks, and
+required closely watching.
+
+"I don't know what they're up to just now," said the old maid, "but
+there's something suspicious going on, I'm sure. What's your opinion,
+now, of that fellow Florent, that cousin of Madame Quenu's?"
+
+The three women drew more closely together, and lowered their voices.
+
+"You remember," said Madame Lecoeur, "that we saw him one morning with
+his boots all split, and his clothes covered with dust, looking just
+like a thief who's been up to some roguery. That fellow quite
+frightens me."
+
+"Well, he's certainly very thin," said La Sarriette, "but he isn't
+ugly."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget was reflecting, and she expressed her thoughts
+aloud. "I've been trying to find out something about him for the last
+fortnight, but I can make nothing of it. Monsieur Gavard certainly
+knows him. I must have met him myself somewhere before, but I can't
+remember where."
+
+She was still ransacking her memory when La Normande swept up to them
+like a whirlwind. She had just left the pork shop.
+
+"That big booby Lisa has got nice manners, I must say!" she cried,
+delighted to be able to relieve herself. "Fancy her telling me that I
+sold nothing but stinking fish! But I gave her as good as she
+deserved, I can tell you! A nice den they keep, with their tainted
+pig meat which poisons all their customers!"
+
+"But what had you been saying to her?" asked the old maid, quite
+frisky with excitement, and delighted to hear that the two women had
+quarrelled.
+
+"I! I'd said just nothing at all--no, not that! I just went into the
+shop and told her very civilly that I'd buy some black-pudding
+to-morrow evening, and then she overwhelmed me with abuse. A dirty
+hypocrite she is, with her saint-like airs! But she'll pay more dearly
+for this than she fancies!"
+
+The three women felt that La Normande was not telling them the truth,
+but this did not prevent them from taking her part with a rush of bad
+language. They turned towards the Rue Rambuteau with insulting mien,
+inventing all sorts of stories about the uncleanliness of the cookery
+at the Quenu's shop, and making the most extraordinary accusations. If
+the Quenus had been detected selling human flesh the women could not
+have displayed more violent and threatening anger. The fish-girl was
+obliged to tell her story three times over.
+
+"And what did the cousin say?" asked Mademoiselle Saget, with wicked
+intent.
+
+"The cousin!" repeated La Normande, in a shrill voice. "Do you really
+believe that he's a cousin? He's some lover or other, I'll wager, the
+great booby!"
+
+The three others protested against this. Lisa's honourability was an
+article of faith in the neighbourhood.
+
+"Stuff and nonsense!" retorted La Normande. "You can never be sure
+about those smug, sleek hypocrites."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget nodded her head as if to say that she was not very
+far from sharing La Normande's opinion. And she softly added:
+"Especially as this cousin has sprung from no one knows where; for
+it's a very doubtful sort of account that the Quenus give of him."
+
+"Oh, he's the fat woman's sweetheart, I tell you!" reaffirmed the
+fish-girl; "some scamp or vagabond picked up in the streets. It's easy
+enough to see it."
+
+"She has given him a complete outfit," remarked Madame Lecoeur. "He
+must be costing her a pretty penny."
+
+"Yes, yes," muttered the old maid; "perhaps you are right. I must
+really get to know something about him."
+
+Then they all promised to keep one another thoroughly informed of
+whatever might take place in the Quenu-Gradelle establishment. The
+butter dealer pretended that she wished to open her brother-in-law's
+eyes as to the sort of places he frequented. However, La Normande's
+anger had by this time toned down, and, a good sort of girl at heart,
+she went off, weary of having talked so much on the matter.
+
+"I'm sure that La Normande said something or other insolent," remarked
+Madame Lecoeur knowingly, when the fish-girl had left them. "It is
+just her way; and it scarcely becomes a creature like her to talk as
+she did of Lisa."
+
+The three women looked at each other and smiled. Then, when Madame
+Lecoeur also had gone off, La Sarriette remarked to Mademoiselle
+Saget: "It is foolish of my aunt to worry herself so much about all
+these affairs. It's that which makes her so thin. Ah! she'd have
+willingly taken Gavard for a husband if she could only have got him.
+Yet she used to beat me if ever a young man looked my way."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget smiled once more. And when she found herself alone,
+and went back towards the Rue Pirouette, she reflected that those
+three cackling hussies were not worth a rope to hang them. She was,
+indeed, a little afraid that she might have been seen with them, and
+the idea somewhat troubled her, for she realised that it would be bad
+policy to fall out with the Quenu-Gradelles, who, after all, were
+well-to-do folks and much esteemed. So she went a little out of her
+way on purpose to call at Taboureau the baker's in the Rue Turbigo--
+the finest baker's shop in the whole neighbourhood. Madame Taboureau
+was not only an intimate friend of Lisa's, but an accepted authority
+on every subject. When it was remarked that "Madame Taboureau had said
+this," or "Madame Taboureau had said that," there was no more to be
+urged. So the old maid, calling at the baker's under pretence of
+inquiring at what time the oven would be hot, as she wished to bring a
+dish of pears to be baked, took the opportunity to eulogise Lisa, and
+lavish praise upon the sweetness and excellence of her black-puddings.
+Then, well pleased at having prepared this moral alibi and delighted
+at having done what she could to fan the flames of a quarrel without
+involving herself in it, she briskly returned home, feeling much
+easier in her mind, but still striving to recall where she had
+previously seen Madame Quenu's so-called cousin.
+
+That same evening, after dinner, Florent went out and strolled for
+some time in one of the covered ways of the markets. A fine mist was
+rising, and a grey sadness, which the gas lights studded as with
+yellow tears, hung over the deserted pavilions. For the first time
+Florent began to feel that he was in the way, and to recognise the
+unmannerly fashion in which he, thin and artless, had tumbled into
+this world of fat people; and he frankly admitted to himself that his
+presence was disturbing the whole neighbourhood, and that he was a
+source of discomfort to the Quenus--a spurious cousin of far too
+compromising appearance. These reflections made him very sad; not,
+indeed, that the had noticed the slightest harshness on the part of
+his brother or Lisa: it was their very kindness, rather, that was
+troubling him, and he accused himself of a lack of delicacy in
+quartering himself upon them. He was beginning to doubt the propriety
+of his conduct. The recollection of the conversation in the shop
+during the afternoon caused him a vague disquietude. The odour of the
+viands on Lisa's counter seemed to penetrate him; he felt himself
+gliding into nerveless, satiated cowardice. Perhaps he had acted
+wrongly in refusing the inspectorship offered him. This reflection
+gave birth to a stormy struggle in his mind, and he was obliged to
+brace and shake himself before he could recover his wonted rigidity of
+principles. However, a moist breeze had risen, and was blowing along
+the covered way, and he regained some degree of calmness and
+resolution on being obliged to button up his coat. The wind seemingly
+swept from his clothes all the greasy odour of the pork shop, which
+had made him feel so languid.
+
+He was returning home when he met Claude Lantier. The artist, hidden
+in the folds of his greenish overcoat, spoke in a hollow voice full of
+suppressed anger. He was in a passion with painting, declared that it
+was a dog's trade, and swore that he would not take up a brush again
+as long as he lived. That very afternoon he had thrust his foot
+through a study which he had been making of the head of that hussy
+Cadine.
+
+Claude was subject to these outbursts, the fruit of his inability to
+execute the lasting, living works which he dreamed of. And at such
+times life became an utter blank to him, and he wandered about the
+streets, wrapped in the gloomiest thoughts, and waiting for the
+morning as for a sort of resurrection. He used to say that he felt
+bright and cheerful in the morning, and horribly miserable in the
+evening.[*] Each of his days was a long effort ending in
+disappointment. Florent scarcely recognised in him the careless night
+wanderer of the markets. They had already met again at the pork shop,
+and Claude, who knew the fugitive's story, had grasped his hand and
+told him that he was a sterling fellow. It was very seldom, however,
+that the artist went to the Quenus'.
+
+[*] Claude Lantier's struggle for fame is fully described in M. Zola's
+    novel, /L'Oeuvre/ ("His Masterpiece").--Translator.
+
+"Are you still at my aunt's?" he asked. "I can't imagine how you
+manage to exist amidst all that cookery. The places reeks with the
+smell of meat. When I've been there for an hour I feel as though I
+shouldn't want anything to eat for another three days. I ought not to
+have gone there this morning; it was that which made me make a mess of
+my work."
+
+Then, after he and Florent had taken a few steps in silence, he
+resumed:
+
+"Ah! the good people! They quite grieve me with their fine health. I
+had thought of painting their portraits, but I've never been able to
+succeed with such round faces, in which there is never a bone. Ah! You
+wouldn't find my aunt Lisa kicking her foot through her pans! I was an
+idiot to have destroyed Cadine's head! Now that I come to think of it,
+it wasn't so very bad, perhaps, after all."
+
+Then they began to talk about Aunt Lisa. Claude said that his
+mother[*] had not seen anything of her for a long time, and he hinted
+that the pork butcher's wife was somewhat ashamed of her sister having
+married a common working man; moreover, she wasn't at all fond of
+unfortunate folks. Speaking of himself, he told Florent that a
+benevolent gentleman had sent him to college, being very pleased with
+the donkeys and old women that he had managed to draw when only eight
+years old; but the good soul had died, leaving him an income of a
+thousand francs, which just saved him from perishing of hunger.
+
+[*] Gervaise, the heroine of the /Assommoir/.
+
+"All the same, I would rather have been a working man," continued
+Claude. "Look at the carpenters, for instance. They are very happy
+folks, the carpenters. They have a table to make, say; well, they make
+it, and then go off to bed, happy at having finished the table, and
+perfectly satisfied with themselves. Now I, on the other hand,
+scarcely get any sleep at nights. All those confounded pictures which
+I can't finish go flying about my brain. I never get anything finished
+and done with--never, never!"
+
+His voice almost broke into a sob. Then he attempted to laugh; and
+afterwards began to swear and pour forth coarse expressions, with the
+cold rage of one who, endowed with a delicate, sensitive mind, doubts
+his own powers, and dreams of wallowing in the mire. He ended by
+squatting down before one of the gratings which admit air into the
+cellars beneath the markets--cellars where the gas is continually kept
+burning. And in the depths below he pointed out Marjolin and Cadine
+tranquilly eating their supper, whilst seated on one of the stone
+blocks used for killing the poultry. The two young vagabonds had
+discovered a means of hiding themselves and making themselves at home
+in the cellars after the doors had been closed.
+
+"What a magnificent animal he is, eh!" exclaimed Claude, with envious
+admiration, speaking of Marjolin. "He and Cadine are happy, at all
+events! All they care for is eating and kissing. They haven't a care
+in the world. Ah, you do quite right, after all, to remain at the
+pork shop; perhaps you'll grow sleek and plump there."
+
+Then he suddenly went off. Florent climbed up to his garret, disturbed
+by Claude's nervous restlessness, which revived his own uncertainty.
+On the morrow, he avoided the pork shop all the morning, and went for
+a long walk on the quays. When he returned to lunch, however, he was
+struck by Lisa's kindliness. Without any undue insistence she again
+spoke to him about the inspectorship, as of something which was well
+worth his consideration. As he listened to her, with a full plate in
+front of him, he was affected, in spite of himself, by the prim
+comfort of his surroundings. The matting beneath his feet seemed very
+soft; the gleams of the brass hanging lamp, the soft, yellow tint of
+the wallpaper, and the bright oak of the furniture filled him with
+appreciation of a life spent in comfort, which disturbed his notions
+of right and wrong. He still, however, had sufficient strength to
+persist in his refusal, and repeated his reasons; albeit conscious of
+the bad taste he was showing in thus ostentatiously parading his
+animosity and obstinacy in such a place. Lisa showed no signs of
+vexation; on the contrary, she smiled, and the sweetness of her smile
+embarrassed Florent far more than her suppressed irritation of the
+previous evening. At dinner the subject was not renewed; they talked
+solely of the great winter saltings, which would keep the whole staff
+of the establishment busily employed.
+
+The evenings were growing cold, and as soon as they had dined they
+retired into the kitchen, where it was very warm. The room was so
+large, too, that several people could sit comfortably at the square
+central table, without in any way impeding the work that was going on.
+Lighted by gas, the walls were coated with white and blue tiles to a
+height of some five or six feet from the floor. On the left was a
+great iron stove, in the three apertures of which were set three large
+round pots, their bottoms black with soot. At the end was a small
+range, which, fitted with an oven and a smoking-place, served for the
+broiling; and up above, over the skimming-spoons, ladles, and long-
+handled forks, were several numbered drawers, containing rasped bread,
+both fine and coarse, toasted crumbs, spices, cloves, nutmegs, and
+pepper. On the right, leaning heavily against the wall, was the
+chopping-block, a huge mass of oak, slashed and scored all over.
+Attached to it were several appliances, an injecting pump, a forcing-
+machine, and a mechanical mincer, which, with their wheels and cranks,
+imparted to the place an uncanny and mysterious aspect, suggesting
+some kitchen of the infernal regions.
+
+Then, all round the walls upon shelves, and even under the tables,
+were iron pots, earthenware pans, dishes, pails, various kinds of tin
+utensils, a perfect battery of deep copper saucepans, and swelling
+funnels, racks of knives and choppers, rows of larding-pins and
+needles--a perfect world of greasy things. In spite of the extreme
+cleanliness, grease was paramount; it oozed forth from between the
+blue and white tiles on the wall, glistened on the red tiles of the
+flooring, gave a greyish glitter to the stove, and polished the edges
+of the chopping-block with the transparent sheen of varnished oak.
+And, indeed, amidst the ever-rising steam, the continuous evaporation
+from the three big pots, in which pork was boiling and melting, there
+was not a single nail from ceiling to floor from which grease did not
+exude.
+
+The Quenu-Gradelles prepared nearly all their stock themselves. All
+that they procured from outside were the potted meats of celebrated
+firms, with jars of pickles and preserves, sardines, cheese, and
+edible snails. They consequently became very busy after September in
+filling the cellars which had been emptied during the summer. They
+continued working even after the shop had been closed for the night.
+Assisted by Auguste and Leon, Quenu would stuff sausages-skins,
+prepare hams, melt down lard, and salt the different sorts of bacon.
+There was a tremendous noise of cauldrons and cleavers, and the odour
+of cooking spread through the whole house. All this was quite
+independent of the daily business in fresh pork, /pate de fois gras/,
+hare patty, galantine, saveloys and black-puddings.
+
+That evening, at about eleven o'clock, Quenu, after placing a couple
+of pots on the fire in order to melt down some lard, began to prepare
+the black-puddings. Auguste assisted him. At one corner of the square
+table Lisa and Augustine sat mending linen, whilst opposite to them,
+on the other side, with his face turned towards the fireplace, was
+Florent. Leon was mincing some sausage-meat on the oak block in a
+slow, rhythmical fashion.
+
+Auguste first of all went out into the yard to fetch a couple of jug-
+like cans full of pigs' blood. It was he who stuck the animals in the
+slaughter house. He himself would carry away the blood and interior
+portions of the pigs, leaving the men who scalded the carcasses to
+bring them home completely dressed in their carts. Quenu asserted that
+no assistant in all Paris was Auguste' equal as a pig-sticker. The
+truth was that Auguste was a wonderfully keen judge of the quality of
+the blood; and the black-pudding proved good every time that he said
+such would be the case.
+
+"Well, will the black-pudding be good this time?" asked Lisa.
+
+August put down the two cans and slowly answered: "I believe so,
+Madame Quenu; yes, I believe so. I tell it at first by the way the
+blood flows. If it spurts out very gently when I pull out the knife,
+that's a bad sign, and shows that the blood is poor."
+
+"But doesn't that depend on how far the knife has been stuck in?"
+asked Quenu.
+
+A smile came over Auguste's pale face. "No," he replied; "I always let
+four digits of the blade go in; that's the right way to measure. But
+the best sign of all is when the blood runs out and I beat it with my
+hand when it pours into the pail; it ought to be of a good warmth, and
+creamy, without being too thick."
+
+Augustine had put down her needle, and with her eyes raised was now
+gazing at Auguste. On her ruddy face, crowned by wiry chestnut hair,
+there was an expression of profound attention. Lisa and even little
+Pauline were also listening with deep interest.
+
+"Well, I beat it, and beat it, and beat it," continued the young man,
+whisking his hand about as though he were whipping cream. "And then,
+when I take my hand out and look at it, it ought to be greased, as it
+were, by the blood and equally coated all over. And if that's the
+case, anyone can say without fear of mistake that the black-puddings
+will be good."
+
+He remained for a moment in an easy attitude, complacently holding his
+hand in the air. This hand, which spent so much of its time in pails
+of blood, had brightly gleaming nails, and looked very rosy above his
+white sleeve. Quenu had nodded his head in approbation, and an
+interval of silence followed. Leon was still mincing. Pauline,
+however, after remaining thoughtful for a little while, mounted upon
+Florent's feet again, and in her clear voice exclaimed: "I say,
+cousin, tell me the story of the gentleman who was eaten by the wild
+beasts!"
+
+It was probably the mention of the pig's blood which had aroused in
+the child's mind the recollection of "the gentleman who had been eaten
+by the wild beasts." Florent did not at first understand what she
+referred to, and asked her what gentleman she meant. Lisa began to
+smile.
+
+"She wants you to tell her," she said, "the story of that unfortunate
+man--you know whom I mean--which you told to Gavard one evening. She
+must have heard you."
+
+At this Florent grew very grave. The little girl got up, and taking
+the big cat in her arms, placed it on his knees, saying that Mouton
+also would like to hear the story. Mouton, however, leapt on to the
+table, where, with rounded back, he remained contemplating the tall,
+scraggy individual who for the last fortnight had apparently afforded
+him matter for deep reflection. Pauline meantime began to grow
+impatient, stamping her feet and insisting on hearing the story.
+
+"Oh, tell her what she wants," said Lisa, as the child persisted and
+became quite unbearable; "she'll leave us in peace then."
+
+Florent remained silent for a moment longer, with his eyes turned
+towards the floor. Then slowly raising his head he let his gaze rest
+first on the two women who were plying their needles, and next on
+Quenu and Auguste, who were preparing the pot for the black-puddings.
+The gas was burning quietly, the stove diffused a gentle warmth, and
+all the grease of the kitchen glistened in an atmosphere of comfort
+such as attends good digestion
+
+Then, taking little Pauline upon his knee, and smiling a sad smile,
+Florent addressed himself to the child as follows[*]:--
+
+[*] Florent's narrative is not romance, but is based on the statements
+    of several of the innocent victims whom the third Napoleon
+    transported to Cayenne when wading through blood to the power
+    which he so misused.--Translator.
+
+"Once upon a time there was a poor man who was sent away, a long, long
+way off, right across the sea. On the ship which carried him were four
+hundred convicts, and he was thrown among them. He was forced to live
+for five weeks amidst all those scoundrels, dressed like them in
+coarse canvas, and feeding at their mess. Foul insects preyed on him,
+and terrible sweats robbed him of all his strength. The kitchen, the
+bakehouse, and the engine-room made the orlop deck so terribly hot
+that ten of the convicts died from it. In the daytime they were sent
+up in batches of fifty to get a little fresh air from the sea; and as
+the crew of the ship feared them, a couple of cannons were pointed at
+the little bit of deck where they took exercise. The poor fellow was
+very glad indeed when his turn to go up came. His terrible
+perspiration then abated somewhat; still, he could not eat, and felt
+very ill. During the night, when he was manacled again, and the
+rolling of the ship in the rough sea kept knocking him against his
+companions, he quite broke down, and began to cry, glad to be able to
+do so without being seen."
+
+Pauline was listening with dilated eyes, and her little hands crossed
+primly in front of her.
+
+"But this isn't the story of the gentleman who was eaten by the wild
+beasts," she interrupted. "This is quite a different story; isn't it
+now, cousin?"
+
+"Wait a bit, and you'll see," replied Florent gently. "I shall come to
+the gentleman presently. I'm telling you the whole story from the
+beginning."
+
+"Oh, thank you," murmured the child, with a delighted expression.
+However, she remained thoughtful, evidently struggling with some great
+difficulty to which she could find no explanation. At last she spoke.
+
+"But what had the poor man done," she asked, "that he was sent away
+and put in the ship?"
+
+Lisa and Augustine smiled. They were quite charmed with the child's
+intelligence; and Lisa, without giving the little one a direct reply,
+took advantage of the opportunity to teach her a lesson by telling her
+that naughty children were also sent away in boats like that.
+
+"Oh, then," remarked Pauline judiciously, "perhaps it served my
+cousin's poor man quite right if he cried all night long."
+
+Lisa resumed her sewing, bending over her work. Quenu had not
+listened. He had been cutting some little rounds of onion over a pot
+placed on the fire; and almost at once the onions began to crackle,
+raising a clear shrill chirrup like that of grasshoppers basking in
+the heat. They gave out a pleasant odour too, and when Quenu plunged
+his great wooden spoon into the pot the chirruping became yet louder,
+and the whole kitchen was filled with the penetrating perfume of the
+onions. Auguste meantime was preparing some bacon fat in a dish, and
+Leon's chopper fell faster and faster, and every now and then scraped
+the block so as to gather together the sausage-meat, now almost a
+paste.
+
+"When they got across the sea," Florent continued, "they took the man
+to an island called the Devil's Island,[*] where he found himself
+amongst others who had been carried away from their own country. They
+were all very unhappy. At first they were kept to hard labour, just
+like convicts. The gendarme who had charge of them counted them three
+times every day, so as to be sure that none were missing. Later on,
+they were left free to do as they liked, being merely locked up at
+night in a big wooden hut, where they slept in hammocks stretched
+between two bars. At the end of the year they went about barefooted,
+as their boots were quite worn out, and their clothes had become so
+ragged that their flesh showed through them. They had built themselves
+some huts with trunks of trees as a shelter against the sun, which is
+terribly hot in those parts; but these huts did not shield them
+against the mosquitoes, which covered them with pimples and swellings
+during the night. Many of them died, and the others turned quite
+yellow, so shrunken and wretched, with their long, unkempt beards,
+that one could not behold them without pity."
+
+[*] The Ile du Diable. This spot was selected as the place of
+    detention of Captain Dreyfus, the French officer convicted in 1894
+    of having divulged important military documents to foreign powers.
+    --Translator.
+
+"Auguste, give me the fat," cried Quenu; and when the apprentice had
+handed him the dish he let the pieces of bacon-fat slide gently into
+the pot, and then stirred them with his spoon. A yet denser steam now
+rose from the fireplace.
+
+"What did they give them to eat?" asked little Pauline, who seemed
+deeply interested.
+
+"They gave them maggoty rice and foul meat," answered Florent, whose
+voice grew lower as he spoke. "The rice could scarcely be eaten. When
+the meat was roasted and very well done it was just possible to
+swallow it; but if it was boiled, it smelt so dreadfully that the men
+had nausea and stomach ache."
+
+"I'd rather have lived upon dry bread," said the child, after thinking
+the matter carefully over.
+
+Leon, having finished the mincing, now placed the sausage-meat upon
+the square table in a dish. Mouton, who had remained seated with his
+eyes fixed upon Florent, as though filled with amazement by his story,
+was obliged to retreat a few steps, which he did with a very bad
+grace. Then he rolled himself up, with his nose close to the sausage-
+meat, and began to purr.
+
+Lisa was unable to conceal her disgust and amazement. That foul rice,
+that evil-smelling meat, seemed to her to be scarcely credible
+abominations, which disgraced those who had eaten them as much as it
+did those who had provided them; and her calm, handsome face and round
+neck quivered with vague fear of the man who had lived upon such
+horrid food.
+
+"No, indeed, it was not a land of delights," Florent resumed,
+forgetting all about little Pauline, and fixing his dreamy eyes upon
+the steaming pot. "Every day brought fresh annoyances--perpetual
+grinding tyranny, the violation of every principle of justice,
+contempt for all human charity, which exasperated the prisoners, and
+slowly consumed them with a fever of sickly rancour. They lived like
+wild beasts, with the lash ceaselessly raised over their backs. Those
+torturers would have liked to kill the poor man-- Oh, no; it can never
+be forgotten; it is impossible! Such sufferings will some day claim
+vengeance."
+
+His voice had fallen, and the pieces of fat hissing merrily in the pot
+drowned it with the sound of their boiling. Lisa, however, heard him,
+and was frightened by the implacable expression which had suddenly
+come over his face; and, recollecting the gentle look which he
+habitually wore, she judged him to be a hypocrite.
+
+Florent's hollow voice had brought Pauline's interest and delight to
+the highest pitch, and she fidgeted with pleasure on his knee.
+
+"But the man?" she exclaimed. "Go on about the man!"
+
+Florent looked at her, and then appeared to remember, and smiled his
+sad smile again.
+
+"The man," he continued, "was weary of remaining on the island, and
+had but one thought--that of making his escape by crossing the sea and
+reaching the mainland, whose white coast line could be seen on the
+horizon in clear weather. But it was no easy matter to escape. It was
+necessary that a raft should be built, and as several of the prisoners
+had already made their escape, all the trees on the island had been
+felled to prevent the others from obtaining timber. The island was,
+indeed, so bare and naked, so scorched by the blazing sun, that life
+in it had become yet more perilous and terrible. However, it occurred
+to the man and two of his companions to employ the timbers of which
+their huts were built; and one evening they put out to sea on some
+rotten beams, which they had fastened together with dry branches. The
+wind carried them towards the coast. Just as daylight was about to
+appear, the raft struck on a sandbank with such violence that the
+beams were severed from their lashings and carried out to sea. The
+three poor fellows were almost engulfed in the sand. Two of them sank
+in it to their waists, while the third disappeared up to his chin, and
+his companions were obliged to pull him out. At last they reached a
+rock, so small that there was scarcely room for them to sit down upon
+it. When the sun rose they could see the coast in front of them, a bar
+of grey cliffs stretching all along the horizon. Two, who knew how to
+swim, determined to reach those cliffs. They preferred to run the risk
+of being drowned at once to that of slowly starving on the rock. But
+they promised their companion that they would return for him when they
+had reached land and had been able to procure a boat."
+
+"Ah, I know now!" cried little Pauline, clapping her hands with glee.
+"It's the story of the gentleman who was eaten by the crabs!"
+
+"They succeeded in reaching the coast," continued Florent, "but it was
+quite deserted; and it was only at the end of four days that they were
+able to get a boat. When they returned to the rock, they found their
+companion lying on his back, dead, and half-eaten by crabs, which were
+still swarming over what remained of his body."[*]
+
+[*] In deference to the easily shocked feelings of the average English
+    reader I have somewhat modified this passage. In the original M.
+    Zola fully describes the awful appearance of the body.--
+    Translator.
+
+A murmur of disgust escaped Lisa and Augustine, and a horrified
+grimace passed over the face of Leon, who was preparing the skins for
+the black-puddings. Quenu stopped in the midst of his work and looked
+at Auguste, who seemed to have turned faint. Only little Pauline was
+smiling. In imagination the others could picture those swarming,
+ravenous crabs crawling all over the kitchen, and mingling gruesome
+odours with the aroma of the bacon-fat and onions.
+
+"Give me the blood," cried Quenu, who had not been following the
+story.
+
+Auguste came up to him with the two cans, from which he slowly poured
+the blood, while Quenu, as it fell, vigorously stirred the now
+thickening contents of the pot. When the cans were emptied, Quenu
+reached up to one of the drawers above the range, and took out some
+pinches of spice. Then he added a plentiful seasoning of pepper.
+
+"They left him there, didn't they," Lisa now asked of Florent, "and
+returned themselves in safety?"
+
+"As they were going back," continued Florent, "the wind changed, and
+they were driven out into the open sea. A wave carried away one of
+their oars, and the water swept so furiously into the boat that their
+whole time was taken up in baling it out with their hands. They tossed
+about in this way in sight of the coast, carried away by squalls and
+then brought back again by the tide, without a mouthful of bread to
+eat, for their scanty stock of provisions had been consumed. This went
+on for three days."
+
+"Three days!" cried Lisa in stupefaction; "three days without food!"
+
+"Yes, three days without food. When the east wind at last brought them
+to shore, one of them was so weak that he lay on the beach the whole
+day. In the evening he died. His companion had vainly attempted to get
+him to chew some leaves which he gathered from the trees."
+
+At this point Augustine broke into a slight laugh. Then, ashamed at
+having done so and not wishing to be considered heartless, she
+stammered out in confusion: "Oh! I wasn't laughing at that. It was
+Mouton. Do just look at Mouton, madame."
+
+Then Lisa in her turn began to smile. Mouton, who had been lying all
+this time with his nose close to the dish of sausage-meat, had
+probably begun to feel distressed and disgusted by the presence of all
+this food, for he had risen and was rapidly scratching the table with
+his paws as though he wanted to bury the dish and its contents. At
+last, however, turning his back to it and lying down on his side, he
+stretched himself out, half closing his eyes and rubbing his head
+against the table with languid pleasure. Then they all began to
+compliment Mouton. He never stole anything, they said, and could be
+safely left with the meat. Pauline related that he licked her fingers
+and washed her face after dinner without trying to bite her.
+
+However, Lisa now came back to the question as to whether it were
+possible to live for three days without food. In her opinion it was
+not. "No," she said, "I can't believe it. No one ever goes three days
+without food. When people talk of a person dying of hunger, it is a
+mere expression. They always get something to eat, more or less. It is
+only the most abandoned wretches, people who are utterly lost----"
+
+She was doubtless going to add, "vagrant rogues," but she stopped
+short and looked at Florent. The scornful pout of her lips and the
+expression of her bright eyes plainly signified that in her belief
+only villains made such prolonged fasts. It seemed to her that a man
+able to remain without food for three days must necessarily be a very
+dangerous character. For, indeed, honest folks never placed themselves
+in such a position.
+
+Florent was now almost stifling. In front of him the stove, into which
+Leon had just thrown several shovelfuls of coal, was snoring like a
+lay clerk asleep in the sun; and the heat was very great. Auguste, who
+had taken charge of the lard melting in the pots, was watching over it
+in a state of perspiration, and Quenu wiped his brow with his sleeve
+whilst waiting for the blood to mix. A drowsiness such as follows
+gross feeding, an atmosphere heavy with indigestion, pervaded the
+kitchen.
+
+"When the man had buried his comrade in the sand," Florent continued
+slowly, "he walked off alone straight in front of him. Dutch Guiana,
+in which country he now was, is a land of forests intermingled with
+rivers and swamps. The man walked on for more than a week without
+coming across a single human dwelling-place. All around, death seemed
+to be lurking and lying in wait for him. Though his stomach was racked
+by hunger, he often did not dare to eat the bright-coloured fruits
+which hung from the trees; he was afraid to touch the glittering
+berries, fearing lest they should be poisonous. For whole days he did
+not see a patch of sky, but tramped on beneath a canopy of branches,
+amidst a greenish gloom that swarmed with horrible living creatures.
+Great birds flew over his head with a terrible flapping of wings and
+sudden strange calls resembling death groans; apes sprang, wild
+animals rushed through the thickets around him, bending the saplings
+and bringing down a rain of leaves, as though a gale were passing. But
+it was particularly the serpents that turned his blood cold when,
+stepping upon a matting of moving, withered leaves, he caught sight of
+their slim heads gliding amidst a horrid maze of roots. In certain
+nooks, nooks of dank shadow, swarming colonies of reptiles--some
+black, some yellow, some purple, some striped, some spotted, and some
+resembling withered reeds--suddenly awakened into life and wriggled
+away. At such times the man would stop and look about for a stone on
+which he might take refuge from the soft yielding ground into which
+his feet sank; and there he would remain for hours, terror-stricken on
+espying in some open space near by a boa, who, with tail coiled and
+head erect, swayed like the trunk of a big tree splotched with gold.
+
+"At night he used to sleep in the trees, alarmed by the slightest
+rustling of the branches, and fancying that he could hear endless
+swarms of serpents gliding through the gloom. He almost stifled
+beneath the interminable expanse of foliage. The gloomy shade reeked
+with close, oppressive heat, a clammy dankness and pestilential sweat,
+impregnated with the coarse aroma of scented wood and malodorous
+flowers.
+
+"And when at last, after a long weary tramp, the man made his way out
+of the forest and beheld the sky again, he found himself confronted by
+wide rivers which barred his way. He skirted their banks, keeping a
+watchful eye on the grey backs of the alligators and the masses of
+drifting vegetation, and then, when he came to a less suspicious-
+looking spot, he swam across. And beyond the rivers the forests began
+again. At other times there were vast prairie lands, leagues of thick
+vegetation, in which, at distant intervals, small lakes gleamed
+bluely. The man then made a wide detour, and sounded the ground
+beneath him before advancing, having but narrowly escaped from being
+swallowed up and buried beneath one of those smiling plains which he
+could hear cracking at each step he took. The giant grass, nourished
+by all the collected humus, concealed pestiferous marshes, depths of
+liquid mud; and amongst the expanses of verdure spread over the
+glaucous immensity to the very horizon there were only narrow
+stretches of firm ground with which the traveller must be acquainted
+if he would avoid disappearing for ever. One night the man sank down
+as far as his waist. At each effort he made to extricate himself the
+mud threatened to rise to his mouth. Then he remained quite still for
+nearly a couple of hours; and when the moon rose he was fortunately
+able to catch hold of a branch of a tree above his head. By the time
+he reached a human dwelling his hands and feet were bruised and
+bleeding, swollen with poisonous stings. He presented such a pitiable,
+famished appearance that those who saw him were afraid of him. They
+tossed him some food fifty yards away from the house, and the master
+of it kept guard over his door with a loaded gun."
+
+Florent stopped, his voice choked by emotion, and his eyes gazing
+blankly before him. For some minutes he had seemed to be speaking to
+himself alone. Little Pauline, who had grown drowsy, was lying in his
+arms with her head thrown back, though striving to keep her wondering
+eyes open. And Quenu, for his part, appeared to be getting impatient.
+
+"Why, you stupid!" he shouted to Leon, "don't you know how to hold a
+skin yet? What do you stand staring at me for? It's the skin you
+should look at, not me! There, hold it like that, and don't move
+again!"
+
+With his right hand Leon was raising a long string of sausage-skin, at
+one end of which a very wide funnel was inserted; while with his left
+hand he coiled the black-pudding round a metal bowl as fast as Quenu
+filled the funnel with big spoonfuls of the meat. The latter, black
+and steaming, flowed through the funnel, gradually inflating the skin,
+which fell down again, gorged to repletion and curving languidly. As
+Quenu had removed the pot from the range both he and Leon stood out
+prominently, he broad visaged, and the lad slender of profile, in the
+burning glow which cast over their pale faces and white garments a
+flood of rosy light.
+
+Lisa and Augustine watched the filling of the skin with great
+interest, Lisa especially; and she in her turn found fault with Leon
+because he nipped the skin too tightly with his fingers, which caused
+knots to form, she said. When the skin was quite full, Quenu let it
+slip gently into a pot of boiling water; and seemed quite easy in his
+mind again, for now nothing remained but to leave it to boil.
+
+"And the man--go on about the man!" murmured Pauline, opening her
+eyes, and surprised at no longer hearing the narrative.
+
+Florent rocked her on his knee, and resumed his story in a slow,
+murmuring voice, suggestive of that of a nurse singing an infant to
+sleep.
+
+"The man," he said, "arrived at a large town. There he was at first
+taken for an escaped convict, and was kept in prison for several
+months. Then he was released, and turned his hand to all sorts of
+work. He kept accounts and taught children to read, and at one time he
+was even employed as a navvy in making an embankment. He was
+continually hoping to return to his own country. He had saved the
+necessary amount of money when he was attacked by yellow fever. Then,
+believing him to be dead, those about him divided his clothes amongst
+themselves; so that when he at last recovered he had not even a shirt
+left. He had to begin all over again. The man was very weak, and was
+afraid he might have to remain where he was. But at last he was able
+to get away, and he returned."
+
+His voice had sunk lower and lower, and now died away altogether in a
+final quivering of his lips. The close of the story had lulled little
+Pauline to sleep, and she was now slumbering with her head on
+Florent's shoulder. He held her with one arm, and still gently rocked
+her on his knee. No one seemed to pay any further attention to him, so
+he remained still and quiet where he was, holding the sleeping child.
+
+Now came the tug of war, as Quenu said. He had to remove the black-
+puddings from the pot. In order to avoid breaking them or getting them
+entangled, he coiled them round a thick wooden pin as he drew them
+out, and then carried them into the yard and hung them on screens,
+where they quickly dried. Leon helped him, holding up the drooping
+ends. And as these reeking festoons of black-pudding crossed the
+kitchen they left behind them a trail of odorous steam, which still
+further thickened the dense atmosphere.
+
+Auguste, on his side, after giving a hasty glance at the lard moulds,
+now took the covers off the two pots in which the fat was simmering,
+and each bursting bubble discharged an acrid vapour into the kitchen.
+The greasy haze had been gradually rising ever since the beginning of
+the evening, and now it shrouded the gas and pervaded the whole room,
+streaming everywhere, and veiling the ruddy whiteness of Quenu and his
+two assistants. Lisa and Augustine had risen from their seats; and all
+were panting as though they had eaten too much.
+
+Augustine carried the sleeping Pauline upstairs; and Quenu, who liked
+to fasten up the kitchen himself, gave Auguste and Leon leave to go to
+bed, saying that he would fetch the black-pudding himself. The younger
+apprentice stole off with a very red face, having managed to secrete
+under his shirt nearly a yard of the pudding, which must have almost
+scalded him. Then the Quenus and Florent remained alone, in silence.
+Lisa stood nibbling a little piece of the hot pudding, keeping her
+pretty lips well apart all the while, for fear of burning them, and
+gradually the black compound vanished in her rosy mouth.
+
+"Well," said she, "La Normande was foolish in behaving so rudely; the
+black-pudding's excellent to-day."
+
+However, there was a knock at the passage door, and Gavard, who stayed
+at Monsieur Lebigre's every evening until midnight, came in. He had
+called for a definite answer about the fish inspectorship.
+
+"You must understand," he said, "that Monsieur Verlaque cannot wait
+any longer; he is too ill. So Florent must make up his mind. I have
+promised to give a positive answer early to-morrow."
+
+"Well, Florent accepts," Lisa quietly remarked, taking another nibble
+at some black-pudding.
+
+Florent, who had remained in his chair, overcome by a strange feeling
+of prostration, vainly endeavoured to rise and protest.
+
+"No, no, say nothing," continued Lisa; "the matter is quite settled.
+You have suffered quite enough already, my dear Florent. What you have
+just been telling us is enough to make one shudder. It is time now for
+you to settle down. You belong to a respectable family, you received a
+good education, and it is really not fitting that you should go
+wandering about the highways like a vagrant. At your age childishness
+is no longer excusable. You have been foolish; well, all that will be
+forgotten and forgiven. You will take your place again among those of
+your own class--the class of respectable folks--and live in future
+like other people."
+
+Florent listened in astonishment, quite unable to say a word. Lisa
+was, doubtless, right. She looked so healthy, so serene, that it was
+impossible to imagine that she desired anything but what was proper.
+It was he, with his fleshless body and dark, equivocal-looking
+countenance, who must be in the wrong, and indulging in unrighteous
+dreams. He could, indeed, no longer understand why he had hitherto
+resisted.
+
+Lisa, however, continued to talk to him with an abundant flow of
+words, as though he were a little boy found in fault and threatened
+with the police. She assumed, indeed, a most maternal manner, and
+plied him with the most convincing reasons. And at last, as a final
+argument, she said:
+
+"Do it for us, Florent. We occupy a fair position in the neighbourhood
+which obliges us to use a certain amount of circumspection; and, to
+tell you the truth, between ourselves, I'm afraid that people will
+begin to talk. This inspectorship will set everything right; you will
+be somebody; you will even be an honour to us."
+
+Her manner had become caressingly persuasive, and Florent was
+penetrated by all the surrounding plenteousness, all the aroma filling
+the kitchen, where he fed, as it were, on the nourishment floating in
+the atmosphere. He sank into blissful meanness, born of all the
+copious feeding that went on in the sphere of plenty in which he had
+been living during the last fortnight. He felt, as it were, the
+titillation of forming fat which spread slowly all over his body. He
+experienced the languid beatitude of shopkeepers, whose chief concern
+is to fill their bellies. At this late hour of night, in the warm
+atmosphere of the kitchen, all his acerbity and determination melted
+away. That peaceable evening, with the odour of the black-pudding and
+the lard, and the sight of plump little Pauline slumbering on his
+knee, had so enervated him that he found himself wishing for a
+succession of such evenings--endless ones which would make him fat.
+
+However, it was the sight of Mouton that chiefly decided him. Mouton
+was sound asleep, with his stomach turned upwards, one of his paws
+resting on his nose, and his tail twisted over this side, as though to
+keep him warm; and he was slumbering with such an expression of feline
+happiness that Florent, as he gazed at him, murmured: "No, it would be
+too foolish! I accept the berth. Say that I accept it, Gavard."
+
+Then Lisa finished eating her black-pudding, and wiped her fingers on
+the edge of her apron. And next she got her brother-in-law's candle
+ready for him, while Gavard and Quenu congratulated him on his
+decision. It was always necessary for a man to settle down, said they;
+the breakneck freaks of politics did not provide one with food. And,
+meantime, Lisa, standing there with the lighted candle in her hand,
+looked at him with an expression of satisfaction resting on her
+handsome face, placid like that of some sacred cow.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III
+
+Three days later the necessary formalities were gone through, and
+without demur the police authorities at the Prefecture accepted
+Florent on Monsieur Verlaque's recommendation as his substitute.
+Gavard, by the way, had made it a point to accompany them. When he
+again found himself alone with Florent he kept nudging his ribs with
+his elbow as they walked along together, and laughed, without saying
+anything, while winking his eyes in a jeering way. He seemed to find
+something very ridiculous in the appearance of the police officers
+whom they met on the Quai de l'Horloge, for, as he passed them, he
+slightly shrugged his shoulders and made the grimace of a man seeking
+to restrain himself from laughing in people's faces.
+
+On the following morning Monsieur Verlaque began to initiate the new
+inspector into the duties of his office. It had been arranged that
+during the next few days he should make him acquainted with the
+turbulent sphere which he would have to supervise. Poor Verlaque, as
+Gavard called him was a pale little man, swathed in flannels,
+handkerchiefs, and mufflers. Constantly coughing, he made his way
+through the cool, moist atmosphere, and running waters of the fish
+market, on a pair of scraggy legs like those of a sickly child.
+
+When Florent made his appearance on the first morning, at seven
+o'clock, he felt quite distracted; his eyes were dazed, his head ached
+with all the noise and riot. Retail dealers were already prowling
+about the auction pavilion; clerks were arriving with their ledgers,
+and consigners' agents, with leather bags slung over their shoulders,
+sat on overturned chairs by the salesmen's desks, waiting to receive
+their cash. Fish was being unloaded and unpacked not only in the
+enclosure, but even on the footways. All along the latter were piles
+of small baskets, an endless arrival of cases and hampers, and sacks
+of mussels, from which streamlets of water trickled. The auctioneers'
+assistants, all looking very busy, sprang over the heaps, tore away
+the straw at the tops of the baskets, emptied the latter, and tossed
+them aside. They then speedily transferred their contents in lots to
+huge wickerwork trays, arranging them with a turn of the hand so that
+they might show to the best advantage. And when the large tray-like
+baskets were all set out, Florent could almost fancy that a whole
+shoal of fish had got stranded there, still quivering with life, and
+gleaming with rosy nacre, scarlet coral, and milky pearl, all the
+soft, pale, sheeny hues of the ocean.
+
+The deep-lying forests of seaweed, in which the mysterious life of the
+ocean slumbers, seemed at one haul of the nets to have yielded up all
+they contained. There were cod, keeling, whiting, flounders, plaice,
+dabs, and other sorts of common fish of a dingy grey with whitish
+splotches; there were conger-eels, huge serpent-like creatures, with
+small black eyes and muddy, bluish skins, so slimy that they still
+seemed to be gliding along, yet alive. There were broad flat skate
+with pale undersides edged with a soft red, and superb backs bumpy
+with vertebrae, and marbled down to the tautly stretched ribs of their
+fins with splotches of cinnabar, intersected by streaks of the tint of
+Florentine bronze--a dark medley of colour suggestive of the hues of a
+toad or some poisonous flower. Then, too, there were hideous dog-fish,
+with round heads, widely-gaping mouths like those of Chinese idols,
+and short fins like bats' wings; fit monsters to keep yelping guard
+over the treasures of the ocean grottoes. And next came the finer
+fish, displayed singly on the osier trays; salmon that gleamed like
+chased silver, every scale seemingly outlined by a graving-tool on a
+polished metal surface; mullet with larger scales and coarser
+markings; large turbot and huge brill with firm flesh white like
+curdled milk; tunny-fish, smooth and glossy, like bags of blackish
+leather; and rounded bass, with widely gaping mouths which a soul too
+large for the body seemed to have rent asunder as it forced its way
+out amidst the stupefaction of death. And on all sides there were
+sole, brown and grey, in pairs; sand-eels, slim and stiff, like
+shavings of pewter; herrings, slightly twisted, with bleeding gills
+showing on their silver-worked skins; fat dories tinged with just a
+suspicion of carmine; burnished mackerel with green-streaked backs,
+and sides gleaming with ever-changing iridescence; and rosy gurnets
+with white bellies, their head towards the centre of the baskets and
+their tails radiating all around, so that they simulated some strange
+florescence splotched with pearly white and brilliant vermilion. There
+were rock mullet, too, with delicious flesh, flushed with the pinky
+tinge peculiar to the Cyprinus family; boxes of whiting with opaline
+reflections; and baskets of smelts--neat little baskets, pretty as
+those used for strawberries, and exhaling a strong scent of violets.
+And meantime the tiny black eyes of the shrimps dotted as with beads
+of jet their soft-toned mass of pink and grey; and spiny crawfish and
+lobsters striped with black, all still alive, raised a grating sound
+as they tried to crawl along with their broken claws.
+
+Florent gave but indifferent attention to Monsieur Verlaque's
+explanations. A flood of sunshine suddenly streamed through the lofty
+glass roof of the covered way, lighting up all these precious colours,
+toned and softened by the waves--the iridescent flesh-tints of the
+shell-fish, the opal of the whiting, the pearly nacre of the mackerel,
+the ruddy gold of the mullets, the plated skins of the herrings, and
+massive silver of the salmon. It was as though the jewel-cases of some
+sea-nymph had been emptied there--a mass of fantastical, undreamt-of
+ornaments, a streaming and heaping of necklaces, monstrous bracelets,
+gigantic brooches, barbaric gems and jewels, the use of which could
+not be divined. On the backs of the skate and the dog-fish you saw, as
+it were, big dull green and purple stones set in dark metal, while the
+slender forms of the sand-eels and the tails and fins of the smelts
+displayed all the delicacy of finely wrought silver-work.
+
+And meantime Florent's face was fanned by a fresh breeze, a sharp,
+salt breeze redolent of the sea. It reminded him of the coasts of
+Guiana and his voyages. He half fancied that he was gazing at some bay
+left dry by the receding tide, with the seaweed steaming in the sun,
+the bare rocks drying, and the beach smelling strongly of the brine.
+All around him the fish in their perfect freshness exhaled a pleasant
+perfume, that slightly sharp, irritating perfume which depraves the
+appetite.
+
+Monsieur Verlaque coughed. The dampness was affecting him, and he
+wrapped his muffler more closely about his neck.
+
+"Now," said he, "we will pass on to the fresh water fish."
+
+This was in a pavilion beside the fruit market, the last one, indeed,
+in the direction of the Rue Rambuteau. On either side of the space
+reserved for the auctions were large circular stone basins, divided
+into separate compartments by iron gratings. Slender streams of water
+flowed from brass jets shaped like swan's necks; and the compartments
+were filled with swarming colonies of crawfish, black-backed carp ever
+on the move, and mazy tangles of eels, incessantly knotting and
+unknotting themselves. Again was Monsieur Verlaque attacked by an
+obstinate fit of coughing. The moisture of the atmosphere was more
+insipid here than amongst the sea water fish: there was a riverside
+scent, as of sun-warmed water slumbering on a bed of sand.
+
+A great number of crawfishes had arrived from Germany that morning in
+cases and hampers, and the market was also crowded with river fish
+from Holland and England. Several men were unpacking shiny carp from
+the Rhine, lustrous with ruddy metallic hues, their scales resembling
+bronzed /cloisonne/ enamel; and others were busy with huge pike, the
+cruel iron-grey brigands of the waters, who ravenously protruded their
+savage jaws; or with magnificent dark-hued with verdigris. And amidst
+these suggestions of copper, iron, and bronze, the gudgeon and perch,
+the trout, the bleak, and the flat-fish taken in sweep-nets showed
+brightly white, the steel-blue tints of their backs gradually toning
+down to the soft transparency of their bellies. However, it was the
+fat snowy-white barbel that supplied the liveliest brightness in this
+gigantic collection of still life.
+
+Bags of young carp were being gently emptied into the basins. The fish
+spun round, then remained motionless for a moment, and at last shot
+away and disappeared. Little eels were turned out of their hampers in
+a mass, and fell to the bottom of the compartments like tangled knots
+of snakes; while the larger ones--those whose bodies were about as
+thick as a child's arm--raised their heads and slipped of their own
+accord into the water with the supple motion of serpents gliding into
+the concealment of a thicket. And meantime the other fish, whose death
+agony had been lasting all the morning as they lay on the soiled
+osiers of the basket-trays, slowly expired amidst all the uproar of
+the auctions, opening their mouths as though to inhale the moisture of
+the air, with great silent gasps, renewed every few seconds.
+
+However, Monsieur Verlaque brought Florent back to the salt water
+fish. He took him all over the place and gave him the minutest
+particulars about everything. Round the nine salesmen's desks ranged
+along three sides of the pavilion there was now a dense crowd of
+surging, swaying heads, above which appeared the clerks, perched upon
+high chairs and making entries in their ledgers.
+
+"Are all these clerks employed by the salesmen?" asked Florent.
+
+By way of reply Monsieur Verlaque made a detour along the outside
+footway, led him into the enclosure of one of the auctions, and then
+explained the working of the various departments of the big yellow
+office, which smelt strongly of fish and was stained all over by
+drippings and splashings from the hampers. In a little glazed
+compartment up above, the collector of the municipal dues took note of
+the prices realised by the different lots of fish. Lower down, seated
+upon high chairs and with their wrists resting upon little desks, were
+two female clerks, who kept account of the business on behalf of the
+salesmen. At each end of the stone table in front of the office was a
+crier who brought the basket-trays forward in turn, and in a bawling
+voice announced what each lot consisted of; while above him the female
+clerk, pen in hand, waited to register the price at which the lots
+were knocked down. And outside the enclosure, shut up in another
+little office of yellow wood, Monsieur Verlaque showed Florent the
+cashier, a fat old woman, who was ranging coppers and five-franc
+pierces in piles.
+
+"There is a double control, you see," said Monsieur Verlaque; "the
+control of the Prefecture of the Seine and that of the Prefecture of
+Police. The latter, which licenses the salesmen, claims to have the
+right of supervision over them; and the municipality asserts its right
+to be represented at the transactions as they are subject to
+taxation."
+
+He went on expatiating at length in his faint cold voice respecting
+the rival claims of the two Prefectures. Florent, however, was paying
+but little heed, his attention being concentrated on a female clerk
+sitting on one of the high chairs just in front of him. She was a
+tall, dark woman of thirty, with big black eyes and an easy calmness
+of manner, and she wrote with outstretched fingers like a girl who had
+been taught the regulation method of the art.
+
+However, Florent's attention was diverted by the yelping of the crier,
+who was just offering a magnificent turbot for sale.
+
+"I've a bid of thirty francs! Thirty francs, now; thirty francs!"
+
+He repeated these words in all sorts of keys, running up and down a
+strange scale of notes full of sudden changes. Humpbacked and with
+his face twisted askew, and his hair rough and disorderly, he wore a
+great blue apron with a bib; and with flaming eyes and outstretched
+arms he cried vociferously: "Thirty-one! thirty-two! thirty-three!
+Thirty-three francs fifty centimes! thirty-three fifty!"
+
+Then he paused to take breath, turning the basket-tray and pushing it
+farther upon the table. The fish-wives bent forward and gently touched
+the turbot with their finger-tips. Then the crier began again with
+renewed energy, hurling his figures towards the buyers with a wave of
+the hand and catching the slightest indication of a fresh bid--the
+raising of a finger, a twist of the eyebrows, a pouting of the lips, a
+wink, and all with such rapidity and such a ceaseless jumble of words
+that Florent, utterly unable to follow him, felt quite disconcerted
+when, in a sing-song voice like that of a priest intoning the final
+words of a versicle, he chanted: "Forty-two! forty-two! The turbot
+goes for forty-two francs."
+
+It was the beautiful Norman who had made the last bid. Florent
+recognised her as she stood in the line of fish-wives crowding against
+the iron rails which surrounded the enclosure. The morning was fresh
+and sharp, and there was a row of tippets above the display of big
+white aprons, covering the prominent bosoms and stomachs and sturdy
+shoulders. With high-set chignon set off with curls, and white and
+dainty skin, the beautiful Norman flaunted her lace bow amidst tangled
+shocks of hair covered with dirty kerchiefs, red noses eloquent of
+drink, sneering mouths, and battered faces suggestive of old pots. And
+she also recognised Madame Quenu's cousin, and was so surprised to see
+him there that she began gossiping to her neighbours about him.
+
+The uproar of voices had become so great that Monsieur Verlaque
+renounced all further attempt to explain matters to Florent. On the
+footway close by, men were calling out the larger fish with prolonged
+shouts, which sounded as though they came from gigantic speaking-
+trumpets; and there was one individual who roared "Mussels! Mussels!"
+in such a hoarse, cracked, clamorous voice that the very roofs of the
+market shook. Some sacks of mussels were turned upside down, and their
+contents poured into hampers, while others were emptied with shovels.
+And there was a ceaseless procession of basket-trays containing skate,
+soles, mackerel, conger-eels, and salmon, carried backwards and
+forwards amidst the ever-increasing cackle and pushing of the fish-
+women as they crowded against the iron rails which creaked with their
+pressure. The humpbacked crier, now fairly on the job, waved his
+skinny arms in the air and protruded his jaws. Presently, seemingly
+lashed into a state of frenzy by the flood of figures that spurted
+from his lips, he sprang upon a stool, where, with his mouth twisted
+spasmodically and his hair streaming behind him, he could force
+nothing more than unintelligible hisses from his parched throat. And
+in the meantime, up above, the collector of municipal dues, a little
+old man, muffled in a collar of imitation astrachan, remained with
+nothing but his nose showing under his black velvet skullcap. And the
+tall, dark-complexioned female clerk, with eyes shining calmly in her
+face, which had been slightly reddened by the cold, sat on her high
+wooden chair, quietly writing, apparently unruffled by the continuous
+rattle which came from the hunchback below her.
+
+"That fellow Logre is wonderful," muttered Monsieur Verlaque with a
+smile. "He is the best crier in the markets. I believe he could make
+people buy boot soles in the belief they were fish!"
+
+Then he and Florent went back into the pavilion. As they again passed
+the spot where the fresh water fish was being sold by auction, and
+where the bidding seemed much quieter, Monsieur Verlaque explained
+that French river fishing was in a bad way.[*] The crier here, a fair,
+sorry-looking fellow, who scarcely moved his arms, was disposing of
+some lots of eels and crawfish in a monotonous voice, while the
+assistants fished fresh supplies out of the stone basins with their
+short-handled nets.
+
+[*] M. Zola refers, of course, to the earlier years of the Second
+    Empire. Under the present republican Government, which has largely
+    fostered fish culture, matters have considerably improved.--
+    Translator.
+
+However, the crowd round the salesmen's desks was still increasing.
+Monsieur Verlaque played his part as Florent's instructor in the most
+conscientious manner, clearing the way by means of his elbows, and
+guiding his successor through the busiest parts. The upper-class
+retail dealers were there, quietly waiting for some of the finer fish,
+or loading the porters with their purchases of turbot, tunny, and
+salmon. The street-hawkers who had clubbed together to buy lots of
+herrings and small flat-fish were dividing them on the pavement. There
+were also some people of the smaller middle class, from distant parts
+of the city, who had come down at four o'clock in the morning to buy a
+really fresh fish, and had ended by allowing some enormous lot,
+costing from forty to fifty francs, to be knocked down to them, with
+the result that they would be obliged to spend the whole day in
+getting their friends and acquaintances to take the surplus off their
+hands. Every now and then some violent pushing would force a gap
+through part of the crowd. A fish-wife, who had got tightly jammed,
+freed herself, shaking her fists and pouring out a torrent of abuse.
+Then a compact mass of people again collected, and Florent, almost
+suffocated, declared that he had seen quite enough, and understood all
+that was necessary.
+
+As Monsieur Verlaque was helping him to extricate himself from the
+crowd, they found themselves face to face with the handsome Norman.
+She remained stock-still in front of them, and with her queenly air
+inquired:
+
+"Well, is it quite settled? You are going to desert us, Monsieur
+Verlaque?"
+
+"Yes, yes," replied the little man; "I am going to take a rest in the
+country, at Clamart. The smell of the fish is bad for me, it seems.
+Here, this is the gentleman who is going to take my place."
+
+So speaking he turned round to introduce Florent to her. The handsome
+Norman almost choked; however, as Florent went off, he fancied he
+could hear her whisper to her neighbours, with a laugh: "Well, we
+shall have some fine fun now, see if we don't!"
+
+The fish-wives had begun to set out their stalls. From all the taps at
+the corners of the marble slabs water was gushing freely; and there
+was a rustling sound all round, like the plashing of rain, a streaming
+of stiff jets of water hissing and spurting. And then, from the lower
+side of the sloping slabs, great drops fell with a softened murmur,
+splashing on the flagstones where a mass of tiny streams flowed along
+here and there, turning holes and depressions into miniature lakes,
+and afterwards gliding in a thousand rills down the slope towards the
+Rue Rambuteau. A moist haze ascended, a sort of rainy dust, bringing
+fresh whiffs of air to Florent's face, whiffs of that salt, pungent
+sea breeze which he remembered so well; while in such fish as was
+already laid out he once more beheld the rosy nacres, gleaming corals,
+and milky pearls, all the rippling colour and glaucous pallidity of
+the ocean world.
+
+That first morning left him much in doubt; indeed, he regretted that
+he had yielded to Lisa's insistence. Ever since his escape from the
+greasy drowsiness of the kitchen he had been accusing himself of base
+weakness with such violence that tears had almost risen in his eyes.
+But he did not dare to go back on his word. He was a little afraid of
+Lisa, and could see the curl of her lips and the look of mute reproach
+upon her handsome face. He felt that she was too serious a woman to be
+trifled with. However, Gavard happily inspired him with a consoling
+thought. On the evening of the day on which Monsieur Verlaque had
+conducted him through the auction sales, Gavard took him aside and
+told him, with a good deal of hesitation, that "the poor devil" was
+not at all well off. And after various remarks about the scoundrelly
+Government which ground the life out of its servants without allowing
+them even the means to die in comfort, he ended by hinting that it
+would be charitable on Florent's part to surrender a part of his
+salary to the old inspector. Florent welcomed the suggestion with
+delight. It was only right, he considered, for he looked upon himself
+simply as Monsieur Verlaque's temporary substitute; and besides, he
+himself really required nothing, as he boarded and lodged with his
+brother. Gavard added that he thought if Florent gave up fifty francs
+out of the hundred and fifty which he would receive monthly, the
+arrangement would be everything that could be desired; and, lowering
+his voice, he added that it would not be for long, for the poor fellow
+was consumptive to his very bones. Finally it was settled that Florent
+should see Monsieur Verlaque's wife, and arrange matters with her, to
+avoid any possibility of hurting the old man's feelings.
+
+The thought of this kindly action afforded Florent great relief, and
+he now accepted his duties with the object of doing good, thus
+continuing to play the part which he had been fulfilling all his life.
+However, he made the poultry dealer promise that he would not speak of
+the matter to anyone; and as Gavard also felt a vague fear of Lisa, he
+kept the secret, which was really very meritorious in him.
+
+And now the whole pork shop seemed happy. Handsome Lisa manifested the
+greatest friendliness towards her brother-in-law. She took care that
+he went to bed early, so as to be able to rise in good time; she kept
+his breakfast hot for him; and she no longer felt ashamed at being
+seen talking to him on the footway, now that he wore a laced cap.
+Quenu, quite delighted by all these good signs, sat down to table in
+the evening between his wife and brother with a lighter heart than
+ever. They often lingered over dinner till nine o'clock, leaving the
+shop in Augustine's charge, and indulging in a leisurely digestion
+interspersed with gossip about the neighbourhood, and the dogmatic
+opinions of Lisa on political topics; Florent also had to relate how
+matters had gone in the fish market that day. He gradually grew less
+frigid, and began to taste the happiness of a well-regulated
+existence. There was a well-to-do comfort and trimness about the light
+yellowish dining room which had a softening influence upon him as soon
+as he crossed its threshold. Handsome Lisa's kindly attentions wrapped
+him, as it were, in cotton-wool; and mutual esteem and concord reigned
+paramount.
+
+Gavard, however, considered the Quenu-Gradelles' home to be too
+drowsy. He forgave Lisa her weakness for the Emperor, because, he
+said, one ought never to discuss politics with women, and beautiful
+Madame Quenu was, after all, a very worthy person, who managed her
+business admirably. Nevertheless, he much preferred to spend his
+evenings at Monsieur Lebigre's, where he met a group of friends who
+shared his own opinions. Thus when Florent was appointed to the
+inspectorship of the fish market, Gavard began to lead him astray,
+taking him off for hours, and prompting him to lead a bachelor's life
+now that he had obtained a berth.
+
+Monsieur Lebigre was the proprietor of a very fine establishment,
+fitted up in the modern luxurious style. Occupying the right-hand
+corner of the Rue Pirouette, and looking on to the Rue Rambuteau, it
+formed, with its four small Norwegian pines in green-painted tubs
+flanking the doorway, a worthy pendant to the big pork shop of the
+Quenu-Gradelles. Through the clear glass windows you could see the
+interior, which was decorated with festoons of foliage, vine branches,
+and grapes, painted on a soft green ground. The floor was tiled with
+large black and white squares. At the far end was the yawning cellar
+entrance, above which rose a spiral staircase hung with red drapery,
+and leading to the billiard-room on the first floor. The counter or
+"bar" on the right looked especially rich, and glittered like polished
+silver. Its zinc-work, hanging with a broad bulging border over the
+sub-structure of white and red marble, edged it with a rippling sheet
+of metal as if it were some high altar laden with embroidery. At one
+end, over a gas stove, stood porcelain pots, decorated with circles of
+brass, and containing punch and hot wine. At the other extremity was a
+tall and richly sculptured marble fountain, from which a fine stream
+of water, so steady and continuous that it looked as though it were
+motionless, flowed into a basin. In the centre, edged on three sides
+by the sloping zinc surface of the counter, was a second basin for
+rinsing and cooling purposes, where quart bottles of draught wine,
+partially empty, reared their greenish necks. Then on the counter, to
+the right and left of this central basin, were batches of glasses
+symmetrically arranged: little glasses for brandy, thick tumblers for
+draught wine, cup glasses for brandied fruits, glasses for absinthe,
+glass mugs for beer, and tall goblets, all turned upside down and
+reflecting the glitter of the counter. On the left, moreover, was a
+metal urn, serving as a receptacle for gratuities; whilst a similar
+one on the right bristled with a fan-like arrangement of coffee
+spoons.
+
+Monsieur Lebigre was generally to be found enthroned behind his
+counter upon a seat covered with buttoned crimson leather. Within easy
+reach of his hand were the liqueurs in cut-glass decanters protruding
+from the compartments of a stand. His round back rested against a huge
+mirror which completely filled the panel behind him; across it ran two
+glass shelves supporting an array of jars and bottles. Upon one of
+them the glass jars of preserved fruits, cherries, plums, and peaches,
+stood out darkly; while on the other, between symmetrically arranged
+packets of finger biscuits, were bright flasks of soft green and red
+and yellow glass, suggesting strange mysterious liqueurs, or floral
+extracts of exquisite limpidity. Standing on the glass shelf in the
+white glow of the mirror, these flasks, flashing as if on fire, seemed
+to be suspended in the air.
+
+To give his premises the appearance of a cafe, Monsieur Lebigre had
+placed two small tables of bronzed iron and four chairs against the
+wall, in front of the counter. A chandelier with five lights and
+frosted globes hung down from the ceiling. On the left was a round
+gilt timepiece, above a /tourniquet/[*] fixed to the wall. Then at the
+far end came the private "cabinet," a corner of the shop shut off by a
+partition glazed with frosted glass of a small square pattern. In the
+daytime this little room received a dim light from a window that
+looked on to the Rue Pirouette; and in the evening, a gas jet burnt
+over the two tables painted to resemble marble. It was there that
+Gavard and his political friends met each evening after dinner. They
+looked upon themselves as being quite at home there, and had prevailed
+on the landlord to reserve the place for them. When Monsieur Lebigre
+had closed the door of the glazed partition, they knew themselves to
+be so safely screened from intrusion that they spoke quite
+unreservedly of the great "sweep out" which they were fond of
+discussing. No unprivileged customer would have dared to enter.
+
+[*] This is a kind of dial turning on a pivot, and usually enclosed in
+    a brass frame, from which radiate a few small handles or spokes.
+    Round the face of the dial--usually of paper--are various
+    numerals, and between the face and its glass covering is a small
+    marble or wooden ball. The appliance is used in lieu of dice or
+    coins when two or more customers are "tossing" for drinks. Each in
+    turn sends the dial spinning round, and wins or loses according to
+    the numeral against which the ball rests when the dial stops. As I
+    can find no English name for the appliance, I have thought it best
+    to describe it.--Translator.
+
+On the first day that Gavard took Florent off he gave him some
+particulars of Monsieur Lebigre. He was a good fellow, he said, who
+sometimes came to drink his coffee with them; and, as he had said one
+day that he had fought in '48, no one felt the least constraint in his
+presence. He spoke but little, and seemed rather thick-headed. As the
+gentlemen passed him on their way to the private room they grasped his
+hand in silence across the glasses and bottles. By his side on the
+crimson leather seat behind the counter there was generally a fair
+little woman, whom he had engaged as counter assistant in addition to
+the white-aproned waiter who attended to the tables and the billiard-
+room. The young woman's name was Rose, and she seemed a very gentle
+and submissive being. Gavard, with a wink of his eye, told Florent
+that he fancied Lebigre had a weakness for her. It was she, by the
+way, who waited upon the friends in the private room, coming and
+going, with her happy, humble air, amidst the stormiest political
+discussions.
+
+Upon the day on which the poultry dealer took Florent to Lebigre's to
+present him to his friends, the only person whom the pair found in the
+little room when they entered it was a man of some fifty years of age,
+of a mild and thoughtful appearance. He wore a rather shabby-looking
+hat and a long chestnut-coloured overcoat, and sat, with his chin
+resting on the ivory knob of a thick cane, in front of a glass mug
+full of beer. His mouth was so completely concealed by a vigorous
+growth of beard that his face had a dumb, lipless appearance.
+
+"How are you, Robine?" exclaimed Gavard.
+
+Robine silently thrust out his hand, without making any reply, though
+his eyes softened into a slight smile of welcome. Then he let his chin
+drop on to the knob of his cane again, and looked at Florent over his
+beer. Florent had made Gavard swear to keep his story a secret for
+fear of some dangerous indiscretion; and he was not displeased to
+observe a touch of distrust in the discreet demeanour of the gentleman
+with the heavy beard. However, he was really mistaken in this, for
+Robine never talked more than he did now. He was always the first to
+arrive, just as the clock struck eight; and he always sat in the same
+corner, never letting go his hold of his cane, and never taking off
+either his hat or his overcoat. No one had ever seen him without his
+hat upon his head. He remained there listening to the talk of the
+others till midnight, taking four hours to empty his mug of beer, and
+gazing successively at the different speakers as though he heard them
+with his eyes. When Florent afterwards questioned Gavard about Robine,
+the poultry dealer spoke of the latter as though he held him in high
+esteem. Robine, he asserted, was an extremely clever and able man,
+and, though he was unable to say exactly where he had given proof of
+his hostility to the established order of things, he declared that he
+was one of the most dreaded of the Government's opponents. He lived in
+the Rue Saint Denis, in rooms to which no one as a rule could gain
+admission. The poultry dealer, however, asserted that he himself had
+once been in them. The wax floors, he said, were protected by strips
+of green linen; and there were covers over the furniture, and an
+alabaster timepiece with columns. He had caught a glimpse of the back
+of a lady, who was just disappearing through one doorway as he was
+entering by another, and had taken her to be Madame Robine. She
+appeared to be an old lady of very genteel appearance, with her hair
+arranged in corkscrew curls; but of this he could not be quite
+certain. No one knew why they had taken up their abode amidst all the
+uproar of a business neighbourhood; for the husband did nothing at
+all, spending his days no one knew how and living on no one knew what,
+though he made his appearance every evening as though he were tired
+but delighted with some excursion into the highest regions of
+politics.
+
+"Well, have you read the speech from the throne?" asked Gavard, taking
+up a newspaper that was lying on the table.
+
+Robine shrugged his shoulders. Just at that moment, however, the door
+of the glazed partition clattered noisily, and a hunchback made his
+appearance. Florent at once recognised the deformed crier of the fish
+market, though his hands were now washed and he was neatly dressed,
+with his neck encircled by a great red muffler, one end of which hung
+down over his hump like the skirt of a Venetian cloak.
+
+"Ah, here's Logre!" exclaimed the poultry dealer. "Now we shall hear
+what he thinks about the speech from the throne."
+
+Logre, however, was apparently furious. To begin with he almost broke
+the pegs off in hanging up his hat and muffler. Then he threw himself
+violently into a chair, and brought his fist down on the table, while
+tossing away the newspaper.
+
+"Do you think I read their fearful lies?" he cried.
+
+Then he gave vent to the anger raging within him. "Did ever anyone
+hear," he cried, "of masters making such fools of their people? For
+two whole hours I've been waiting for my pay! There were ten of us in
+the office kicking our heels there. Then at last Monsieur Manoury
+arrived in a cab. Where he had come from I don't know, and don't care,
+but I'm quite sure it wasn't any respectable place. Those salesmen are
+all a parcel of thieves and libertines! And then, too, the hog
+actually gave me all my money in small change!"
+
+Robine expressed his sympathy with Logre by the slight movement of his
+eyelids. But suddenly the hunchback bethought him of a victim upon
+whom to pour out his wrath. "Rose! Rose!" he cried, stretching his
+head out of the little room.
+
+The young woman quickly responded to the call, trembling all over.
+
+"Well," shouted Logre, "what do you stand staring at me like that for?
+Much good that'll do! You saw me come in, didn't you? Why haven't you
+brought me my glass of black coffee, then?"
+
+Gavard ordered two similar glasses, and Rose made all haste to bring
+what was required, while Logre glared sternly at the glasses and
+little sugar trays as if studying them. When he had taken a drink he
+seemed to grow somewhat calmer.
+
+"But it's Charvet who must be getting bored," he said presently. "He
+is waiting outside on the pavement for Clemence."
+
+Charvet, however, now made his appearance, followed by Clemence. He
+was a tall, scraggy young man, carefully shaved, with a skinny nose
+and thin lips. He lived in the Rue Vavin, behind the Luxembourg, and
+called himself a professor. In politics he was a disciple of
+Hebert.[*] He wore his hair very long, and the collar and lapels of
+his threadbare frock-coat were broadly turned back. Affecting the
+manner and speech of a member of the National Convention, he would
+pour out such a flood of bitter words and make such a haughty display
+of pedantic learning that he generally crushed his adversaries. Gavard
+was afraid of him, though he would not confess it; still, in Charvet's
+absence he would say that he really went too far. Robine, for his
+part, expressed approval of everything with his eyes. Logre sometimes
+opposed Charvet on the question of salaries; but the other was really
+the autocrat of the coterie, having the greatest fund of information
+and the most overbearing manner. For more than ten years he and
+Clemence had lived together as man and wife, in accordance with a
+previously arranged contract, the terms of which were strictly
+observed by both parties to it. Florent looked at the young woman with
+some little surprise, but at last he recollected where he had
+previously seen her. This was at the fish auction. She was, indeed,
+none other than the tall dark female clerk whom he had observed
+writing with outstretched fingers, after the manner of one who had
+been carefully instructed in the art of holding a pen.
+
+[*] Hebert, as the reader will remember, was the furious demagogue
+    with the foul tongue and poisoned pen who edited the /Pere
+    Duchesne/ at the time of the first French Revolution. We had a
+    revival of his politics and his journal in Paris during the
+    Commune of 1871.--Translator.
+
+Rose made her appearance at the heels of the two newcomers. Without
+saying a word she placed a mug of beer before Charvet and a tray
+before Clemence, who in a leisurely way began to compound a glass of
+"grog," pouring some hot water over a slice of lemon, which she
+crushed with her spoon, and glancing carefully at the decanter as she
+poured out some rum, so as not to add more of it than a small liqueur
+glass could contain.
+
+Gavard now presented Florent to the company, but more especially to
+Charvet. He introduced them to one another as professors, and very
+able men, who would be sure to get on well together. But it was
+probable that he had already been guilty of some indiscretion, for all
+the men at once shook hands with a tight and somewhat masonic squeeze
+of each other's fingers. Charvet, for his part, showed himself almost
+amiable; and whether he and the others knew anything of Florent's
+antecedents, they at all events indulged in no embarrassing allusions.
+
+"Did Manoury pay you in small change?" Logre asked Clemence.
+
+She answered affirmatively, and produced a roll of francs and another
+of two-franc pieces, and unwrapped them. Charvet watched her, and his
+eyes followed the rolls as she replaced them in her pocket, after
+counting their contents and satisfying herself that they were correct.
+
+"We have our accounts to settle," he said in a low voice.
+
+"Yes, we'll settle up to-night," the young woman replied. "But we are
+about even, I should think. I've breakfasted with you four times,
+haven't I? But I lent you a hundred sous last week, you know."
+
+Florent, surprised at hearing this, discreetly turned his head away.
+Then Clemence slipped the last roll of silver into her pocket, drank a
+little of her grog, and, leaning against the glazed partition, quietly
+settled herself down to listen to the men talking politics. Gavard had
+taken up the newspaper again, and, in tones which he strove to render
+comic, was reading out some passages of the speech from the throne
+which had been delivered that morning at the opening of the Chambers.
+Charvet made fine sport of the official phraseology; there was not a
+single line of it which he did not tear to pieces. One sentence
+afforded especial amusement to them all. It was this: "We are
+confident, gentlemen, that, leaning on your lights[*] and the
+conservative sentiments of the country, we shall succeed in increasing
+the national prosperity day by day."
+
+[*] In the sense of illumination of mind. It has been necessary to
+    give a literal translation of this phrase to enable the reader to
+    realise the point of subsequent witticisms in which Clemence and
+    Gavard indulge.--Translator.
+
+Logre rose up and repeated this sentence, and by speaking through his
+nose succeeded fairly well in mimicking the Emperor's drawling voice.
+
+"It's lovely, that prosperity of his; why, everyone's dying of
+hunger!" said Charvet.
+
+"Trade is shocking," asserted Gavard.
+
+"And what in the name of goodness is the meaning of anybody 'leaning
+on lights'?" continued Clemence, who prided herself upon literary
+culture.
+
+Robine himself even allowed a faint laugh to escape from the depths of
+his beard. The discussion began to grow warm. The party fell foul of
+the Corps Legislatif, and spoke of it with great severity. Logre did
+not cease ranting, and Florent found him the same as when he cried the
+fish at the auctions--protruding his jaws and hurling his words
+forward with a wave of the arm, whilst retaining the crouching
+attitude of a snarling dog. Indeed, he talked politics in just the
+same furious manner as he offered a tray full of soles for sale.
+
+Charvet, on the other hand, became quieter and colder amidst the smoke
+of the pipes and the fumes of the gas which were now filling the
+little den; and his voice assumed a dry incisive tone, sharp like a
+guillotine blade, while Robine gently wagged his head without once
+removing his chin from the ivory knob of his cane. However, some
+remark of Gavard's led the conversation to the subject of women.
+
+"Woman," declared Charvet drily, "is the equal of man; and, that being
+so, she ought not to inconvenience him in the management of his life.
+Marriage is a partnership, in which everything should be halved. Isn't
+that so, Clemence?"
+
+"Clearly so," replied the young woman, leaning back with her head
+against the wall and gazing into the air.
+
+However, Florent now saw Lacaille, the costermonger, and Alexandre,
+the porter, Claude Lantier's friend, come into the little room. In the
+past these two had long remained at the other table in the sanctum;
+they did not belong to the same class as the others. By the help of
+politics, however, their chairs had drawn nearer, and they had ended
+by forming part of the circle. Charvet, in whose eyes they represented
+"the people," did his best to indoctrinate them with his advanced
+political theories, while Gavard played the part of the shopkeeper
+free from all social prejudices by clinking glasses with them.
+Alexandre was a cheerful, good-humoured giant, with the manner of a
+big merry lad. Lacaille, on the other hand, was embittered; his hair
+was already grizzling; and, bent and wearied by his ceaseless
+perambulations through the streets of Paris, he would at times glance
+loweringly at the placid figure of Robine, and his sound boots and
+heavy coat.
+
+That evening both Lacaille and Alexandre called for a liqueur glass of
+brandy, and then the conversation was renewed with increased warmth
+and excitement, the party being now quite complete. A little later,
+while the door of the cabinet was left ajar, Florent caught sight of
+Mademoiselle Saget standing in front of the counter. She had taken a
+bottle from under her apron, and was watching Rose as the latter
+poured into it a large measureful of black-currant syrup and a smaller
+one of brandy. Then the bottle disappeared under the apron again, and
+Mademoiselle Saget, with her hands out of sight, remained talking in
+the bright glow of the counter, face to face with the big mirror, in
+which the flasks and bottles of liqueurs were reflected like rows of
+Venetian lanterns. In the evening all the metal and glass of the
+establishment helped to illuminate it with wonderful brilliancy. The
+old maid, standing there in her black skirts, looked almost like some
+big strange insect amidst all the crude brightness. Florent noticed
+that she was trying to inveigle Rose into a conversation, and shrewdly
+suspected that she had caught sight of him through the half open
+doorway. Since he had been on duty at the markets he had met her at
+almost every step, loitering in one or another of the covered ways,
+and generally in the company of Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette. He
+had noticed also that the three women stealthily examined him, and
+seemed lost in amazement at seeing him installed in the position of
+inspector. That evening, however, Rose was no doubt loath to enter
+into conversation with the old maid, for the latter at last turned
+round, apparently with the intention of approaching Monsieur Lebigre,
+who was playing piquet with a customer at one of the bronzed tables.
+Creeping quietly along, Mademoiselle Saget had at last managed to
+install herself beside the partition of the cabinet, when she was
+observed by Gavard, who detested her.
+
+"Shut the door, Florent!" he cried unceremoniously. "We can't even be
+by ourselves, it seems!"
+
+When midnight came and Lacaille went away he exchanged a few whispered
+words with Monsieur Lebigre, and as the latter shook hands with him he
+slipped four five-franc pieces into his palm, without anyone noticing
+it. "That'll make twenty-two francs that you'll have to pay to-morrow,
+remember," he whispered in his ear. "The person who lends the money
+won't do it for less in future. Don't forget, too, that you owe three
+days' truck hire. You must pay everything off."
+
+Then Monsieur Lebigre wished the friends good night. He was very
+sleepy and should sleep well, he said, with a yawn which revealed his
+big teeth, while Rose gazed at him with an air of submissive humility.
+However, he gave her a push, and told her to go and turn out the gas
+in the little room.
+
+On reaching the pavement, Gavard stumbled and nearly fell. And being
+in a humorous vein, he thereupon exclaimed: "Confound it all! At any
+rate, I don't seem to be leaning on anybody's lights."
+
+This remark seemed to amuse the others, and the party broke up. A
+little later Florent returned to Lebigre's, and indeed he became quite
+attached to the "cabinet," finding a seductive charm in Robine's
+contemplative silence, Logre's fiery outbursts, and Charvet's cool
+venom. When he went home, he did not at once retire to bed. He had
+grown very fond of his attic, that girlish bedroom, where Augustine
+had left scraps of ribbons, souvenirs, and other feminine trifles
+lying about. There still remained some hair-pins on the mantelpiece,
+with gilt cardboard boxes of buttons and lozenges, cutout pictures,
+and empty pomade pots that retained an odour of jasmine. Then there
+were some reels of thread, needles, and a missal lying by the side of
+a soiled Dream-book in the drawer of the rickety deal table. A white
+summer dress with yellow spots hung forgotten from a nail; while upon
+the board which served as a toilet-table a big stain behind the water-
+jug showed where a bottle of bandoline had been overturned. The little
+chamber, with its narrow iron bed, its two rush-bottomed chairs, and
+its faded grey wallpaper, was instinct with innocent simplicity. The
+plain white curtains, the childishness suggested by the cardboard
+boxes and the Dream-book, and the clumsy coquetry which had stained
+the walls, all charmed Florent and brought him back to dreams of
+youth. He would have preferred not to have known that plain, wiry-
+haired Augustine, but to have been able to imagine that he was
+occupying the room of a sister, some bright sweet girl of whose
+budding womanhood every trifle around him spoke.
+
+Yet another pleasure which he took was to lean out of the garret
+window at nighttime. In front of it was a narrow ledge of roof,
+enclosed by an iron railing, and forming a sort of balcony, on which
+Augustine had grown a pomegranate in a box. Since the nights had
+turned cold, Florent had brought the pomegranate indoors and kept it
+by the foot of his bed till morning. He would linger for a few minutes
+by the open window, inhaling deep draughts of the sharp fresh air
+which was wafted up from the Seine, over the housetops of the Rue de
+Rivoli. Below him the roofs of the markets spread confusedly in a grey
+expanse, like slumbering lakes on whose surface the furtive reflection
+of a pane of glass gleamed every now and then like a silvery ripple.
+Farther away the roofs of the meat and poultry pavilions lay in deeper
+gloom, and became mere masses of shadow barring the horizon. Florent
+delighted in the great stretch of open sky in front of him, in that
+spreading expanse of the markets which amidst all the narrow city
+streets brought him a dim vision of some strip of sea coast, of the
+still grey waters of a bay scarce quivering from the roll of the
+distant billows. He used to lose himself in dreams as he stood there;
+each night he conjured up the vision of some fresh coast line. To
+return in mind to the eight years of despair which he had spent away
+from France rendered him both very sad and very happy. Then at last,
+shivering all over, he would close the window. Often, as he stood in
+front of the fireplace taking off his collar, the photograph of
+Auguste and Augustine would fill him with disquietude. They seemed to
+be watching him as they stood there, hand in hand, smiling faintly.
+
+Florent's first few weeks at the fish market were very painful to him.
+The Mehudins treated him with open hostility, which infected the whole
+market with a spirit of opposition. The beautiful Norman intended to
+revenge herself on the handsome Lisa, and the latter's cousin seemed a
+victim ready to hand.
+
+The Mehudins came from Rouen. Louise's mother still related how she
+had first arrived in Paris with a basket of eels. She had ever
+afterwards remained in the fish trade. She had married a man employed
+in the Octroi service, who had died leaving her with two little girls.
+It was she who by her full figure and glowing freshness had won for
+herself in earlier days the nickname of "the beautiful Norman," which
+her eldest daughter had inherited. Now five and sixty years of age,
+Madame Mehudin had become flabby and shapeless, and the damp air of
+the fish market had rendered her voice rough and hoarse, and given a
+bluish tinge to her skin. Sedentary life had made her extremely bulky,
+and her head was thrown backwards by the exuberance of her bosom. She
+had never been willing to renounce the fashions of her younger days,
+but still wore the flowered gown, the yellow kerchief, and turban-like
+head-gear of the classic fish-wife, besides retaining the latter's
+loud voice and rapidity of gesture as she stood with her hands on her
+hips, shouting out the whole abusive vocabulary of her calling.
+
+She looked back regretfully to the old Marche des Innocents, which the
+new central markets had supplanted. She would talk of the ancient
+rights of the market "ladies," and mingle stories of fisticuffs
+exchanged with the police with reminiscences of the visits she had
+paid the Court in the time of Charles X and Louis Philippe, dressed in
+silk, and carrying a bouquet of flowers in her hand. Old Mother
+Mehudin, as she was now generally called, had for a long time been the
+banner-bearer of the Sisterhood of the Virgin at St. Leu. She would
+relate that in the processions in the church there she had worn a
+dress and cap of tulle trimmed with satin ribbons, whilst holding
+aloft in her puffy fingers the gilded staff of the richly-fringed silk
+standard on which the figure of the Holy Mother was embroidered.
+
+According to the gossip of the neighbourhood, the old woman had made a
+fairly substantial fortune, though the only signs of it were the
+massive gold ornaments with which she loaded her neck and arms and
+bosom on important occasions. Her two daughters got on badly together
+as they grew up. The younger one, Claire, an idle, fair-complexioned
+girl, complained of the ill-treatment which she received from her
+sister Louise, protesting, in her languid voice, that she could never
+submit to be the other's servant. As they would certainly have ended
+by coming to blows, their mother separated them. She gave her stall in
+the fish market to Louise, while Claire, whom the smell of the skate
+and the herrings affected in the lungs, installed herself among the
+fresh water fish. And from that time the old mother, although she
+pretended to have retired from business altogether, would flit from
+one stall to the other, still interfering in the selling of the fish,
+and causing her daughters continual annoyance by the foul insolence
+with which she would at times speak to customers.
+
+Claire was a fantastical creature, very gentle in her manner, and yet
+continually at loggerheads with others. People said that she
+invariably followed her own whimsical inclinations. In spite of her
+dreamy, girlish face she was imbued with a nature of silent firmness,
+a spirit of independence which prompted her to live apart; she never
+took things as other people did, but would one day evince perfect
+fairness, and the next day arrant injustice. She would sometimes throw
+the market into confusion by suddenly increasing or lowering the
+prices at her stall, without anyone being able to guess her reason for
+doing so. She herself would refuse to explain her motive. By the time
+she reached her thirtieth year, her delicate physique and fine skin,
+which the water of the tanks seemed to keep continually fresh and
+soft, her small, faintly-marked face and lissome limbs would probably
+become heavy, coarse, and flabby, till she would look like some faded
+saint that had stepped from a stained-glass window into the degrading
+sphere of the markets. At twenty-two, however, Claire, in the midst of
+her carp and eels, was, to use Claude Lantier's expression, a Murillo.
+A Murillo, that is, whose hair was often in disorder, who wore heavy
+shoes and clumsily cut dresses, which left her without any figure. But
+she was free from all coquetry, and she assumed an air of scornful
+contempt when Louise, displaying her bows and ribbons, chaffed her
+about her clumsily knotted neckerchiefs. Moreover, she was virtuous;
+it was said that the son of a rich shopkeeper in the neighbourhood had
+gone abroad in despair at having failed to induce her to listen to his
+suit.
+
+Louise, the beautiful Norman, was of a different nature. She had been
+engaged to be married to a clerk in the corn market; but a sack of
+flour falling upon the young man had broken his back and killed him.
+Not very long afterwards Louise had given birth to a boy. In the
+Mehudins' circle of acquaintance she was looked upon as a widow; and
+the old fish-wife in conversation would occasionally refer to the time
+when her son-in-law was alive.
+
+The Mehudins were a power in the markets. When Monsieur Verlaque had
+finished instructing Florent in his new duties, he advised him to
+conciliate certain of the stall-holders, if he wished his life to be
+endurable; and he even carried his sympathy so far as to put him in
+possession of the little secrets of the office, such as the various
+little breaches of rule that it was necessary to wink at, and those at
+which he would have to feign stern displeasure; and also the
+circumstances under which he might accept a small present. A market
+inspector is at once a constable and a magistrate; he has to maintain
+proper order and cleanliness, and settle in a conciliatory spirit all
+disputes between buyers and sellers. Florent, who was of a weak
+disposition put on an artificial sternness when he was obliged to
+exercise his authority, and generally over-acted his part. Moreover,
+his gloomy, pariah-like face and bitterness of spirit, the result of
+long suffering, were against him.
+
+The beautiful Norman's idea was to involve him in some quarrel or
+other. She had sworn that he would not keep his berth a fortnight.
+"That fat Lisa's much mistaken," said she one morning on meeting
+Madame Lecoeur, "if she thinks that she's going to put people over us.
+We don't want such ugly wretches here. That sweetheart of hers is a
+perfect fright!"
+
+After the auctions, when Florent commenced his round of inspection,
+strolling slowly through the dripping alleys, he could plainly see the
+beautiful Norman watching him with an impudent smile on her face. Her
+stall, which was in the second row on the left, near the fresh water
+fish department faced the Rue Rambuteau. She would turn round,
+however, and never take her eyes off her victim whilst making fun of
+him with her neighbours. And when he passed in front of her, slowly
+examining the slabs, she feigned hilarious merriment, slapped her fish
+with her hand, and turned her jets of water on at full stream,
+flooding the pathway. Nevertheless Florent remained perfectly calm.
+
+At last, one morning as was bound to happen, war broke out. As Florent
+reached La Normande's stall that day an unbearable stench assailed his
+nostrils. On the marble slab, in addition to part of a magnificent
+salmon, showing its soft roseate flesh, there lay some turbots of
+creamy whiteness, a few conger-eels pierced with black pins to mark
+their divisions, several pairs of soles, and some bass and red mullet
+--in fact, quite a display of fresh fish. But in the midst of it,
+amongst all these fish whose eyes still gleamed and whose gills were
+of a bright crimson, there lay a huge skate of a ruddy tinge,
+splotched with dark stains--superb, indeed, with all its strange
+colourings. Unfortunately, it was rotten; its tail was falling off and
+the ribs of its fins were breaking through the skin.
+
+"You must throw that skate away," said Florent as he came up.
+
+The beautiful Norman broke into a slight laugh. Florent raised his
+eyes and saw her standing before him, with her back against the bronze
+lamp post which lighted the stalls in her division. She had mounted
+upon a box to keep her feet out of the damp, and appeared very tall as
+he glanced at her. She looked also handsomer than usual, with her hair
+arranged in little curls, her sly face slightly bent, her lips
+compressed, and her hands showing somewhat too rosily against her big
+white apron. Florent had never before seen her decked with so much
+jewellery. She had long pendants in her ears, a chain round her neck,
+a brooch in her dress body, and quite a collection of rings on two
+fingers of her left hand and one of her right.
+
+As she still continued to look slyly at Florent, without making any
+reply, the latter continued: "Do you hear? You must remove that
+skate."
+
+He had not yet noticed the presence of old Madame Mehudin, who sat all
+of a heap on a chair in a corner. She now got up, however, and, with
+her fists resting on the marble slap, insolently exclaimed: "Dear me!
+And why is she to throw her skate away? You won't pay her for it, I'll
+bet!"
+
+Florent immediately understood the position. The women at the other
+stalls began to titter, and he felt that he was surrounded by covert
+rebellion, which a word might cause to blaze forth. He therefore
+restrained himself, and in person drew the refuse-pail from under the
+stall and dropped the skate into it. Old Madame Mehudin had already
+stuck her hands on her hips, while the beautiful Norman, who had not
+spoken a word, burst into another malicious laugh as Florent strode
+sternly away amidst a chorus of jeers, which he pretended not to hear.
+
+Each day now some new trick was played upon him, and he was obliged to
+walk through the market alleys as warily as though he were in a
+hostile country. He was splashed with water from the sponges employed
+to cleanse the slabs; he stumbled and almost fell over slippery refuse
+intentionally spread in his way; and even the porters contrived to run
+their baskets against the nape of his neck. One day, moreover, when
+two of the fish-wives were quarrelling, and he hastened up to prevent
+them coming to blows, he was obliged to duck in order to escape being
+slapped on either cheek by a shower of little dabs which passed over
+his head. There was a general outburst of laughter on this occasion,
+and Florent always believed that the two fish-wives were in league
+with the Mehudins. However, his old-time experiences as a teacher had
+endowed him with angelic patience, and he was able to maintain a
+magisterial coolness of manner even when anger was hotly rising within
+him, and his whole being quivered with a sense of humiliation. Still,
+the young scamps of the Rue de l'Estrapade had never manifested the
+savagery of these fish-wives, the cruel tenacity of these huge
+females, whose massive figures heaved and shook with a giant-like joy
+whenever he fell into any trap. They stared him out of countenance
+with their red faces; and in the coarse tones of their voices and the
+impudent gesture of their hands he could read volumes of filthy abuse
+levelled at himself. Gavard would have been quite in his element
+amidst all these petticoats, and would have freely cuffed them all
+round; but Florent, who had always been afraid of women, gradually
+felt overwhelmed as by a sort of nightmare in which giant women, buxom
+beyond all imagination, danced threateningly around him, shouting at
+him in hoarse voices and brandishing bare arms, as massive as any
+prize-fighter's.
+
+Amongst this hoard of females, however, Florent had one friend. Claire
+unhesitatingly declared that the new inspector was a very good fellow.
+When he passed in front of her, pursued by the coarse abuse of the
+others, she gave him a pleasant smile, sitting nonchalantly behind her
+stall, with unruly errant locks of pale hair straying over her neck
+and her brow, and the bodice of her dress pinned all askew. He also
+often saw her dipping her hands into her tanks, transferring the fish
+from one compartment to another, and amusing herself by turning on the
+brass taps, shaped like little dolphins with open mouths, from which
+the water poured in streamlets. Amidst the rustling sound of the water
+she had some of the quivering grace of a girl who has just been
+bathing and has hurriedly slipped on her clothes.
+
+One morning she was particularly amiable. She called the inspector to
+her to show him a huge eel which had been the wonder of the market
+when exhibited at the auction. She opened the grating, which she had
+previously closed over the basin in whose depths the eel seemed to be
+lying sound asleep.
+
+"Wait a moment," she said, "and I'll show it to you."
+
+Then she gently slipped her bare arm into the water; it was not a very
+plump arm, and its veins showed softly blue beneath its satiny skin.
+As soon as the eel felt her touch, it rapidly twisted round, and
+seemed to fill the narrow trough with its glistening greenish coils.
+And directly it had settled down to rest again Claire once more
+stirred it with her fingertips.
+
+"It is an enormous creature," Florent felt bound to say. "I have
+rarely seen such a fine one."
+
+Claire thereupon confessed to him that she had at first been
+frightened of eels; but now she had learned how to tighten her grip so
+that they could not slip away. From another compartment she took a
+smaller one, which began to wriggle both with head and tail, as she
+held it about the middle in her closed fist. This made her laugh. She
+let it go, then seized another and another, scouring the basin and
+stirring up the whole heap of snaky-looking creatures with her slim
+fingers.
+
+Afterwards she began to speak of the slackness of trade. The hawkers
+on the foot-pavement of the covered way did the regular saleswomen a
+great deal of injury, she said. Meantime her bare arm, which she had
+not wiped, was glistening and dripping with water. Big drops trickled
+from each finger.
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed suddenly, "I must show you my carp, too!"
+
+She now removed another grating, and, using both hands, lifted out a
+large carp, which began to flap its tail and gasp. It was too big to
+be held conveniently, so she sought another one. This was smaller, and
+she could hold it with one hand, but the latter was forced slightly
+open by the panting of the sides each time that the fish gasped. To
+amuse herself it occurred to Claire to pop the tip of her thumb into
+the carp's mouth whilst it was dilated. "It won't bite," said she with
+her gentle laugh; "it's not spiteful. No more are the crawfishes; I'm
+not the least afraid of them."
+
+She plunged her arm into the water again, and from a compartment full
+of a confused crawling mass brought up a crawfish that had caught her
+little finger in its claws. She gave the creature a shake, but it no
+doubt gripped her too tightly, for she turned very red, and snapped
+off its claw with a quick, angry gesture, though still continuing to
+smile.
+
+"By the way," she continued quickly, to conceal her emotion, "I
+wouldn't trust myself with a pike; he'd cut off my fingers like a
+knife."
+
+She thereupon showed him some big pike arranged in order of size upon
+clean scoured shelves, beside some bronze-hued tench and little heaps
+of gudgeon. Her hands were now quite slimy with handling the carp, and
+as she stood there in the dampness rising from the tanks, she held
+them outstretched over the dripping fish on the stall. She seemed
+enveloped by an odour of spawn, that heavy scent which rises from
+among the reeds and water-lilies when the fish, languid in the
+sunlight, discharge their eggs. Then she wiped her hands on her apron,
+still smiling the placid smile of a girl who knew nothing of passion
+in that quivering atmosphere of the frigid loves of the river.
+
+The kindliness which Claire showed to Florent was but a slight
+consolation to him. By stopping to talk to the girl he only drew upon
+himself still coarser jeers from the other stallkeepers. Claire
+shrugged her shoulders, and said that her mother was an old jade, and
+her sister a worthless creature. The injustice of the market folk
+towards the new inspector filled her with indignation. The war between
+them, however, grew more bitter every day. Florent had serious
+thoughts of resigning his post; indeed, he would not have retained it
+for another twenty-four hours if he had not been afraid that Lisa
+might imagine him to be a coward. He was frightened of what she might
+say and what she might think. She was naturally well aware of the
+contest which was going on between the fish-wives and their inspector;
+for the whole echoing market resounded with it, and the entire
+neighbourhood discussed each fresh incident with endless comments.
+
+"Ah, well," Lisa would often say in the evening, after dinner, "I'd
+soon bring them to reason if I had anything to do with them! Why, they
+are a lot of dirty jades that I wouldn't touch with the tip of my
+finger! That Normande is the lowest of the low! I'd soon crush her,
+that I would! You should really use your authority, Florent. You are
+wrong to behave as you do. Put your foot down, and they'll all come to
+their senses very quickly, you'll see."
+
+A terrible climax was presently reached. One morning the servant of
+Madame Taboureau, the baker, came to the market to buy a brill; and
+the beautiful Norman, having noticed her lingering near her stall for
+several minutes, began to make overtures to her in a coaxing way:
+"Come and see me; I'll suit you," she said. "Would you like a pair of
+soles, or a fine turbot?"
+
+Then as the servant at last came up, and sniffed at a brill with that
+dissatisfied pout which buyers assume in the hope of getting what they
+want at a lower price, La Normande continued:
+
+"Just feel the weight of that, now," and so saying she laid the brill,
+wrapped in a sheet of thick yellow paper, on the woman's open palm.
+
+The servant, a mournful little woman from Auvergne, felt the weight of
+the brill, and examined its gills, still pouting, and saying not a
+word.
+
+"And how much do you want for it?" she asked presently, in a reluctant
+tone.
+
+"Fifteen francs," replied La Normande.
+
+At this the servant hastily laid the brill on the stall again, and
+seemed anxious to hurry away, but the other detained her. "Wait a
+moment," said she. "What do you offer?"
+
+"No, no, I can't take it. It is much too dear."
+
+"Come, now, make me an offer."
+
+"Well, will you take eight francs?"
+
+Old Madame Mehudin, who was there, suddenly seemed to wake up, and
+broke out into a contemptuous laugh. Did people think that she and her
+daughter stole the fish they sold? "Eight francs for a brill that
+size!" she exclaimed. "You'll be wanting one for nothing next, to use
+as a cooling plaster!"
+
+Meantime La Normande turned her head away, as though greatly offended.
+However, the servant came back twice and offered nine francs; and
+finally she increased her bid to ten.
+
+"All right, come on, give me your money!" cried the fish-girl, seeing
+that the woman was now really going away.
+
+The servant took her stand in front of the stall and entered into a
+friendly gossip with old Madame Mehudin. Madame Taboureau, she said,
+was so exacting! She had got some people coming to dinner that
+evening, some cousins from Blois a notary and his wife. Madame
+Taboureau's family, she added, was a very respectable one, and she
+herself, although only a baker, had received an excellent education.
+
+"You'll clean it nicely for me, won't you?" added the woman, pausing
+in her chatter.
+
+With a jerk of her finger La Normande had removed the fish's entrails
+and tossed them into a pail. Then she slipped a corner of her apron
+under its gills to wipe away a few grains of sand. "There, my dear,"
+she said, putting the fish into the servant's basket, "you'll come
+back to thank me."
+
+Certainly the servant did come back a quarter of an hour afterwards,
+but it was with a flushed, red face. She had been crying, and her
+little body was trembling all over with anger. Tossing the brill on to
+the marble slab, she pointed to a broad gash in its belly that reached
+the bone. Then a flood of broken words burst from her throat, which
+was still contracted by sobbing: "Madame Taboureau won't have it. She
+says she couldn't put it on her table. She told me, too, that I was an
+idiot, and let myself be cheated by anyone. You can see for yourself
+that the fish is spoilt. I never thought of turning it round; I quite
+trusted you. Give me my ten francs back."
+
+"You should look at what you buy," the handsome Norman calmly
+observed.
+
+And then, as the servant was just raising her voice again, old Madame
+Mehudin got up. "Just you shut up!" she cried. "We're not going to
+take back a fish that's been knocking about in other people's houses.
+How do we know that you didn't let it fall and damage it yourself?"
+
+"I! I damage it!" The little servant was choking with indignation.
+"Ah! you're a couple of thieves!" she cried, sobbing bitterly. "Yes, a
+couple of thieves! Madame Taboureau herself told me so!"
+
+Matters then became uproarious. Boiling over with rage and brandishing
+their fists, both mother and daughter fairly exploded; while the poor
+little servant, quite bewildered by their voices, the one hoarse and
+the other shrill, which belaboured her with insults as though they
+were battledores and she a shuttlecock, sobbed on more bitterly than
+ever.
+
+"Be off with you! Your Madame Taboureau would like to be half as fresh
+as that fish is! She'd like us to sew it up for her, no doubt!"
+
+"A whole fish for ten francs! What'll she want next!"
+
+Then came coarse words and foul accusations. Had the servant been the
+most worthless of her sex she could not have been more bitterly
+upbraided.
+
+Florent, whom the market keeper had gone to fetch, made his appearance
+when the quarrel was at its hottest. The whole pavilion seemed to be
+in a state of insurrection. The fish-wives, who manifest the keenest
+jealousy of each other when the sale of a penny herring is in
+question, display a united front when a quarrel arises with a buyer.
+They sang the popular old ditty, "The baker's wife has heaps of
+crowns, which cost her precious little"; they stamped their feet, and
+goaded the Mehudins as though the latter were dogs which they were
+urging on to bite and devour. And there were even some, having stalls
+at the other end of the alley, who rushed up wildly, as though they
+meant to spring at the chignon of the poor little woman, she meantime
+being quite submerged by the flood of insulting abuse poured upon her.
+
+"Return mademoiselle her ten francs," said Florent sternly, when he
+had learned what had taken place.
+
+But old Madame Mehudin had her blood up. "As for you, my little man,"
+quoth she, "go to blazes! Here, that's how I'll return the ten
+francs!"
+
+As she spoke, she flung the brill with all her force at the head of
+Madame Taboureau's servant, who received it full in the face. The
+blood spurted from her nose, and the brill, after adhering for a
+moment to her cheeks, fell to the ground and burst with a flop like
+that of a wet clout. This brutal act threw Florent into a fury. The
+beautiful Norman felt frightened and recoiled, as he cried out: "I
+suspend you for a week, and I will have your licence withdrawn. You
+hear me?"
+
+Then, as the other fish-wives were still jeering behind him, he turned
+round with such a threatening air that they quailed like wild beasts
+mastered by the tamer, and tried to assume an expression of innocence.
+When the Mehudins had returned the ten francs, Florent peremptorily
+ordered them to cease selling at once. The old woman was choking with
+rage, while the daughter kept silent, but turned very white. She, the
+beautiful Norman, to be driven out of her stall!
+
+Claire said in her quiet voice that it served her mother and sister
+right, a remark which nearly resulted in the two girls tearing each
+other's hair out that evening when they returned home to the Rue
+Pirouette. However, when the Mehudins came back to the market at the
+week's end, they remained very quiet, reserved, and curt of speech,
+though full of a cold-blooded wrath. Moreover, they found the pavilion
+quite calm and restored to order again. From that day forward the
+beautiful Norman must have harboured the thought of some terrible
+vengeance. She felt that she really had Lisa to thank for what had
+happened. She had met her, the day after the battle, carrying her head
+so high, that she had sworn she would make her pay dearly for her
+glance of triumph. She held interminable confabulations with Madame
+Saget, Madame Lecoeur, and La Sarriette, in quiet corners of the
+market; however, all their chatter about the shameless conduct which
+they slanderously ascribed to Lisa and her cousin, and about the hairs
+which they declared were found in Quenu's chitterlings, brought La
+Normande little consolation. She was trying to think of some very
+malicious plan of vengeance, which would strike her rival to the
+heart.
+
+Her child was growing up in the fish market in all freedom and
+neglect. When but three years old the youngster had been brought
+there, and day by day remained squatting on some rag amidst the fish.
+He would fall asleep beside the big tunnies as though he were one of
+them, and awake among the mackerel and whiting. The little rascal
+smelt of fish as strongly as though he were some big fish's offspring.
+For a long time his favourite pastime, whenever his mother's back was
+turned, was to build walls and houses of herrings; and he would also
+play at soldiers on the marble slab, arranging the red gurnets in
+confronting lines, pushing them against each other, and battering
+their heads, while imitating the sound of drum and trumpet with his
+lips; after which he would throw them all into a heap again, and
+exclaim that they were dead. When he grew older he would prowl about
+his aunt Claire's stall to get hold of the bladders of the carp and
+pike which she gutted. He placed them on the ground and made them
+burst, an amusement which afforded him vast delight. When he was seven
+he rushed about the alleys, crawled under the stalls, ferreted amongst
+the zinc bound fish boxes, and became the spoiled pet of all the
+women. Whenever they showed him something fresh which pleased him, he
+would clasp his hands and exclaim in ecstasy, "Oh, isn't it stunning!"
+/Muche/ was the exact word which he used; /muche/ being the equivalent
+of "stunning" in the lingo of the markets; and he used the expression
+so often that it clung to him as a nickname. He became known all over
+the place as "Muche." It was Muche here, there and everywhere; no one
+called him anything else. He was to be met with in every nook; in out-
+of-the-way corners of the offices in the auction pavilion; among the
+piles of oyster baskets, and betwixt the buckets where the refuse was
+thrown. With a pinky fairness of skin, he was like a young barbel
+frisking and gliding about in deep water. He was as fond of running,
+streaming water as any young fry. He was ever dabbling in the pools in
+the alleys. He wetted himself with the drippings from the tables, and
+when no one was looking often slyly turned on the taps, rejoicing in
+the bursting gush of water. But it was especially beside the fountains
+near the cellar steps that his mother went to seek him in the evening,
+and she would bring him thence with his hands quite blue, and his
+shoes, and even his pockets, full of water.
+
+At seven years old Muche was as pretty as an angel, and as coarse in
+his manners as any carter. He had curly chestnut hair, beautiful eyes,
+and an innocent-looking mouth which gave vent to language that even a
+gendarme would have hesitated to use. Brought up amidst all the
+ribaldry and profanity of the markets, he had the whole vocabulary of
+the place on the tip of his tongue. With his hands on his hips he
+often mimicked Grandmother Mehudin in her anger, and at these times
+the coarsest and vilest expressions would stream from his lips in a
+voice of crystalline purity that might have belonged to some little
+chorister chanting the /Ave Maria/. He would even try to assume a
+hoarse roughness of tone, seek to degrade and taint that exquisite
+freshness of childhood which made him resemble a /bambino/ on the
+Madonna's knees. The fish-wives laughed at him till they cried; and
+he, encouraged, could scarcely say a couple of words without rapping
+out an oath. But in spite of all this he still remained charming,
+understanding nothing of the dirt amidst which he lived, kept in
+vigorous health by the fresh breezes and sharp odours of the fish
+market, and reciting his vocabulary of coarse indecencies with as pure
+a face as though he were saying his prayers.
+
+The winter was approaching, and Muche seemed very sensitive to the
+cold. As soon as the chilly weather set in he manifested a strong
+predilection for the inspector's office. This was situated in the
+left-hand corner of the pavilion, on the side of the Rue Rambuteau.
+The furniture consisted of a table, a stack of drawers, an easy-chair,
+two other chairs, and a stove. It was this stove which attracted
+Muche. Florent quite worshipped children, and when he saw the little
+fellow, with his dripping legs, gazing wistfully through the window,
+he made him come inside. His first conversation with the lad caused
+him profound amazement. Muche sat down in front of the stove, and in
+his quiet voice exclaimed: "I'll just toast my toes, do you see? It's
+d----d cold this morning." Then he broke into a rippling laugh, and
+added: "Aunt Claire looks awfully blue this morning. Is it true, sir,
+that you are sweet on her?"
+
+Amazed though he was, Florent felt quite interested in the odd little
+fellow. The handsome Norman retained her surly bearing, but allowed
+her son to frequent the inspector's office without a word of
+objection. Florent consequently concluded that he had the mother's
+permission to receive the boy, and every afternoon he asked him in; by
+degrees forming the idea of turning him into a steady, respectable
+young fellow. He could almost fancy that his brother Quenu had grown
+little again, and that they were both in the big room in the Rue
+Royer-Collard once more. The life which his self-sacrificing nature
+pictured to him as perfect happiness was a life spent with some young
+being who would never grow up, whom he could go on teaching for ever,
+and in whose innocence he might still love his fellow man. On the
+third day of his acquaintance with Muche he brought an alphabet to the
+office, and the lad delighted him by the intelligence he manifested.
+He learned his letters with all the sharp precocity which marks the
+Parisian street arab, and derived great amusement from the woodcuts
+illustrating the alphabet.
+
+He found opportunities, too, for plenty of fine fun in the little
+office, where the stove still remained the chief attraction and a
+source of endless enjoyment. At first he cooked potatoes and chestnuts
+at it, but presently these seemed insipid, and he thereupon stole some
+gudgeons from his aunt Claire, roasted them one by one, suspended from
+a string in front of the glowing fire, and then devoured them with
+gusto, though he had no bread. One day he even brought a carp with
+him; but it was impossible to roast it sufficiently, and it made such
+a smell in the office that both window and door had to be thrown open.
+Sometimes, when the odour of all these culinary operations became too
+strong, Florent would throw the fish into the street, but as a rule he
+only laughed. By the end of a couple of months Muche was able to read
+fairly well, and his copy-books did him credit.
+
+Meantime, every evening the lad wearied his mother with his talk about
+his good friend Florent. His good friend Florent had drawn him
+pictures of trees and of men in huts, said he. His good friend Florent
+waved his arm and said that men would be far better if they all knew
+how to read. And at last La Normande heard so much about Florent that
+she seemed to be almost intimate with this man against whom she
+harboured so much rancour. One day she shut Muche up at home to
+prevent him from going to the inspector's, but he cried so bitterly
+that she gave him his liberty again on the following morning. There
+was very little determination about her, in spite of her broad
+shoulders and bold looks. When the lad told her how nice and warm he
+had been in the office, and came back to her with his clothes quite
+dry, she felt a sort of vague gratitude, a pleasure in knowing that he
+had found a shelter-place where he could sit with his feet in front of
+a fire. Later on, she was quite touched when he read her some words
+from a scrap of soiled newspaper wrapped round a slice of conger-eel.
+By degrees, indeed, she began to think, though without admitting it,
+that Florent could not really be a bad sort of fellow. She felt
+respect for his knowledge, mingled with an increasing curiosity to see
+more of him and learn something of his life. Then, all at once, she
+found an excuse for gratifying this inquisitiveness. She would use it
+as a means of vengeance. It would be fine fun to make friends with
+Florent and embroil him with that great fat Lisa.
+
+"Does your good friend Florent ever speak to you about me?" she asked
+Muche one morning as she was dressing him.
+
+"Oh, no," replied the boy. "We enjoy ourselves."
+
+"Well, you can tell him that I've quite forgiven him, and that I'm
+much obliged to him for having taught you to read."
+
+Thenceforward the child was entrusted with some message every day. He
+went backwards and forwards from his mother to the inspector, and from
+the inspector to his mother, charged with kindly words and questions
+and answers, which he repeated mechanically without knowing their
+meaning. He might, indeed, have been safely trusted with the most
+compromising communications. However, the beautiful Norman felt afraid
+of appearing timid, and so one day she herself went to the inspector's
+office and sat down on the second chair, while Muche was having his
+writing lesson. She proved very suave and complimentary, and Florent
+was by far the more embarrassed of the two. They only spoke of the
+lad; and when Florent expressed a fear that he might not be able to
+continue the lessons in the office, La Normande invited him to come to
+their home in the evening. She spoke also of payment; but at this he
+blushed, and said that he certainly would not come if any mention were
+made of money. Thereupon the young woman determined in her own mind
+that she would recompense him with presents of choice fish.
+
+Peace was thus made between them; the beautiful Norman even took
+Florent under her protection. Apart from this, however, the whole
+market was becoming reconciled to the new inspector, the fish-wives
+arriving at the conclusion that he was really a better fellow than
+Monsieur Verlaque, notwithstanding his strange eyes. It was only old
+Madame Mehudin who still shrugged her shoulders, full of rancour as
+she was against the "long lanky-guts," as she contemptuously called
+him. And then, too, a strange thing happened. One morning, when
+Florent stopped with a smile before Claire's tanks, the girl dropped
+an eel which she was holding and angrily turned her back upon him, her
+cheeks quite swollen and reddened by temper. The inspector was so much
+astonished that he spoke to La Normande about it.
+
+"Oh, never mind her," said the young woman; "she's cracked. She makes
+a point of always differing from everybody else. She only behaved like
+that to annoy me."
+
+La Normande was now triumphant--she strutted about her stall, and
+became more coquettish than ever, arranging her hair in the most
+elaborate manner. Meeting the handsome Lisa one day she returned her
+look of scorn, and even burst out laughing in her face. The certainty
+she felt of driving the mistress of the pork shop to despair by
+winning her cousin from her endowed her with a gay, sonorous laugh,
+which rolled up from her chest and rippled her white plump neck. She
+now had the whim of dressing Muche very showily in a little Highland
+costume and velvet bonnet. The lad had never previously worn anything
+but a tattered blouse. It unfortunately happened, however, that just
+about this time he again became very fond of the water. The ice had
+melted and the weather was mild, so he gave his Scotch jacket a bath,
+turning the fountain tap on at full flow and letting the water pour
+down his arm from his elbow to his hand. He called this "playing at
+gutters." Then a little later, when his mother came up and caught him,
+she found him with two other young scamps watching a couple of little
+fishes swimming about in his velvet cap, which he had filled with
+water.
+
+For nearly eight months Florent lived in the markets, feeling
+continual drowsiness. After his seven years of suffering he had
+lighted upon such calm quietude, such unbroken regularity of life,
+that he was scarcely conscious of existing. He gave himself up to this
+jog-trot peacefulness with a dazed sort of feeling, continually
+experiencing surprise at finding himself each morning in the same
+armchair in the little office. This office with its bare hut-like
+appearance had a charm for him. He here found a quiet and secluded
+refuge amidst that ceaseless roar of the markets which made him dream
+of some surging sea spreading around him, and isolating him from the
+world. Gradually, however, a vague nervousness began to prey upon him;
+he became discontented, accused himself of faults which he could not
+define, and began to rebel against the emptiness which he experienced
+more and more acutely in mind and body. Then, too, the evil smells of
+the fish market brought him nausea. By degrees he became unhinged, his
+vague boredom developing into restless, nervous excitement.
+
+All his days were precisely alike, spent among the same sounds and the
+same odours. In the mornings the noisy buzzing of the auction sales
+resounded in his ears like a distant echo of bells; and sometimes,
+when there was a delay in the arrival of the fish, the auctions
+continued till very late. Upon these occasions he remained in the
+pavilion till noon, disturbed at every moment by quarrels and
+disputes, which he endeavoured to settle with scrupulous justice.
+Hours elapsed before he could get free of some miserable matter or
+other which was exciting the market. He paced up and down amidst the
+crush and uproar of the sales, slowly perambulating the alleys and
+occasionally stopping in front of the stalls which fringed the Rue
+Rambuteau, and where lay rosy heaps of prawns and baskets of boiled
+lobsters with tails tied backwards, while live ones were gradually
+dying as they sprawled over the marble slabs. And then he would watch
+gentlemen in silk hats and black gloves bargaining with the fish-
+wives, and finally going off with boiled lobsters wrapped in paper in
+the pockets of their frock-coats.[*] Farther away, at the temporary
+stalls, where the commoner sorts of fish were sold, he would recognise
+the bareheaded women of the neighbourhood, who always came at the same
+hour to make their purchases.
+
+[*] The little fish-basket for the use of customers, so familiar in
+    London, is not known in Paris.--Translator.
+
+At times he took an interest in some well-dressed lady trailing her
+lace petticoats over the damp stones, and escorted by a servant in a
+white apron; and he would follow her at a little distance on noticing
+how the fish-wives shrugged their shoulders at sight of her air of
+disgust. The medley of hampers and baskets and bags, the crowd of
+skirts flitting along the damp alleys, occupied his attention until
+lunchtime. He took a delight in the dripping water and the fresh
+breeze as he passed from the acrid smell of the shell-fish to the
+pungent odour of the salted fish. It was always with the latter that
+he brought his official round of inspection to a close. The cases of
+red herrings, the Nantes sardines on their layers of leaves, and the
+rolled cod, exposed for sale under the eyes of stout, faded fish-
+wives, brought him thoughts of a voyage necessitating a vast supply of
+salted provisions.
+
+In the afternoon the markets became quieter, grew drowsy; and Florent
+then shut himself up in his office, made out his reports, and enjoyed
+the happiest hours of his day. If he happened to go out and cross the
+fish market, he found it almost deserted. There was no longer the
+crushing and pushing and uproar of ten o'clock in the morning. The
+fish-wives, seated behind their stalls, leant back knitting, while a
+few belated purchasers prowled about casting sidelong glances at the
+remaining fish, with the thoughtful eyes and compressed lips of women
+closely calculating the price of their dinner. At last the twilight
+fell, there was a noise of boxes being moved, and the fish was laid
+for the night on beds of ice; and then, after witnessing the closing
+of the gates, Florent went off, seemingly carrying the fish market
+along with him in his clothes and his beard and his hair.
+
+For the first few months this penetrating odour caused him no great
+discomfort. The winter was a severe one, the frosts converted the
+alleys into slippery mirrors, and the fountains and marble slabs were
+fringed with a lacework of ice. In the mornings it was necessary to
+place little braziers underneath the taps before a drop of water could
+be drawn. The frozen fish had twisted tails; and, dull of hue and hard
+to the touch like unpolished metal, gave out a ringing sound akin to
+that of pale cast-iron when it snaps. Until February the pavilion
+presented a most mournful appearance: it was deserted, and wrapped in
+a bristling shroud of ice. But with March came a thaw, with mild
+weather and fogs and rain. Then the fish became soft again, and
+unpleasant odours mingled with the smell of mud wafted from the
+neighbouring streets. These odours were as yet vague, tempered by the
+moisture which clung to the ground. But in the blazing June afternoons
+a reeking stench arose, and the atmosphere became heavy with a
+pestilential haze. The upper windows were then opened, and huge blinds
+of grey canvas were drawn beneath the burning sky. Nevertheless, a
+fiery rain seemed to be pouring down, heating the market as though it
+were a big stove, and there was not a breath of air to waft away the
+noxious emanations from the fish. A visible steam went up from the
+stalls.
+
+The masses of food amongst which Florent lived now began to cause him
+the greatest discomfort. The disgust with which the pork shop had
+filled him came back in a still more intolerable fashion. He almost
+sickened as he passed these masses of fish, which, despite all the
+water lavished upon them, turned bad under a sudden whiff of hot air.
+Even when he shut himself up in his office his discomfort continued,
+for the abominable odour forced its way through the chinks in the
+woodwork of the window and door. When the sky was grey and leaden, the
+little room remained quite dark; and then the day was like a long
+twilight in the depths of some fetid march. He was often attacked by
+fits of nervous excitement, and felt a craving desire to walk; and he
+would then descend into the cellars by the broad staircase opening in
+the middle of the pavilion. In the pent-up air down below, in the dim
+light of the occasional gas jets, he once more found the refreshing
+coolness diffused by pure cold water. He would stand in front of the
+big tank where the reserve stock of live fish was kept, and listen to
+the ceaseless murmur of the four streamlets of water falling from the
+four corners of the central urn, and then spreading into a broad
+stream and gliding beneath the locked gratings of the basins with a
+gentle and continuous flow. This subterranean spring, this stream
+murmuring in the gloom, had a tranquillising effect upon him. Of an
+evening, too, he delighted in the fine sunsets which threw the
+delicate lacework of the market buildings blackly against the red glow
+of the heavens. The dancing dust of the last sun rays streamed through
+every opening, through every chink of the Venetian shutters, and the
+whole was like some luminous transparency on which the slender shafts
+of the columns, the elegant curves of the girders, and the geometrical
+tracery of the roofs were minutely outlined. Florent feasted his eyes
+on this mighty diagram washed in with Indian ink on phosphorescent
+vellum, and his mind reverted to his old fancy of a colossal machine
+with wheels and levers and beams espied in the crimson glow of the
+fires blazing beneath its boilers. At each consecutive hour of the day
+the changing play of the light--from the bluish haze of early morning
+and the black shadows of noon to the flaring of the sinking sun and
+the paling of its fires in the ashy grey of the twilight--revealed the
+markets under a new aspect; but on the flaming evenings, when the foul
+smells arose and forced their way across the broad yellow beams like
+hot puffs of steam, Florent again experienced discomfort, and his
+dream changed, and he imagined himself in some gigantic knacker's
+boiling-house where the fat of a whole people was being melted down.
+
+The coarseness of the market people, whose words and gestures seemed
+to be infected with the evil smell of the place, also made him suffer.
+He was very tolerant, and showed no mock modesty; still, these
+impudent women often embarrassed him. Madame Francois, whom he had
+again met, was the only one with whom he felt at ease. She showed such
+pleasure on learning he had found a berth and was quite comfortable
+and out of worry, as she put it, that he was quite touched. The
+laughter of Lisa, the handsome Norman, and the others disquieted him;
+but of Madame Francois he would willingly have made a confidante. She
+never laughed mockingly at him; when she did laugh, it was like a
+woman rejoicing at another's happiness. She was a brave, plucky
+creature, too; hers was a hard business in winter, during the frosts,
+and the rainy weather was still more trying. On some mornings Florent
+saw her arrive in a pouring deluge which had been slowly, coldly
+falling ever since the previous night. Between Nanterre and Paris the
+wheels of her cart had sunk up to the axles in mud, and Balthazar was
+caked with mire to his belly. His mistress would pity him and
+sympathise with him as she wiped him down with some old aprons.
+
+"The poor creatures are very sensitive," said she; "a mere nothing
+gives them a cold. Ah, my poor old Balthazar! I really thought that we
+had tumbled into the Seine as we crossed the Neuilly bridge, the rain
+came down in such a deluge!"
+
+While Balthazar was housed in the inn stable his mistress remained in
+the pouring rain to sell her vegetables. The footway was transformed
+into a lake of liquid mud. The cabbages, carrots, and turnips were
+pelted by the grey water, quite drowned by the muddy torrent that
+rushed along the pavement. There was no longer any of that glorious
+greenery so apparent on bright mornings. The market gardeners,
+cowering in their heavy cloaks beneath the downpour, swore at the
+municipality which, after due inquiry, had declared that rain was in
+no way injurious to vegetables, and that there was accordingly no
+necessity to erect any shelters.
+
+Those rainy mornings greatly worried Florent, who thought about Madame
+Francois. He always managed to slip away and get a word with her. But
+he never found her at all low-spirited. She shook herself like a
+poodle, saying that she was quite used to such weather, and was not
+made of sugar, to melt away beneath a few drops of rain. However, he
+made her seek refuge for a few minutes in one of the covered ways, and
+frequently even took her to Monsieur Lebigre's, where they had some
+hot wine together. While she with her peaceful face beamed on him in
+all friendliness, he felt quite delighted with the healthy odour of
+the fields which she brought into the midst of the foul market
+atmosphere. She exhaled a scent of earth, hay, fresh air, and open
+skies.
+
+"You must come to Nanterre, my lad," she said to him, "and look at my
+kitchen garden. I have put borders of thyme everywhere. How bad your
+villainous Paris does smell!"
+
+Then she went off, dripping. Florent, on his side, felt quite
+re-invigorated when he parted from her. He tried, too the effect of
+work upon the nervous depression from which he suffered. He was a man
+of a very methodical temperament, and sometimes carried out his plans
+for the allotment of his time with a strictness that bordered on
+mania. He shut himself up two evenings a week in order to write an
+exhaustive work on Cayenne. His modest bedroom was excellently
+adapted, he thought, to calm his mind and incline him to work. He
+lighted his fire, saw that the pomegranate at the foot of the bed was
+looking all right, and then seated himself at the little table, and
+remained working till midnight. He had pushed the missal and Dream-
+book back in the drawer, which was now filling with notes, memoranda,
+manuscripts of all kinds. The work on Cayenne made but slow progress,
+however, as it was constantly being interrupted by other projects,
+plans for enormous undertakings which he sketched out in a few words.
+He successively drafted an outline of a complete reform of the
+administrative system of the markets, a scheme for transforming the
+city dues, levied on produce as it entered Paris, into taxes levied
+upon the sales, a new system of victualling the poorer neighbourhoods,
+and, lastly, a somewhat vague socialist enactment for the storing in
+common warehouses of all the provisions brought to the markets, and
+the ensuring of a minimum daily supply to each household in Paris. As
+he sat there, with his head bent over his table, and his mind absorbed
+in thoughts of all these weighty matters, his gloomy figure cast a
+great black shadow on the soft peacefulness of the garret. Sometimes a
+chaffinch which he had picked up one snowy day in the market would
+mistake the lamplight for the day, and break the silence, which only
+the scratching of Florent's pen on his paper disturbed, by a cry.
+
+Florent was fated to revert to politics. He had suffered too much
+through them not to make them the dearest occupation of his life.
+Under other conditions he might have become a good provincial
+schoolmaster, happy in the peaceful life of some little town. But he
+had been treated as though he were a wolf, and felt as though he had
+been marked out by exile for some great combative task. His nervous
+discomfort was the outcome of his long reveries at Cayenne, the
+brooding bitterness he had felt at his unmerited sufferings, and the
+vows he had secretly sworn to avenge humanity and justice--the former
+scourged with a whip, and the latter trodden under foot. Those
+colossal markets and their teeming odoriferous masses of food had
+hastened the crisis. To Florent they appeared symbolical of some
+glutted, digesting beast, of Paris, wallowing in its fat and silently
+upholding the Empire. He seemed to be encircled by swelling forms and
+sleek, fat faces, which ever and ever protested against his own
+martyrlike scragginess and sallow, discontented visage. To him the
+markets were like the stomach of the shopkeeping classes, the stomach
+of all the folks of average rectitude puffing itself out, rejoicing,
+glistening in the sunshine, and declaring that everything was for the
+best, since peaceable people had never before grown so beautifully
+fat. As these thoughts passed through his mind Florent clenched his
+fists, and felt ready for a struggle, more irritated now by the
+thought of his exile than he had been when he first returned to
+France. Hatred resumed entire possession of him. He often let his pen
+drop and became absorbed in dreams. The dying fire cast a bright glow
+upon his face; the lamp burned smokily, and the chaffinch fell asleep
+again on one leg, with its head tucked under its wing.
+
+Sometimes Auguste, on coming upstairs at eleven o'clock and seeing the
+light shining under the door, would knock, before going to bed.
+Florent admitted him with some impatience. The assistant sat down in
+front of the fire, speaking but little, and never saying why he had
+come. His eyes would all the time remain fixed upon the photograph of
+himself and Augustine in their Sunday finery. Florent came to the
+conclusion that the young man took a pleasure in visiting the room for
+the simple reason that it had been occupied by his sweetheart; and one
+evening he asked him with a smile if he had guessed rightly.
+
+"Well, perhaps it is so," replied Auguste, very much surprised at the
+discovery which he himself now made of the reasons which actuated him.
+"I'd really never thought of that before. I came to see you without
+knowing why. But if I were to tell Augustine, how she'd laugh!"
+
+Whenever he showed himself at all loquacious, his one eternal theme
+was the pork shop which he was going to set up with Augustine at
+Plaisance. He seemed so perfectly assured of arranging his life in
+accordance with his desires, that Florent grew to feel a sort of
+respect for him, mingled with irritation. After all, the young fellow
+was very resolute and energetic, in spite of his seeming stupidity. He
+made straight for the goal he had in view, and would doubtless reach
+it in perfect assurance and happiness. On the evenings of these visits
+from the apprentice, Florent could not settle down to work again; he
+went off to bed in a discontented mood, and did not recover his
+equilibrium till the thought passed through his mind, "Why, that
+Auguste is a perfect animal!"
+
+Every month he went to Clamart to see Monsieur Verlaque. These visits
+were almost a delight to him. The poor man still lingered on, to the
+great astonishment of Gavard, who had not expected him to last for
+more than six months. Every time that Florent went to see him Verlaque
+would declare that he was feeling better, and was most anxious to
+resume his work again. But the days glided by, and he had serious
+relapses. Florent would sit by his bedside, chat about the fish
+market, and do what he could to enliven him. He deposited on the
+pedestal table the fifty francs which he surrendered to him each
+month; and the old inspector, though the payment had been agreed upon,
+invariably protested, and seemed disinclined to take the money. Then
+they would begin to speak of something else, and the coins remained
+lying on the table. When Florent went away, Madame Verlaque always
+accompanied him to the street door. She was a gentle little woman, of
+a very tearful disposition. Her one topic of conversation was the
+expense necessitated by her husband's illness, the costliness of
+chicken broth, butcher's meat, Bordeaux wine, medicine, and doctors'
+fees. Her doleful conversation greatly embarrassed Florent, and on the
+first few occasions he did not understand the drift of it. But at
+last, as the poor woman seemed always in a state of tears, and kept
+saying how happy and comfortable they had been when they had enjoyed
+the full salary of eighteen hundred francs a year, he timidly offered
+to make her a private allowance, to be kept secret from her husband.
+This offer, however, she declined, inconsistently declaring that the
+fifty francs were sufficient. But in the course of the month she
+frequently wrote to Florent, calling him their saviour. Her
+handwriting was small and fine, yet she would contrive to fill three
+pages of letter paper with humble, flowing sentences entreating the
+loan of ten francs; and this she at last did so regularly that
+wellnigh the whole of Florent's hundred and fifty francs found its way
+to the Verlaques. The husband was probably unaware of it; however, the
+wife gratefully kissed Florent's hands. This charity afforded him the
+greatest pleasure, and he concealed it as though it were some
+forbidden selfish indulgence.
+
+"That rascal Verlaque is making a fool of you," Gavard would sometimes
+say. "He's coddling himself up finely now that you are doing the work
+and paying him an income."
+
+At last one day Florent replied:
+
+"Oh, we've arranged matters together. I'm only to give him twenty-five
+francs a month in future."
+
+As a matter of fact, Florent had but little need of money. The Quenus
+continued to provide him with board and lodging; and the few francs
+which he kept by him sufficed to pay for the refreshment he took in
+the evening at Monsieur Lebigre's. His life had gradually assumed all
+the regularity of clockwork. He worked in his bedroom, continued to
+teach little Muche twice a week from eight to nine o'clock, devoted an
+evening to Lisa, to avoid offending her, and spent the rest of his
+spare time in the little "cabinet" with Gavard and his friends.
+
+When he went to the Mehudins' there was a touch of tutorial stiffness
+in his gentle demeanour. He was pleased with the old house in the Rue
+Pirouette. On the ground floor he passed through the faint odours
+pervading the premises of the purveyor of cooked vegetables. Big pans
+of boiled spinach and sorrel stood cooling in the little backyard.
+Then he ascended the winding staircase, greasy and dark, with worn and
+bulging steps which sloped in a disquieting manner. The Mehudins
+occupied the whole of the second floor. Even when they had attained to
+comfortable circumstances the old mother had always declined to move
+into fresh quarters, despite all the supplications of her daughters,
+who dreamt of living in a new house in a fine broad street. But on
+this point the old woman was not to be moved; she had lived there, she
+said, and meant to die there. She contented herself, moreover, with a
+dark little closet, leaving the largest rooms to Claire and La
+Normande. The later, with the authority of the elder born, had taken
+possession of the room that overlooked the street; it was the best and
+largest of the suite. Claire was so much annoyed at her sister's
+action in the matter that she refused to occupy the adjoining room,
+whose window overlooked the yard, and obstinately insisted on sleeping
+on the other side of the landing, in a sort of garret, which she did
+not even have whitewashed. However, she had her own key, and so was
+independent; directly anything happened to displease her she locked
+herself up in her own quarters.
+
+As a rule, when Florent arrived the Mehudins were just finishing their
+dinner. Muche sprang to his neck, and for a moment the young man
+remained seated with the lad chattering between his legs. Then, when
+the oilcloth cover had been wiped, the lesson began on a corner of the
+table. The beautiful Norman gave Florent a cordial welcome. She
+generally began to knit or mend some linen, and would draw her chair
+up to the table and work by the light of the same lamp as the others;
+and she frequently put down her needle to listen to the lesson, which
+filled her with surprise. She soon began to feel warm esteem for this
+man who seemed so clever, who, in speaking to the little one, showed
+himself as gentle as a woman, and manifested angelic patience in again
+and again repeating the same instructions. She no longer considered
+him at all plain, but even felt somewhat jealous of beautiful Lisa.
+And then she drew her chair still nearer, and gazed at Florent with an
+embarrassing smile.
+
+"But you are jogging my elbow, mother, and I can't write," Muche
+exclaimed angrily. "There! see what a blot you've made me make! Get
+further away, do!"
+
+La Normande now gradually began to say a good many unpleasant things
+about beautiful Lisa. She pretended that the latter concealed her real
+age, that she laced her stays so tightly that she nearly suffocated
+herself, and that if she came down of a morning looking so trim and
+neat, without a single hair out of place, it must be because she
+looked perfectly hideous when in dishabille. Then La Normande would
+raise her arm a little, and say that there was no need for her to wear
+any stays to cramp and deform her figure. At these times the lessons
+would be interrupted, and Muche gazed with interest at his mother as
+she raised her arms. Florent listened to her, and even laughed,
+thinking to himself that women were very odd creatures. The rivalry
+between the beautiful Norman and beautiful Lisa amused him.
+
+Muche, however, managed to finish his page of writing. Florent, who
+was a good penman, set him copies in large hand and round hand on
+slips of paper. The words he chose were very long and took up the
+whole line, and he evinced a marked partiality for such expressions as
+"tyrannically," "liberticide," "unconstitutional," and
+"revolutionary." At times also he made the boy copy such sentences as
+these: "The day of justice will surely come"; "The suffering of the
+just man is the condemnation of the oppressor"; "When the hour
+strikes, the guilty shall fall." In preparing these copy slips he was,
+indeed, influenced by the ideas which haunted his brain; he would for
+the time become quite oblivious of Muche, the beautiful Norman, and
+all his surroundings. The lad would have copied Rousseau's "Contrat
+Social" had he been told to do so; and thus, drawing each letter in
+turn, he filled page after page with lines of "tyrannically" and
+"unconstitutional."
+
+As long as the tutor remained there, old Madame Mehudin kept fidgeting
+round the table, muttering to herself. She still harboured terrible
+rancour against Florent; and asserted that it was folly to make the
+lad work in that way at a time when children should be in bed. She
+would certainly have turned that "spindle-shanks" out of the house, if
+the beautiful Norman, after a stormy scene, had not bluntly told her
+that she would go to live elsewhere if she were not allowed to receive
+whom she chose. However, the pair began quarrelling again on the
+subject every evening.
+
+"You may say what you like," exclaimed the old woman; "but he's got
+treacherous eyes. And, besides, I'm always suspicious of those skinny
+people. A skinny man's capable of anything. I've never come across a
+decent one yet. That one's as flat as a board. And he's got such an
+ugly face, too! Though I'm sixty-five and more, I'd precious soon send
+him about his business if he came a-courting of me!"
+
+She said this because she had a shrewd idea of how matters were likely
+to turn out. And then she went on to speak in laudatory terms of
+Monsieur Lebigre, who, indeed, paid the greatest attention to the
+beautiful Norman. Apart from the handsome dowry which he imagined she
+would bring with her, he considered that she would be a magnificent
+acquisition to his counter. The old woman never missed an opportunity
+to sound his praises; there was no lankiness, at any rate, about him,
+said she; he was stout and strong, with a pair of calves which would
+have done honour even to one of the Emperor's footmen.
+
+However, La Normande shrugged her shoulders and snappishly replied:
+"What do I care whether he's stout or not? I don't want him or
+anybody. And besides, I shall do as I please."
+
+Then, if the old woman became too pointed in her remarks, the other
+added: "It's no business of yours, and besides, it isn't true. Hold
+your tongue and don't worry me." And thereupon she would go off into
+her room, banging the door behind her. Florent, however, had a yet
+more bitter enemy than Madame Mehudin in the house. As soon as ever he
+arrived there, Claire would get up without a word, take a candle, and
+go off to her own room on the other side of the landing; and she could
+be heard locking her door in a burst of sullen anger. One evening when
+her sister asked the tutor to dinner, she prepared her own food on the
+landing, and ate it in her bedroom; and now and again she secluded
+herself so closely that nothing was seen of her for a week at a time.
+She usually retained her appearance of soft lissomness, but
+periodically had a fit of iron rigidity, when her eyes blazed from
+under her pale tawny locks like those of a distrustful wild animal.
+Old Mother Mehudin, fancying that she might relieve herself in her
+company, only made her furious by speaking to her of Florent; and
+thereupon the old woman, in her exasperation, told everyone that she
+would have gone off and left her daughters to themselves had she not
+been afraid of their devouring each other if they remained alone
+together.
+
+As Florent went away one evening, he passed in front of Claire's door,
+which was standing wide open. He saw the girl look at him, and turn
+very red. Her hostile demeanour annoyed him; and it was only the
+timidity which he felt in the presence of women that restrained him
+from seeking an explanation of her conduct. On this particular evening
+he would certainly have addressed her if he had not detected
+Mademoiselle Saget's pale face peering over the balustrade of the
+upper landing. So he went his way, but had not taken a dozen steps
+before Claire's door was closed behind him with such violence as to
+shake the whole staircase. It was after this that Mademoiselle Saget,
+eager to propagate slander, went about repeating everywhere that
+Madame Quenu's cousin was "carrying on" most dreadfully with both the
+Mehudin girls.
+
+Florent, however, gave very little thought to these two handsome young
+women. His usual manner towards them was that of a man who has but
+little success with the sex. Certainly he had come to entertain a
+feeling of genuine friendship for La Normande, who really displayed a
+very good heart when her impetuous temper did not run away with her.
+But he never went any further than this. Moreover, the queenly
+proportions of her robust figure filled him with a kind of alarm; and
+of an evening, whenever she drew her chair up to the lamp and bent
+forward as though to look at Muche's copy-book, he drew in his own
+sharp bony elbows and shrunken shoulders as if realising what a
+pitiful specimen of humanity he was by the side of that buxom, hardy
+creature so full of the life of ripe womanhood. Moreover, there was
+another reason why he recoiled from her. The smells of the markets
+distressed him; on finishing his duties of an evening he would have
+liked to escape from the fishy odour amidst which his days were spent;
+but, alas! beautiful though La Normande was, this odour seemed to
+adhere to her silky skin. She had tried every sort of aromatic oil,
+and bathed freely; but as soon as the freshening influence of the bath
+was over her blood again impregnated her skin with the faint odour of
+salmon, the musky perfume of smelts, and the pungent scent of herrings
+and skate. Her skirts, too, as she moved about, exhaled these fishy
+smells, and she walked as though amidst an atmosphere redolent of
+slimy seaweed. With her tall, goddess-like figure, her purity of form,
+and transparency of complexion she resembled some lovely antique
+marble that had rolled about in the depths of the sea and had been
+brought to land in some fisherman's net.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget, however, swore by all her gods that Florent was
+the young woman's lover. According to her account, indeed, he courted
+both the sisters. She had quarrelled with the beautiful Norman about a
+ten-sou dab; and ever since this falling-out she had manifested warm
+friendship for handsome Lisa. By this means she hoped the sooner to
+arrive at a solution of what she called the Quenus' mystery. Florent
+still continued to elude her curiosity, and she told her friends that
+she felt like a body without a soul, though she was careful not to
+reveal what was troubling her so grievously. A young girl infatuated
+with a hopeless passion could not have been in more distress than this
+terrible old woman at finding herself unable to solve the mystery of
+the Quenus' cousin. She was constantly playing the spy on Florent,
+following him about, and watching him, in a burning rage at her
+failure to satisfy her rampant curiosity. Now that he had begun to
+visit the Mehudins she was for ever haunting the stairs and landings.
+She soon discovered that handsome Lisa was much annoyed at Florent
+visiting "those women," and accordingly she called at the pork shop
+every morning with a budget of information. She went in shrivelled and
+shrunk by the frosty air, and, resting her hands on the heating-pan to
+warm them, remained in front of the counter buying nothing, but
+repeating in her shrill voice: "He was with them again yesterday; he
+seems to live there now. I heard La Normande call him 'my dear' on the
+staircase."
+
+She indulged like this in all sorts of lies in order to remain in the
+shop and continue warming her hands for a little longer. On the
+morning after the evening when she had heard Claire close her door
+behind Florent, she spun out her story for a good half hour, inventing
+all sorts of mendacious and abominable particulars.
+
+Lisa, who had assumed a look of contemptuous scorn, said but little,
+simply encouraging Mademoiselle Saget's gossip by her silence. At
+last, however, she interrupted her. "No, no," she said; "I can't
+really listen to all that. Is it possible that there can be such
+women?"
+
+Thereupon Mademoiselle Saget told Lisa that unfortunately all women
+were not so well conducted as herself. And then she pretended to find
+all sorts of excuses for Florent: it wasn't his fault; he was no doubt
+a bachelor; these women had very likely inveigled him in their snares.
+In this way she hinted questions without openly asking them. But Lisa
+preserved silence with respect to her cousin, merely shrugging her
+shoulders and compressing her lips. When Mademoiselle Saget at last
+went away, the mistress of the shop glanced with disgust at the cover
+of the heating-pan, the glistening metal of which had been tarnished
+by the impression of the old woman's little hands.
+
+"Augustine," she cried, "bring a duster, and wipe the cover of the
+heating-pan. It's quite filthy!"
+
+The rivalry between the beautiful Lisa and the beautiful Norman now
+became formidable. The beautiful Norman flattered herself that she had
+carried a lover off from her enemy; and the beautiful Lisa was
+indignant with the hussy who, by luring the sly cousin to her home,
+would surely end by compromising them all. The natural temperament of
+each woman manifested itself in the hostilities which ensued. The one
+remained calm and scornful, like a lady who holds up her skirts to
+keep them from being soiled by the mud; while the other, much less
+subject to shame, displayed insolent gaiety and swaggered along the
+footways with the airs of a duellist seeking a cause of quarrel. Each
+of their skirmishes would be the talk of the fish market for the whole
+day. When the beautiful Norman saw the beautiful Lisa standing at the
+door of her shop, she would go out of her way in order to pass her,
+and brush against her with her apron; and then the angry glances of
+the two rivals crossed like rapiers, with the rapid flash and thrust
+of pointed steel. When the beautiful Lisa, on the other hand, went to
+the fish market, she assumed an expression of disgust on approaching
+the beautiful Norman's stall. And then she proceeded to purchase some
+big fish--a turbot or a salmon--of a neighbouring dealer, spreading
+her money out on the marble slab as she did so, for she had noticed
+that this seemed to have a painful effect upon the "hussy," who ceased
+laughing at the sight. To hear the two rivals speak, anyone would have
+supposed that the fish and pork they sold were quite unfit for food.
+However, their principal engagements took place when the beautiful
+Norman was seated at her stall and the beautiful Lisa at her counter,
+and they glowered blackly at each other across the Rue Rambuteau. They
+sat in state in their big white aprons, decked out with showy toilets
+and jewels, and the battle between them would commence early in the
+morning.
+
+"Hallo, the fat woman's got up!" the beautiful Norman would exclaim.
+"She ties herself up as tightly as her sausages! Ah, she's got
+Saturday's collar on again, and she's still wearing that poplin
+dress!"
+
+At the same moment, on the opposite side of the street, beautiful Lisa
+was saying to her shop girl: "Just look at that creature staring at us
+over yonder, Augustine! She's getting quite deformed by the life she
+leads. Do you see her earrings? She's wearing those big drops of hers,
+isn't she? It makes one feel ashamed to see a girl like that with
+brilliants."
+
+All complaisance, Augustine echoed her mistress's words.
+
+When either of them was able to display a new ornament it was like
+scoring a victory--the other one almost choked with spleen. Every day
+they would scrutinise and count each other's customers, and manifest
+the greatest annoyance if they thought that the "big thing over the
+way" was doing the better business. Then they spied out what each had
+for lunch. Each knew what the other ate, and even watched to see how
+she digested it. In the afternoon, while the one sat amidst her cooked
+meats and the other amidst her fish, they posed and gave themselves
+airs, as though they were queens of beauty. It was then that the
+victory of the day was decided. The beautiful Norman embroidered,
+selecting the most delicate and difficult work, and this aroused
+Lisa's exasperation.
+
+"Ah!" she said, speaking of her rival, "she had far better mend her
+boy's stockings. He's running about quite barefooted. Just look at
+that fine lady, with her red hands stinking of fish!"
+
+For her part, Lisa usually knitted.
+
+"She's still at that same sock," La Normande would say, as she watched
+her. "She eats so much that she goes to sleep over her work. I pity
+her poor husband if he's waiting for those socks to keep his feet
+warm!"
+
+They would sit glowering at each other with this implacable hostility
+until evening, taking note of every customer, and displaying such keen
+eyesight that they detected the smallest details of each other's dress
+and person when other women declared that they could see nothing at
+such a distance. Mademoiselle Saget expressed the highest admiration
+for Madame Quenu's wonderful sight when she one day detected a scratch
+on the fish-girl's left cheek. With eyes like those, said the old
+maid, one might even see through a door. However, the victory often
+remained undecided when night fell; sometimes one or other of the
+rivals was temporarily crushed, but she took her revenge on the
+morrow. Several people of the neighbourhood actually laid wagers on
+these contests, some backing the beautiful Lisa and others the
+beautiful Norman.
+
+At last they ended by forbidding their children to speak to one
+another. Pauline and Muche had formerly been good friends,
+notwithstanding the girl's stiff petticoats and lady-like demeanour,
+and the lad's tattered appearance, coarse language, and rough manners.
+They had at times played together at horses on the broad footway in
+front of the fish market, Pauline always being the horse and Muche the
+driver. One day, however, when the boy came in all simplicity to seek
+his playmate, Lisa turned him out of the house, declaring that he was
+a dirty little street arab.
+
+"One can't tell what may happen with children who have been so
+shockingly brought up," she observed.
+
+"Yes, indeed; you are quite right," replied Mademoiselle Saget, who
+happened to be present.
+
+When Muche, who was barely seven years old, came in tears to his
+mother to tell her of what had happened, La Normande broke out into a
+terrible passion. At the first moment she felt a strong inclination to
+rush over to the Quenu-Gradelles' and smash everything in their shop.
+But eventually she contented herself with giving Muche a whipping.
+
+"If ever I catch you going there again," she cried, boiling over with
+anger, "you'll get it hot from me, I can tell you!"
+
+Florent, however, was the real victim of the two women. It was he, in
+truth, who had set them by the ears, and it was on his account that
+they were fighting each other. Ever since he had appeared upon the
+scene things had been going from bad to worse. He compromised and
+disturbed and embittered all these people, who had previously lived in
+such sleek peace and harmony. The beautiful Norman felt inclined to
+claw him when he lingered too long with the Quenus, and it was chiefly
+from an impulse of hostile rivalry that she desired to win him to
+herself. The beautiful Lisa, on her side, maintained a cold judicial
+bearing, and although extremely annoyed, forced herself to silence
+whenever she saw Florent leaving the pork shop to go to the Rue
+Pirouette.
+
+Still, there was now much less cordiality than formerly round the
+Quenus' dinner-table in the evening. The clean, prim dining-room
+seemed to have assumed an aspect of chilling severity. Florent divined
+a reproach, a sort of condemnation in the bright oak, the polished
+lamp, and the new matting. He scarcely dared to eat for fear of
+letting crumbs fall on the floor or soiling his plate. There was a
+guileless simplicity about him which prevented him from seeing how the
+land really lay. He still praised Lisa's affectionate kindliness on
+all sides; and outwardly, indeed, she did continue to treat him with
+all gentleness.
+
+"It is very strange," she said to him one day with a smile, as though
+she were joking; "although you don't eat at all badly now, you don't
+get fatter. Your food doesn't seem to do you any good."
+
+At this Quenu laughed aloud, and tapping his brother's stomach,
+protested that the whole contents of the pork shop might pass through
+it without depositing a layer of fat as thick as a two-sou piece.
+However, Lisa's insistence on this particular subject was instinct
+with that same suspicious dislike for fleshless men which Madame
+Mehudin manifested more outspokenly; and behind it all there was
+likewise a veiled allusion to the disorderly life which she imagined
+Florent was leading. She never, however, spoke a word to him about La
+Normande. Quenu had attempted a joke on the subject one evening, but
+Lisa had received it so icily that the good man had not ventured to
+refer to the matter again. They would remain seated at table for a few
+moments after dessert, and Florent, who had noticed his sister-in-
+law's vexation if ever he went off too soon, tried to find something
+to talk about. On these occasions Lisa would be near him, and
+certainly he did not suffer in her presence from that fishy smell
+which assailed him when he was in the company of La Normande. The
+mistress of the pork shop, on the contrary, exhaled an odour of fat
+and rich meats. Moreover, not a thrill of life stirred her tight-
+fitting bodice; she was all massiveness and all sedateness. Gavard
+once said to Florent in confidence that Madame Quenu was no doubt
+handsome, but that for his part he did not admire such armour-plated
+women.
+
+Lisa avoided talking to Quenu of Florent. She habitually prided
+herself on her patience, and considered, too, that it would not be
+proper to cause any unpleasantness between the brothers, unless some
+peremptory reason for her interference should arise. As she said, she
+could put up with a good deal, but, of course, she must not be tried
+too far. She had now reached the period of courteous tolerance,
+wearing an expressionless face, affecting perfect indifference and
+strict politeness, and carefully avoiding everything which might seem
+to hint that Florent was boarding and lodging with them without their
+receiving the slightest payment from him. Not, indeed, that she would
+have accepted any payment from him, she was above all that; still he
+might, at any rate, she thought, have lunched away from the house.
+
+"We never seem to be alone now," she remarked to Quenu one day. "If
+there is anything we want to say to one another we have to wait till
+we go upstairs at night."
+
+And then, one night when they were in bed, she said to him: "Your
+brother earns a hundred and fifty francs a month, doesn't he? Well,
+it's strange he can't put a trifle by to buy himself some more linen.
+I've been obliged to give him three more of your old shirts."
+
+"Oh, that doesn't matter," Quenu replied. "Florent's not hard to
+please; and we must let him keep his money for himself."
+
+"Oh, yes, of course," said Lisa, without pressing the matter further.
+"I didn't mention it for that reason. Whether he spends his money well
+or ill, it isn't our business."
+
+In her own mind she felt quite sure that he wasted his salary at the
+Mehudins'.
+
+Only on one occasion did she break through her habitual calmness of
+demeanour, the quiet reserve which was the result of both natural
+temperament and preconceived design. The beautiful Norman had made
+Florent a present of a magnificent salmon. Feeling very much
+embarrassed with the fish, and not daring to refuse it, he brought it
+to Lisa.
+
+"You can make a pasty of it," he said ingenuously.
+
+Lisa looked at him sternly with whitening lips. Then, striving to
+restrain her anger, she exclaimed: "Do you think that we are short of
+food? Thank God, we've got quite enough to eat here! Take it back!"
+
+"Well, at any rate, cook it for me," replied Florent, amazed by her
+anger; "I'll eat it myself."
+
+At this she burst out furiously.
+
+"The house isn't an inn! Tell those who gave you the fish to cook it
+for you! I won't have my pans tainted and infected! Take it back
+again! Do you hear?"
+
+If he had not gone away with it, she would certainly have seized it
+and hurled it into the street. Florent took it to Monsieur Lebigre's,
+where Rose was ordered to make a pasty of it; and one evening the
+pasty was eaten in the little "cabinet," Gavard, who was present,
+"standing" some oysters for the occasion. Florent now gradually came
+more and more frequently to Monsieur Lebigre's, till at last he was
+constantly to be met in the little private room. He there found an
+atmosphere of heated excitement in which his political feverishness
+could pulsate freely. At times, now, when he shut himself up in his
+garret to work, the quiet simplicity of the little room irritated him,
+his theoretical search for liberty proved quite insufficient, and it
+became necessary that he should go downstairs, sally out, and seek
+satisfaction in the trenchant axioms of Charvet and the wild outbursts
+of Logre. During the first few evenings the clamour and chatter had
+made him feel ill at ease; he was then quite conscious of their utter
+emptiness, but he felt a need of drowning his thoughts, of goading
+himself on to some extreme resolution which might calm his mental
+disquietude. The atmosphere of the little room, reeking with the odour
+of spirits and warm with tobacco smoke, intoxicated him and filled him
+with peculiar beatitude, prompting a kind of self-surrender which made
+him willing to acquiesce in the wildest ideas. He grew attached to
+those he met there, and looked for them and awaited their coming with
+a pleasure which increased with habit. Robine's mild, bearded
+countenance, Clemence's serious profile, Charvet's fleshless pallor,
+Logre's hump, Gavard, Alexandre, and Lacaille, all entered into his
+life, and assumed a larger and larger place in it. He took quite a
+sensual enjoyment in these meetings. When his fingers closed round the
+brass knob on the door of the little cabinet it seemed to be animated
+with life, to warm him, and turn of its own accord. Had he grasped the
+supple wrist of a woman he could not have felt a more thrilling
+emotion.
+
+To tell the truth, very serious things took place in that little room.
+One evening, Logre, after indulging in wilder outbursts than usual,
+banged his fist upon the table, declaring that if they were men they
+would make a clean sweep of the Government. And he added that it was
+necessary they should come to an understanding without further delay,
+if they desired to be fully prepared when the time for action arrived.
+Then they all bent their heads together, discussed the matter in lower
+tones, and decided to form a little "group," which should be ready for
+whatever might happen. From that day forward Gavard flattered himself
+that he was a member of a secret society, and was engaged in a
+conspiracy. The little circle received no new members, but Logre
+promised to put it into communication with other associations with
+which he was acquainted; and then, as soon as they held all Paris in
+their grasp, they would rise and make the Tuileries' people dance. A
+series of endless discussions, renewed during several months, then
+began--discussions on questions of organisation, on questions of ways
+and means, on questions of strategy, and of the form of the future
+Government. As soon as Rose had brought Clemence's grog, Charvet's and
+Robine's beer, the coffee for Logre, Gavard, and Florent, and the
+liqueur glasses of brandy for Lacaille and Alexandre, the door of the
+cabinet was carefully fastened, and the debate began.
+
+Charvet and Florent were naturally those whose utterances were
+listened to with the greatest attention. Gavard had not been able to
+keep his tongue from wagging, but had gradually related the whole
+story of Cayenne; and Florent found himself surrounded by a halo of
+martyrdom. His words were received as though they were the expression
+of indisputable dogmas. One evening, however, the poultry dealer,
+vexed at hearing his friend, who happened to be absent, attacked,
+exclaimed: "Don't say anything against Florent; he's been to Cayenne!"
+
+Charvet was rather annoyed by the advantage which this circumstance
+gave to Florent. "Cayenne, Cayenne," he muttered between his teeth.
+"Ah, well, they were not so badly off there, after all."
+
+Then he attempted to prove that exile was a mere nothing, and that
+real suffering consisted in remaining in one's oppressed country,
+gagged in presence of triumphant despotism. And besides, he urged, it
+wasn't his fault that he hadn't been arrested on the Second of
+December. Next, however, he hinted that those who had allowed
+themselves to be captured were imbeciles. His secret jealousy made him
+a systematic opponent of Florent; and the general discussions always
+ended in a duel between these two, who, while their companions
+listened in silence, would speak against one another for hours at a
+time, without either of them allowing that he was beaten.
+
+One of the favourite subjects of discussion was that of the
+reorganisation of the country which would have to be effected on the
+morrow of their victory.
+
+"We are the conquerors, are we not?" began Gavard.
+
+And, triumph being taken for granted, everyone offered his opinion.
+There were two rival parties. Charvet, who was a disciple of Hebert,
+was supported by Logre and Robine; while Florent, who was always
+absorbed in humanitarian dreams, and called himself a Socialist, was
+backed by Alexandre and Lacaille. As for Gavard, he felt no repugnance
+for violent action; but, as he was often twitted about his fortune
+with no end of sarcastic witticisms which annoyed him, he declared
+himself a Communist.
+
+"We must make a clean sweep of everything," Charvet would curtly say,
+as though he were delivering a blow with a cleaver. "The trunk is
+rotten, and it must come down."
+
+"Yes! yes!" cried Logre, standing up that he might look taller, and
+making the partition shake with the excited motion of his hump.
+"Everything will be levelled to the ground; take my word for it. After
+that we shall see what to do."
+
+Robine signified approval by wagging his beard. His silence seemed
+instinct with delight whenever violent revolutionary propositions were
+made. His eyes assumed a soft ecstatic expression at the mention of
+the guillotine. He half closed them, as though he could see the
+machine, and was filled with pleasant emotion at the sight; and next
+he would gently rub his chin against the knob of his stick, with a
+subdued purr of satisfaction.
+
+"All the same," said Florent, in whose voice a vague touch of sadness
+lingered, "if you cut down the tree it will be necessary to preserve
+some seed. For my part, I think that the tree ought to be preserved,
+so that we may graft new life on it. The political revolution, you
+know, has already taken place; to-day we have got to think of the
+labourer, the working man. Our movement must be altogether a social
+one. I defy you to reject the claims of the people. They are weary of
+waiting, and are determined to have their share of happiness."
+
+These words aroused Alexandre's enthusiasm. With a beaming, radiant
+face he declared that this was true, that the people were weary of
+waiting.
+
+"And we will have our share," added Lacaille, with a more menacing
+expression. "All the revolutions that have taken place have been for
+the good of the middle classes. We've had quite enough of that sort of
+thing, and the next one shall be for our benefit."
+
+From this moment disagreement set in. Gavard offered to make a
+division of his property, but Logre declined, asserting that he cared
+nothing for money. Then Charvet gradually overcame the tumult, till at
+last he alone was heard speaking.
+
+"The selfishness of the different classes does more than anything else
+to uphold tyranny," said he. "It is wrong of the people to display
+egotism. If they assist us they shall have their share. But why should
+I fight for the working man if the working man won't fight for me?
+Moreover, that is not the question at present. Ten years of
+revolutionary dictatorship will be necessary to accustom a nation like
+France to the fitting enjoyment of liberty."
+
+"All the more so as the working man is not ripe for it, and requires
+to be directed," said Clemence bluntly.
+
+She but seldom spoke. This tall, serious looking girl, alone among so
+many men, listened to all the political chatter with a learnedly
+critical air. She leaned back against the partition, and every now and
+then sipped her grog whilst gazing at the speakers with frowning brows
+or inflated nostrils, thus silently signifying her approval or
+disapproval, and making it quite clear that she held decided opinions
+upon the most complicated matters. At times she would roll a
+cigarette, and puff slender whiffs of smoke from the corners of her
+mouth, whilst lending increased attention to what was being debated.
+It was as though she were presiding over the discussion, and would
+award the prize to the victor when it was finished. She certainly
+considered that it became her, as a woman, to display some reserve in
+her opinions, and to remain calm whilst the men grew more and more
+excited. Now and then, however, in the heat of the debate, she would
+let a word or a phrase escape her and "clench the matter" even for
+Charvet himself, as Gavard said. In her heart she believed herself the
+superior of all these fellows. The only one of them for whom she felt
+any respect was Robine, and she would thoughtfully contemplate his
+silent bearing.
+
+Neither Florent nor any of the others paid any special attention to
+Clemence. They treated her just as though she were a man, shaking
+hands with her so roughly as almost to dislocate her arms. One evening
+Florent witnessed the periodical settlement of accounts between her
+and Charvet. She had just received her pay, and Charvet wanted to
+borrow ten francs from her; but she first of all insisted that they
+must reckon up how matters stood between them. They lived together in
+a voluntary partnership, each having complete control of his or her
+earnings, and strictly paying his or her expenses. By so doing, said
+they, they were under no obligations to one another, but retained
+entire freedom. Rent, food, washing, and amusements, were all noted
+down and added up. That evening, when the accounts had been verified,
+Clemence proved to Charvet that he already owed her five francs. Then
+she handed him the other ten which he wished to borrow, and exclaimed:
+"Recollect that you now owe me fifteen. I shall expect you to repay me
+on the fifth, when you get paid for teaching little Lehudier."
+
+When Rose was summoned to receive payment for the "drinks," each
+produced the few coppers required to discharge his or her liability.
+Charvet laughingly called Clemence an aristocrat because she drank
+grog. She wanted to humiliate him, said he, and make him feel that he
+earned less than she did, which, as it happened, was the fact. Beneath
+his laugh, however, there was a feeling of bitterness that the girl
+should be better circumstanced than himself, for, in spite of his
+theory of the equality of the sexes, this lowered him.
+
+Although the discussions in the little room had virtually no result,
+they served to exercise the speakers' lungs. A tremendous hubbub
+proceeded from the sanctum, and the panes of frosted glass vibrated
+like drum-skins. Sometimes the uproar became so great that Rose, while
+languidly serving some blouse-wearing customer in the shop, would turn
+her head uneasily.
+
+"Why, they're surely fighting together in there," the customer would
+say, as he put his glass down on the zinc-covered counter, and wiped
+his mouth with the back of his hand.
+
+"Oh, there's no fear of that," Monsieur Lebigre tranquilly replied.
+"It's only some gentlemen talking together."
+
+Monsieur Lebigre, indeed, although very strict with his other
+customers, allowed the politicians to shout as loudly as they pleased,
+and never made the least remark on the subject. He would sit for hours
+together on the bench behind the counter, with his big head lolling
+drowsily against the mirror, whilst he watched Rose uncorking the
+bottles and giving a wipe here and there with her duster. And in spite
+of the somniferous effects of the wine fumes and the warm streaming
+gaslight, he would keep his ears open to the sounds proceeding from
+the little room. At times, when the voices grew noisier than usual, he
+got up from his seat and went to lean against the partition; and
+occasionally he even pushed the door open, and went inside and sat
+down there for a few minutes, giving Gavard a friendly slap on the
+thigh. And then he would nod approval of everything that was said. The
+poultry dealer asserted that although friend Lebigre hadn't the stuff
+of an orator in him, they might safely reckon on him when the "shindy"
+came.
+
+One morning, however, at the markets, when a tremendous row broke out
+between Rose and one of the fish-wives, through the former
+accidentally knocking over a basket of herrings, Florent heard Rose's
+employer spoken of as a "dirty spy" in the pay of the police. And
+after he had succeeded in restoring peace, all sorts of stories about
+Monsieur Lebigre were poured into his ears. Yes, the wine seller was
+in the pay of the police, the fish-wives said; all the neighbourhood
+knew it. Before Mademoiselle Saget had begun to deal with him she had
+once met him entering the Prefecture to make his report. It was
+asserted, too, that he was a money-monger, a usurer, and lent petty
+sums by the day to costermongers, and let out barrows to them,
+exacting a scandalous rate of interest in return. Florent was greatly
+disturbed by all this, and felt it his duty to repeat it that evening
+to his fellow politicians. The latter, however, only shrugged their
+shoulders, and laughed at his uneasiness.
+
+"Poor Florent!" Charvet exclaimed sarcastically; "he imagines the
+whole police force is on his track, just because he happens to have
+been sent to Cayenne!"
+
+Gavard gave his word of honour that Lebigre was perfectly staunch and
+true, while Logre, for his part, manifested extreme irritation. He
+fumed and declared that it would be quite impossible for them to get
+on if everyone was to be accused of being a police spy; for his own
+part, he would rather stay at home, and have nothing more to do with
+politics. Why, hadn't people even dared to say that he, Logre himself,
+who had fought in '48 and '51, and had twice narrowly escaped
+transportation, was a spy as well? As he shouted this out, he thrust
+his jaws forward, and glared at the others as though he would have
+liked to ram the conviction that he had nothing to do with the police
+down their throats. At the sight of his furious glances his companions
+made gestures of protestation. However, Lacaille, on hearing Monsieur
+Lebigre accused of usury, silently lowered his head.
+
+The incident was forgotten in the discussions which ensued. Since
+Logre had suggested a conspiracy, Monsieur Lebigre had grasped the
+hands of the frequenters of the little room with more vigor than ever.
+Their custom, to tell the truth, was of but small value to him, for
+they never ordered more than one "drink" apiece. They drained the last
+drops just as they rose to leave, having been careful to allow a
+little to remain in their glasses, even during their most heated
+arguments. In this wise the one "shout" lasted throughout the evening.
+They shivered as they turned out into the cold dampness of the night,
+and for a moment or two remained standing on the footway with dazzled
+eyes and buzzing ears, as though surprised by the dark silence of the
+street. Rose, meanwhile, fastened the shutters behind them. Then,
+quite exhausted, at a loss for another word they shook hands,
+separated, and went their different ways, still mentally continuing
+the discussion of the evening, and regretting that they could not ram
+their particular theories down each other's throats. Robine walked
+away, with his bent back bobbing up and down, in the direction of the
+Rue Rambuteau; whilst Charvet and Clemence went off through the
+markets on their return to the Luxembourg quarter, their heels
+sounding on the flag-stones in military fashion, whilst they still
+discussed some question of politics or philosophy, walking along side
+by side, but never arm-in-arm.
+
+The conspiracy ripened very slowly. At the commencement of the summer
+the plotters had got no further than agreeing that it was necessary a
+stroke should be attempted. Florent, who had at first looked upon the
+whole business with a kind of distrust, had now, however, come to
+believe in the possibility of a revolutionary movement. He took up the
+matter seriously; making notes, and preparing plans in writing, while
+the others still did nothing but talk. For his part, he began to
+concentrate his whole life in the one persistent idea which made his
+brain throb night after night; and this to such a degree that he at
+last took his brother Quenu with him to Monsieur Lebigre's, as though
+such a course were quite natural. Certainly he had no thought of doing
+anything improper. He still looked upon Quenu as in some degree his
+pupil, and may even have considered it his duty to start him on the
+proper path. Quenu was an absolute novice in politics, but after
+spending five or six evenings in the little room he found himself
+quite in accord with the others. When Lisa was not present he
+manifested much docility, a sort of respect for his brother's
+opinions. But the greatest charm of the affair for him was really the
+mild dissipation of leaving his shop and shutting himself up in the
+little room where the others shouted so loudly, and where Clemence's
+presence, in his opinion, gave a tinge of rakishness and romance to
+the proceedings. He now made all haste with his chitterlings in order
+that he might get away as early as possible, anxious to lose not a
+single word of the discussions, which seemed to him to be very
+brilliant, though he was not always able to follow them. The beautiful
+Lisa did not fail to notice his hurry to be gone, but as yet she
+refrained from saying anything. When Florent took him off, she simply
+went to the door-step, and watched them enter Monsieur Lebigre's, her
+face paling somewhat, and a severe expression coming into her eyes.
+
+One evening, as Mademoiselle Saget was peering out of her garret
+casement, she recognised Quenu's shadow on the frosted glass of the
+"cabinet" window facing the Rue Pirouette. She had found her casement
+an excellent post of observation, as it overlooked that milky
+transparency, on which the gaslight threw silhouettes of the
+politicians, with noses suddenly appearing and disappearing, gaping
+jaws abruptly springing into sight and then vanishing, and huge arms,
+apparently destitute of bodies, waving hither and thither. This
+extraordinary jumble of detached limbs, these silent but frantic
+profiles, bore witness to the heated discussions that went on in the
+little room, and kept the old maid peering from behind her muslin
+curtains until the transparency turned black. She shrewdly suspected
+some "bit of trickery," as she phrased it. By continual watching she
+had come to recognise the different shadows by their hands and hair
+and clothes. As she gazed upon the chaos of clenched fists, angry
+heads, and swaying shoulders, which seemed to have become detached
+from their trunks and to roll about one atop of the other, she would
+exclaim unhesitatingly, "Ah, there's that big booby of a cousin;
+there's that miserly old Gavard; and there's the hunchback; and
+there's that maypole of a Clemence!" Then, when the action of the
+shadow-play became more pronounced, and they all seemed to have lost
+control over themselves, she felt an irresistible impulse to go
+downstairs to try to find out what was happening. Thus she now made a
+point of buying her black-currant syrup at nights, pretending that she
+felt out-of-sorts in the morning, and was obliged to take a sip as
+soon as ever she was out of bed. On the evening when she noticed
+Quenu's massive head shadowed on the transparency in close proximity
+to Charvet's fist, she made her appearance at Monsieur Lebigre's in a
+breathless condition. To gain more time, she made Rose rinse out her
+little bottle for her; however, she was about to return to her room
+when she heard the pork butcher exclaim with a sort of childish
+candour:
+
+"No, indeed, we'll stand for it no longer! We'll make a clean sweep of
+all those humbugging Deputies and Ministers! Yes, we'll send the whole
+lot packing."
+
+Eight o'clock had scarcely struck on the following morning when
+Mademoiselle Saget was already at the pork shop. She found Madame
+Lecoeur and La Sarriette there, dipping their noses into the heating-
+pan, and buying hot sausages for breakfast. As the old maid had
+managed to draw them into her quarrel with La Normande with respect to
+the ten-sou dab, they had at once made friends again with Lisa, and
+they now had nothing but contempt for the handsome fish-girl, and
+assailed her and her sister as good-for-nothing hussies, whose only
+aim was to fleece men of their money. This opinion had been inspired
+by the assertions of Mademoiselle Saget, who had declared to Madame
+Lecoeur that Florent had induced one of the two girls to coquette with
+Gavard, and that the four of them had indulged in the wildest
+dissipation at Barratte's--of course, at the poultry dealer's expense.
+From the effects of this impudent story Madame Lecoeur had not yet
+recovered; she wore a doleful appearance, and her eyes were quite
+yellow with spleen.
+
+That morning, however, it was for Madame Quenu that the old maid had a
+shock in store. She looked round the counter, and then in her most
+gentle voice remarked:
+
+"I saw Monsieur Quenu last night. They seem to enjoy themselves
+immensely in that little room at Lebigre's, if one may judge from the
+noise they make."
+
+Lisa had turned her head towards the street, listening very
+attentively, but apparently unwilling to show it. The old maid paused,
+hoping that one of the others would question her; and then, in a lower
+tone, she added: "They had a woman with them. Oh, I don't mean
+Monsieur Quenu, of course! I didn't say that; I don't know--"
+
+"It must be Clemence," interrupted La Sarriette; "a big scraggy
+creature who gives herself all sorts of airs just because she went to
+boarding school. She lives with a threadbare usher. I've seen them
+together; they always look as though they were taking each other off
+to the police station."
+
+"Oh, yes; I know," replied the old maid, who, indeed, knew everything
+about Charvet and Clemence, and whose only purpose was to alarm Lisa.
+
+The mistress of the pork shop, however, never flinched. She seemed to
+be absorbed in watching something of great interest in the market
+yonder. Accordingly the old maid had recourse to stronger measures. "I
+think," said she, addressing herself to Madame Lecoeur, "that you
+ought to advise your brother-in-law to be careful. Last night they
+were shouting out the most shocking things in that little room. Men
+really seem to lose their heads over politics. If anyone had heard
+them, it might have been a very serious matter for them."
+
+"Oh! Gavard will go his own way," sighed Madame Lecoeur. "It only
+wanted this to fill my cup. I shall die of anxiety, I am sure, if he
+ever gets arrested."
+
+As she spoke, a gleam shot from her dim eyes. La Sarriette, however,
+laughed and wagged her little face, bright with the freshness of the
+morning air.
+
+"You should hear what Jules says of those who speak against the
+Empire," she remarked. "They ought all to be thrown into the Seine, he
+told me; for it seems there isn't a single respectable person amongst
+them."
+
+"Oh! there's no harm done, of course, so long as only people like
+myself hear their foolish talk," resumed Mademoiselle Saget. "I'd
+rather cut my hand off, you know, than make mischief. Last night now,
+for instance, Monsieur Quenu was saying----"
+
+She again paused. Lisa had started slightly.
+
+"Monsieur Quenu was saying that the Ministers and Deputies and all who
+are in power ought to be shot."
+
+At this Lisa turned sharply, her face quite white and her hands
+clenched beneath her apron.
+
+"Quenu said that?" she curtly asked.
+
+"Yes, indeed, and several other similar things that I can't recollect
+now. I heard him myself. But don't distress yourself like that, Madame
+Quenu. You know very well that I sha'n't breathe a word. I'm quite old
+enough to know what might harm a man if it came out. Oh, no; it will
+go no further."
+
+Lisa had recovered her equanimity. She took a pride in the happy
+peacefulness of her home; she would not acknowledge that there had
+ever been the slightest difference between herself and her husband.
+And so now she shrugged her shoulders and said with a smile: "Oh, it's
+all a pack of foolish nonsense."
+
+When the three others were in the street together they agreed that
+handsome Lisa had pulled a very doleful face; and they were
+unanimously of opinion that the mysterious goings-on of the cousin,
+the Mehudins, Gavard, and the Quenus would end in trouble. Madame
+Lecoeur inquired what was done to the people who got arrested "for
+politics," but on this point Mademoiselle Saget could not enlighten
+her; she only knew that they were never seen again--no, never. And
+this induced La Sarriette to suggest that perhaps they were thrown
+into the Seine, as Jules had said they ought to be.
+
+Lisa avoided all reference to the subject at breakfast and dinner that
+day; and even in the evening, when Florent and Quenu went off together
+to Monsieur Lebigre's, there was no unwonted severity in her glance.
+On that particular evening, however, the question of framing a
+constitution for the future came under discussion, and it was one
+o'clock in the morning before the politicians could tear themselves
+away from the little room. The shutters had already been fastened, and
+they were obliged to leave by a small door, passing out one at a time
+with bent backs. Quenu returned home with an uneasy conscience. He
+opened the three or four doors on his way to bed as gently as
+possible, walking on tip-toe and stretching out his hands as he passed
+through the sitting-room, to avoid a collision with any of the
+furniture. The whole house seemed to be asleep. When he reached the
+bedroom, he was annoyed to find that Lisa had not extinguished the
+candle, which was burning with a tall, mournful flame in the midst of
+the deep silence. As Quenu took off his shoes, and put them down in a
+corner, the time-piece struck half past one with such a clear, ringing
+sound that he turned in alarm, almost frightened to move, and gazing
+with an expression of angry reproach at the shining gilded Gutenberg
+standing there, with his finger on a book. Lisa's head was buried in
+her pillow, and Quenu could only see her back; but he divined that she
+was merely feigning sleep, and her conduct in turning her back upon
+him was so instinct with reproach that he felt sorely ill at ease. At
+last he slipped beneath the bed-clothes, blew out the candle, and lay
+perfectly still. He could have sworn that his wife was awake, though
+she did not speak to him; and presently he fell asleep, feeling
+intensely miserable, and lacking the courage to say good night.
+
+He slept till late, and when he awoke he found himself sprawling in
+the middle of the bed with the eider-down quilt up to his chin, whilst
+Lisa sat in front of the secretaire, arranging some papers. His
+slumber had been so heavy that he had not heard her rise. However, he
+now took courage, and spoke to her from the depths of the alcove: "Why
+didn't you wake me? What are you doing there?"
+
+"I'm sorting the papers in these drawers," she replied in her usual
+tone of voice.
+
+Quenu felt relieved. But Lisa added: "One never knows what may happen.
+If the police were to come--"
+
+"What! the police?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, the police; for you're mixing yourself up with politics
+now."
+
+At this Quenu sat up in bed, quite dazed and confounded by such a
+violent and unexpected attack.
+
+"I mix myself up with politics! I mix myself up with politics!" he
+repeated. "It's no concern of the police. I've nothing to do with any
+compromising matters."
+
+"No," replied Lisa, shrugging her shoulders; "you merely talk about
+shooting everybody."
+
+"I! I!"
+
+"Yes. And you bawl it out in a public-house! Mademoiselle Saget heard
+you. All the neighbourhood knows by this time that you are a Red
+Republican!"
+
+Quenu fell back in bed again. He was not perfectly awake as yet.
+Lisa's words resounded in his ears as though he already heard the
+heavy tramp of gendarmes at the bedroom door. He looked at her as she
+sat there, with her hair already arranged, her figure tightly
+imprisoned in her stays, her whole appearance the same as it was on
+any other morning; and he felt more astonished than ever that she
+should be so neat and prim under such extraordinary circumstances.
+
+"I leave you absolutely free, you know," she continued, as she went on
+arranging the papers. "I don't want to wear the breeches, as the
+saying goes. You are the master, and you are at liberty to endanger
+your position, compromise our credit, and ruin our business."
+
+Then, as Quenu tried to protest, she silenced him with a gesture. "No,
+no; don't say anything," she continued. "This is no quarrel, and I am
+not even asking an explanation from you. But if you had consulted me,
+and we had talked the matter over together, I might have intervened.
+Ah! it's a great mistake to imagine that women understand nothing
+about politics. Shall I tell you what my politics are?"
+
+She had risen from her seat whilst speaking, and was now walking to
+and fro between the bed and the window, wiping as she went some specks
+of dust from the bright mahogany of the mirrored wardrobe and the
+dressing-table.
+
+"My politics are the politics of honest folks," said she. "I'm
+grateful to the Government when business is prosperous, when I can eat
+my meals in peace and comfort, and can sleep at nights without being
+awakened by the firing of guns. There were pretty times in '48, were
+there not? You remember our uncle Gradelle, the worthy man, showing us
+his books for that year? He lost more than six thousand francs. Now
+that we have got the Empire, however, everything prospers. We sell our
+goods readily enough. You can't deny it. Well, then, what is it that
+you want? How will you be better off when you have shot everybody?"
+
+She took her stand in front of the little night-table, crossed her
+arms over her breast, and fixed her eyes upon Quenu, who had shuffled
+himself beneath the bed-clothes, almost out of sight. He attempted to
+explain what it was that his friends wanted, but he got quite confused
+in his endeavours to summarise Florent's and Charvet's political and
+social systems; and could only talk about the disregard shown to
+principles, the accession of the democracy to power, and the
+regeneration of society, in such a strange tangled way that Lisa
+shrugged her shoulders, quite unable to understand him. At last,
+however, he extricated himself from his difficulties by declaring that
+the Empire was the reign of licentiousness, swindling finance, and
+highway robbery. And, recalling an expression of Logre's he added: "We
+are the prey of a band of adventurers, who are pillaging, violating,
+and assassinating France. We'll have no more of them."
+
+Lisa, however, still shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Well, and is that all you have got to say?" she asked with perfect
+coolness. "What has all that got to do with me? Even supposing it were
+true, what then? Have I ever advised you to practise dishonest
+courses? Have I ever prompted you to dishonour your acceptances, or
+cheat your customers, or pile up money by fraudulent practices?
+Really, you'll end by making me quite angry! We are honest folks, and
+we don't pillage or assassinate anybody. That's quite sufficient. What
+other folks do is no concern of ours. If they choose to be rogues it's
+their affair."
+
+She looked quite majestic and triumphant; and again pacing the room,
+drawing herself up to her full height, she resumed: "A pretty notion
+it is that people are to let their business go to rack and ruin just
+to please those who are penniless. For my part, I'm in favour of
+making hay while the sun shines, and supporting a Government which
+promotes trade. If it does do dishonourable things, I prefer to know
+nothing about them. I know that I myself commit none, and that no one
+in the neighbourhood can point a finger at me. It's only fools who go
+tilting at windmills. At the time of the last elections, you remember,
+Gavard said that the Emperor's candidate had been bankrupt, and was
+mixed up in all sorts of scandalous matters. Well, perhaps that was
+true, I don't deny it; but all the same, you acted wisely in voting
+for him, for all that was not in question; you were not asked to lend
+the man any money or to transact any business with him, but merely to
+show the Government that you were pleased with the prosperity of the
+pork trade."
+
+At this moment Quenu called to mind a sentence of Charvet's, asserting
+that "the bloated bourgeois, the sleek shopkeepers, who backed up that
+Government of universal gormandising, ought to be hurled into the
+sewers before all others, for it was owing to them and their
+gluttonous egotism that tyranny had succeeded in mastering and preying
+upon the nation." He was trying to complete this piece of eloquence
+when Lisa, carried off by her indignation, cut him short.
+
+"Don't talk such stuff! My conscience doesn't reproach me with
+anything. I don't owe a copper to anybody; I'm not mixed up in any
+dishonest business; I buy and sell good sound stuff; and I charge no
+more than others do. What you say may perhaps apply to people like our
+cousins, the Saccards. They pretend to be even ignorant that I am in
+Paris; but I am prouder than they are, and I don't care a rap for
+their millions. It's said that Saccard speculates in condemned
+buildings, and cheats and robs everybody. I'm not surprised to hear
+it, for he was always that way inclined. He loves money just for the
+sake of wallowing in it, and then tossing it out of his windows, like
+the imbecile he is. I can understand people attacking men of his
+stamp, who pile up excessive fortunes. For my part, if you care to
+know it, I have but a bad opinion of Saccard. But we--we who live so
+quietly and peaceably, who will need at least fifteen years to put by
+sufficient money to make ourselves comfortably independent, we who
+have no reason to meddle in politics, and whose only aim is to bring
+up our daughter respectably, and to see that our business prospers--
+why you must be joking to talk such stuff about us. We are honest
+folks!"
+
+She came and sat down on the edge of the bed. Quenu was already much
+shaken in his opinions.
+
+"Listen to me, now," she resumed in a more serious voice. "You surely
+don't want to see your own shop pillaged, your cellar emptied, and
+your money taken from you? If these men who meet at Monsieur Lebigre's
+should prove triumphant, do you think that you would then lie as
+comfortably in your bed as you do now? And on going down into the
+kitchen, do you imagine that you would set about making your
+galantines as peacefully as you will presently? No, no, indeed! So why
+do you talk about overthrowing a Government which protects you, and
+enables you to put money by? You have a wife and a daughter, and your
+first duty is towards them. You would be in fault if you imperilled
+their happiness. It is only those who have neither home nor hearth,
+who have nothing to lose, who want to be shooting people. Surely you
+don't want to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for /them/! So stay
+quietly at home, you foolish fellow, sleep comfortably, eat well, make
+money, keep an easy conscience, and leave France to free herself of
+the Empire if the Empire annoys her. France can get on very well
+without /you/."
+
+She laughed her bright melodious laugh as she finished; and Quenu was
+now altogether convinced. Yes, she was right, after all; and she
+looked so charming, he thought, as she sat there on the edge of the
+bed, so trim, although it was so early, so bright, and so fresh in the
+dazzling whiteness of her linen. As he listened to her his eyes fell
+on their portraits hanging on either side of the fireplace. Yes, they
+were certainly honest folks; they had such a respectable, well-to-do
+air in their black clothes and their gilded frames! The bedroom, too,
+looked as though it belonged to people of some account in the world.
+The lace squares seemed to give a dignified appearance to the chairs;
+and the carpet, the curtains, and the vases decorated with painted
+landscapes--all spoke of their exertions to get on in the world and
+their taste for comfort. Thereupon he plunged yet further beneath the
+eider-down quilt, which kept him in a state of pleasant warmth. He
+began to feel that he had risked losing all these things at Monsieur
+Lebigre's--his huge bed, his cosy room, and his business, on which his
+thoughts now dwelt with tender remorse. And from Lisa, from the
+furniture, from all his cosy surroundings, he derived a sense of
+comfort which thrilled him with a delightful, overpowering charm.
+
+"You foolish fellow!" said his wife, seeing that he was now quite
+conquered. "A pretty business it was that you'd embarked upon; but
+you'd have had to reckon with Pauline and me, I can tell you! And now
+don't bother your head any more about the Government. To begin with,
+all Governments are alike, and if we didn't have this one, we should
+have another. A Government is necessary. But the one thing is to be
+able to live on, to spend one's savings in peace and comfort when one
+grows old, and to know that one has gained one's means honestly."
+
+Quenu nodded his head in acquiescence, and tried to commence a
+justification of his conduct.
+
+"It was Gavard--," he began.
+
+But Lisa's face again assumed a serious expression, and she
+interrupted him sharply.
+
+"No, it was not Gavard. I know very well who it was; and it would be a
+great deal better if he would look after his own safety before
+compromising that of others."
+
+"Is it Florent you mean?" Quenu timidly inquired after a pause.
+
+Lisa did not immediately reply. She got up and went back to the
+secretaire, as if trying to restrain herself.
+
+"Yes, it is Florent," she said presently, in incisive tones. "You know
+how patient I am. I would bear almost anything rather than come
+between you and your brother. The tie of relationship is a sacred
+thing. But the cup is filled to overflowing now. Since your brother
+came here things have been constantly getting worse and worse. But
+now, I won't say anything more; it is better that I shouldn't."
+
+There was another pause. Then, as her husband gazed up at the ceiling
+with an air of embarrassment, she continued, with increased violence:
+
+"Really, he seems to ignore all that we have done for him. We have put
+ourselves to great inconvenience for his sake; we have given him
+Augustine's bedroom, and the poor girl sleeps without a murmur in a
+stuffy little closet where she can scarcely breathe. We board and
+lodge him and give him every attention--but no, he takes it all quite
+as a matter of course. He is earning money, but what he does with it
+nobody knows; or, rather, one knows only too well."
+
+"But there's his share of the inheritance, you know," Quenu ventured
+to say, pained at hearing his brother attacked.
+
+Lisa suddenly stiffened herself as though she were stunned, and her
+anger vanished.
+
+"Yes, you are right; there is his share of the inheritance. Here is
+the statement of it, in this drawer. But he refused to take it; you
+remember, you were present, and heard him. That only proves that he is
+a brainless, worthless fellow. If he had had an idea in his head, he
+would have made something out of that money by now. For my own part, I
+should be very glad to get rid of it; it would be a relief to us. I
+have told him so twice, but he won't listen to me. You ought to
+persuade him to take it. Talk to him about it, will you?"
+
+Quenu growled something in reply; and Lisa refrained from pressing the
+point further, being of opinion that she had done all that could be
+expected of her.
+
+"He is not like other men," she resumed. "He's not a comfortable sort
+of person to have in the house. I shouldn't have said this if we
+hadn't got talking on the subject. I don't busy myself about his
+conduct, though it's setting the whole neighbourhood gossiping about
+us. Let him eat and sleep here, and put us about, if he likes; we can
+get over that; but what I won't tolerate is that he should involve us
+in his politics. If he tries to lead you off again, or compromises us
+in the least degree, I shall turn him out of the house without the
+least hesitation. I warn you, and now you understand!"
+
+Florent was doomed. Lisa was making a great effort to restrain
+herself, to prevent the animosity which had long been rankling in her
+heart from flowing forth. But Florent and his ways jarred against her
+every instinct; he wounded her, frightened her, and made her quite
+miserable.
+
+"A man who has made such a discreditable career," she murmured, "who
+has never been able to get a roof of his own over his head! I can very
+well understand his partiality for bullets! He can go and stand in
+their way if he chooses; but let him leave honest folks to their
+families! And then, he isn't pleasant to have about one! He reeks of
+fish in the evening at dinner! It prevents me from eating. He himself
+never lets a mouthful go past him, though it's little better he seems
+to be for it all! He can't even grow decently stout, the wretched
+fellow, to such a degree do his bad instincts prey on him!"
+
+She had stepped up to the window whilst speaking, and now saw Florent
+crossing the Rue Rambuteau on his way to the fish market. There was a
+very large arrival of fish that morning; the tray-like baskets were
+covered with rippling silver, and the auction rooms roared with the
+hubbub of their sales. Lisa kept her eyes on the bony shoulders of her
+brother-in-law as he made his way into the pungent smells of the
+market, stooping beneath the sickening sensation which they brought
+him; and the glance with which she followed his steps was that of a
+woman bent on combat and resolved to be victorious.
+
+When she turned round again, Quenu was getting up. As he sat on the
+edge of the bed in his night-shirt, still warm from the pleasant heat
+of the eider-down quilt and with his feet resting on the soft fluffy
+rug below him, he looked quite pale, quite distressed at the
+misunderstanding between his wife and his brother. Lisa, however, gave
+him one of her sweetest smiles, and he felt deeply touched when she
+handed him his socks.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV
+
+Marjolin had been found in a heap of cabbages at the Market of the
+Innocents. He was sleeping under the shelter of a large white-hearted
+one, a broad leaf of which concealed his rosy childish face It was
+never known what poverty-stricken mother had laid him there. When he
+was found he was already a fine little fellow of two or three years of
+age, very plump and merry, but so backward and dense that he could
+scarcely stammer a few words, and only seemed able to smile. When one
+of the vegetable saleswomen found him lying under the big white
+cabbage she raised such a loud cry of surprise that her neighbours
+rushed up to see what was the matter, while the youngster, still in
+petticoats, and wrapped in a scrap of old blanket, held out his arms
+towards her. He could not tell who his mother was, but opened his eyes
+in wide astonishment as he squeezed against the shoulder of a stout
+tripe dealer who eventually took him up. The whole market busied
+itself about him throughout the day. He soon recovered confidence, ate
+slices of bread and butter, and smiled at all the women. The stout
+tripe dealer kept him for a time, then a neighbour took him; and a
+month later a third woman gave him shelter. When they asked him where
+his mother was, he waved his little hand with a pretty gesture which
+embraced all the women present. He became the adopted child of the
+place, always clinging to the skirts of one or another of the women,
+and always finding a corner of a bed and a share of a meal somewhere.
+Somehow, too, he managed to find clothes, and he even had a copper or
+two at the bottom of his ragged pockets. It was a buxom, ruddy girl
+dealing in medicinal herbs who gave him the name of Marjolin,[*]
+though no one knew why.
+
+[*] Literally "Marjoram."
+
+When Marjolin was nearly four years of age, old Mother Chantemesse
+also happened to find a child, a little girl, lying on the footway of
+the Rue Saint Denis, near the corner of the market. Judging by the
+little one's size, she seemed to be a couple of years old, but she
+could already chatter like a magpie, murdering her words in an
+incessant childish babble. Old Mother Chantemesse after a time
+gathered that her name was Cadine, and that on the previous evening
+her mother had left her sitting on a doorstep, with instructions to
+wait till she returned. The child had fallen asleep there, and did not
+cry. She related that she was beaten at home; and she gladly followed
+Mother Chantemesse, seemingly quite enchanted with that huge square,
+where there were so many people and such piles of vegetables. Mother
+Chantemesse, a retail dealer by trade, was a crusty but very worthy
+woman, approaching her sixtieth year. She was extremely fond of
+children, and had lost three boys of her own when they were mere
+babies. She came to the opinion that the chit she had found "was far
+too wide awake to kick the bucket," and so she adopted her.
+
+One evening, however, as she was going off home with her right hand
+clasping Cadine's, Marjolin came up and unceremoniously caught hold of
+her left hand.
+
+"Nay, my lad," said the old woman, stopping, "the place is filled.
+Have you left your big Therese, then? What a fickle little gadabout
+you are!"
+
+The boy gazed at her with his smiling eyes, without letting go of her
+hand. He looked so pretty with his curly hair that she could not
+resist him. "Well, come along, then, you little scamp," said she;
+"I'll put you to bed as well."
+
+Thus she made her appearance in the Rue au Lard, where she lived, with
+a child clinging to either hand. Marjolin made himself quite at home
+there. When the two children proved too noisy the old woman cuffed
+them, delighted to shout and worry herself, and wash the youngsters,
+and pack them away beneath the blankets. She had fixed them up a
+little bed in an old costermonger's barrow, the wheels and shafts of
+which had disappeared. It was like a big cradle, a trifle hard, but
+retaining a strong scent of the vegetables which it had long kept
+fresh and cool beneath a covering of damp cloths. And there, when four
+years old, Cadine and Marjolin slept locked in each other's arms.
+
+They grew up together, and were always to be seen with their arms
+about one another's waist. At night time old Mother Chantemesse heard
+them prattling softly. Cadine's clear treble went chattering on for
+hours together, while Marjolin listened with occasional expressions of
+astonishment vented in a deeper tone. The girl was a mischievous young
+creature, and concocted all sorts of stories to frighten her
+companion; telling him, for instance, that she had one night seen a
+man, dressed all in white, looking at them and putting out a great red
+tongue, at the foot of the bed. Marjolin quite perspired with terror,
+and anxiously asked for further particulars; but the girl would then
+begin to jeer at him, and end by calling him a big donkey. At other
+times they were not so peaceably disposed, but kicked each other
+beneath the blankets. Cadine would pull up her legs, and try to
+restrain her laughter as Marjolin missed his aim, and sent his feet
+banging against the wall. When this happened, old Madame Chantemesse
+was obliged to get up to put the bed-clothes straight again; and, by
+way of sending the children to sleep, she would administer a box on
+the ear to both of them. For a long time their bed was a sort of
+playground. They carried their toys into it, and munched stolen
+carrots and turnips as they lay side by side. Every morning their
+adopted mother was amazed at the strange things she found in the bed--
+pebbles, leaves, apple cores, and dolls made out of scraps of rags.
+When the very cold weather came, she went off to her work, leaving
+them sleeping there, Cadine's black mop mingling with Marjolin's sunny
+curls, and their mouths so near together that they looked as though
+they were keeping each other warm with their breath.
+
+The room in the Rue au Lard was a big, dilapidated garret, with a
+single window, the panes of which were dimmed by the rain. The
+children would play at hide-and-seek in the tall walnut wardrobe and
+underneath Mother Chantemesse's colossal bed. There were also two or
+three tables in the room, and they crawled under these on all fours.
+They found the place a very charming playground, on account of the dim
+light and the vegetables scattered about in the dark corners. The
+street itself, too, narrow and very quiet, with a broad arcade opening
+into the Rue de la Lingerie, provided them with plenty of
+entertainment. The door of the house was by the side of the arcade; it
+was a low door and could only be opened half way owing to the near
+proximity of the greasy corkscrew staircase. The house, which had a
+projecting pent roof and a bulging front, dark with damp, and
+displaying greenish drain-sinks near the windows of each floor, also
+served as a big toy for the young couple. They spent their mornings
+below in throwing stones up into the drain-sinks, and the stones
+thereupon fell down the pipes with a very merry clatter. In thus
+amusing themselves, however, they managed to break a couple of
+windows, and filled the drains with stones, so that Mother
+Chantemesse, who had lived in the house for three and forty years,
+narrowly escaped being turned out of it.
+
+Cadine and Marjolin then directed their attention to the vans and
+drays and tumbrels which were drawn up in the quiet street. They
+clambered on to the wheels, swung from the dangling chains, and larked
+about amongst the piles of boxes and hampers. Here also were the back
+premises of the commission agents of the Rue de la Poterie--huge,
+gloomy warehouses, each day filled and emptied afresh, and affording a
+constant succession of delightful hiding-places, where the youngsters
+buried themselves amidst the scent of dried fruits, oranges, and fresh
+apples. When they got tired of playing in his way, they went off to
+join old Madame Chantemesse at the Market of the Innocents. They
+arrived there arm-in-arm, laughing gaily as they crossed the streets
+with never the slightest fear of being run over by the endless
+vehicles. They knew the pavement well, and plunged their little legs
+knee-deep in the vegetable refuse without ever slipping. They jeered
+merrily at any porter in heavy boots who, in stepping over an
+artichoke stem, fell sprawling full-length upon the ground. They were
+the rosy-cheeked familiar spirits of those greasy streets. They were
+to be seen everywhere.
+
+On rainy days they walked gravely beneath the shelter of a ragged old
+umbrella, with which Mother Chantemesse had protected her stock-in-
+trade for twenty years, and sticking it up in a corner of the market
+they called it their house. On sunny days they romped to such a degree
+that when evening came they were almost too tired to move. They bathed
+their feet in the fountains, dammed up the gutters, or hid themselves
+beneath piles of vegetables, and remained there prattling to each
+other just as they did in bed at night. People passing some huge
+mountain of cos or cabbage lettuces often heard a muffled sound of
+chatter coming from it. And when the green-stuff was removed, the two
+children would be discovered lying side by side on their couch of
+verdure, their eyes glistening uneasily like those of birds discovered
+in the depth of a thicket. As time went on, Cadine could not get along
+without Marjolin, and Marjolin began to cry when he lost sight of
+Cadine. If they happened to get separated, they sought one another
+behind the petticoats of every stallkeeper in the markets, amongst the
+boxes and under the cabbages. If was, indeed, chiefly under the
+cabbages that they grew up and learned to love each other.
+
+Marjolin was nearly eight years old, and Cadine six, when old Madame
+Chantemesse began to reproach them for their idleness. She told them
+that she would interest them in her business, and pay them a sou a day
+to assist her in paring her vegetables. During the first few days the
+children displayed eager zeal; they squatted down on either side of
+the big flat basket with little knives in their hands, and worked away
+energetically. Mother Chantemesse made a specialty of pared
+vegetables; on her stall, covered with a strip of damp black lining,
+were little lots of potatoes, turnips, carrots, and white onions,
+arranged in pyramids of four--three at the base and one at the apex,
+all quite ready to be popped into the pans of dilatory housewives. She
+also had bundles duly stringed in readiness for the soup-pot--four
+leeks, three carrots, a parsnip, two turnips, and a couple of springs
+of celery. Then there were finely cut vegetables for julienne soup
+laid out on squares of paper, cabbages cut into quarters, and little
+heaps of tomatoes and slices of pumpkin which gleamed like red stars
+and golden crescents amidst the pale hues of the other vegetables.
+Cadine evinced much more dexterity than Marjolin, although she was
+younger. The peelings of the potatoes she pared were so thin that you
+could see through them; she tied up the bundles for the soup-pot so
+artistically that they looked like bouquets; and she had a way of
+making the little heaps she set up, though they contained but three
+carrots or turnips, look like very big ones. The passers-by would stop
+and smile when she called out in her shrill childish voice: "Madame!
+madame! come and try me! Each little pile for two sous."
+
+She had her regular customers, and her little piles and bundles were
+widely known. Old Mother Chantemesse, seated between the two children,
+would indulge in a silent laugh which made her bosom rise almost to
+her chin, at seeing them working away so seriously. She paid them
+their daily sous most faithfully. But they soon began to weary of the
+little heaps and bundles; they were growing up, and began to dream of
+some more lucrative business. Marjolin remained very childish for his
+years, and this irritated Cadine. He had no more brains than a
+cabbage, she often said. And it was, indeed, quite useless for her to
+devise any plan for him to make money; he never earned any. He could
+not even do an errand satisfactorily. The girl, on the other hand, was
+very shrewd. When but eight years old she obtained employment from one
+of those women who sit on a bench in the neighbourhood of the markets
+provided with a basket of lemons, and employ a troop of children to go
+about selling them. Carrying the lemons in her hands and offering them
+at two for three sous, Cadine thrust them under every woman's nose,
+and ran after every passer-by. Her hands empty, she hastened back for
+a fresh supply. She was paid two sous for every dozen lemons that she
+sold, and on good days she could earn some five or six sous. During
+the following year she hawked caps at nine sous apiece, which proved a
+more profitable business; only she had to keep a sharp look-out, as
+street trading of this kind is forbidden unless one be licensed.
+However, she scented a policeman at a distance of a hundred yards; and
+the caps forthwith disappeared under her skirts, whilst she began to
+munch an apple with an air of guileless innocence. Then she took to
+selling pastry, cakes, cherry-tarts, gingerbread, and thick yellow
+maize biscuits on wicker trays. Marjolin, however, ate up nearly the
+whole of her stock-in-trade. At last, when she was eleven years old,
+she succeeded in realising a grand idea which had long been worrying
+her. In a couple of months she put by four francs, bought a small
+/hotte/,[*] and then set up as a dealer in birds' food.
+
+[*] A basket carried on the back.--Translator.
+
+It was a big affair. She got up early in the morning and purchased her
+stock of groundsel, millet, and bird-cake from the wholesale dealers.
+Then she set out on her day's work, crossing the river, and
+perambulating the Latin Quarter from the Rue Saint Jacques to the Rue
+Dauphine, and even to the Luxembourg. Marjolin used to accompany her,
+but she would not let him carry the basket. He was only fit to call
+out, she said; and so, in his thick, drawling voice, he would raise
+the cry, "Chickweed for the little birds!"
+
+Then Cadine herself, with her flute-like voice, would start on a
+strange scale of notes ending in a clear, protracted alto, "Chickweed
+for the little birds!"
+
+They each took one side of the road, and looked up in the air as they
+walked along. In those days Marjolin wore a big scarlet waistcoat
+which hung down to his knees; it had belonged to the defunct Monsieur
+Chantemesse, who had been a cab-driver. Cadine for her part wore a
+white and blue check gown, made out of an old tartan of Madame
+Chantemesse's. All the canaries in the garrets of the Latin Quarter
+knew them; and, as they passed along, repeating their cry, each
+echoing the other's voice, every cage poured out a song.
+
+Cadine sold water-cress, too. "Two sous a bunch! Two sous a bunch!"
+And Marjolin went into the shops to offer it for sale. "Fine water-
+cress! Health for the body! Fine fresh water-cress!"
+
+However, the new central markets had just been erected, and the girl
+would stand gazing in ecstacy at the avenue of flower stalls which
+runs through the fruit pavilion. Here on either hand, from end to end,
+big clumps of flowers bloom as in the borders of a garden walk. It is
+a perfect harvest, sweet with perfume, a double hedge of blossoms,
+between which the girls of the neighbourhood love to walk, smiling the
+while, though almost stifled by the heavy perfume. And on the top
+tiers of the stalls are artificial flowers, with paper leaves, in
+which dewdrops are simulated by drops of gum; and memorial wreaths of
+black and white beads rippling with bluish reflections. Cadine's rosy
+nostrils would dilate with feline sensuality; she would linger as long
+as possible in that sweet freshness, and carry as much of the perfume
+away with her as she could. When her hair bobbed under Marjolin's nose
+he would remark that it smelt of pinks. She said that she had given
+over using pomatum; that is was quite sufficient for her to stroll
+through the flower walk in order to scent her hair. Next she began to
+intrigue and scheme with such success that she was engaged by one of
+the stallkeepers. And then Marjolin declared that she smelt sweet from
+head to foot. She lived in the midst of roses, lilacs, wall-flowers,
+and lilies of the valley; and Marjolin would playfully smell at her
+skirts, feign a momentary hesitation, and then exclaim, "Ah, that's
+lily of the valley!" Next he would sniff at her waist and bodice: "Ah,
+that's wall-flowers!" And at her sleeves and wrists: "Ah, that's
+lilac!" And at her neck, and her cheeks and lips: "Ah, but that's
+roses!" he would cry. Cadine used to laugh at him, and call him a
+"silly stupid," and tell him to get away, because he was tickling her
+with the tip of his nose. As she spoke her breath smelt of jasmine.
+She was verily a bouquet, full of warmth and life.
+
+She now got up at four o'clock every morning to assist her mistress in
+her purchases. Each day they bought armfuls of flowers from the
+suburban florists, with bundles of moss, and bundles of fern fronds,
+and periwinkle leaves to garnish the bouquets. Cadine would gaze with
+amazement at the diamonds and Valenciennes worn by the daughters of
+the great gardeners of Montreuil, who came to the markets amidst their
+roses.
+
+On the saints' days of popular observance, such as Saint Mary's, Saint
+Peter's, and Saint Joseph's days, the sale of flowers began at two
+o'clock. More than a hundred thousand francs' worth of cut flowers
+would be sold on the footways, and some of the retail dealers would
+make as much as two hundred francs in a few hours. On days like those
+only Cadine's curly locks peered over the mounds of pansies,
+mignonette, and marguerites. She was quite drowned and lost in the
+flood of flowers. Then she would spend all her time in mounting
+bouquets on bits of rush. In a few weeks she acquired considerable
+skillfulness in her business, and manifested no little originality.
+Her bouquets did not always please everybody, however. Sometimes they
+made one smile, sometimes they alarmed the eyes. Red predominated in
+them, mottled with violent tints of blue, yellow, and violet of a
+barbaric charm. On the mornings when she pinched Marjolin, and teased
+him till she made him cry, she made up fierce-looking bouquets,
+suggestive of her own bad temper, bouquets with strong rough scents
+and glaring irritating colours. On other days, however, when she was
+softened by some thrill of joy or sorrow, her bouquets would assume a
+tone of silvery grey, very soft and subdued, and delicately perfumed.
+
+Then, too, she would set roses, as sanguineous as open hearts, in
+lakes of snow-white pinks; arrange bunches of tawny iris that shot up
+in tufts of flame from foliage that seemed scared by the brilliance of
+the flowers; work elaborate designs, as complicated as those of Smyrna
+rugs, adding flower to flower, as on a canvas; and prepare rippling
+fanlike bouquets spreading out with all the delicacy of lace. Here was
+a cluster of flowers of delicious purity, there a fat nosegay,
+whatever one might dream of for the hand of a marchioness or a fish-
+wife; all the charming quaint fancies, in short, which the brain of a
+sharp-witted child of twelve, budding into womanhood, could devise.
+
+There were only two flowers for which Cadine retained respect; white
+lilac, which by the bundle of eight or ten sprays cost from fifteen to
+twenty francs in the winter time; and camellias, which were still more
+costly, and arrived in boxes of a dozen, lying on beds of moss, and
+covered with cotton wool. She handled these as delicately as though
+they were jewels, holding her breath for fear of dimming their lustre,
+and fastening their short stems to springs of cane with the tenderest
+care. She spoke of them with serious reverence. She told Marjolin one
+day that a speckless white camellia was a very rare and exceptionally
+lovely thing, and, as she was making him admire one, he exclaimed:
+"Yes; it's pretty; but I prefer your neck, you know. It's much more
+soft and transparent than the camellia, and there are some little blue
+and pink veins just like the pencillings on a flower." Then, drawing
+near and sniffing, he murmured: "Ah! you smell of orange blossom
+to-day."
+
+Cadine was self-willed, and did not get on well in the position of a
+servant, so she ended by setting up in business on her own account. As
+she was only thirteen at the time, and could not hope for a big trade
+and a stall in the flower avenue, she took to selling one-sou bunches
+of violets pricked into a bed of moss in an osier tray which she
+carried hanging from her neck. All day long she wandered about the
+markets and their precincts with her little bit of hanging garden. She
+loved this continual stroll, which relieved the numbness of her limbs
+after long hours spent, with bent knees, on a low chair, making
+bouquets. She fastened her violets together with marvellous deftness
+as she walked along. She counted out six or eight flowers, according
+to the season, doubled a sprig of cane in half, added a leaf, twisted
+some damp thread round the whole, and broke off the thread with her
+strong young teeth. The little bunches seemed to spring spontaneously
+from the layer of moss, so rapidly did she stick them into it.
+
+Along the footways, amidst the jostling of the street traffic, her
+nimble fingers were ever flowering though she gave them not a glance,
+but boldly scanned the shops and passers-by. Sometimes she would rest
+in a doorway for a moment; and alongside the gutters, greasy with
+kitchen slops, she sat, as it were a patch of springtime, a
+suggestion of green woods, and purple blossoms. Her flowers still
+betokened her frame of mind, her fits of bad temper and her thrills of
+tenderness. Sometimes they bristled and glowered with anger amidst
+their crumpled leaves; at other times they spoke only of love and
+peacefulness as they smiled in their prim collars. As Cadine passed
+along, she left a sweet perfume behind her; Marjolin followed her
+devoutly. From head to foot she now exhaled but one scent, and the lad
+repeated that she was herself a violet, a great big violet.
+
+"Do you remember the day when we went to Romainville together?" he
+would say; "Romainville, where there are so many violets. The scent
+was just the same. Oh! don't change again--you smell too sweetly."
+
+And she did not change again. This was her last trade. Still, she
+often neglected her osier tray to go rambling about the neighbourhood.
+The building of the central markets--as yet incomplete--provided both
+children with endless opportunities for amusement. They made their way
+into the midst of the work-yards through some gap or other between the
+planks; they descended into the foundations, and climbed up to the
+cast-iron pillars. Every nook, every piece of the framework witnessed
+their games and quarrels; the pavilions grew up under the touch of
+their little hands. From all this arose the affection which they felt
+for the great markets, and which the latter seemed to return. They
+were on familiar terms with that gigantic pile, old friends as they
+were, who had seen each pin and bolt put into place. They felt no fear
+of the huge monster; but slapped it with their childish hands, treated
+it like a good friend, a chum whose presence brought no constraint.
+And the markets seemed to smile at these two light-hearted children,
+whose love was the song, the idyll of their immensity.
+
+Cadine alone now slept at Mother Chantemesse's. The old woman had
+packed Marjolin off to a neighbour's. This made the two children very
+unhappy. Still, they contrived to spend much of their time together.
+In the daytime they would hide themselves away in the warehouses of
+the Rue au Lard, behind piles of apples and cases of oranges; and in
+the evening they would dive into the cellars beneath the poultry
+market, and secret themselves among the huge hampers of feathers which
+stood near the blocks where the poultry was killed. They were quite
+alone there, amidst the strong smell of the poultry, and with never a
+sound but the sudden crowing of some rooster to break upon their
+babble and their laughter. The feathers amidst which they found
+themselves were of all sorts--turkey's feathers, long and black; goose
+quills, white and flexible; the downy plumage of ducks, soft like
+cotton wool; and the ruddy and mottled feathers of fowls, which at the
+faintest breath flew up in a cloud like a swarm of flies buzzing in
+the sun. And then in wintertime there was the purple plumage of the
+pheasants, the ashen grey of the larks, the splotched silk of the
+partridges, quails, and thrushes. And all these feathers freshly
+plucked were still warm and odoriferous, seemingly endowed with life.
+The spot was as cosy as a nest; at times a quiver as of flapping wings
+sped by, and Marjolin and Cadine, nestling amidst all the plumage,
+often imagined that they were being carried aloft by one of those huge
+birds with outspread pinions that one hears of in the fairy tales.
+
+As time went on their childish affection took the inevitable turn.
+Veritable offsprings of Nature, knowing naught of social conventions
+and restraints, they loved one another in all innocence and
+guilelessness. They mated even as the birds of the air mate, even as
+youth and maid mated in primeval times, because such is Nature's law.
+At sixteen Cadine was a dusky town gipsy, greedy and sensual, whilst
+Marjolin, now eighteen, was a tall, strapping fellow, as handsome a
+youth as could be met, but still with his mental faculties quite
+undeveloped. He had lived, indeed, a mere animal life, which had
+strengthened his frame, but left his intellect in a rudimentary state.
+
+When old Madame Chantemesse realised the turn that things were taking
+she wrathfully upbraided Cadine and struck out vigorously at her with
+her broom. But the hussy only laughed and dodged the blows, and then
+hied off to her lover. And gradually the markets became their home,
+their manger, their aviary, where they lived and loved amidst the
+meat, the butter, the vegetables, and the feathers.
+
+They discovered another little paradise in the pavilion where butter,
+eggs, and cheese were sold wholesale. Enormous walls of empty baskets
+were here piled up every morning, and amidst these Cadine and Marjolin
+burrowed and hollowed out a dark lair for themselves. A mere partition
+of osier-work separated them from the market crowd, whose loud voices
+rang out all around them. They often shook with laughter when people,
+without the least suspicion of their presence, stopped to talk
+together a few yards away from them. On these occasions they would
+contrive peepholes, and spy through them, and when cherries were in
+season Cadine tossed the stones in the faces of all the old women who
+passed along--a pastime which amused them the more as the startled old
+crones could never make out whence the hail of cherry-stones had come.
+They also prowled about the depths of the cellars, knowing every
+gloomy corner of them, and contriving to get through the most
+carefully locked gates. One of their favourite amusements was to visit
+the track of the subterranean railway, which had been laid under the
+markets, and which those who planned the latter had intended to
+connect with the different goods' stations of Paris. Sections of this
+railway were laid beneath each of the covered ways, between the
+cellars of each pavilion; the work, indeed, was in such an advanced
+state that turn-tables had been put into position at all the points of
+intersection, and were in readiness for use. After much examination,
+Cadine and Marjolin had at last succeeded in discovering a loose plank
+in the hoarding which enclosed the track, and they had managed to
+convert it into a door, by which they could easily gain access to the
+line. There they were quite shut off from the world, though they could
+hear the continuous rumbling of the street traffic over their heads.
+
+The line stretched through deserted vaults, here and there illumined
+by a glimmer of light filtering through iron gratings, while in
+certain dark corners gas jets were burning. And Cadine and Marjolin
+rambled about as in the secret recesses of some castle of their own,
+secure from all interruption, and rejoicing in the buzzy silence, the
+murky glimmer, and subterranean secrecy, which imparted a touch of
+melodrama to their experiences. All sorts of smells were wafted
+through the hoarding from the neighbouring cellars; the musty smell of
+vegetables, the pungency of fish, the overpowering stench of cheese,
+and the warm reek of poultry.
+
+At other times, on clear nights and fine dawns, they would climb on to
+the roofs, ascending thither by the steep staircases of the turrets at
+the angles of the pavilions. Up above they found fields of leads,
+endless promenades and squares, a stretch of undulating country which
+belonged to them. They rambled round the square roofs of the
+pavilions, followed the course of the long roofs of the covered ways,
+climbed and descended the slopes, and lost themselves in endless
+perambulations of discovery. And when they grew tired of the lower
+levels they ascended still higher, venturing up the iron ladders, on
+which Cadine's skirts flapped like flags. Then they ran along the
+second tier of roofs beneath the open heavens. There was nothing save
+the stars above them. All sorts of sounds rose up from the echoing
+markets, a clattering and rumbling, a vague roar as of a distant
+tempest heard at nighttime. At that height the morning breeze swept
+away the evil smells, the foul breath of the awaking markets. They
+would kiss one another on the edge of the gutterings like sparrows
+frisking on the house-tops. The rising fires of the sun illumined
+their faces with a ruddy glow. Cadine laughed with pleasure at being
+so high up in the air, and her neck shone with iridescent tints like a
+dove's; while Marjolin bent down to look at the street still wrapped
+in gloom, with his hands clutching hold of the leads like the feet of
+a wood-pigeon. When they descended to earth again, joyful from their
+excursion in the fresh air, they would remark to one another that they
+were coming back from the country.
+
+It was in the tripe market that they had made the acquaintance of
+Claude Lantier. They went there every day, impelled thereto by an
+animal taste for blood, the cruel instinct of urchins who find
+amusement in the sight of severed heads. A ruddy stream flowed along
+the gutters round the pavilion; they dipped the tips of their shoes in
+it, and dammed it up with leaves, so as to form large pools of blood.
+They took a strong interest in the arrival of the loads of offal in
+carts which always smelt offensively, despite all the drenchings of
+water they got; they watched the unloading of the bundles of sheep's
+trotters, which were piled up on the ground like filthy paving-stones,
+of the huge stiffened tongues, bleeding at their torn roots, and of
+the massive bell-shaped bullocks' hearts. But the spectacle which,
+above all others, made them quiver with delight was that of the big
+dripping hampers, full of sheep's heads, with greasy horns and black
+muzzles, and strips of woolly skin dangling from bleeding flesh. The
+sight of these conjured up in their minds the idea of some guillotine
+casting into the baskets the heads of countless victims.
+
+They followed the baskets into the depths of the cellar, watching them
+glide down the rails laid over the steps, and listening to the rasping
+noise which the casters of these osier waggons made in their descent.
+Down below there was a scene of exquisite horror. They entered into a
+charnel-house atmosphere, and walked along through murky puddles,
+amidst which every now and then purple eyes seem to be glistening. At
+times the soles of their boots stuck to the ground, at others they
+splashed through the horrible mire, anxious and yet delighted. The
+gas jets burned low, like blinking, bloodshot eyes. Near the water-
+taps, in the pale light falling through the gratings, they came upon
+the blocks; and there they remained in rapture watching the tripe men,
+who, in aprons stiffened by gory splashings, broke the sheep's heads
+one after another with a blow of their mallets. They lingered there
+for hours, waiting till all the baskets were empty, fascinated by the
+crackling of the bones, unable to tear themselves away till all was
+over. Sometimes an attendant passed behind them, cleansing the cellar
+with a hose; floods of water rushed out with a sluice-like roar, but
+although the violence of the discharge actually ate away the surface
+of the flagstones, it was powerless to remove the ruddy stains and
+stench of blood.
+
+Cadine and Marjolin were sure of meeting Claude between four and five
+in the afternoon at the wholesale auction of the bullocks' lights. He
+was always there amidst the tripe dealers' carts backed up against the
+kerb-stones and the blue-bloused, white-aproned men who jostled him
+and deafened his ears by their loud bids. But he never felt their
+elbows; he stood in a sort of ecstatic trance before the huge hanging
+lights, and often told Cadine and Marjolin that there was no finer
+sight to be seen. The lights were of a soft rosy hue, gradually
+deepening and turning at the lower edges to a rich carmine; and Claude
+compared them to watered satin, finding no other term to describe the
+soft silkiness of those flowing lengths of flesh which drooped in
+broad folds like ballet dancers' skirts. He thought, too, of gauze and
+lace allowing a glimpse of pinky skin; and when a ray of sunshine fell
+upon the lights and girdled them with gold an expression of languorous
+rapture came into his eyes, and he felt happier than if he had been
+privileged to contemplate the Greek goddesses in their sovereign
+nudity, or the chatelaines of romance in their brocaded robes.
+
+The artist became a great friend of the two young scapegraces. He
+loved beautiful animals, and such undoubtedly they were. For a long
+time he dreamt of a colossal picture which should represent the loves
+of Cadine and Marjolin in the central markets, amidst the vegetables,
+the fish, and the meat. He would have depicted them seated on some
+couch of food, their arms circling each other's waists, and their lips
+exchanging an idyllic kiss. In this conception he saw a manifesto
+proclaiming the positivism of art--modern art, experimental and
+materialistic. And it seemed to him also that it would be a smart
+satire on the school which wishes every painting to embody an "idea,"
+a slap for the old traditions and all they represented. But during a
+couple of years he began study after study without succeeding in
+giving the particular "note" he desired. In this way he spoilt fifteen
+canvases. His failure filled him with rancour; however, he continued
+to associate with his two models from a sort of hopeless love for his
+abortive picture. When he met them prowling about in the afternoon, he
+often scoured the neighbourhood with them, strolling around with his
+hands in his pockets, and deeply interested in the life of the
+streets.
+
+They all three trudged along together, dragging their heels over the
+footways and monopolising their whole breadth so as to force others to
+step down into the road. With their noses in the air they sniffed in
+the odours of Paris, and could have recognised every corner blindfold
+by the spirituous emanations of the wine shops, the hot puffs that
+came from the bakehouses and confectioners', and the musty odours
+wafted from the fruiterers'. They would make the circuit of the whole
+district. They delighted in passing through the rotunda of the corn
+market, that huge massive stone cage where sacks of flour were piled
+up on every side, and where their footsteps echoed in the silence of
+the resonant roof. They were fond, too, of the little narrow streets
+in the neighbourhood, which had become as deserted, as black, and as
+mournful as though they formed part of an abandoned city. These were
+the Rue Babille, the Rue Sauval, the Rue des Deux Ecus, and the Rue de
+Viarmes, this last pallid from its proximity to the millers' stores,
+and at four o'clock lively by reason of the corn exchange held there.
+It was generally at this point that they started on their round. They
+made their way slowly along the Rue Vauvilliers, glancing as they went
+at the windows of the low eating-houses, and thus reaching the
+miserably narrow Rue des Prouvaires, where Claude blinked his eyes as
+he saw one of the covered ways of the market, at the far end of which,
+framed round by this huge iron nave, appeared a side entrance of St.
+Eustache with its rose and its tiers of arched windows. And then, with
+an air of defiance, he would remark that all the middle ages and the
+Renaissance put together were less mighty than the central markets.
+Afterwards, as they paced the broad new streets, the Rue du Pont Neuf
+and the Rue des Halles, he explained modern life with its wide
+footways, its lofty houses, and its luxurious shops, to the two
+urchins. He predicted, too, the advent of new and truly original art,
+whose approach he could divine, and despair filled him that its
+revelation should seemingly be beyond his own powers.
+
+Cadine and Marjolin, however, preferred the provincial quietness of
+the Rue des Bourdonnais, where one can play at marbles without fear of
+being run over. The girl perked her head affectedly as she passed the
+wholesale glove and hosiery stores, at each door of which bareheaded
+assistants, with their pens stuck in their ears, stood watching her
+with a weary gaze. And she and her lover had yet a stronger preference
+for such bits of olden Paris as still existed: the Rue de la Poterie
+and the Rue de la Lingerie, with their butter and egg and cheese
+dealers; the Rue de la Ferronerie and the Rue de l'Aiguillerie (the
+beautiful streets of far-away times), with their dark narrow shops;
+and especially the Rue Courtalon, a dank, dirty by-way running from
+the Place Sainte Opportune to the Rue Saint Denis, and intersected by
+foul-smelling alleys where they had romped in their younger days. In
+the Rue Saint Denis they entered into the land of dainties; and they
+smiled upon the dried apples, the "Spanishwood," the prunes, and the
+sugar-candy in the windows of the grocers and druggists. Their
+ramblings always set them dreaming of a feast of good things, and
+inspired them with a desire to glut themselves on the contents of the
+windows. To them the district seemed like some huge table, always laid
+with an everlasting dessert into which they longed to plunge their
+fingers.
+
+They devoted but a moment to visiting the other blocks of tumble-down
+old houses, the Rue Pirouette, the Rue de Mondetour, the Rue de la
+Petite Truanderie, and the Rue de la Grande Truanderie, for they took
+little interest in the shops of the dealers in edible snails, cooked
+vegetables, tripe, and drink. In the Rue de la Grand Truanderie,
+however, there was a soap factory, an oasis of sweetness in the midst
+of all the foul odours, and Marjolin was fond of standing outside it
+till some one happened to enter or come out, so that the perfume which
+swept through the doorway might blow full in his face. Then with all
+speed they returned to the Rue Pierre Lescot and the Rue Rambuteau.
+Cadine was extremely fond of salted provisions; she stood in
+admiration before the bundles of red-herrings, the barrels of
+anchovies and capers, and the little casks of gherkins and olives,
+standing on end with wooden spoons inside them. The smell of the
+vinegar titillated her throat; the pungent odour of the rolled cod,
+smoked salmon, bacon and ham, and the sharp acidity of the baskets of
+lemons, made her mouth water longingly. She was also fond of feasting
+her eyes on the boxes of sardines piled up in metallic columns amidst
+the cases and sacks. In the Rue Montorgueil and the Rue Montmartre
+were other tempting-looking groceries and restaurants, from whose
+basements appetising odours were wafted, with glorious shows of game
+and poultry, and preserved-provision shops, which last displayed
+beside their doors open kegs overflowing with yellow sour-krout
+suggestive of old lacework. Then they lingered in the Rue Coquilliere,
+inhaling the odour of truffles from the premises of a notable dealer
+in comestibles, which threw so strong a perfume into the street that
+Cadine and Marjolin closed their eyes and imagined they were
+swallowing all kinds of delicious things. These perfumes, however,
+distressed Claude. They made him realise the emptiness of his stomach,
+he said; and, leaving the "two animals" to feast on the odour of the
+truffles--the most penetrating odour to be found in all the
+neighbourhood--he went off again to the corn market by way of the Rue
+Oblin, studying on his road the old women who sold green-stuff in the
+doorways and the displays of cheap pottery spread out on the foot-
+pavements.
+
+Such were their rambles in common; but when Cadine set out alone with
+her bunches of violets she often went farther afield, making it a
+point to visit certain shops for which she had a particular
+partiality. She had an especial weakness for the Taboureau bakery
+establishment, one of the windows of which was exclusively devoted to
+pastry. She would follow the Rue Turbigo and retrace her steps a dozen
+times in order to pass again and again before the almond cakes, the
+/savarins/, the St. Honore tarts, the fruit tarts, and the various
+dishes containing bunlike /babas/ redolent of rum, eclairs combining
+the finger biscuit with chocolate, and /choux a la crème/, little
+rounds of pastry overflowing with whipped white of egg. The glass jars
+full of dry biscuits, macaroons, and /madeleines/ also made her mouth
+water; and the bright shop with its big mirrors, its marble slabs, its
+gilding, its bread-bins of ornamental ironwork, and its second window
+in which long glistening loaves were displayed slantwise, with one end
+resting on a crystal shelf whilst above they were upheld by a brass
+rod, was so warm and odoriferous of baked dough that her features
+expanded with pleasure when, yielding to temptation, she went in to
+buy a /brioche/ for two sous.
+
+Another shop, one in front of the Square des Innocents, also filled
+her with gluttonous inquisitiveness, a fever of longing desire. This
+shop made a specialty of forcemeat pasties. In addition to the
+ordinary ones there were pasties of pike and pasties of truffled /foie
+gras/; and the girl would gaze yearningly at them, saying to herself
+that she would really have to eat one some day.
+
+Cadine also had her moments of vanity and coquetry. When these fits
+were on her, she bought herself in imagination some of the magnificent
+dresses displayed in the windows of the "Fabriques de France" which
+made the Pointe Saint Eustache gaudy with their pieces of bright stuff
+hanging from the first floor to the footway and flapping in the
+breeze. Somewhat incommoded by the flat basket hanging before her,
+amidst the crowd of market women in dirty aprons gazing at future
+Sunday dresses, the girl would feel the woollens, flannels, and
+cottons to test the texture and suppleness of the material; and she
+would promise herself a gown of bright-coloured flannelling, flowered
+print, or scarlet poplin. Sometimes even from amongst the pieces
+draped and set off to advantage by the window-dressers she would
+choose some soft sky-blue or apple-green silk, and dream of wearing it
+with pink ribbons. In the evenings she would dazzle herself with the
+displays in the windows of the big jewellers in the Rue Montmartre.
+That terrible street deafened her with its ceaseless flow of vehicles,
+and the streaming crowd never ceased to jostle her; still she did not
+stir, but remained feasting her eyes on the blazing splendour set out
+in the light of the reflecting lamps which hung outside the windows.
+On one side all was white with the bright glitter of silver: watches
+in rows, chains hanging, spoons and forks laid crossways, cups, snuff-
+boxes, napkin-rings, and combs arranged on shelves. The silver
+thimbles, dotting a porcelain stand covered with a glass shade, had an
+especial attraction for her. Then on the other side the windows
+glistened with the tawny glow of gold. A cascade of long pendant
+chains descended from above, rippling with ruddy gleams; small ladies'
+watches, with the backs of their cases displayed, sparkled like fallen
+stars; wedding rings clustered round slender rods; bracelets,
+broaches, and other costly ornaments glittered on the black velvet
+linings of their cases; jewelled rings set their stands aglow with
+blue, green, yellow, and violet flamelets; while on every tier of the
+shelves superposed rows of earrings and crosses and lockets hung
+against the crystal like the rich fringes of altar-cloths. The glow of
+this gold illumined the street half way across with a sun-like
+radiance. And Cadine, as she gazed at it, almost fancied that she was
+in presence of something holy, or on the threshold of the Emperor's
+treasure chamber. She would for a long time scrutinise all this show
+of gaudy jewellery, adapted to the taste of the fish-wives, and
+carefully read the large figures on the tickets affixed to each
+article; and eventually she would select for herself a pair of earrings
+--pear-shaped drops of imitation coral hanging from golden roses.
+
+One morning Claude caught her standing in ecstasy before a hair-
+dresser's window in the Rue Saint Honore. She was gazing at the
+display of hair with an expression of intense envy. High up in the
+window was a streaming cascade of long manes, soft wisps, loose
+tresses, frizzy falls, undulating comb-curls, a perfect cataract of
+silky and bristling hair, real and artificial, now in coils of a
+flaming red, now in thick black crops, now in pale golden locks, and
+even in snowy white ones for the coquette of sixty. In cardboard boxes
+down below were cleverly arranged fringes, curling side-ringlets, and
+carefully combed chignons glossy with pomade. And amidst this
+framework, in a sort of shrine beneath the ravelled ends of the
+hanging locks, there revolved the bust of a woman, arrayed in a
+wrapper of cherry-coloured satin fastened between the breasts with a
+brass brooch. The figure wore a lofty bridal coiffure picked out with
+sprigs of orange blossom, and smiled with a dollish smile. Its eyes
+were pale blue; its eyebrows were very stiff and of exaggerated
+length; and its waxen cheeks and shoulders bore evident traces of the
+heat and smoke of the gas. Cadine waited till the revolving figure
+again displayed its smiling face, and as its profile showed more
+distinctly and it slowly went round from left to right she felt
+perfectly happy. Claude, however, was indignant, and, shaking Cadine,
+he asked her what she was doing in front of "that abomination, that
+corpse-like hussy picked up at the Morgue!" He flew into a temper with
+the "dummy's" cadaverous face and shoulders, that disfigurement of the
+beautiful, and remarked that artists painted nothing but that unreal
+type of woman nowadays. Cadine, however, remained unconvinced by his
+oratory, and considered the lady extremely beautiful. Then, resisting
+the attempts of the artist to drag her away by the arm, and scratching
+her black mop in vexation, she pointed to an enormous ruddy tail,
+severed from the quarters of some vigorous mare, and told him she
+would have liked to have a crop of hair like that.
+
+During the long rambles when Claude, Cadine, and Marjolin prowled
+about the neighbourhood of the markets, they saw the iron ribs of the
+giant building at the end of every street. Wherever they turned they
+caught sudden glimpses of it; the horizon was always bounded by it;
+merely the aspect under which it was seen varied. Claude was
+perpetually turning round, and particularly in the Rue Montmartre,
+after passing the church. From that point the markets, seen obliquely
+in the distance, filled him with enthusiasm. A huge arcade, a giant,
+gaping gateway, was open before him; then came the crowding pavilions
+with their lower and upper roofs, their countless Venetian shutters
+and endless blinds, a vision, as it were, of superposed houses and
+palaces; a Babylon of metal of Hindoo delicacy of workmanship,
+intersected by hanging terraces, aerial galleries, and flying bridges
+poised over space. The trio always returned to this city round which
+they strolled, unable to stray more than a hundred yards away. They
+came back to it during the hot afternoons when the Venetian shutters
+were closed and the blinds lowered. In the covered ways all seemed to
+be asleep, the ashy greyness was streaked by yellow bars of sunlight
+falling through the high windows. Only a subdued murmur broke the
+silence; the steps of a few hurrying passers-by resounded on the
+footways; whilst the badge-wearing porters sat in rows on the stone
+ledges at the corners of the pavilions, taking off their boots and
+nursing their aching feet. The quietude was that of a colossus at
+rest, interrupted at times by some cock-crow rising from the cellars
+below.
+
+Claude, Cadine, and Marjolin then often went to see the empty hampers
+piled upon the drays, which came to fetch them every afternoon so that
+they might be sent back to the consignors. There were mountains of
+them, labelled with black letters and figures, in front of the
+salesmen's warehouses in the Rue Berger. The porters arranged them
+symmetrically, tier by tier, on the vehicles. When the pile rose,
+however, to the height of a first floor, the porter who stood below
+balancing the next batch of hampers had to make a spring in order to
+toss them up to his mate, who was perched aloft with arms extended.
+Claude, who delighted in feats of strength and dexterity, would stand
+for hours watching the flight of these masses of osier, and would
+burst into a hearty laugh whenever too vigorous a toss sent them
+flying over the pile into the roadway beyond. He was fond, too, of the
+footways of the Rue Rambuteau and the Rue du Pont Neuf, near the fruit
+market, where the retail dealers congregated. The sight of the
+vegetables displayed in the open air, on trestle-tables covered with
+damp black rags, was full of charm for him. At four in the afternoon
+the whole of this nook of greenery was aglow with sunshine; and Claude
+wandered between the stalls, inspecting the bright-coloured heads of
+the saleswomen with keen artistic relish. The younger ones, with their
+hair in nets, had already lost all freshness of complexion through the
+rough life they led; while the older ones were bent and shrivelled,
+with wrinkled, flaring faces showing under the yellow kerchiefs bound
+round their heads. Cadine and Marjolin refused to accompany him
+hither, as they could perceive old Mother Chantemesse shaking her fist
+at them, in her anger at seeing them prowling about together. He
+joined them again, however, on the opposite footway, where he found a
+splendid subject for a picture in the stallkeepers squatting under
+their huge umbrellas of faded red, blue, and violet, which, mounted
+upon poles, filled the whole market-side with bumps, and showed
+conspicuously against the fiery glow of the sinking sun, whose rays
+faded amidst the carrots and the turnips. One tattered harridan, a
+century old, was sheltering three spare-looking lettuces beneath an
+umbrella of pink silk, shockingly split and stained.
+
+Cadine and Marjolin had struck up an acquaintance with Leon, Quenu's
+apprentice, one day when he was taking a pie to a house in the
+neighbourhood. They saw him cautiously raise the lid of his pan in a
+secluded corner of the Rue de Mondetour, and delicately take out a
+ball of forcemeat. They smiled at the sight, which gave them a very
+high opinion of Leon. And the idea came to Cadine that she might at
+last satisfy one of her most ardent longings. Indeed, the very next
+time that she met the lad with his basket she made herself very
+agreeable, and induced him to offer her a forcemeat ball. But,
+although she laughed and licked her fingers, she experienced some
+disappointment. The forcemeat did not prove nearly so nice as she had
+anticipated. On the other hand, the lad, with his sly, greedy phiz and
+his white garments, which made him look like a girl going to her first
+communion, somewhat took her fancy.
+
+She invited him to a monster lunch which she gave amongst the hampers
+in the auction room at the butter market. The three of them--herself,
+Marjolin, and Leon--completely secluded themselves from the world
+within four walls of osier. The feast was laid out on a large flat
+basket. There were pears, nuts, cream-cheese, shrimps, fried potatoes,
+and radishes. The cheese came from a fruiterer's in the Rue de la
+Cossonnerie, and was a present; and a "frier" of the Rue de la Grande
+Truanderie had given Cadine credit for two sous' worth of potatoes.
+The rest of the feast, the pears, the nuts, the shrimps, and the
+radishes, had been pilfered from different parts of the market. It was
+a delicious treat; and Leon, desirous of returning the hospitality,
+gave a supper in his bedroom at one o'clock in the morning. The bill
+of fare included cold black-pudding, slices of polony, a piece of salt
+pork, some gherkins, and some goose-fat. The Quenu-Gradelles' shop had
+provided everything. And matters did not stop there. Dainty suppers
+alternated with delicate luncheons, and invitation upon invitation.
+Three times a week there were banquets, either amidst the hampers or
+in Leon's garret, where Florent, on the nights when he lay awake,
+could hear a stifled sound of munching and rippling laughter until day
+began to break.
+
+The loves of Cadine and Marjolin now took another turn. The youth
+played the gallant, and just as another might entertain his
+/innamorata/ at a champagne supper /en tete a tete/ in a private room,
+he led Cadine into some quiet corner of the market cellars to munch
+apples or sprigs of celery. One day he stole a red-herring, which they
+devoured with immense enjoyment on the roof of the fish market beside
+the guttering. There was not a single shady nook in the whole place
+where they did not indulge in secret feasts. The district, with its
+rows of open shops full of fruit and cakes and preserves, was no
+longer a closed paradise, in front of which they prowled with greedy,
+covetous appetites. As they passed the shops they now extended their
+hands and pilfered a prune, a few cherries, or a bit of cod. They also
+provisioned themselves at the markets, keeping a sharp look-out as
+they made their way between the stalls, picking up everything that
+fell, and often assisting the fall by a push of their shoulders.
+
+In spite, however, of all the marauding, some terrible scores had to
+be run up with the "frier" of the Rue de la Grand Truanderie. This
+"frier," whose shanty leaned against a tumble-down house, and was
+propped up by heavy joists, green with moss, made a display of boiled
+mussels lying in large earthenware bowls filled to the brim with clear
+water; of dishes of little yellow dabs stiffened by too thick a
+coating of paste; of squares of tripe simmering in a pan; and of
+grilled herrings, black and charred, and so hard that if you tapped
+them they sounded like wood. On certain weeks Cadine owed the frier as
+much as twenty sous, a crushing debt, which required the sale of an
+incalculable number of bunches of violets, for she could count upon no
+assistance from Marjolin. Moreover, she was bound to return Leon's
+hospitalities; and she even felt some little shame at never being able
+to offer him a scrap of meat. He himself had now taken to purloining
+entire hams. As a rule, he stowed everything away under his shirt; and
+at night when he reached his bedroom he drew from his bosom hunks of
+polony, slices of /pate de foie gras/, and bundles of pork rind. They
+had to do without bread, and there was nothing to drink; but no
+matter. One night Marjolin saw Leon kiss Cadine between two mouthfuls;
+however, he only laughed. He could have smashed the little fellow with
+a blow from his fist, but he felt no jealousy in respect of Cadine. He
+treated her simply as a comrade with whom he had chummed for years.
+
+Claude never participated in these feasts. Having caught Cadine one
+day stealing a beet-root from a little hamper lined with hay, he had
+pulled her ears and given her a sound rating. These thieving
+propensities made her perfect as a ne'er-do-well. However, in spite of
+himself, he could not help feeling a sort of admiration for these
+sensual, pilfering, greedy creatures, who preyed upon everything that
+lay about, feasting off the crumbs that fell from the giant's table.
+
+At last Marjolin nominally took service under Gavard, happy in having
+nothing to do except to listen to his master's flow of talk, while
+Cadine still continued to sell violets, quite accustomed by this time
+to old Mother Chantemesse's scoldings. They were still the same
+children as ever, giving way to their instincts and appetites without
+the slightest shame--they were the growth of the slimy pavements of
+the market district, where, even in fine weather, the mud remains
+black and sticky. However, as Cadine walked along the footways,
+mechanically twisting her bunches of violets, she was sometimes
+disturbed by disquieting reveries; and Marjolin, too, suffered from an
+uneasiness which he could not explain. He would occasionally leave the
+girl and miss some ramble or feast in order to go and gaze at Madame
+Quenu through the windows of her pork shop. She was so handsome and
+plump and round that it did him good to look at her. As he stood
+gazing at her, he felt full and satisfied, as though he had just eaten
+or drunk something extremely nice. And when he went off, a sort of
+hunger and thirst to see her again suddenly came upon him. This had
+been going on for a couple of months. At first he had looked at her
+with the respectful glance which he bestowed upon the shop-fronts of
+the grocers and provision dealers; but subsequently, when he and
+Cadine had taken to general pilfering, he began to regard her smooth
+cheeks much as he regarded the barrels of olives and boxes of dried
+apples.
+
+For some time past Marjolin had seen handsome Lisa every day, in the
+morning. She would pass Gavard's stall, and stop for a moment or two
+to chat with the poultry dealer. She now did her marketing herself, so
+that she might be cheated as little as possible, she said. The truth,
+however, was that she wished to make Gavard speak out. In the pork
+shop he was always distrustful, but at his stall he chatted and talked
+with the utmost freedom. Now, Lisa had made up her mind to ascertain
+from him exactly what took place in the little room at Monsieur
+Lebigre's; for she had no great confidence in her secret police
+office, Mademoiselle Saget. In a short time she learnt from the
+incorrigible chatterbox a lot of vague details which very much alarmed
+her. Two days after her explanation with Quenu she returned home from
+the market looking very pale. She beckoned to her husband to follow
+her into the dining-room, and having carefully closed the door she
+said to him: "Is your brother determined to send us to the scaffold,
+then? Why did you conceal from me what you knew?"
+
+Quenu declared that he knew nothing. He even swore a great oath that
+he had not returned to Monsieur Lebigre's, and would never go there
+again.
+
+"You will do well not to do so," replied Lisa, shrugging her
+shoulders, "unless you want to get yourself into a serious scrape.
+Florent is up to some evil trick, I'm certain of it! I have just
+learned quite sufficient to show me where he is going. He's going back
+to Cayenne, do you hear?"
+
+Then, after a pause, she continued in calmer ones: "Oh, the unhappy
+man! He had everything here that he could wish for. He might have
+redeemed his character; he had nothing but good examples before him.
+But no, it is in his blood! He will come to a violent end with his
+politics! I insist upon there being an end to all this! You hear me,
+Quenu? I gave you due warning long ago!"
+
+She spoke the last words very incisively. Quenu bent his head, as if
+awaiting sentence.
+
+"To begin with," continued Lisa, "he shall cease to take his meals
+here. It will be quite sufficient if we give him a bed. He is earning
+money; let him feed himself."
+
+Quenu seemed on the point of protesting, but his wife silenced him by
+adding energetically:
+
+"Make your choice between him and me. If he remains here, I swear to
+you that I will go away, and take my daughter with me. Do you want me
+to tell you the whole truth about him? He is a man capable of
+anything; he has come here to bring discord into our household. But I
+will set things right, you may depend on it. You have your choice
+between him and me; you hear me?"
+
+Then, leaving her husband in silent consternation, she returned to the
+shop, where she served a customer with her usual affable smile. The
+fact was that, having artfully inveigled Gavard into a political
+discussion, the poultry dealer had told her that she would soon see
+how the land lay, that they were going to make a clean sweep of
+everything, and that two determined men like her brother-in-law and
+himself would suffice to set the fire blazing. This was the evil trick
+of which she had spoken to Quenu, some conspiracy to which Gavard was
+always making mysterious allusions with a sniggering grin from which
+he seemingly desired a great deal to be inferred. And in imagination
+Lisa already saw the gendarmes invading the pork shop, gagging
+herself, her husband, and Pauline, and casting them into some
+underground dungeon.
+
+In the evening, at dinner, she evinced an icy frigidity. She made no
+offers to serve Florent, but several times remarked: "It's very
+strange what an amount of bread we've got through lately."
+
+Florent at last understood. He felt that he was being treated like a
+poor relation who is gradually turned out of doors. For the last two
+months Lisa had dressed him in Quenu's old trousers and coats; and, as
+he was as thin as his brother was fat, these ragged garments had a
+most extraordinary appearance upon him. She also turned her oldest
+linen over to him: pocket-handkerchiefs which had been darned a score
+of times, ragged towels, sheets which were only fit to be cut up into
+dusters and dish-cloths, and worn-out shirts, distended by Quenu's
+corpulent figure, and so short that they would have served Florent as
+under-vests. Moreover, he no longer found around him the same good-
+natured kindliness as in the earlier days. The whole household seemed
+to shrug its shoulders after the example set by handsome Lisa. Auguste
+and Augustine turned their backs upon him, and little Pauline, with
+the cruel frankness of childhood, let fall some bitter remarks about
+the stains on his coat and the holes in his shirt. However, during the
+last days he suffered most at table. He scarcely dared to eat, as he
+saw the mother and daughter fix their gaze upon him whenever he cut
+himself a piece of bread. Quenu meantime peered into his plate, to
+avoid having to take any part in what went on.
+
+That which most tortured Florent was his inability to invent a reason
+for leaving the house. During a week he kept on revolving in his mind
+a sentence expressing his resolve to take his meals elsewhere, but
+could not bring himself to utter it. Indeed, this man of tender nature
+lived in such a world of illusions that he feared he might hurt his
+brother and sister-in-law by ceasing to lunch and dine with them. It
+had taken him over two months to detect Lisa's latent hostility; and
+even now he was sometimes inclined to think that he must be mistaken,
+and that she was in reality kindly disposed towards him. Unselfishness
+with him extended to forgetfulness of his requirements; it was no
+longer a virtue, but utter indifference to self, an absolute
+obliteration of personality. Even when he recognised that he was being
+gradually turned out of the house, his mind never for a moment dwelt
+upon his share in old Gradelle's fortune, or upon the accounts which
+Lisa had offered him. He had already planned out his expenditure for
+the future; reckoning that with what Madame Verlaque still allowed him
+to retain of his salary, and the thirty francs a month which a pupil,
+obtained through La Normande, paid him he would be able to spend
+eighteen sous on his breakfast and twenty-six sous on his dinner.
+This, he thought, would be ample. And so, at last, taking as his
+excuse the lessons which he was giving his new pupil, he emboldened
+himself one morning to pretend that it would be impossible for him in
+future to come to the house at mealtimes. He blushed as he gave
+utterance to this laboriously constructed lie, which had given him so
+much trouble, and continued apologetically:
+
+"You mustn't be offended; the boy only has those hours free. I can
+easily get something to eat, you know; and I will come and have a chat
+with you in the evenings."
+
+Beautiful Lisa maintained her icy reserve, and this increased
+Florent's feeling of trouble. In order to have no cause for self-
+reproach she had been unwilling to send him about his business,
+preferring to wait till he should weary of the situation and go of his
+own accord. Now he was going, and it was a good riddance; and she
+studiously refrained from all show of kindliness for fear it might
+induce him to remain. Quenu, however, showed some signs of emotion,
+and exclaimed: "Don't think of putting yourself about; take your meals
+elsewhere by all means, if it is more convenient. It isn't we who are
+turning you way; you'll at all events dine with us sometimes on
+Sundays, eh?"
+
+Florent hurried off. His heart was very heavy. When he had gone, the
+beautiful Lisa did not venture to reproach her husband for his
+weakness in giving that invitation for Sundays. She had conquered, and
+again breathed freely amongst the light oak of her dining-room, where
+she would have liked to burn some sugar to drive away the odour of
+perverse leanness which seemed to linger about. Moreover, she
+continued to remain on the defensive; and at the end of another week
+she felt more alarmed than ever. She only occasionally saw Florent in
+the evenings, and began to have all sorts of dreadful thoughts,
+imagining that her brother-in-law was constructing some infernal
+machine upstairs in Augustine's bedroom, or else making signals which
+would result in barricades covering the whole neighbourhood. Gavard,
+who had become gloomy, merely nodded or shook his head when she spoke
+to him, and left his stall for days together in Marjolin's charge. The
+beautiful Lisa, however, determined that she would get to the bottom
+of affairs. She knew that Florent had obtained a day's leave, and
+intended to spend it with Claude Lantier, at Madame Francois's, at
+Nanterre. As he would start in the morning, and remain away till
+night, she conceived the idea of inviting Gavard to dinner. He would
+be sure to talk freely, at table, she thought. But throughout the
+morning she was unable to meet the poultry dealer, and so in the
+afternoon she went back again to the markets.
+
+Marjolin was in the stall alone. He used to drowse there for hours,
+recouping himself from the fatigue of his long rambles. He generally
+sat upon one chair with his legs resting upon another, and his head
+leaning against a little dresser. In the wintertime he took a keen
+delight in lolling there and contemplating the display of game; the
+bucks hanging head downwards, with their fore-legs broken and twisted
+round their necks; the larks festooning the stall like garlands; the
+big ruddy hares, the mottled partridges, the water-fowl of a bronze-
+grey hue, the Russian black cocks and hazel hens, which arrived in a
+packing of oat straw and charcoal;[*] and the pheasants, the
+magnificent pheasants, with their scarlet hoods, their stomachers of
+green satin, their mantles of embossed gold, and their flaming tails,
+that trailed like trains of court robes. All this show of plumage
+reminded Marjolin of his rambles in the cellars with Cadine amongst
+the hampers of feathers.
+
+[*] The baskets in which these are sent to Paris are identical with
+    those which in many provinces of Russia serve the /moujiks/ as
+    cradles for their infants.--Translator.
+
+That afternoon the beautiful Lisa found Marjolin in the midst of the
+poultry. It was warm, and whiffs of hot air passed along the narrow
+alleys of the pavilion. She was obliged to stoop before she could see
+him stretched out inside the stall, below the bare flesh of the birds.
+From the hooked bar up above hung fat geese, the hooks sticking in the
+bleeding wounds of their long stiffened necks, while their huge bodies
+bulged out, glowing ruddily beneath their fine down, and, with their
+snowy tails and wings, suggesting nudity encompassed by fine linen.
+And also hanging from the bar, with ears thrown back and feet parted
+as though they were bent on some vigorous leap, were grey rabbits
+whose turned-up tails gleamed whitely, whilst their heads, with sharp
+teeth and dim eyes, laughed with the grin of death. On the counter of
+the stall plucked fowls showed their strained fleshy breasts; pigeons,
+crowded on osier trays, displayed the soft bare skin of innocents;
+ducks, with skin of rougher texture, exhibited their webbed feet; and
+three magnificent turkeys, speckled with blue dots, like freshly-
+shaven chins, slumbered on their backs amidst the black fans of their
+expanded tails. On plates near by were giblets, livers, gizzards,
+necks, feet, and wings; while an oval dish contained a skinned and
+gutted rabbit, with its four legs wide apart, its head bleeding, and
+is kidneys showing through its gashed belly. A streamlet of dark
+blood, after trickling along its back to its tail, had fallen drop by
+drop, staining the whiteness of the dish. Marjolin had not even taken
+the trouble to wipe the block, near which the rabbit's feet were still
+lying. He reclined there with his eyes half closed, encompassed by
+other piles of dead poultry which crowded the shelves of the stall,
+poultry in paper wrappers like bouquets, rows upon rows of protuberant
+breasts and bent legs showing confusedly. And amidst all this mass of
+food, the young fellow's big, fair figure, the flesh of his cheeks,
+hands, and powerful neck covered with ruddy down seemed as soft as
+that of the magnificent turkeys, and as plump as the breasts of the
+fat geese.
+
+When he caught sight of Lisa, he at once sprang up, blushing at having
+been caught sprawling in this way. He always seemed very nervous and
+ill at ease in Madame Quenu's presence; and when she asked him if
+Monsieur Gavard was there, he stammered out: "No, I don't think so. He
+was here a little while ago, but he want away again."
+
+Lisa looked at him, smiling; she had a great liking for him. But
+feeling something warm brush against her hand, which was hanging by
+her side, she raised a little shriek. Some live rabbits were thrusting
+their noses out of a box under the counter of the stall, and sniffing
+at her skirts.
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed with a laugh, "it's your rabbits that are tickling
+me."
+
+Then she stooped and attempted to stroke a white rabbit, which darted
+in alarm into a corner of the box.
+
+"Will Monsieur Gavard be back soon, do you think?" she asked, as she
+again rose erect.
+
+Marjolin once more replied that he did not know; then in a hesitating
+way he continued: "He's very likely gone down into the cellars. He
+told me, I think, that he was going there."
+
+"Well, I think I'll wait for him, then," replied Lisa. "Could you let
+him know that I am here? or I might go down to him, perhaps. Yes,
+that's a good idea; I've been intending to go and have a look at the
+cellars for these last five years. You'll take me down, won't you, and
+explain things to me?"
+
+Marjolin blushed crimson, and, hurrying out of the stall, walked on in
+front of her, leaving the poultry to look after itself. "Of course I
+will," said he. "I'll do anything you wish, Madame Lisa."
+
+When they got down below, the beautiful Lisa felt quite suffocated by
+the dank atmosphere of the cellar. She stood at the bottom step, and
+raised her eyes to look at the vaulted roofing of red and white bricks
+arching slightly between the iron ribs upheld by small columns. What
+made her hesitate more than the gloominess of the place was a warm,
+penetrating odour, the exhalations of large numbers of living
+creatures, which irritated her nostrils and throat.
+
+"What a nasty smell!" she exclaimed. "It must be very unhealthy down
+here."
+
+"It never does me any harm," replied Marjolin in astonishment.
+"There's nothing unpleasant about the smell when you've got accustomed
+to it; and it's very warm and cosy down here in the wintertime."
+
+As Lisa followed him, however, she declared that the strong scent of
+the poultry quite turned her stomach, and that she would certainly not
+be able to eat a fowl for the next two months. All around her, the
+storerooms, the small cabins where the stallkeepers keep their live
+stock, formed regular streets, intersecting each other at right
+angles. There were only a few scattered gas lights, and the little
+alleys seemed wrapped in sleep like the lanes of a village where the
+inhabitants have all gone to bed. Marjolin made Lisa feel the close-
+meshed wiring, stretched on a framework of cast iron; and as she made
+her way along one of the streets she amused herself by reading the
+names of the different tenants, which were inscribed on blue labels.
+
+"Monsieur Gavard's place is quite at the far end," said the young man,
+still walking on.
+
+They turned to the left, and found themselves in a sort of blind
+alley, a dark, gloomy spot where not a ray of light penetrated. Gavard
+was not there.
+
+"Oh, it makes no difference," said Marjolin. "I can show you our birds
+just the same. I have a key of the storeroom."
+
+Lisa followed him into the darkness.
+
+"You don't suppose that I can see your birds in this black oven, do
+you?" she asked, laughing.
+
+Marjolin did not reply at once; but presently he stammered out that
+there was always a candle in the storeroom. He was fumbling about the
+lock, and seemed quite unable to find the keyhole. As Lisa came up to
+help him, she felt a hot breath on her neck; and when the young man
+had at last succeeded in opening the door and lighted the candle, she
+saw that he was trembling.
+
+"You silly fellow!" she exclaimed, "to get yourself into such a state
+just because a door won't open! Why, you're no better than a girl, in
+spite of your big fists!"
+
+She stepped inside the storeroom. Gavard had rented two compartments,
+which he had thrown into one by removing the partition between them.
+In the dirt on the floor wallowed the larger birds--the geese,
+turkeys, and ducks--while up above, on tiers of shelves, were boxes
+with barred fronts containing fowls and rabbits. The grating of the
+storeroom was so coated with dust and cobwebs that it looked as though
+covered with grey blinds. The woodwork down below was rotting, and
+covered with filth. Lisa, however, not wishing to vex Marjolin,
+refrained from any further expression of disgust. She pushed her
+fingers between the bars of the boxes, and began to lament the fate of
+the unhappy fowls, which were so closely huddled together and could
+not even stand upright. Then she stroked a duck with a broken leg
+which was squatting in a corner, and the young man told her that it
+would be killed that very evening, for fear lest it should die during
+the night.
+
+"But what do they do for food?" asked Lisa.
+
+Thereupon he explained to her that poultry would not eat in the dark,
+and that it was necessary to light a candle and wait there till they
+had finished their meal.
+
+"It amuses me to watch them," he continued; "I often stay here with a
+light for hours altogether. You should see how they peck away; and
+when I hide the flame of the candle with my hand they all stand stock-
+still with their necks in the air, just as though the sun had set. It
+is against the rules to leave a lighted candle here and go away. One
+of the dealers, old Mother Palette--you know her, don't you?--nearly
+burned the whole place down the other day. A fowl must have knocked
+the candle over into the straw while she was away."
+
+"A pretty thing, isn't it," said Lisa, "for fowls to insist upon
+having the chandeliers lighted up every time they take a meal?"
+
+This idea made her laugh. Then she came out of the storeroom, wiping
+her feet, and holding up her skirts to keep them from the filth.
+Marjolin blew out the candle and locked the door. Lisa felt rather
+nervous at finding herself in the dark again with this big young
+fellow, and so she hastened on in front.
+
+"I'm glad I came, all the same," she presently said, as he joined her.
+"There is a great deal more under these markets than I ever imagined.
+But I must make haste now and get home again. They'll wonder what has
+become of me at the shop. If Monsieur Gavard comes back, tell him that
+I want to speak to him immediately."
+
+"I expect he's in the killing-room," said Marjolin. "We'll go and see,
+if you like."
+
+Lisa made no reply. She felt oppressed by the close atmosphere which
+warmed her face. She was quite flushed, and her bodice, generally so
+still and lifeless, began to heave. Moreover, the sound of Marjolin's
+hurrying steps behind her filled her with an uneasy feeling. At last
+she stepped aside, and let him go on in front. The lanes of this
+underground village were still fast asleep. Lisa noticed that her
+companion was taking the longest way. When they came out in front of
+the railway track he told her that he had wished to show it to her;
+and they stood for a moment or two looking through the chinks in the
+hoarding of heavy beams. Then Marjolin proposed to take her on to the
+line; but she refused, saying that it was not worth while, as she
+could see things well enough where she was.
+
+As they returned to the poultry cellars they found old Madame Palette
+in front of her storeroom, removing the cords of a large square
+hamper, in which a furious fluttering of wings and scraping of feet
+could be heard. As she unfastened the last knot the lid suddenly flew
+open, as though shot up by a spring, and some big geese thrust out
+their heads and necks. Then, in wild alarm, they sprang from their
+prison and rushed away, craning their necks, and filling the dark
+cellars with a frightful noise of hissing and clattering of beaks.
+Lisa could not help laughing, in spite of the lamentations of the old
+woman, who swore like a carter as she caught hold of two of the
+absconding birds and dragged them back by the neck. Marjolin,
+meantime, set off in pursuit of a third. They could hear him running
+along the narrow alleys, hunting for the runaway, and delighting in
+the chase. Then, far off in the distance, they heard the sounds of a
+struggle, and presently Marjolin came back again, bringing the goose
+with him. Mother Palette, a sallow-faced old woman, took it in her
+arms and clasped it for a moment to her bosom, in the classic attitude
+of Leda.
+
+"Well, well, I'm sure I don't know what I should have done if you
+hadn't been here," said she. "The other day I had a regular fight with
+one of the brutes; but I had my knife with me, and I cut its throat."
+
+Marjolin was quite out of breath. When they reached the stone blocks
+where the poultry were killed, and where the gas burnt more brightly,
+Lisa could see that he was perspiring, and had bold, glistening eyes.
+She thought he looked very handsome like that, with his broad
+shoulders, big flushed face, and fair curly hair, and she looked at
+him so complacently, with that air of admiration which women feel they
+may safely express for quite young lads, that he relapsed into timid
+bashfulness again.
+
+"Well, Monsieur Gavard isn't here, you see," she said. "You've only
+made me waste my time."
+
+Marjolin, however, began rapidly explaining the killing of the poultry
+to her. Five huge stone slabs stretched out in the direction of the
+Rue Rambuteau under the yellow light of the gas jets. A woman was
+killing fowls at one end; and this led him to tell Lisa that the birds
+were plucked almost before they were dead, the operation thus being
+much easier. Then he wanted her to feel the feathers which were lying
+in heaps on the stone slabs; and told her that they were sorted and
+sold for as much as nine sous the pound, according to their quality.
+To satisfy him, she was also obliged to plunge her hand into the big
+hampers full of down. Then he turned the water-taps, of which there
+was one by every pillar. There was no end to the particulars he gave.
+The blood, he said, streamed along the stone blocks, and collected
+into pools on the paved floor, which attendants sluiced with water
+every two hours, removing the more recent stains with coarse brushes.
+
+When Lisa stooped over the drain which carries away the swillings,
+Marjolin found a fresh text for talk. On rainy days, said he, the
+water sometimes rose through this orifice and flooded the place. It
+had once risen a foot high; and they had been obliged to transport all
+the poultry to the other end of the cellar, which is on a higher
+level. He laughed as he recalled the wild flutter of the terrified
+creatures. However, he had now finished, and it seemed as though there
+remained nothing else for him to show, when all at once he bethought
+himself of the ventilator. Thereupon he took Lisa off to the far end
+of the cellar, and told her to look up; and inside one of the turrets
+at the corner angles of the pavilion she observed a sort of escape-
+pipe, by which the foul atmosphere of the storerooms ascended into
+space.
+
+Here, in this corner, reeking with abominable odours, Marjolin's
+nostrils quivered, and his breath came and went violently. His long
+stroll with Lisa in these cellars, full of warm animal perfumes, had
+gradually intoxicated him.
+
+She had again turned towards him. "Well," said she, "it was very kind
+of you to show me all this, and when you come to the shop I will give
+you something."
+
+Whilst speaking she took hold of his soft chin, as she often did,
+without recognising that he was no longer a child; and perhaps she
+allowed her hand to linger there a little longer than was her wont. At
+all events, Marjolin, usually so bashful, was thrilled by the caress,
+and all at once he impetuously sprang forward, clasped Lisa by the
+shoulders, and pressed his lips to her soft cheeks. She raised no cry,
+but turned very pale at this sudden attack, which showed her how
+imprudent she had been. And then, freeing herself from the embrace,
+she raised her arm, as she had seen men do in slaughter houses,
+clenched her comely fist, and knocked Marjolin down with a single
+blow, planted straight between his eyes; and as he fell his head came
+into collision with one of the stone slabs, and was split open. Just
+at that moment the hoarse and prolonged crowing of a cock sounded
+through the gloom.
+
+Handsome Lisa, however, remained perfectly cool. Her lips were tightly
+compressed, and her bosom had recovered its wonted immobility. Up
+above she could hear the heavy rumbling of the markets, and through
+the vent-holes alongside the Rue Rambuteau the noise of the street
+traffic made its way into the oppressive silence of the cellar. Lisa
+reflected that her own strong arm had saved her; and then, fearing
+lest some one should come and find her there, she hastened off,
+without giving a glance at Marjolin. As she climbed the steps, after
+passing through the grated entrance of the cellars, the daylight
+brought her great relief.
+
+She returned to the shop, quite calm, and only looking a little pale.
+
+"You've been a long time," Quenu said to her.
+
+"I can't find Gavard. I have looked for him everywhere," she quietly
+replied. "We shall have to eat our leg of mutton without him."
+
+Then she filled the lard pot, which she noticed was empty; and cut
+some pork chops for her friend Madame Taboureau, who had sent her
+little servant for them. The blows which she dealt with her cleaver
+reminded her of Marjolin. She felt that she had nothing to reproach
+herself with. She had acted like an honest woman. She was not going to
+disturb her peace of mind; she was too happy to do anything to
+compromise herself. However, she glanced at Quenu, whose neck was
+coarse and ruddy, and whose shaven chin looked as rough as knotted
+wood; whereas Marjolin's chin and neck resembled rosy satin. But then
+she must not think of him any more, for he was no longer a child. She
+regretted it, and could not help thinking that children grew up much
+too quickly.
+
+A slight flush came back to her cheeks, and Quenu considered that she
+looked wonderfully blooming. He came and sat down beside her at the
+counter for a moment or two. "You ought to go out oftener," said he;
+"it does you good. We'll go to the theatre together one of these
+nights, if you like; to the Gaite, eh? Madame Taboureau has been to
+see the piece they are playing there, and she declares it's splendid."
+
+Lisa smiled, and said they would see about it, and then once more she
+took herself off. Quenu thought that it was too good of her to take so
+much trouble in running about after that brute Gavard. In point of
+fact, however, she had simply gone upstairs to Florent's bedroom, the
+key of which was hanging from a nail in the kitchen. She hoped to find
+out something or other by an inspection of this room, since the
+poultry dealer had failed her. She went slowly round it, examining the
+bed, the mantelpiece, and every corner. The window with the little
+balcony was open, and the budding pomegranate was steeped in the
+golden beams of the setting sun. The room looked to her as though
+Augustine had never left it--had slept there only the night before.
+There seemed to be nothing masculine about the place. She was quite
+surprised, for she had expected to find some suspicious-looking
+chests, and coffers with strong locks. She went to feel Augustine's
+summer gown, which was still hanging against the wall. Then she sat
+down at the table, and began to read an unfinished page of manuscript,
+in which the word "revolution" occurred twice. This alarmed her, and
+she opened the drawer, which she saw was full of papers. But her sense
+of honour awoke within her in presence of the secret which the rickety
+deal table so badly guarded. She remained bending over the papers,
+trying to understand them without touching them, in a state of great
+emotion, when the shrill song of the chaffinch, on whose cage streamed
+a ray of sunshine, made her start. She closed the drawer. It was a
+base thing that she had contemplated, she thought.
+
+Then, as she lingered by the window, reflecting that she ought to go
+and ask counsel of Abbe Roustan, who was a very sensible man, she saw
+a crowd of people round a stretcher in the market square below. The
+night was falling, still she distinctly recognised Cadine weeping in
+the midst of the crowd; while Florent and Claude, whose boots were
+white with dust, stood together talking earnestly at the edge of the
+footway. She hurried downstairs again, surprised to see them back so
+soon, and scarcely had she reached her counter when Mademoiselle Saget
+entered the shop.
+
+"They have found that scamp of a Marjolin in the cellar, with his head
+split open," exclaimed the old maid. "Won't you come to see him,
+Madame Quenu?"
+
+Lisa crossed the road to look at him. The young fellow was lying on
+his back on the stretcher, looking very pale. His eyes were closed,
+and a stiff wisp of his fair hair was clotted with blood. The
+bystanders, however, declared that there was no serious harm done,
+and, besides, the scamp had only himself to blame, for he was always
+playing all sorts of wild pranks in the cellars. It was generally
+supposed that he had been trying to jump over one of the stone blocks
+--one of his favourite amusements--and had fallen with his head
+against the slab.
+
+"I dare say that hussy there gave him a shove," remarked Mademoiselle
+Saget, pointing to Cadine, who was weeping. "They are always larking
+together."
+
+Meantime the fresh air had restored Marjolin to consciousness, and he
+opened his eyes in wide astonishment. He looked round at everybody,
+and then, observing Lisa bending over him, he gently smiled at her
+with an expression of mingled humility and affection. He seemed to
+have forgotten all that had happened. Lisa, feeling relieved, said
+that he ought to be taken to the hospital at once, and promised to go
+and see him there, and take him some oranges and biscuits. However,
+Marjolin's head had fallen back, and when the stretcher was carried
+away Cadine followed it, with her flat basket slung round her neck,
+and her hot tears rolling down upon the bunches of violets in their
+mossy bed. She certainly had no thoughts for the flowers that she was
+thus scalding with her bitter grief.
+
+As Lisa went back to her shop, she heard Claude say, as he shook hands
+with Florent and parted from him: "Ah! the confounded young scamp!
+He's quite spoiled my day for me! Still, we had a very enjoyable time,
+didn't we?"
+
+Claude and Florent had returned both worried and happy, bringing with
+them the pleasant freshness of the country air. Madame Francois had
+disposed of all her vegetables that morning before daylight; and they
+had all three gone to the Golden Compasses, in the Rue Montorgueil, to
+get the cart. Here, in the middle of Paris, they found a foretaste of
+the country. Behind the Restaurant Philippe, with its frontage of gilt
+woodwork rising to the first floor, there was a yard like that of a
+farm, dirty, teeming with life, reeking with the odour of manure and
+straw. Bands of fowls were pecking at the soft ground. Sheds and
+staircases and galleries of greeny wood clung to the old houses
+around, and at the far end, in a shanty of big beams, was Balthazar,
+harnessed to the cart, and eating the oats in his nosebag. He went
+down the Rue Montorgueil at a slow trot, seemingly well pleased to
+return to Nanterre so soon. However, he was not going home without a
+load. Madame Francois had a contract with the company which undertook
+the scavenging of the markets, and twice a week she carried off with
+her a load of leaves, forked up from the mass of refuse which littered
+the square. It made excellent manure. In a few minutes the cart was
+filled to overflowing. Claude and Florent stretched themselves out on
+the deep bed of greenery; Madame Francois grasped her reins, and
+Balthazar went off at his slow, steady pace, his head somewhat bent by
+reason of there being so many passengers to pull along.
+
+This excursion had been talked of for a long time past. Madame
+Francois laughed cheerily. She was partial to the two men, and
+promised them an /omelette au lard/ as had never been eaten, said she,
+in "that villainous Paris." Florent and Claude revelled in the thought
+of this day of lounging idleness which as yet had scarcely begun to
+dawn. Nanterre seemed to be some distant paradise into which they
+would presently enter.
+
+"Are you quite comfortable?" Madame Francois asked as the cart turned
+into the Rue du Pont Neuf.
+
+Claude declared that their couch was as soft as a bridal bed. Lying on
+their backs, with their hands crossed under their heads, both men were
+looking up at the pale sky from which the stars were vanishing. All
+along the Rue de Rivoli they kept unbroken silence, waiting till they
+should have got clear of the houses, and listening to the worthy woman
+as she chattered to Balthazar: "Take your time, old man," she said to
+him in kindly tones. "We're in no hurry; we shall be sure to get there
+at last."
+
+On reaching the Champs Elysees, when the artist saw nothing but tree-
+tops on either side of him, and the great green mass of the Tuileries
+gardens in the distance, he woke up, as it were, and began to talk.
+When the cart had passed the end of the Rue du Roule he had caught a
+glimpse of the side entrance of Saint Eustache under the giant roofing
+of one of the market covered-ways. He was constantly referring to this
+view of the church, and tried to give it a symbolical meaning.
+
+"It's an odd mixture," he said, "that bit of church framed round by an
+avenue of cast iron. The one will kill the other; the iron will slay
+the stone, and the time is not very far off. Do you believe in chance,
+Florent? For my part, I don't think that it was any mere chance of
+position that set a rose-window of Saint Eustache right in the middle
+of the central markets. No; there's a whole manifesto in it. It is
+modern art, realism, naturalism--whatever you like to call it--that
+has grown up and dominates ancient art. Don't you agree with me?"
+
+Then, as Florent still kept silence, Claude continued: "Besides, that
+church is a piece of bastard architecture, made up of the dying gasp
+of the middle ages, and the first stammering of the Renaissance. Have
+you noticed what sort of churches are built nowadays? They resemble
+all kinds of things--libraries, observatories, pigeon-cotes, barracks;
+and surely no one can imagine that the Deity dwells in such places.
+The pious old builders are all dead and gone; and it would be better
+to cease erecting those hideous carcasses of stone, in which we have
+no belief to enshrine. Since the beginning of the century there has
+only been one large original pile of buildings erected in Paris--a
+pile in accordance with modern developments--and that's the central
+markets. You hear me, Florent? Ah! they are a fine bit of building,
+though they but faintly indicate what we shall see in the twentieth
+century! And so, you see, Saint Eustache is done for! It stands there
+with its rose-windows, deserted by worshippers, while the markets
+spread out by its side and teem with noisy life. Yes! that's how I
+understand it all, my friend."
+
+"Ah! Monsieur Claude," said Madame Francois, laughing, "the woman who
+cut your tongue-string certainly earned her money. Look at Balthazar
+laying his ears back to listen to you. Come, come, get along,
+Balthazar!"
+
+The cart was slowly making its way up the incline. At this early hour
+of the morning the avenue, with its double lines of iron chairs on
+either pathway, and its lawns, dotted with flowerbeds and clumps of
+shrubbery, stretching away under the blue shadows of the trees, was
+quite deserted; however, at the Rond-Point a lady and gentleman on
+horseback passed the cart at a gentle trot. Florent, who had made
+himself a pillow with a bundle of cabbage-leaves, was still gazing at
+the sky, in which a far-stretching rosy glow was appearing. Every now
+and then he would close his eyes, the better to enjoy the fresh breeze
+of the morning as it fanned his face. He was so happy to escape from
+the markets, and travel on through the pure air, that he remained
+speechless, and did not even listen to what was being said around him.
+
+"And then, too, what fine jokers are those fellows who imprison art in
+a toy-box!" resumed Claude, after a pause. "They are always repeating
+the same idiotic words: 'You can't create art out of science,' says
+one; 'Mechanical appliances kill poetry,' says another; and a pack of
+fools wail over the fate of the flowers, as though anybody wished the
+flowers any harm! I'm sick of all such twaddle; I should like to
+answer all that snivelling with some work of open defiance. I should
+take a pleasure in shocking those good people. Shall I tell you what
+was the finest thing I ever produced since I first began to work, and
+the one which I recall with the greatest pleasure? It's quite a story.
+When I was at my Aunt Lisa's on Christmas Eve last year that idiot of
+an Auguste, the assistant, was setting out the shop-window. Well, he
+quite irritated me by the weak, spiritless way in which he arranged
+the display; and at last I requested him to take himself off, saying
+that I would group the things myself in a proper manner. You see, I
+had plenty of bright colours to work with--the red of the tongues, the
+yellow of the hams, the blue of the paper shavings, the rosy pink of
+the things that had been cut into, the green of the sprigs of heath,
+and the black of the black-puddings--ah! a magnificent black, which I
+have never managed to produce on my palette. And naturally, the
+/crepine/, the small sausages, the chitterlings, and the crumbed
+trotters provided me with delicate greys and browns. I produced a
+perfect work of art. I took the dishes, the plates, the pans, and the
+jars, and arranged the different colours; and I devised a wonderful
+picture of still life, with subtle scales of tints leading up to
+brilliant flashes of colour. The red tongues seemed to thrust
+themselves out like greedy flames, and the black-puddings, surrounded
+by pale sausages, suggested a dark night fraught with terrible
+indigestion. I had produced, you see, a picture symbolical of the
+gluttony of Christmas Eve, when people meet and sup--the midnight
+feasting, the ravenous gorging of stomachs void and faint after all
+the singing of hymns.[*] At the top of everything a huge turkey
+exhibited its white breast, marbled blackly by the truffles showing
+through its skin. It was something barbaric and superb, suggesting a
+paunch amidst a halo of glory; but there was such a cutting, sarcastic
+touch about it all that people crowded to the window, alarmed by the
+fierce flare of the shop-front. When my aunt Lisa came back from the
+kitchen she was quite frightened, and thought I'd set the fat in the
+shop on fire; and she considered the appearance of the turkey so
+indelicate that she turned me out of the place while Auguste
+re-arranged the window after his own idiotic fashion. Such brutes will
+never understand the language of a red splotch by the side of a grey
+one. Ah, well! that was my masterpiece. I have never done anything
+better."
+
+[*] An allusion to the "midnight mass" usually celebrated in Roman
+    Catholic churches on Christmas Eve.--Translator.
+
+He relapsed into silence, smiling and dwelling with gratification on
+this reminiscence. The cart had now reached the Arc de Triomphe, and
+strong currents of air swept from the avenues across the expanse of
+open ground. Florent sat up, and inhaled with zest the first odours of
+grass wafted from the fortifications. He turned his back on Paris,
+anxious to behold the country in the distance. At the corner of the
+Rue de Longchamp, Madame Francois pointed out to him the spot where
+she had picked him up. This rendered him thoughtful, and he gazed at
+her as she sat there, so healthy-looking and serene, with her arms
+slightly extended so as to grasp the reins. She looked even handsomer
+than Lisa, with her neckerchief tied over her head, her robust glow of
+health, and her brusque, kindly air. When she gave a slight cluck with
+her tongue, Balthazar pricked up his ears and rattled down the road at
+a quicker pace.
+
+On arriving at Nanterre, the cart turned to the left into a narrow
+lane, skirted some blank walls, and finally came to a standstill at
+the end of a sort of blind alley. It was the end of the world, Madame
+Francois used to say. The load of vegetable leaves now had to be
+discharged. Claude and Florent would not hear of the journeyman
+gardener, who was planting lettuces, leaving his work, but armed
+themselves with pitchforks and proceeded to toss the leaves into the
+manure pit. This occupation afforded them much amusement. Claude had
+quite a liking for manure, since it symbolises the world and its life.
+The strippings and parings of the vegetables, the scourings of the
+markets, the refuse that fell from that colossal table, remained full
+of life, and returned to the spot where the vegetables had previously
+sprouted, to warm and nourish fresh generations of cabbages, turnips,
+and carrots. They rose again in fertile crops, and once more went to
+spread themselves out upon the market square. Paris rotted everything,
+and returned everything to the soil, which never wearied of repairing
+the ravages of death.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Claude, as he plied his fork for the last time,
+"here's a cabbage-stalk that I'm sure I recognise. It has grown up at
+least half a score of times in that corner yonder by the apricot
+tree."
+
+This remark made Florent laugh. But he soon became grave again, and
+strolled slowly through the kitchen garden, while Claude made a sketch
+of the stable, and Madame Francois got breakfast ready. The kitchen
+garden was a long strip of ground, divided in the middle by a narrow
+path; it rose slightly, and at the top end, on raising the head, you
+could perceive the low barracks of Mont Valerien. Green hedges
+separated it from other plots of land, and these lofty walls of
+hawthorn fringed the horizon with a curtain of greenery in such wise
+that of all the surrounding country Mont Valerien alone seemed to rise
+inquisitively on tip-toe in order to peer into Madame Francois's
+close. Great peacefulness came from the countryside which could not
+be seen. Along the kitchen garden, between the four hedges, the May
+sun shone with a languid heat, a silence disturbed only by the buzzing
+of insects, a somnolence suggestive of painless parturition. Every now
+and then a faint cracking sound, a soft sigh, made one fancy that one
+could hear the vegetables sprout into being. The patches of spinach
+and sorrel, the borders of radishes, carrots, and turnips, the beds of
+potatoes and cabbages, spread out in even regularity, displaying their
+dark leaf-mould between their tufts of greenery. Farther away, the
+trenched lettuces, onions, leeks, and celery, planted by line in long
+straight rows, looked like soldiers on parade; while the peas and
+beans were beginning to twine their slender tendrils round a forest of
+sticks, which, when June came, they would transform into a thick and
+verdant wood. There was not a weed to be seen. The garden resembled
+two parallel strips of carpet of a geometrical pattern of green on a
+reddish ground, which were carefully swept every morning. Borders of
+thyme grew like greyish fringe along each side of the pathway.
+
+Florent paced backwards and forwards amidst the perfume of the thyme,
+which the sun was warming. He felt profoundly happy in the
+peacefulness and cleanliness of the garden. For nearly a year past he
+had only seen vegetables bruised and crushed by the jolting of the
+market-carts; vegetables torn up on the previous evening, and still
+bleeding. He rejoiced to find them at home, in peace in the dark
+mould, and sound in every part. The cabbages had a bulky, prosperous
+appearance; the carrots looked bright and gay; and the lettuces
+lounged in line with an air of careless indolence. And as he looked at
+them all, the markets which he had left behind him that morning seemed
+to him like a vast mortuary, an abode of death, where only corpses
+could be found, a charnel-house reeking with foul smells and
+putrefaction. He slackened his steps, and rested in that kitchen
+garden, as after a long perambulation amidst deafening noises and
+repulsive odours. The uproar and the sickening humidity of the fish
+market had departed from him; and he felt as though he were being born
+anew in the pure fresh air. Claude was right, he thought. The markets
+were a sphere of death. The soil was the life, the eternal cradle, the
+health of the world.
+
+"The omelet's ready!" suddenly cried Madame Francois.
+
+When they were all three seated round the table in the kitchen, with
+the door thrown open to the sunshine, they ate their breakfast with
+such light-hearted gaiety that Madame Francois looked at Florent in
+amazement, repeating between each mouthful: "You're quite altered.
+You're ten years younger. It is that villainous Paris which makes you
+seem so gloomy. You've got a little sunshine in your eyes now. Ah!
+those big towns do one's health no good, you ought to come and live
+here."
+
+Claude laughed, and retorted that Paris was a glorious place. He stuck
+up for it and all that belonged to it, even to its gutters; though at
+the same time retaining a keen affection for the country.
+
+In the afternoon Madame Francois and Florent found themselves alone at
+the end of the garden, in a corner planted with a few fruit trees.
+Seated on the ground, they talked somewhat seriously together. The
+good woman advised Florent with an affectionate and quite maternal
+kindness. She asked him endless questions about his life, and his
+intentions for the future, and begged him to remember that he might
+always count upon her, if ever he thought that she could in the
+slightest degree contribute to his happiness. Florent was deeply
+touched. No woman had ever spoken to him in that way before. Madame
+Francois seemed to him like some healthy, robust plant that had grown
+up with the vegetables in the leaf-mould of the garden; while the
+Lisas, the Normans, and other pretty women of the markets appeared to
+him like flesh of doubtful freshness decked out for exhibition. He
+here enjoyed several hours of perfect well-being, delivered from all
+that reek of food which sickened him in the markets, and reviving to
+new life amidst the fertile atmosphere of the country, like that
+cabbage stalk which Claude declared he had seen sprout up more than
+half a score of times.
+
+The two men took leave of Madame Francois at about five o'clock. They
+had decided to walk back to Paris; and the market gardener accompanied
+them into the lane. As she bade good-bye to Florent, she kept his hand
+in her own for a moment, and said gently: "If ever anything happens to
+trouble you, remember to come to me."
+
+For a quarter of an hour Florent walked on without speaking, already
+getting gloomy again, and reflecting that he was leaving health behind
+him. The road to Courbevoie was white with dust. However, both men
+were fond of long walks and the ringing of stout boots on the hard
+ground. Little clouds of dust rose up behind their heels at every
+step, while the rays of the sinking sun darted obliquely over the
+avenue, lengthening their shadows in such wise that their heads
+reached the other side of the road, and journeyed along the opposite
+footway.
+
+Claude, swinging his arms, and taking long, regular strides,
+complacently watched these two shadows, whilst enjoying the rhythmical
+cadence of his steps, which he accentuated by a motion of his
+shoulders. Presently, however, as though just awaking from a dream, he
+exclaimed: "Do you know the 'Battle of the Fat and the Thin'?"
+
+Florent, surprised by the question, replied in the negative; and
+thereupon Claude waxed enthusiastic, talking of that series of prints
+in very eulogical fashion. He mentioned certain incidents: the Fat, so
+swollen that they almost burst, preparing their evening debauch, while
+the Thin, bent double by fasting, looked in from the street with the
+appearance of envious laths; and then, again, the Fat, with hanging
+cheeks, driving off one of the Thin, who had been audacious enough to
+introduce himself into their midst in lowly humility, and who looked
+like a ninepin amongst a population of balls.
+
+In these designs Claude detected the entire drama of human life, and
+he ended by classifying men into Fat and Thin, two hostile groups, one
+of which devours the other, and grows fat and sleek and enjoys itself.
+
+"Cain," said he, "was certainly one of the Fat, and Abel one of the
+Thin. Ever since that first murder, there have been rampant appetites
+which have drained the life-blood of small eaters. It's a continual
+preying of the stronger upon the weaker; each swallowing his
+neighbour, and then getting swallowed in his turn. Beware of the Fat,
+my friend."
+
+He relapsed into silence for a moment, still watching their two
+shadows, which the setting sun elongated more than ever. Then he
+murmured: "You see, we belong to the Thin--you and I. Those who are no
+more corpulent than we are don't take up much room in the sunlight,
+eh?"
+
+Florent glanced at the two shadows, and smiled. But Claude waxed
+angry, and exclaimed: "You make a mistake if you think it is a
+laughing matter. For my own part, I greatly suffer from being one of
+the Thin. If I were one of the Fat, I could paint at my ease; I should
+have a fine studio, and sell my pictures for their weight in gold.
+But, instead of that, I'm one of the Thin; and I have to grind my life
+out in producing things which simply make the Fat ones shrug their
+shoulders. I shall die of it all in the end, I'm sure of it, with my
+skin clinging to my bones, and so flattened that they will be able to
+bury me between two leaves of a book. And you, too, you are one of the
+Thin, a wonderful one; the very king of Thin, in fact! Do you remember
+your quarrel with the fish-wives? It was magnificent; all those
+colossal bosoms flying at your scraggy breast! Oh! they were simply
+acting from natural instinct; they were pursuing one of the Thin just
+as cats pursue a mouse. The Fat, you know, have an instinctive hatred
+of the Thin, to such an extent that they must needs drive the latter
+from their sight, either by means of their teeth or their feet. And
+that is why, if I were in your place, I should take my precautions.
+The Quenus belong to the Fat, and so do the Mehudins; indeed, you have
+none but Fat ones around you. I should feel uneasy under such
+circumstances."
+
+"And what about Gavard, and Mademoiselle Saget, and your friend
+Marjolin?" asked Florent, still smiling.
+
+"Oh, if you like, I will classify all our acquaintances for you,"
+replied Claude. "I've had their heads in a portfolio in my studio for
+a long time past, with memoranda of the order to which they belong.
+Gavard is one of the Fat, but of the kind which pretends to belong to
+the Thin. The variety is by no means uncommon. Mademoiselle Saget and
+Madame Lecoeur belong to the Thin, but to a variety which is much to
+be feared--the Thin ones whom envy drives to despair, and who are
+capable of anything in their craving to fatten themselves. My friend
+Marjolin, little Cadine, and La Sarriette are three Fat ones, still
+innocent, however, and having nothing but the guileless hunger of
+youth. I may remark that the Fat, so long as they've not grown old,
+are charming creatures. Monsieur Lebigre is one of the Fat--don't you
+think so? As for your political friends, Charvet, Clemence, Logre, and
+Lacaille, they mostly belong to the Thin. I only except that big
+animal Alexandre, and that prodigy Robine, who has caused me a vast
+amount of annoyance."
+
+The artist continued to talk in this strain from the Pont de Neuilly
+to the Arc de Triomphe. He returned to some of those whom he had
+already mentioned, and completed their portraits with a few
+characteristic touches. Logre, he said, was one of the Thin whose
+belly had been placed between his shoulders. Beautiful Lisa was all
+stomach, and the beautiful Norman all bosom. Mademoiselle Saget, in
+her earlier life, must have certainly lost some opportunity to fatten
+herself, for she detested the Fat, while, at the same time, she
+despised the Thin. As for Gavard, he was compromising his position as
+one of the Fat, and would end by becoming as flat as a bug.
+
+"And what about Madame Francois?" Florent asked.
+
+Claude seemed much embarrassed by this question. He cast about for an
+answer, and at last stammered:
+
+"Madame Francois, Madame Francois--well, no, I really don't know; I
+never thought about classifying her. But she's a dear good soul, and
+that's quite sufficient. She's neither one of the Fat nor one of the
+Thin!"
+
+They both laughed. They were now in front of the Arc de Triomphe. The
+sun, over by the hills of Suresnes, was so low on the horizon that
+their colossal shadows streaked the whiteness of the great structure
+even above the huge groups of statuary, like strokes made with a piece
+of charcoal. This increased Claude's merriment, he waved his arms and
+bent his body; and then, as he started on his way again, he said; "Did
+you notice--just as the sun set our two heads shot up to the sky!"
+
+But Florent no longer smiled. Paris was grasping him again, that Paris
+which now frightened him so much, after having cost him so many tears
+at Cayenne. When he reached the markets night was falling, and there
+was a suffocating smell. He bent his head as he once more returned to
+the nightmare of endless food, whilst preserving the sweet yet sad
+recollection of that day of bright health odorous with the perfume of
+thyme.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V
+
+At about four o'clock on the afternoon of the following day Lisa
+betook herself to Saint Eustache. For the short walk across the square
+she had arrayed herself very seriously in a black silk gown and thick
+woollen shawl. The handsome Norman, who, from her stall in the fish
+market, watched her till she vanished into the church porch, was quite
+amazed.
+
+"Hallo! So the fat thing's gone in for priests now, has she?" she
+exclaimed, with a sneer. "Well, a little holy water may do her good!"
+
+She was mistaken in her surmises, however, for Lisa was not a devotee.
+She did not observe the ordinances of the Church, but said that she
+did her best to lead an honest life, and that this was all that was
+necessary. At the same time, however, she disliked to hear religion
+spoken ill of, and often silenced Gavard, who delighted in scandalous
+stories of priests and their doings. Talk of that sort seemed to her
+altogether improper. Everyone, in her opinion, should be allowed to
+believe as they pleased, and every scruple should be respected.
+Besides, the majority of the clergy were most estimable men. She knew
+Abbe Roustan, of Saint Eustache--a distinguished priest, a man of
+shrewd sense, and one, she thought, whose friendship might be safely
+relied upon. And she would wind up by explaining that religion was
+absolutely necessary for the people; she looked upon it as a sort of
+police force that helped to maintain order, and without which no
+government would be possible. When Gavard went too far on this subject
+and asserted that the priests ought to be turned into the streets and
+have their shops shut up, Lisa, shrugged her shoulders and replied: "A
+great deal of good that would do! Why, before a month was over the
+people would be murdering one another in the streets, and you would be
+compelled to invent another God. That was just what happened in '93.
+You know very well that I'm not given to mixing with the priests, but
+for all that I say that they are necessary, as we couldn't do without
+them."
+
+And so when Lisa happened to enter a church she always manifested the
+utmost decorum. She had bought a handsome missal, which she never
+opened, for use when she was invited to a funeral or a wedding. She
+knelt and rose at the proper times, and made a point of conducting
+herself with all propriety. She assumed, indeed, what she considered a
+sort of official demeanour, such as all well-to-do folks,
+tradespeople, and house-owners ought to observe with regard to
+religion.
+
+As she entered Saint Eustache that afternoon she let the double doors,
+covered with green baize, faded and worn by the frequent touch of
+pious hands, close gently behind her. Then she dipped her fingers in
+the holy water and crossed herself in the correct fashion. And
+afterwards, with hushed footsteps, she made her way to the chapel of
+Saint Agnes, where two kneeling women with their faces buried in their
+hands were waiting, whilst the blue skirts of a third protruded from
+the confessional. Lisa seemed rather put out by the sight of these
+women, and, addressing a verger who happened to pass along, wearing a
+black skullcap and dragging his feet over the slabs, she inquired:
+"Is this Monsieur l'Abbe Roustan's day for hearing confessions?"
+
+The verger replied that his reverence had only two more penitents
+waiting, and that they would not detain him long, so that if Lisa
+would take a chair her turn would speedily come. She thanked him,
+without telling him that she had not come to confess; and, making up
+her mind to wait, she began to pace the church, going as far as the
+chief entrance, whence she gazed at the lofty, severe, bare nave
+stretching between the brightly coloured aisles. Raising her head a
+little, she examined the high altar, which she considered too plain,
+having no taste for the cold grandeur of stonework, but preferring the
+gilding and gaudy colouring of the side chapels. Those on the side of
+the Rue du Jour looked greyish in the light which filtered through
+their dusty windows, but on the side of the markets the sunset was
+lighting up the stained glass with lovely tints, limpid greens and
+yellows in particular, which reminded Lisa of the bottle of liqueurs
+in front of Monsieur Lebigre's mirror. She came back by this side,
+which seemed to be warmed by the glow of light, and took a passing
+interest in the reliquaries, altar ornaments, and paintings steeped in
+prismatic reflections. The church was empty, quivering with the
+silence that fell from its vaulted roofing. Here and there a woman's
+dress showed like a dark splotch amidst the vague yellow of the
+chairs; and a low buzzing came from the closed confessionals. As Lisa
+again passed the chapel of Saint Agnes she saw the blue dress still
+kneeling at Abbe Roustan's feet.
+
+"Why, if I'd wanted to confess I could have said everything in ten
+seconds," she thought, proud of her irreproachable integrity.
+
+Then she went on to the end of the church. Behind the high altar, in
+the gloom of a double row of pillars, is the chapel of the Blessed
+Virgin, damp and dark and silent. The dim stained windows only show
+the flowing crimson and violet robes of saints, which blaze like
+flames of mystic love in the solemn, silent adoration of the darkness.
+It is a weird, mysterious spot, like some crepuscular nook of paradise
+solely illumined by the gleaming stars of two tapers. The four brass
+lamps hanging from the roof remain unlighted, and are but faintly
+seen; on espying them you think of the golden censers which the angels
+swing before the throne of Mary. And kneeling on the chairs between
+the pillars there are always women surrendering themselves
+languorously to the dim spot's voluptuous charm.
+
+Lisa stood and gazed tranquilly around her. She did not feel the least
+emotion, but considered that it was a mistake not to light the lamps.
+Their brightness would have given the place a more cheerful look. The
+gloom even struck her as savouring of impropriety. Her face was warmed
+by the flames of some candles burning in a candelabrum by her side,
+and an old woman armed with a big knife was scraping off the wax which
+had trickled down and congealed into pale tears. And amidst the
+quivering silence, the mute ecstasy of adoration prevailing in the
+chapel, Lisa would distinctly hear the rumbling of the vehicles
+turning out of the Rue Montmartre, behind the scarlet and purple
+saints on the windows, whilst in the distance the markets roared
+without a moment's pause.
+
+Just as Lisa was leaving the chapel, she saw the younger of the
+Mehudins, Claire, the dealer in fresh water fish, come in. The girl
+lighted a taper at the candelabrum, and then went to kneel behind a
+pillar, her knees pressed upon the hard stones, and her face so pale
+beneath her loose fair hair that she seemed a corpse. And believing
+herself to be securely screened from observation, she gave way to
+violent emotion, and wept hot tears with a passionate outpouring of
+prayer which bent her like a rushing wind. Lisa looked on in
+amazement, for the Mehudins were not known to be particularly pious;
+indeed, Claire was accustomed to speak of religion and priests in such
+terms as to horrify one.
+
+"What's the meaning of this, I wonder?" pondered Lisa, as she again
+made her way to the chapel of Saint Agnes. "The hussy must have been
+poisoning some one or other."
+
+Abbe Roustan was at last coming out of his confessional. He was a
+handsome man, of some forty years of age, with a smiling, kindly air.
+When he recognised Madame Quenu he grasped her hand, called her "dear
+lady," and conducted her to the vestry, where, taking off his
+surplice, he told her that he would be entirely at her service in a
+moment. They returned, the priest in his cassock, bareheaded, and Lisa
+strutting along in her shawl, and paced up and down in front of the
+side-chapels adjacent to the Rue du Jour. They conversed together in
+low tones. The sunlight was departing from the stained windows, the
+church was growing dark, and the retreating footsteps of the last
+worshippers sounded but faintly over the flagstones.
+
+Lisa explained her doubts and scruples to Abbe Roustan. There had
+never been any question of religion between them; she never confessed,
+but merely consulted him in cases of difficulty, because he was shrewd
+and discreet, and she preferred him, as she sometimes said, to shady
+business men redolent of the galleys. The abbe, on his side,
+manifested inexhaustible complaisance. He looked up points of law for
+her in the Code, pointed out profitable investments, resolved her
+moral difficulties with great tact, recommended tradespeople to her,
+invariably having an answer ready however diverse and complicated her
+requirements might be. And he supplied all this help in a natural
+matter-of-fact way, without ever introducing the Deity into his talk,
+or seeking to obtain any advantage either for himself or the cause of
+religion. A word of thanks and a smile sufficed him. He seemed glad to
+have an opportunity of obliging the handsome Madame Quenu, of whom his
+housekeeper often spoke to him in terms of praise, as of a woman who
+was highly respected in the neighbourhood.
+
+Their consultation that afternoon was of a peculiarly delicate nature.
+Lisa was anxious to know what steps she might legitimately take, as a
+woman of honour, with respect to her brother-in-law. Had she a right
+to keep a watch upon him, and to do what she could to prevent him from
+compromising her husband, her daughter, and herself? And then how far
+might she go in circumstances of pressing danger? She did not bluntly
+put these questions to the abbe, but asked them with such skilful
+circumlocutions that he was able to discuss the matter without
+entering into personalities. He brought forward arguments on both
+sides of the question, but the conclusion he came to was that a person
+of integrity was entitled, indeed bound, to prevent evil, and was
+justified in using whatever means might be necessary to ensure the
+triumph of that which was right and proper.
+
+"That is my opinion, dear lady," he said in conclusion. "The question
+of means is always a very grave one. It is a snare in which souls of
+average virtue often become entangled. But I know your scrupulous
+conscience. Deliberate carefully over each step you think of taking,
+and if it contains nothing repugnant to you, go on boldly. Pure
+natures have the marvelous gift of purifying all that they touch."
+
+Then, changing his tone of voice, he continued: "Pray give my kind
+regards to Monsieur Quenu. I'll come in to kiss my dear little Pauline
+some time when I'm passing. And now good-bye, dear lady; remember that
+I'm always at your service."
+
+Thereupon he returned to the vestry. Lisa, on her way out, was curious
+to see if Claire was still praying, but the girl had gone back to her
+eels and carp; and in front of the Lady-chapel, which was already
+shrouded in darkness, there was now but a litter of chairs overturned
+by the ardent vehemence of the woman who had knelt there.
+
+When the handsome Lisa again crossed the square, La Normande, who had
+been watching for her exit from the church, recognised her in the
+twilight by the rotundity of her skirts.
+
+"Good gracious!" she exclaimed, "she's been more than an hour in
+there! When the priests set about cleansing her of her sins, the
+choir-boys have to form in line to pass the buckets of filth and empty
+them in the street!"
+
+The next morning Lisa went straight up to Florent's bedroom and
+settled herself there with perfect equanimity. She felt certain that
+she would not be disturbed, and, moreover, she had made up her mind to
+tell a falsehood and say that she had come to see if the linen was
+clean, should Florent by any chance return. Whilst in the shop,
+however, she had observed him busily engaged in the fish market.
+Seating herself in front of the little table, she pulled out the
+drawer, placed it upon her knees, and began to examine its contents,
+taking the greatest care to restore them to their original positions.
+
+First of all she came upon the opening chapters of the work on
+Cayenne; then upon the drafts of Florent's various plans and projects,
+his schemes for converting the Octroi duties into taxes upon sales,
+for reforming the administrative system of the markets, and all the
+others. These pages of small writing, which she set herself to read,
+bored her extremely, and she was about to restore the drawer to its
+place, feeling convinced that Florent concealed the proofs of his
+wicked designs elsewhere, and already contemplating a searching
+visitation of his mattress, when she discovered a photograph of La
+Normande in an envelope. The impression was rather dark. La Normande
+was standing up with her right arm resting on a broken column. Decked
+out with all her jewels, and attired in a new silk dress, the fish-
+girl was smiling impudently, and Lisa, at the sight, forgot all about
+her brother-in-law, her fears, and the purpose for which she had come
+into the room. She became quite absorbed in her examination of the
+portrait, as often happens when one woman scrutinises the photograph
+of another at her ease, without fear of being seen. Never before had
+she so favourable an opportunity to study her rival. She scrutinised
+her hair, her nose, her mouth; held the photograph at a distance, and
+then brought it closer again. And, finally, with compressed lips, she
+read on the back of it, in a big, ugly scrawl: "Louise, to her friend,
+Florent." This quite scandalised her; to her mind it was a confession,
+and she felt a strong impulse to take possession of the photograph,
+and keep it as a weapon against her enemy. However, she slowly
+replaced it in the envelope on coming to the conclusion that this
+course would be wrong, and reflecting that she would always know where
+to find it should she want it again.
+
+Then, as she again began turning over the loose sheets of paper, it
+occurred to her to look at the back end of the drawer, where Florent
+had relegated Augustine's needles and thread; and there, between the
+missal and the Dream-book, she discovered what she sought, some
+extremely compromising memoranda, simply screened from observation by
+a wrapper of grey paper.
+
+That idea of an insurrection, of the overthrow of the Empire by means
+of an armed rising, which Logre had one evening propounded at Monsieur
+Lebigre's, had slowly ripened in Florent's feverish brain. He soon
+grew to see a duty, a mission in it. Therein undoubtedly lay the task
+to which his escape from Cayenne and his return to Paris predestined
+him. Believing in a call to avenge his leanness upon the city which
+wallowed in food while the upholders of right and equity were racked
+by hunger in exile, he took upon himself the duties of a justiciary,
+and dreamt of rising up, even in the midst of those markets, to sweep
+away the reign of gluttony and drunkenness. In a sensitive nature like
+his, this idea quickly took root. Everything about him assumed
+exaggerated proportions, the wildest fancies possessed him. He
+imagined that the markets had been conscious of his arrival, and had
+seized hold of him that they might enervate him and poison him with
+their stenches. Then, too, Lisa wanted to cast a spell over him, and
+for two or three days at a time he would avoid her, as though she were
+some dissolving agency which would destroy all his power of will
+should he approach too closely. However, these paroxysms of puerile
+fear, these wild surgings of his rebellious brain, always ended in
+thrills of the gentlest tenderness, with yearnings to love and be
+loved, which he concealed with a boyish shame.
+
+It was more especially in the evening that his mind became blurred by
+all his wild imaginings. Depressed by his day's work, but shunning
+sleep from a covert fear--the fear of the annihilation it brought with
+it--he would remain later than ever at Monsieur Lebigre's, or at the
+Mehudins'; and on his return home he still refrained from going to
+bed, and sat up writing and preparing for the great insurrection. By
+slow degrees he devised a complete system of organisation. He divided
+Paris into twenty sections, one for each arrondissement. Each section
+would have a chief, a sort of general, under whose orders there were
+to be twenty lieutenants commanding twenty companies of affiliated
+associates. Every week, among the chiefs, there would be a
+consultation, which was to be held in a different place each time;
+and, the better to ensure secrecy and discretion, the associates would
+only come in contact with their respective lieutenants, these alone
+communicating with the chiefs of the sections. It also occurred to
+Florent that it would be as well that the companies should believe
+themselves charged with imaginary missions, as a means of putting the
+police upon a wrong scent.
+
+As for the employment of the insurrectionary forces, that would be all
+simplicity. It would, of course, be necessary to wait till the
+companies were quite complete, and then advantage would be taken of
+the first public commotion. They would doubtless only have a certain
+number of guns used for sporting purposes in their possession, so they
+would commence by seizing the police stations and guard-houses,
+disarming the soldiers of the line; resorting to violence as little as
+possible, and inviting the men to make common cause with the people.
+Afterwards they would march upon the Corps Legislatif, and thence to
+the Hotel de Ville. This plan, to which Florent returned night after
+night, as though it were some dramatic scenario which relieved his
+over-excited nervous system, was as yet simply jotted down on scraps
+of paper, full of erasures, which showed how the writer had felt his
+way, and revealed each successive phase of his scientific yet puerile
+conception. When Lisa had glanced through the notes, without
+understanding some of them, she remained there trembling with fear;
+afraid to touch them further lest they should explode in her hands
+like live shells.
+
+A last memorandum frightened her more than any of the others. It was a
+half sheet of paper on which Florent had sketched the distinguishing
+insignia which the chiefs and the lieutenants were to wear. By the
+side of these were rough drawings of the standards which the different
+companies were to carry; and notes in pencil even described what
+colours the banners should assume. The chiefs were to wear red
+scarves, and the lieutenants red armlets.
+
+To Lisa this seemed like an immediate realisation of the rising; she
+saw all the men with their red badges marching past the pork shop,
+firing bullets into her mirrors and marble, and carrying off sausages
+and chitterlings from the window. The infamous projects of her
+brother-in-law were surely directed against herself--against her own
+happiness. She closed the drawer and looked round the room, reflecting
+that it was she herself who had provided this man with a home--that he
+slept between her sheets and used her furniture. And she was
+especially exasperated at his keeping his abominable infernal machine
+in that little deal table which she herself had used at Uncle
+Gradelle's before her marriage--a perfectly innocent, rickety little
+table.
+
+For a while she stood thinking what she should do. In the first place,
+it was useless to say anything to Quenu. For a moment it occurred to
+her to provoke an explanation with Florent, but she dismissed that
+idea, fearing lest he would only go and perpetrate his crime
+elsewhere, and maliciously make a point of compromising them. Then
+gradually growing somewhat calmer, she came to the conclusion that her
+best plan would be to keep a careful watch over her brother-in-law. It
+would be time enough to take further steps at the first sign of
+danger. She already had quite sufficient evidence to send him back to
+the galleys.
+
+On returning to the shop again, she found Augustine in a state of
+great excitement. Little Pauline had disappeared more than half an
+hour before, and to Lisa's anxious questions the young woman could
+only reply: "I don't know where she can have got to, madame. She was
+on the pavement there with a little boy. I was watching them, and then
+I had to cut some ham for a gentleman, and I never saw them again."
+
+"I'll wager it was Muche!" cried Lisa. "Ah, the young scoundrel!"
+
+It was, indeed, Muche who had enticed Pauline away. The little girl,
+who was wearing a new blue-striped frock that day for the first time,
+had been anxious to exhibit it, and had accordingly taken her stand
+outside the shop, manifesting great propriety of bearing, and
+compressing her lips with the grave expression of a little woman of
+six who is afraid of soiling her clothes. Her short and stiffly-
+starched petticoats stood out like the skirts of a ballet girl,
+allowing a full view of her tightly stretched white stockings and
+little sky-blue boots. Her pinafore, which hung low about her neck,
+was finished off at the shoulders with an edging of embroidery, below
+which appeared her pretty little arms, bare and rosy. She had small
+turquoise rings in her ears, a cross at her neck, a blue velvet ribbon
+in her well-brushed hair; and she displayed all her mother's plumpness
+and softness--the gracefulness, indeed, of a new doll.
+
+Muche had caught sight of her from the market, where he was amusing
+himself by dropping little dead fishes into the gutter, following them
+along the kerb as the water carried them away, and declaring that they
+were swimming. However, the sight of Pauline standing in front of the
+shop and looking so smart and pretty made him cross over to her,
+capless as he was, with his blouse ragged, his trousers slipping down,
+and his whole appearance suggestive of a seven-year-old street-arab.
+His mother had certainly forbidden him to play any more with "that fat
+booby of a girl who was stuffed by her parents till she almost burst";
+so he stood hesitating for a moment, but at last came up to Pauline,
+and wanted to feel her pretty striped frock. The little girl, who had
+at first felt flattered, then put on a prim air and stepped back,
+exclaiming in a tone of displeasure: "Leave me alone. Mother says I'm
+not to have anything to do with you."
+
+This brought a laugh to the lips of Muche, who was a wily,
+enterprising young scamp.
+
+"What a little flat you are!" he retorted. "What does it matter what
+your mother says? Let's go and play at shoving each other, eh?"
+
+He doubtless nourished some wicked idea of dirtying the neat little
+girl; but she, on seeing him prepare to give her a push in the back,
+retreated as though about to return inside the shop. Muche thereupon
+adopted a flattering tone like a born cajoler.
+
+"You silly! I didn't mean it," said he. "How nice you look like that!
+Is that little cross your mother's?"
+
+Pauline perked herself up, and replied that it was her own, whereupon
+Muche gently led her to the corner of the Rue Pirouette, touching her
+skirts the while and expressing his astonishment at their wonderful
+stiffness. All this pleased the little girl immensely. She had been
+very much vexed at not receiving any notice while she was exhibiting
+herself outside the shop. However, in spite of all Muche's
+blandishments, she still refused to leave the footway.
+
+"You stupid fatty!" thereupon exclaimed the youngster, relapsing into
+coarseness. "I'll squat you down in the gutter if you don't look out,
+Miss Fine-airs!"
+
+The girl was dreadfully alarmed. Muche had caught hold of her by the
+hand; but, recognising his mistake in policy, he again put on a
+wheedling air, and began to fumble in his pocket.
+
+"I've got a sou," said he.
+
+The sight of the coin had a soothing effect upon Pauline. The boy held
+up the sou with the tips of his fingers, and the temptation to follow
+it proved so great that the girl at last stepped down into the
+roadway. Muche's diplomacy was eminently successful.
+
+"What do you like best?" he asked.
+
+Pauline gave no immediate answer. She could not make up her mind;
+there were so many things that she liked. Muche, however, ran over a
+whole list of dainties--liquorice, molasses, gum-balls, and powdered
+sugar. The powdered sugar made the girl ponder. One dipped one's
+fingers into it and sucked them; it was very nice. For a while she
+gravely considered the matter. Then, at last making up her mind, she
+said:
+
+"No, I like the mixed screws the best."
+
+Muche thereupon took hold of her arm, and she unresistingly allowed
+him to lead her away. They crossed the Rue Rambuteau, followed the
+broad footway skirting the markets, and went as far as a grocer's shop
+in the Rue de la Cossonnerie which was celebrated for its mixed
+screws. These mixed screws are small screws of paper in which grocers
+put up all sorts of damaged odds and ends, broken sugar-plums,
+fragments of crystallised chestnuts--all the doubtful residuum of
+their jars of sweets. Muche showed himself very gallant, allowed
+Pauline to choose the screw--a blue one--paid his sou, and did not
+attempt to dispossess her of the sweets. Outside, on the footway, she
+emptied the miscellaneous collection of scraps into both pockets of
+her pinafore; and they were such little pockets that they were quite
+filled. Then in delight she began to munch the fragments one by one,
+wetting her fingers to catch the fine sugary dust, with such effect
+that she melted the scraps of sweets, and the pockets of her pinafore
+soon showed two brownish stains. Muche laughed slily to himself. He
+had his arm about the girl's waist, and rumpled her frock at his ease
+whilst leading her round the corner of the Rue Pierre Lescot, in the
+direction of the Place des Innocents.
+
+"You'll come and play now, won't you?" he asked. "That's nice what
+you've got in your pockets, ain't it? You see that I didn't want to do
+you any harm, you big silly!"
+
+Thereupon he plunged his own fingers into her pockets, and they
+entered the square together. To this spot, no doubt, he had all along
+intended to lure his victim. He did the honours of the square as
+though it were his own private property, and indeed it was a favourite
+haunt of his, where he often larked about for whole afternoons.
+Pauline had never before strayed so far from home, and would have wept
+like an abducted damsel had it not been that her pockets were full of
+sweets. The fountain in the middle of the flowered lawn was sending
+sheets of water down its tiers of basins, whilst, between the
+pilasters above, Jean Goujon's nymphs, looking very white beside the
+dingy grey stonework, inclined their urns and displayed their nude
+graces in the grimy air of the Saint Denis quarter. The two children
+walked round the fountain, watching the water fall into the basins,
+and taking an interest in the grass, with thoughts, no doubt, of
+crossing the central lawn, or gliding into the clumps of holly and
+rhododendrons that bordered the railings of the square. Little Muche,
+however, who had now effectually rumpled the back of the pretty frock,
+said with his sly smile:
+
+"Let's play at throwing sand at each other, eh?"
+
+Pauline had no will of her own left; and they began to throw the sand
+at each other, keeping their eyes closed meanwhile. The sand made its
+way in at the neck of the girl's low bodice, and trickled down into
+her stockings and boots. Muche was delighted to see the white pinafore
+become quite yellow. But he doubtless considered that it was still far
+too clean.
+
+"Let's go and plant trees, shall we?" he exclaimed suddenly. "I know
+how to make such pretty gardens."
+
+"Really, gardens!" murmured Pauline full of admiration.
+
+Then, as the keeper of the square happened to be absent, Muche told
+her to make some holes in one of the borders; and dropping on her
+knees in the middle of the soft mould, and leaning forward till she
+lay at full length on her stomach, she dug her pretty little arms into
+the ground. He, meantime, began to hunt for scraps of wood, and broke
+off branches. These were the garden-trees which he planted in the
+holes that Pauline made. He invariably complained, however, that the
+holes were not deep enough, and rated the girl as though she were an
+idle workman and he an indignant master. When she at last got up, she
+was black from head to foot. Her hair was full of mould, her face was
+smeared with it, she looked such a sight with her arms as black as a
+coalheaver's that Muche clapped his hands with glee, and exclaimed:
+"Now we must water the trees. They won't grow, you know, if we don't
+water them."
+
+That was the finishing stroke. They went outside the square, scooped
+the gutter-water up in the palms of their hands, and then ran back to
+pour it over the bits of wood. On the way, Pauline, who was so fat
+that she couldn't run properly, let the water trickle between her
+fingers on to her frock, so that by the time of her sixth journey she
+looked as if she had been rolled in the gutter. Muche chuckled with
+delight on beholding her dreadful condition. He made her sit down
+beside him under a rhododendron near the garden they had made, and
+told her that the trees were already beginning to grow. He had taken
+hold of her hand and called her his little wife.
+
+"You're not sorry now that you came, are you," he asked, "instead of
+mooning about on the pavement, where there was nothing to do? I know
+all sorts of fun we can have in the streets; you must come with me
+again. You will, won't you? But you mustn't say anything to your
+mother, mind. If you say a word to her, I'll pull your hair the next
+time I come past your shop."
+
+Pauline consented to everything; and then, as a last attention, Muche
+filled both pockets of her pinafore with mould. However, all the
+sweets were finished, and the girl began to get uneasy, and ceased
+playing. Muche thereupon started pinching her, and she burst into
+tears, sobbing that she wanted to go away. But at this the lad only
+grinned, and played the bully, threatening that he would not take her
+home at all. Then she grew terribly alarmed, and sobbed and gasped
+like a maiden in the power of a libertine. Muche would certainly have
+ended by punching her in order to stop her row, had not a shrill
+voice, the voice of Mademoiselle Saget, exclaimed, close by: "Why, I
+declare it's Pauline! Leave her alone, you wicked young scoundrel!"
+
+Then the old maid took the girl by the hand, with endless expressions
+of amazement at the pitiful condition of her clothes. Muche showed no
+alarm, but followed them, chuckling to himself, and declaring that it
+was Pauline who had wanted to come with him, and had tumbled down.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget was a regular frequenter of the Square des
+Innocents. Every afternoon she would spend a good hour there to keep
+herself well posted in the gossip of the common people. On either side
+there is a long crescent of benches placed end to end; and on these
+the poor folks who stifle in the hovels of the neighbouring narrow
+streets assemble in crowds. There are withered, chilly-looking old
+women in tumbled caps, and young ones in loose jackets and carelessly
+fastened skirts, with bare heads and tired, faded faces, eloquent of
+the wretchedness of their lives. There are some men also: tidy old
+buffers, porters in greasy jackets, and equivocal-looking individuals
+in black silk hats, while the foot-path is overrun by a swarm of
+youngsters dragging toy carts without wheels about, filling pails with
+sand, and screaming and fighting; a dreadful crew, with ragged clothes
+and dirty noses, teeming in the sunshine like vermin.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget was so slight and thin that she always managed to
+insinuate herself into a place on one of the benches. She listened to
+what was being said, and started a conversation with her neighbour,
+some sallow-faced workingman's wife, who sat mending linen, from time
+to time producing handkerchiefs and stockings riddled with holes from
+a little basket patched up with string. Moreover, Mademoiselle Saget
+had plenty of acquaintances here. Amidst the excruciating squalling of
+the children, and the ceaseless rumble of the traffic in the Rue Saint
+Denis, she took part in no end of gossip, everlasting tales about the
+tradesmen of the neighbourhood, the grocers, the butchers, and the
+bakers, enough, indeed, to fill the columns of a local paper, and the
+whole envenomed by refusals of credit and covert envy, such as is
+always harboured by the poor. From these wretched creatures she also
+obtained the most disgusting revelations, the gossip of low lodging-
+houses and doorkeepers' black-holes, all the filthy scandal of the
+neighbourhood, which tickled her inquisitive appetite like hot spice.
+
+As she sat with her face turned towards the markets, she had
+immediately in front of her the square and its three blocks of houses,
+into the windows of which her eyes tried to pry. She seemed to
+gradually rise and traverse the successive floors right up to the
+garret skylights. She stared at the curtains; based an entire drama on
+the appearance of a head between two shutters; and, by simply gazing
+at the facades, ended by knowing the history of all the dwellers in
+these houses. The Baratte Restaurant, with its wine shop, its gilt
+wrought-iron /marquise/, forming a sort of terrace whence peeped the
+foliage of a few plants in flower-pots, and its four low storeys, all
+painted and decorated, had an especial interest for her. She gazed at
+its yellow columns standing out against a background of tender blue,
+at the whole of its imitation temple-front daubed on the facade of a
+decrepit, tumble-down house, crowned at the summit by a parapet of
+painted zinc. Behind the red-striped window-blinds she espied visions
+of nice little lunches, delicate suppers, and uproarious, unlimited
+orgies. And she did not hesitate to invent lies about the place. It
+was there, she declared, that Florent came to gorge with those two
+hussies, the Mehudins, on whom he lavished his money.
+
+However, Pauline cried yet louder than before when the old maid took
+hold of her hand. Mademoiselle Saget at first led her towards the gate
+of the square; but before she got there she seemed to change her mind;
+for she sat down at the end of a bench and tried to pacify the child.
+
+"Come, now, give over crying, or the policeman will lock you up," she
+said to Pauline. "I'll take you home safely. You know me, don't you?
+I'm a good friend. Come, come, let me see how prettily you can smile."
+
+The child, however, was choking with sobs and wanted to go away.
+Mademoiselle Saget thereupon quietly allowed her to continue weeping,
+reserving further remarks till she should have finished. The poor
+little creature was shivering all over; her petticoats and stockings
+were wet through, and as she wiped her tears away with her dirty hands
+she plastered the whole of her face with earth to the very tips of her
+ears. When at last she became a little calmer the old maid resumed in
+a caressing tone: "Your mamma isn't unkind, is she? She's very fond of
+you, isn't she?"
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed," replied Pauline, still sobbing.
+
+"And your papa, he's good to you, too, isn't he? He doesn't flog you,
+or quarrel with your mother, does he? What do they talk about when
+they go to bed?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. I'm asleep then."
+
+"Do they talk about your cousin Florent?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget thereupon assumed a severe expression, and got up
+as if about to go away.
+
+"I'm afraid you are a little story-teller," she said. "Don't you know
+that it's very wicked to tell stories? I shall go away and leave you,
+if you tell me lies, and then Muche will come back and pinch you."
+
+Pauline began to cry again at the threat of being abandoned. "Be
+quiet, be quiet, you wicked little imp!" cried the old maid shaking
+her. "There, there, now, I won't go away. I'll buy you a stick of
+barley-sugar; yes, a stick of barley-sugar! So you don't love your
+cousin Florent, eh?"
+
+"No, mamma says he isn't good."
+
+"Ah, then, so you see your mother does say something."
+
+"One night when I was in bed with Mouton--I sleep with Mouton
+sometimes, you know--I heard her say to father, 'Your brother has only
+escaped from the galleys to take us all back with him there.'"
+
+Mademoiselle Saget gave vent to a faint cry, and sprang to her feet,
+quivering all over. A ray of light had just broken upon her. Then
+without a word she caught hold of Pauline's hand and made her run till
+they reached the pork shop, her lips meanwhile compressed by an inward
+smile, and her eyes glistening with keen delight. At the corner of the
+Rue Pirouette, Muche, who had so far followed them, amused at seeing
+the girl running along in her muddy stockings, prudently disappeared.
+
+Lisa was now in a state of terrible alarm; and when she saw her
+daughter so bedraggled and limp, her consternation was such that she
+turned the child round and round, without even thinking of beating
+her.
+
+"She has been with little Muche," said the old maid, in her malicious
+voice. "I took her away at once, and I've brought her home. I found
+them together in the square. I don't know what they've been up to; but
+that young vagabond is capable of anything."
+
+Lisa could not find a word to say; and she did not know where to take
+hold of her daughter, so great was her disgust at the sight of the
+child's muddy boots, soiled stockings, torn skirts, and filthy face
+and hands. The blue velvet ribbon, the earrings, and the necklet were
+all concealed beneath a crust of mud. But what put the finishing touch
+to Lisa's exasperation was the discovery of the two pockets filled
+with mould. She stooped and emptied them, regardless of the pink and
+white flooring of the shop. And as she dragged Pauline away, she could
+only gasp: "Come along, you filthy thing!"
+
+Quite enlivened by this scene, Mademoiselle Saget now hurriedly made
+her way across the Rue Rambuteau. Her little feet scarcely touched the
+ground; her joy seemed to carry her along like a breeze which fanned
+her with a caressing touch. She had at last found out what she had so
+much wanted to know! For nearly a year she had been consumed by
+curiosity, and now at a single stroke she had gained complete power
+over Florent! This was unhoped-for contentment, positive salvation,
+for she felt that Florent would have brought her to the tomb had she
+failed much longer in satisfying her curiosity about him. At present
+she was complete mistress of the whole neighbourhood of the markets.
+There was no longer any gap in her information. She could have
+narrated the secret history of every street, shop by shop. And thus,
+as she entered the fruit market, she fairly gasped with delight, in a
+perfect transport of pleasure.
+
+"Hallo, Mademoiselle Saget," cried La Sarriette from her stall, "what
+are you smiling to yourself like that about? Have you won the grand
+prize in the lottery?"
+
+"No, no. Ah, my dear, if you only knew!"
+
+Standing there amidst her fruit, La Sarriette, in her picturesque
+disarray, looked charming. Frizzy hair fell over her brow like vine
+branches. Her bare arms and neck, indeed all the rosy flesh she
+showed, bloomed with the freshness of peach and cherry. She had
+playfully hung some cherries on her ears, black cherries which dangled
+against her cheeks when she stooped, shaking with merry laughter. She
+was eating currants, and her merriment arose from the way in which she
+was smearing her face with them. Her lips were bright red, glistening
+with the juice of the fruit, as though they had been painted and
+perfumed with some seraglio face-paint. A perfume of plum exhaled from
+her gown, while from the kerchief carelessly fastened across her
+breast came an odour of strawberries.
+
+Fruits of all kinds were piled around her in her narrow stall. On the
+shelves at the back were rows of melons, so-called "cantaloups"
+swarming with wart-like knots, "maraichers" whose skin was covered
+with grey lace-like netting, and "culs-de-singe" displaying smooth
+bare bumps. In front was an array of choice fruits, carefully arranged
+in baskets, and showing like smooth round cheeks seeking to hide
+themselves, or glimpses of sweet childish faces, half veiled by
+leaves. Especially was this the case with the peaches, the blushing
+peaches of Montreuil, with skin as delicate and clear as that of
+northern maidens, and the yellow, sun-burnt peaches from the south,
+brown like the damsels of Provence. The apricots, on their beds of
+moss, gleamed with the hue of amber or with that sunset glow which so
+warmly colours the necks of brunettes at the nape, just under the
+little wavy curls which fall below the chignon. The cherries, ranged
+one by one, resembled the short lips of smiling Chinese girls; the
+Montmorencies suggested the dumpy mouths of buxom women; the English
+ones were longer and graver-looking; the common black ones seemed as
+though they had been bruised and crushed by kisses; while the white-
+hearts, with their patches of rose and white, appeared to smile with
+mingled merriment and vexation. Then piles of apples and pears, built
+up with architectural symmetry, often in pyramids, displayed the ruddy
+glow of budding breasts and the gleaming sheen of shoulders, quite a
+show of nudity, lurking modestly behind a screen of fern-leaves. There
+were all sorts of varieties--little red ones so tiny that they seemed
+to be yet in the cradle, shapeless "rambours" for baking, "calvilles"
+in light yellow gowns, sanguineous-looking "Canadas," blotched
+"chataignier" apples, fair freckled rennets and dusky russets. Then
+came the pears--the "blanquettes," the "British queens," the
+"Beurres," the "messirejeans," and the "duchesses"--some dumpy, some
+long and tapering, some with slender necks, and others with thick-set
+shoulders, their green and yellow bellies picked out at times with a
+splotch of carmine. By the side of these the transparent plums
+resembled tender, chlorotic virgins; the greengages and the Orleans
+plums paled as with modest innocence, while the mirabelles lay like
+golden beads of a rosary forgotten in a box amongst sticks of vanilla.
+And the strawberries exhaled a sweet perfume--a perfume of youth--
+especially those little ones which are gathered in the woods, and
+which are far more aromatic than the large ones grown in gardens, for
+these breathe an insipid odour suggestive of the watering-pot.
+Raspberries added their fragrance to the pure scent. The currants--
+red, white, and black--smiled with a knowing air; whilst the heavy
+clusters of grapes, laden with intoxication, lay languorously at the
+edges of their wicker baskets, over the sides of which dangled some of
+the berries, scorched by the hot caresses of the voluptuous sun.
+
+It was there that La Sarriette lived in an orchard, as it were, in an
+atmosphere of sweet, intoxicating scents. The cheaper fruits--the
+cherries, plums, and strawberries--were piled up in front of her in
+paper-lined baskets, and the juice coming from their bruised ripeness
+stained the stall-front, and steamed, with a strong perfume, in the
+heat. She would feel quite giddy on those blazing July afternoons when
+the melons enveloped her with a powerful, vaporous odour of musk; and
+then with her loosened kerchief, fresh as she was with the springtide
+of life, she brought sudden temptation to all who saw her. It was
+she--it was her arms and necks which gave that semblance of amorous
+vitality to her fruit. On the stall next to her an old woman, a
+hideous old drunkard, displayed nothing but wrinkled apples, pears as
+flabby as herself, and cadaverous apricots of a witch-like sallowness.
+La Sarriette's stall, however, spoke of love and passion. The cherries
+looked like the red kisses of her bright lips; the silky peaches were
+not more delicate than her neck; to the plums she seemed to have lent
+the skin from her brow and chin; while some of her own crimson blood
+coursed through the veins of the currants. All the scents of the
+avenue of flowers behind her stall were but insipid beside the aroma
+of vitality which exhaled from her open baskets and falling kerchief.
+
+That day she was quite intoxicated by the scent of a large arrival of
+mirabelle plums, which filled the market. She could plainly see that
+Mademoiselle Saget had learnt some great piece of news, and she wished
+to make her talk. But the old maid stamped impatiently whilst she
+repeated: "No, no; I've no time. I'm in a great hurry to see Madame
+Lecoeur. I've just learnt something and no mistake. You can come with
+me, if you like."
+
+As a matter of fact, she had simply gone through the fruit market for
+the purpose of enticing La Sarriette to go with her. The girl could
+not refuse temptation. Monsieur Jules, clean-shaven and as fresh as a
+cherub, was seated there, swaying to and fro on his chair.
+
+"Just look after the stall for a minute, will you?" La Sarriette said
+to him. "I'll be back directly."
+
+Jules, however, got up and called after her, in a thick voice: "Not I;
+no fear! I'm off! I'm not going to wait an hour for you, as I did the
+other day. And, besides, those cursed plums of yours quite make my
+head ache."
+
+Then he calmly strolled off, with his hands in his pockets, and the
+stall was left to look after itself. Mademoiselle Saget went so fast
+that La Sarriette had to run. In the butter pavilion a neighbour of
+Madame Lecoeur's told them that she was below in the cellar; and so,
+whilst La Sarriette went down to find her, the old maid installed
+herself amidst the cheeses.
+
+The cellar under the butter market is a very gloomy spot. The rows of
+storerooms are protected by a very fine wire meshing, as a safeguard
+against fire; and the gas jets, which are very few and far between,
+glimmer like yellow splotches destitute of radiance in the heavy,
+malordorous atmosphere beneath the low vault. Madame Lecoeur, however,
+was at work on her butter at one of the tables placed parallel with
+the Rue Berger, and here a pale light filtered through the vent-holes.
+The tables, which are continually sluiced with a flood of water from
+the taps, are as white as though they were quite new. With her back
+turned to the pump in the rear, Madame Lecoeur was kneading her butter
+in a kind of oak box. She took some of different sorts which lay
+beside her, and mixed the varieties together, correcting one by
+another, just as is done in the blending of wines. Bent almost double,
+and showing sharp, bony shoulders, and arms bared to the elbows, as
+scraggy and knotted as pea-rods, she dug her fists into the greasy
+paste in front of her, which was assuming a whitish and chalky
+appearance. It was trying work, and she heaved a sigh at each fresh
+effort.
+
+"Mademoiselle Saget wants to speak to you, aunt," said La Sarriette.
+
+Madame Lecoeur stopped her work, and pulled her cap over her hair with
+her greasy fingers, seemingly quite careless of staining it. "I've
+nearly finished. Ask her to wait a moment," she said.
+
+"She's got something very particular to tell you," continued La
+Sarriette.
+
+"I won't be more than a minute, my dear."
+
+Then she again plunged her arms into the butter, which buried them up
+to the elbows. Previously softened in warm water, it covered Madame
+Lecoeur's parchment-like skin as with an oily film, and threw the big
+purple veins that streaked her flesh into strong relief. La Sarriette
+was quite disgusted by the sight of those hideous arms working so
+frantically amidst the melting mass. However, she could recall the
+time when her own pretty little hands had manipulated the butter for
+whole afternoons at a time. It had even been a sort of almond-paste to
+her, a cosmetic which had kept her skin white and her nails delicately
+pink; and even now her slender fingers retained the suppleness it had
+endowed them with.
+
+"I don't think that butter of yours will be very good, aunt," she
+continued, after a pause. "Some of the sorts seem much too strong."
+
+"I'm quite aware of that," replied Madame Lecoeur, between a couple of
+groans. "But what can I do? I must use everything up. There are some
+folks who insist upon having butter cheap, and so cheap butter must be
+made for them. Oh! it's always quite good enough for those who buy
+it."
+
+La Sarriette reflected that she would hardly care to eat butter which
+had been worked by her aunt's arms. Then she glanced at a little jar
+full of a sort of reddish dye. "Your colouring is too pale," she said.
+
+This colouring-matter--"raucourt," as the Parisians call it is used to
+give the butter a fine yellow tint. The butter women imagine that its
+composition is known only to themselves, and keep it very secret.
+However, it is merely made from anotta;[*] though a composition of
+carrots and marigold is at times substituted for it.
+
+[*] Anotta, which is obtained from the pulp surrounding the seeds of
+    the /Bixa Orellana/, is used for a good many purposes besides the
+    colouring of butter and cheese. It frequently enters into the
+    composition of chocolate, and is employed to dye nankeen. Police
+    court proceedings have also shown that it is well known to the
+    London milkmen, who are in the habit of adding water to their
+    merchandise.--Translator.
+
+"Come, do be quick!" La Sarriette now exclaimed, for she was getting
+impatient, and was, moreover, no longer accustomed to the malodorous
+atmosphere of the cellar. "Mademoiselle Saget will be going. I fancy
+she's got something very important to tell you abut my uncle Gavard."
+
+On hearing this, Madame Lecoeur abruptly ceased working. She at once
+abandoned both butter and dye, and did not even wait to wipe her arms.
+With a slight tap of her hand she settled her cap on her head again,
+and made her way up the steps, at her niece's heels, anxiously
+repeating: "Do you really think that she'll have gone away?"
+
+She was reassured, however, on catching sight of Mademoiselle Saget
+amidst the cheeses. The old maid had taken good care not to go away
+before Madame Lecoeur's arrival. The three women seated themselves at
+the far end of the stall, crowding closely together, and their faces
+almost touching one another. Mademoiselle Saget remained silent for
+two long minutes, and then, seeing that the others were burning with
+curiosity, she began, in her shrill voice: "You know that Florent!
+Well, I can tell you now where he comes from."
+
+For another moment she kept them in suspense; and then, in a deep,
+melodramatic voice, she said: "He comes from the galleys!"
+
+The cheeses were reeking around the three women. On the two shelves at
+the far end of the stall were huge masses of butter: Brittany butters
+overflowing from baskets; Normandy butters, wrapped in canvas, and
+resembling models of stomachs over which some sculptor had thrown damp
+cloths to keep them from drying; while other great blocks had been cut
+into, fashioned into perpendicular rocky masses full of crevasses and
+valleys, and resembling fallen mountain crests gilded by the pale sun
+of an autumn evening.
+
+Beneath the stall show-table, formed of a slab of red marble veined
+with grey, baskets of eggs gleamed with a chalky whiteness; while on
+layers of straw in boxes were Bondons, placed end to end, and
+Gournays, arranged like medals, forming darker patches tinted with
+green. But it was upon the table that the cheeses appeared in greatest
+profusion. Here, by the side of the pound-rolls of butter lying on
+white-beet leaves, spread a gigantic Cantal cheese, cloven here and
+there as by an axe; then came a golden-hued Cheshire, and next a
+Gruyere, resembling a wheel fallen from some barbarian chariot; whilst
+farther on were some Dutch cheeses, suggesting decapitated heads
+suffused with dry blood, and having all that hardness of skulls which
+in France has gained them the name of "death's heads." Amidst the
+heavy exhalations of these, a Parmesan set a spicy aroma. Then there
+came three Brie cheeses displayed on round platters, and looking like
+melancholy extinct moons. Two of them, very dry, were at the full; the
+third, in its second quarter, was melting away in a white cream, which
+had spread into a pool and flowed over the little wooden barriers with
+which an attempt had been made to arrest its course. Next came some
+Port Saluts, similar to antique discs, with exergues bearing their
+makers' names in print. A Romantour, in its tin-foil wrapper,
+suggested a bar of nougat or some sweet cheese astray amidst all these
+pungent, fermenting curds. The Roqueforts under their glass covers
+also had a princely air, their fat faces marbled with blue and yellow,
+as though they were suffering from some unpleasant malady such as
+attacks the wealthy gluttons who eat too many truffles. And on a dish
+by the side of these, the hard grey goats' milk cheeses, about the
+size of a child's fist, resembled the pebbles which the billy-goats
+send rolling down the stony paths as they clamber along ahead of their
+flocks. Next came the strong smelling cheeses: the Mont d'Ors, of a
+bright yellow hue, and exhaling a comparatively mild odour; the
+Troyes, very thick, and bruised at the edges, and of a far more
+pungent smell, recalling the dampness of a cellar; the Camemberts,
+suggestive of high game; the square Neufchatels, Limbourgs, Marolles,
+and Pont l'Eveques, each adding its own particular sharp scent to the
+malodorous bouquet, till it became perfectly pestilential; the
+Livarots, ruddy in hue, and as irritating to the throat as sulphur
+fumes; and, lastly, stronger than all the others, the Olivets, wrapped
+in walnut leaves, like the carrion which peasants cover with branches
+as it lies rotting in the hedgerow under the blazing sun.
+
+The heat of the afternoon had softened the cheeses; the patches of
+mould on their crusts were melting, and glistening with tints of ruddy
+bronze and verdigris. Beneath their cover of leaves, the skins of the
+Olivets seemed to be heaving as with the slow, deep respiration of a
+sleeping man. A Livarot was swarming with life; and in a fragile box
+behind the scales a Gerome flavoured with aniseed diffused such a
+pestilential smell that all around it the very flies had fallen
+lifeless on the gray-veined slap of ruddy marble.
+
+This Gerome was almost immediately under Mademoiselle Saget's nose; so
+she drew back, and leaned her head against the big sheets of white and
+yellow paper which were hanging in a corner.
+
+"Yes," she repeated, with an expression of disgust, "he comes from the
+galleys! Ah, those Quenu-Gradelles have no reason to put on so many
+airs!"
+
+Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette, however, had burst into exclamations
+of astonishment: "It wasn't possible, surely! What had he done to be
+sent to the galleys? Could anyone, now, have ever suspected that
+Madame Quenu, whose virtue was the pride of the whole neighbourhood,
+would choose a convict for a lover?"
+
+"Ah, but you don't understand at all!" cried the old maid impatiently.
+"Just listen, now, while I explain things. I was quite certain that I
+had seen that great lanky fellow somewhere before."
+
+Then she proceeded to tell them Florent's story. She had recalled to
+mind a vague report which had circulated of a nephew of old Gradelle
+being transported to Cayenne for murdering six gendarmes at a
+barricade. She had even seen this nephew on one occasion in the Rue
+Pirouette. The pretended cousin was undoubtedly the same man. Then she
+began to bemoan her waning powers. Her memory was quite going, she
+said; she would soon be unable to remember anything. And she bewailed
+her perishing memory as bitterly as any learned man might bewail the
+loss of his notes representing the work of a life-time, on seeing them
+swept away by a gust of wind.
+
+"Six gendarmes!" murmured La Sarriette, admiringly; "he must have a
+very heavy fist!"
+
+"And he's made away with plenty of others, as well," added
+Mademoiselle Saget. "I shouldn't advise you to meet him at night!"
+
+"What a villain!" stammered out Madame Lecoeur, quite terrified.
+
+The slanting beams of the sinking sun were now enfilading the
+pavilion, and the odour of the cheeses became stronger than ever. That
+of the Marolles seemed to predominate, borne hither and thither in
+powerful whiffs. Then, however, the wind appeared to change, and
+suddenly the emanations of the Limbourgs were wafted towards the three
+women, pungent and bitter, like the last gasps of a dying man.
+
+"But in that case," resumed Madame Lecoeur, "he must be fat Lisa's
+brother-in-law. And we thought that he was her lover!"
+
+The women exchanged glances. This aspect of the case took them by
+surprise. They were loth to give up their first theory. However, La
+Sarriette, turning to Mademoiselle Saget, remarked: "That must have
+been all wrong. Besides, you yourself say that he's always running
+after the two Mehudin girls."
+
+"Certainly he is," exclaimed Mademoiselle Saget sharply, fancying that
+her word was doubted. "He dangles about them every evening. But, after
+all, it's no concern of ours, is it? We are virtuous women, and what
+he does makes no difference to us, the horrid scoundrel!"
+
+"No, certainly not," agreed the other two. "He's a consummate
+villain."
+
+The affair was becoming tragical. Of course beautiful Lisa was now out
+of the question, but for this they found ample consolation in
+prophesying that Florent would bring about some frightful catastrophe.
+It was quite clear, they said, that he had got some base design in his
+head. When people like him escaped from gaol it was only to burn
+everything down; and if he had come to the markets it must assuredly
+be for some abominable purpose. Then they began to indulge in the
+wildest suppositions. The two dealers declared that they would put
+additional padlocks to the doors of their storerooms; and La Sarriette
+called to mind that a basket of peaches had been stolen from her
+during the previous week. Mademoiselle Saget, however, quite
+frightened the two others by informing them that that was not the way
+in which the Reds behaved; they despised such trifles as baskets of
+peaches; their plan was to band themselves together in companies of
+two or three hundred, kill everybody they came across, and then
+plunder and pillage at their ease. That was "politics," she said, with
+the superior air of one who knew what she was talking about. Madame
+Lecoeur felt quite ill. She already saw Florent and his accomplices
+hiding in the cellars, and rushing out during the night to set the
+markets in flames and sack Paris.
+
+"Ah! by the way," suddenly exclaimed the old maid, "now I think of it,
+there's all that money of old Gradelle's! Dear me, dear me, those
+Quenus can't be at all at their ease!"
+
+She now looked quite gay again. The conversation took a fresh turn,
+and the others fell foul of the Quenus when Mademoiselle Saget had
+told them the history of the treasure discovered in the salting-tub,
+with every particular of which she was acquainted. She was even able
+to inform them of the exact amount of the money found--eighty-five
+thousand francs--though neither Lisa nor Quenu was aware of having
+revealed this to a living soul. However, it was clear that the Quenus
+had not given the great lanky fellow his share. He was too shabbily
+dressed for that. Perhaps he had never even heard of the discovery of
+the treasure. Plainly enough, they were all thieves in his family.
+Then the three women bent their heads together and spoke in lower
+tones. They were unanimously of opinion that it might perhaps be
+dangerous to attack the beautiful Lisa, but it was decidedly necessary
+that they should settle the Red Republican's hash, so that he might no
+longer prey upon the purse of poor Monsieur Gavard.
+
+At the mention of Gavard there came a pause. The gossips looked at
+each other with a circumspect air. And then, as they drew breath, they
+inhaled the odour of the Camemberts, whose gamy scent had overpowered
+the less penetrating emanations of the Marolles and the Limbourgs, and
+spread around with remarkable power. Every now and then, however, a
+slight whiff, a flutelike note, came from the Parmesan, while the
+Bries contributed a soft, musty scent, the gentle, insipid sound, as
+it were, of damp tambourines. Next followed an overpowering refrain
+from the Livarots, and afterwards the Gerome, flavoured with aniseed,
+kept up the symphony with a high prolonged note, like that of a
+vocalist during a pause in the accompaniment.
+
+"I have seen Madame Leonce," Mademoiselle Saget at last continued,
+with a significant expression.
+
+At this the two others became extremely attentive. Madame Leonce was
+the doorkeeper of the house where Gavard lived in the Rue de la
+Cossonnerie. It was an old house standing back, with its ground floor
+occupied by an importer of oranges and lemons, who had had the
+frontage coloured blue as high as the first floor. Madame Leonce acted
+as Gavard's housekeeper, kept the keys of his cupboards and closets,
+and brought him up tisane when he happened to catch cold. She was a
+severe-looking woman, between fifty and sixty years of age, and spoke
+slowly, but at endless length. Mademoiselle Saget, who went to drink
+coffee with her every Wednesday evening, had cultivated her friendship
+more closely than ever since the poultry dealer had gone to lodge in
+the house. They would talk about the worthy man for hours at a time.
+They both professed the greatest affection for him, and a keen desire
+to ensure his comfort and happiness.
+
+"Yes, I have seen Madame Leonce," repeated the old maid. "We had a cup
+of coffee together last night. She was greatly worried. It seems that
+Monsieur Gavard never comes home now before one o'clock in the
+morning. Last Sunday she took him up some broth, as she thought he
+looked quite ill."
+
+"Oh, she knows very well what she's about," exclaimed Madame Lecoeur,
+whom these attentions to Gavard somewhat alarmed.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget felt bound to defend her friend. "Oh, really, you
+are quite mistaken," said she. "Madame Leonce is much above her
+position; she is quite a lady. If she wanted to enrich herself at
+Monsieur Gavard's expense, she might easily have done so long ago. It
+seems that he leaves everything lying about in the most careless
+fashion. It's about that, indeed, that I want to speak to you. But
+you'll not repeat anything I say, will you? I am telling it you in
+strict confidence."
+
+Both the others swore that they would never breathe a word of what
+they might hear; and they craned out their necks with eager curiosity,
+whilst the old maid solemnly resumed: "Well, then, Monsieur Gavard has
+been behaving very strangely of late. He has been buying firearms--a
+great big pistol--one of those which revolve, you know. Madame Leonce
+says that things are awful, for this pistol is always lying about on
+the table or the mantelpiece; and she daren't dust anywhere near it.
+But that isn't all. His money--"
+
+"His money!" echoed Madame Lecoeur, with blazing cheeks.
+
+"Well, he's disposed of all his stocks and shares. He's sold
+everything, and keeps a great heap of gold in a cupboard."
+
+"A heap of gold!" exclaimed La Sarriette in ecstasy.
+
+"Yes, a great heap of gold. It covers a whole shelf, and is quite
+dazzling. Madame Leonce told me that one morning Gavard opened the
+cupboard in her presence, and that the money quite blinded her, it
+shone so."
+
+There was another pause. The eyes of the three women were blinking as
+though the dazzling pile of gold was before them. Presently La
+Sarriette began to laugh.
+
+"What a jolly time I would have with Jules if my uncle would give that
+money to me!" said she.
+
+Madame Lecoeur, however, seemed quite overwhelmed by this revelation,
+crushed beneath the weight of the gold which she could not banish from
+her sight. Covetous envy thrilled her. But at last, raising her skinny
+arms and shrivelled hands, her finger-nails still stuffed with butter,
+she stammered in a voice full of bitter distress: "Oh, I mustn't think
+of it! It's too dreadful!"
+
+"Well, it would all be yours, you know, if anything were to happen to
+Monsieur Gavard," retorted Mademoiselle Saget. "If I were in your
+place, I would look after my interests. That revolver means nothing
+good, you may depend upon it. Monsieur Gavard has got into the hands
+of evil counsellors; and I'm afraid it will all end badly."
+
+Then the conversation again turned upon Florent. The three women
+assailed him more violently than ever. And afterwards, with perfect
+composure, they began to discuss what would be the result of all these
+dark goings-on so far as he and Gavard were concerned; certainly it
+would be no pleasant one if there was any gossiping. And thereupon
+they swore that they themselves would never repeat a word of what they
+knew; not, however, because that scoundrel Florent merited any
+consideration, but because it was necessary, at all costs, to save
+that worthy Monsieur Gavard from being compromised. Then they rose
+from their seats, and Mademoiselle Saget was burning as if to go away
+when the butter dealer asked her: "All the same, in case of accident,
+do you think that Madame Leonce can be trusted? I dare say she has the
+key of the cupboard."
+
+"Well, that's more than I can tell you," replied the old maid. "I
+believe she's a very honest woman; but, after all, there's no telling.
+There are circumstances, you know, which tempt the best of people.
+Anyhow, I've warned you both; and you must do what you think proper."
+
+As the three women stood there, taking leave of each other, the odour
+of the cheeses seemed to become more pestilential than ever. It was a
+cacophony of smells, ranging from the heavily oppressive odour of the
+Dutch cheeses and the Gruyeres to the alkaline pungency of the
+Olivets. From the Cantal, the Cheshire, and the goats' milk cheeses
+there seemed to come a deep breath like the sound of a bassoon, amidst
+which the sharp, sudden whiffs of the Neufchatels, the Troyes, and the
+Mont d'Ors contributed short, detached notes. And then the different
+odours appeared to mingle one with another, the reek of the Limbourgs,
+the Port Saluts, the Geromes, the Marolles, the Livarots, and the Pont
+l'Eveques uniting in one general, overpowering stench sufficient to
+provoke asphyxia. And yet it almost seemed as though it were not the
+cheeses but the vile words of Madame Lecoeur and Mademoiselle Saget
+that diffused this awful odour.
+
+"I'm very much obliged to you, indeed I am," said the butter dealer.
+"If ever I get rich, you shall not find yourself forgotten."
+
+The old maid still lingered in the stall. Taking up a Bondon, she
+turned it round, and put it down on the slab again. Then she asked its
+price.
+
+"To me!" she added, with a smile.
+
+"Oh, nothing to you," replied Madame Lecoeur. "I'll make you a present
+of it." And again she exclaimed: "Ah, if I were only rich!"
+
+Mademoiselle Saget thereupon told her that some day or other she would
+be rich. The Bondon had already disappeared within the old maid's bag.
+And now the butter dealer returned to the cellar, while Mademoiselle
+Saget escorted La Sarriette back to her stall. On reaching it they
+talked for a moment or two about Monsieur Jules. The fruits around
+them diffused a fresh scent of summer.
+
+"It smells much nicer here than at your aunt's," said the old maid. "I
+felt quite ill a little time ago. I can't think how she manages to
+exist there. But here it's very sweet and pleasant. It makes you look
+quite rosy, my dear."
+
+La Sarriette began to laugh, for she was fond of compliments. Then she
+served a lady with a pound of mirabelle plums, telling her that they
+were as sweet as sugar.
+
+"I should like to buy some of those mirabelles too," murmured
+Mademoiselle Saget, when the lady had gone away; "only I want so few.
+A lone woman, you know."
+
+"Take a handful of them," exclaimed the pretty brunette. "That won't
+ruin me. Send Jules back to me if you see him, will you? You'll most
+likely find him smoking his cigar on the first bench to the right as
+you turn out of the covered way."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget distended her fingers as widely as possible in
+order to take a handful of mirabelles, which joined the Bondon in the
+bag. Then she pretended to leave the market, but in reality made a
+detour by one of the covered ways, thinking, as she walked slowly
+along, that the mirabelles and Bondon would not make a very
+substantial dinner. When she was unable, during her afternoon
+perambulations, to wheedle stallkeepers into filling her bag for her,
+she was reduced to dining off the merest scraps. So she now slyly made
+her way back to the butter pavilions, where, on the side of the Rue
+Berger, at the back of the offices of the oyster salesmen, there were
+some stalls at which cooked meat was sold. Every morning little closed
+box-like carts, lined with zinc and furnished with ventilators, drew
+up in front of the larger Parisian kitchens and carried away the
+leavings of the restaurants, the embassies, and State Ministries.
+These leavings were conveyed to the market cellars and there sorted.
+By nine o'clock plates of food were displayed for sale at prices
+ranging from three to five sous, their contents comprising slices of
+meat, scraps of game, heads and tails of fishes, bits of galantine,
+stray vegetables, and, by way of dessert, cakes scarcely cut into, and
+other confectionery. Poor starving wretches, scantily-paid clerks, and
+women shivering with fever were to be seen crowding around, and the
+street lads occasionally amused themselves by hooting the pale-faced
+individuals, known to be misers, who only made their purchases after
+slyly glancing about them to see that they were not observed.[*]
+Mademoiselle Saget wriggled her way to a stall, the keeper of which
+boasted that the scraps she sold came exclusively from the Tuileries.
+One day, indeed, she had induced the old maid to buy a slice of leg of
+mutton by informing that it had come from the plate of the Emperor
+himself; and this slice of mutton, eaten with no little pride, had
+been a soothing consolation to Mademoiselle Saget's vanity. The
+wariness of her approach to the stall was, moreover, solely caused by
+her desire to keep well with the neighbouring shop people, whose
+premises she was eternally haunting without ever buying anything. Her
+usual tactics were to quarrel with them as soon as she had managed to
+learn their histories, when she would bestow her patronage upon a
+fresh set, desert it in due course, and then gradually make friends
+again with those with whom she had quarrelled. In this way she made
+the complete circuit of the market neighbourhood, ferreting about in
+every shop and stall. Anyone would have imagined that she consumed an
+enormous amount of provisions, whereas, in point of fact, she lived
+solely upon presents and the few scraps which she was compelled to buy
+when people were not in the giving vein.
+
+[*] The dealers in these scraps are called /bijoutiers/, or jewellers,
+    whilst the scraps themselves are known as /harlequins/, the idea
+    being that they are of all colours and shapes when mingled
+    together, thus suggesting harlequin's variegated attire.--
+    Translator.
+
+On that particular evening there was only a tall old man standing in
+front of the stall. He was sniffing at a plate containing a mixture of
+meat and fish. Mademoiselle Saget, in her turn, began to sniff at a
+plate of cold fried fish. The price of it was three sous, but, by dint
+of bargaining, she got it for two. The cold fish then vanished into
+the bag. Other customers now arrived, and with a uniform impulse
+lowered their noses over the plates. The smell of the stall was very
+disgusting, suggestive alike of greasy dishes and a dirty sink.[*]
+
+[*] Particulars of the strange and repulsive trade in harlequins,
+    which even nowadays is not extinct, will be found in Privat
+    d'Anglemont's well-known book /Paris Anecdote/, written at the
+    very period with which M. Zola deals in the present work. My
+    father, Henry Vizetelly, also gave some account of it in his
+    /Glances Back through Seventy Years/, in a chapter describing the
+    odd ways in which certain Parisians contrive to get a living.--
+    Translator.
+
+"Come and see me to-morrow," the stallkeeper called out to the old
+maid, "and I'll put something nice on one side for you. There's going
+to be a grand dinner at the Tuileries to-night."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget was just promising to come, when, happening to turn
+round, she discovered Gavard looking at her and listening to what she
+was saying. She turned very red, and, contracting her skinny
+shoulders, hurried away, affecting not to recognise him. Gavard,
+however, followed her for a few yards, shrugging his shoulders and
+muttering to himself that he was no longer surprised at the old
+shrew's malice, now he knew that "she poisoned herself with the filth
+carted away from the Tuileries."
+
+On the very next morning vague rumours began to circulate in the
+markets. Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette were in their own fashion
+keeping the oaths of silence they had taken. For her own part,
+Mademoiselle Saget warily held her tongue, leaving the two others to
+circulate the story of Florent's antecedents. At first only a few
+meagre details were hawked about in low tones; then various versions
+of the facts got into circulation, incidents were exaggerated, and
+gradually quite a legend was constructed, in which Florent played the
+part of a perfect bogey man. He had killed ten gendarmes at the
+barricade in the Rue Greneta, said some; he had returned to France on
+a pirate ship whose crew scoured the seas to murder everyone they came
+across, said others; whilst a third set declared that ever since his
+arrival he had been observed prowling about at nighttime with
+suspicious-looking characters, of whom he was undoubtedly the leader.
+Soon the imaginative market women indulged in the highest flights of
+fancy, revelled in the most melodramatic ideas. There was talk of a
+band of smugglers plying their nefarious calling in the very heart of
+Paris, and of a vast central association formed for systematically
+robbing the stalls in the markets. Much pity was expressed for the
+Quenu-Gradelles, mingled with malicious allusions to their uncle's
+fortune. That fortune was an endless subject of discussion. The
+general opinion was that Florent had returned to claim his share of
+the treasure; however, as no good reason was forthcoming to explain
+why the division had not taken place already, it was asserted that
+Florent was waiting for some opportunity which might enable him to
+pocket the whole amount. The Quenu-Gradelles would certainly be found
+murdered some morning, it was said; and a rumour spread that dreadful
+quarrels already took place every night between the two brothers and
+beautiful Lisa.
+
+When these stories reached the ears of the beautiful Norman, she
+shrugged her shoulders and burst out laughing.
+
+"Get away with you!" she cried, "you don't know him. Why, the dear
+fellow's as gentle as a lamb."
+
+She had recently refused the hand of Monsieur Lebigre, who had at last
+ventured upon a formal proposal. For two months past he had given the
+Mehudins a bottle of some liqueur every Sunday. It was Rose who
+brought it, and she was always charged with a compliment for La
+Normande, some pretty speech which she faithfully repeated, without
+appearing in the slightest degree embarrassed by the peculiar
+commission. When Monsieur Lebigre was rejected, he did not pine, but
+to show that he took no offence and was still hopeful, he sent Rose on
+the following Sunday with two bottles of champagne and a large bunch
+of flowers. She gave them into the handsome fish-girl's own hands,
+repeating, as she did so, the wine dealer's prose madrigal:
+
+"Monsieur Lebigre begs you to drink this to his health, which has been
+greatly shaken by you know what. He hopes that you will one day be
+willing to cure him, by being for him as pretty and as sweet as these
+flowers."
+
+La Normande was much amused by the servant's delighted air. She kissed
+her as she spoke to her of her master, and asked her if he wore
+braces, and snored at nights. Then she made her take the champagne and
+flowers back with her. "Tell Monsieur Lebigre," said she, "that he's
+not to send you here again. It quite vexes me to see you coming here
+so meekly, with your bottles under your arms."
+
+"Oh, he wishes me to come," replied Rose, as she went away. "It is
+wrong of you to distress him. He is a very handsome man."
+
+La Normande, however, was quite conquered by Florent's affectionate
+nature. She continued to follow Muche's lessons of an evening in the
+lamplight, indulging the while in a dream of marrying this man who was
+so kind to children. She would still keep her fish stall, while he
+would doubtless rise to a position of importance in the administrative
+staff of the markets. This dream of hers, however, was scarcely
+furthered by the tutor's respectful bearing towards her. He bowed to
+her, and kept himself at a disntace, when she have liked to laugh with
+him, and love him as she knew how to love. But it was just this covert
+resistance on Florent's part which continually brought her back to the
+dream of marrying him. She realised that he lived in a loftier sphere
+than her own; and by becoming his wife she imagined that her vanity
+would reap no little satisfaction.
+
+She was greatly surprised when she learned the history of the man she
+loved. He had never mentioned a word of those things to her; and she
+scolded him about it. His extraordinary adventures only increased her
+tenderness for him, and for evenings together she made him relate all
+that had befallen him. She trembled with fear lest the police should
+discover him; but he reassured her, saying that the matter was now too
+old for the police to trouble their heads about it. One evening he
+told her of the woman on the Boulevard Montmartre, the woman in the
+pink bonnet, whose blood had dyed his hands. He still frequently
+thought of that poor creature. His anguish-stricken mind had often
+dwelt upon her during the clear nights he had passed in Cayenne; and
+he had returned to France with a wild dream of meeting her again on
+some footway in the bright sunshine, even though he could still feel
+her corpse-like weight across his legs. And yet, he thought, she might
+perhaps have recovered. At times he received quite a shock while he
+was walking through the streets, on fancying that he recognised her;
+and he followed pink bonnets and shawl-draped shoulders with a wildly
+beating heart. When he closed his eyes he could see her walking, and
+advancing towards him; but she let her shawl slip down, showing the
+two red stains on her chemisette; and then he saw that her face was
+pale as wax, and that her eyes were blank, and her lips distorted by
+pain. For a long time he suffered from not knowing her name, from
+being forced to look upon her as a mere shadow, whose recollection
+filled him with sorrow. Whenever any idea of woman crossed his mind it
+was always she that rose up before him, as the one pure, tender wife.
+He often found himself fancying that she might be looking for him on
+that boulevard where she had fallen dead, and that if she had met him
+a few seconds sooner she would have given him a life of joy. And he
+wished for no other wife; none other existed for him. When he spoke of
+her, his voice trembled to such a degree that La Normande, her wits
+quickened by her love, guessed his secret, and felt jealous.
+
+"Oh, it's really much better that you shouldn't see her again," she
+said maliciously. "She can't look particularly nice by this time."
+
+Florent turned pale with horror at the vision which these words
+evoked. His love was rotting in her grave. He could not forgive La
+Normande's savage cruelty, which henceforth made him see the grinning
+jaws and hollow eyes of a skeleton within that lovely pink bonnet.
+Whenever the fish-girl tried to joke with him on the subject he turned
+quite angry, and silenced her with almost coarse language.
+
+That, however, which especially surprised the beautiful Norman in
+these revelations was the discovery that she had been quite mistaken
+in supposing that she was enticing a lover away from handsome Lisa.
+This so diminished her feeling of triumph, that for a week or so her
+love for Florent abated. She consoled herself, however, with the story
+of the inheritance, no longer calling Lisa a strait-laced prude, but a
+thief who kept back her brother-in-law's money, and assumed
+sanctimonious airs to deceive people. Every evening, while Muche took
+his writing lesson, the conversation turned upon old Gradelle's
+treasure.
+
+"Did anyone ever hear of such an idea?" the fish-girl would exclaim,
+with a laugh. "Did the old man want to salt his money, since he put it
+in a salting-tub? Eighty-five thousand francs! That's a nice sum of
+money! And, besides, the Quenus, no doubt, lied about it--there was
+perhaps two or three times as much. Ah, if I were in your place, I
+shouldn't lose any time about claiming my share; indeed I shouldn't."
+
+"I've no need of anything," was Florent's invariable answer. "I
+shouldn't know what to do with the money if I had it."
+
+"Oh, you're no man!" cried La Normande, losing all control over
+herself. "It's pitiful! Can't you see that the Quenus are laughing at
+you? That great fat thing passes all her husband's old clothes over to
+you. I'm not saying this to hurt your feelings, but everybody makes
+remarks about it. Why, the whole neighbourhood has seen the greasy
+pair of trousers, which you're now wearing, on your brother's legs for
+three years and more! If I were in your place I'd throw their dirty
+rags in their faces, and insist upon my rights. Your share comes to
+forty-two thousand five hundred francs, doesn't it? Well, I shouldn't
+go out of the place till I'd got forty-two thousand five hundred
+francs."
+
+It was useless for Florent to explain to her that his sister-in-law
+had offered to pay him his share, that she was taking care of it for
+him, and that it was he himself who had refused to receive it. He
+entered into the most minute particulars, seeking to convince her of
+the Quenus' honesty, but she sarcastically replied: "Oh, yes, I dare
+say! I know all about their honesty. That fat thing folds it up every
+morning and puts it away in her wardrobe for fear it should get
+soiled. Really, I quite pity you, my poor friend. It's easy to gull
+you, for you can't see any further than a child of five. One of these
+days she'll simply put your money in her pocket, and you'll never look
+on it again. Shall I go, now, and claim your share for you, just to
+see what she says? There'd be some fine fun, I can tell you! I'd
+either have the money, or I'd break everything in the house--I swear I
+would!"
+
+"No, no, it's no business of yours," Florent replied, quite alarmed.
+"I'll see about it; I may possibly be wanting some money soon."
+
+At this La Normande assumed an air of doubt, shrugged her shoulders,
+and told him that he was really too chicken-hearted. Her one great aim
+now was to embroil him with the Quenu-Gradelles, and she employed
+every means she could think of to effect her purpose, both anger and
+banter, as well as affectionate tenderness. She also cherished another
+design. When she had succeeded in marrying Florent, she would go and
+administer a sound cuffing to beautiful Lisa, if the latter did not
+yield up the money. As she lay awake in her bed at night she pictured
+every detail of the scene. She saw herself sitting down in the middle
+of the pork shop in the busiest part of the day, and making a terrible
+fuss. She brooded over this idea to such an extent, it obtained such a
+hold upon her, that she would have been willing to marry Florent
+simply in order to be able to go and demand old Gradelle's forty-two
+thousand five hundred francs.
+
+Old Madame Mehudin, exasperated by La Normande's dismissal of Monsieur
+Lebigre, proclaimed everywhere that her daughter was mad, and that the
+"long spindle-shanks" must have administered some insidious drug to
+her. When she learned the Cayenne story, her anger was terrible. She
+called Florent a convict and murderer, and said it was no wonder that
+his villainy had kept him lank and flat. Her versions of Florent's
+biography were the most horrible of all that were circulated in the
+neighbourhood. At home she kept a moderately quiet tongue in her head,
+and restricted herself to muttered indignation, and a show of locking
+up the drawer where the silver was kept whenever Florent arrived. One
+day, however, after a quarrel with her elder daughter, she exclaimed:
+
+"Things can't go on much longer like this! It is that vile man who is
+setting you against me. Take care that you don't try me too far, or
+I'll go and denounce him to the police. I will, as true as I stand
+here!"
+
+"You'll denounce him!" echoed La Normande, trembling violently, and
+clenching her fists. "You'd better not! Ah, if you weren't my
+mother----"
+
+At this, Claire, who was a spectator of the quarrel, began to laugh,
+with a nervous laughter that seemed to rasp her throat. For some time
+past she had been gloomier and more erratic than ever, invariably
+showing red eyes and a pale face.
+
+"Well, what would you do?" she asked. "Would you give her a cuffing?
+Perhaps you'd like to give me, your sister, one as well? I dare say it
+will end in that. But I'll clear the house of him. I'll go to the
+police to save mother the trouble."
+
+Then, as La Normande almost choked with the angry threats that rose to
+her throat, the younger girl added: "I'll spare you the exertion of
+beating me. I'll throw myself into the river as I come back over the
+bridge."
+
+Big tears were streaming from her eyes; and she rushed off to her
+bedroom, banging the doors violently behind her. Old Madame Mehudin
+said nothing more about denouncing Florent. Muche, however, told La
+Normande that he met his grandma talking with Monsieur Lebigre in
+every corner of the neighbourhood.
+
+The rivalry between the beautiful Norman and the beautiful Lisa now
+assumed a less aggressive but more disturbing character. In the
+afternoon, when the red-striped canvas awning was drawn down in front
+of the pork shop, the fish-girl would remark that the big fat thing
+felt afraid, and was concealing herself. She was also much exasperated
+by the occasional lowering of the window-blind, on which was pictured
+a hunting-breakfast in a forest glade, with ladies and gentlemen in
+evening dress partaking of a red pasty, as big as themselves, on the
+yellow grass.
+
+Beautiful Lisa, however, was by no means afraid. As soon as the sun
+began to sink she drew up the blind; and, as she sat knitting behind
+her counter, she serenely scanned the market square, where numerous
+urchins were poking about in the soil under the gratings which
+protected the roots of the plane-trees, while porters smoked their
+pipes on the benches along the footway, at either end of which was an
+advertisement column covered with theatrical posters, alternately
+green, yellow, red, and blue, like some harlequin's costume. And while
+pretending to watch the passing vehicles, Lisa would really be
+scrutinising the beautiful Norman. She might occasionally be seen
+bending forward, as though her eyes were following the Bastille and
+Place Wagram omnibus to the Pointe Saint Eustache, where it always
+stopped for a time. But this was only a manoeuvre to enable her to get
+a better view of the fish-girl, who, as a set-off against the blind,
+retorted by covering her head and fish with large sheets of brown
+paper, on the pretext of warding off the rays of the setting sun. The
+advantage at present was on Lisa's side, for as the time for striking
+the decisive blow approached she manifested the calmest serenity of
+bearing, whereas her rival, in spite of all her efforts to attain the
+same air of distinction, always lapsed into some piece of gross
+vulgarity, which she afterwards regretted. La Normande's ambition was
+to look "like a lady." Nothing irritated her more than to hear people
+extolling the good manners of her rival. This weak point of hers had
+not escaped old Madame Mehudin's observation, and she now directed all
+her attacks upon it.
+
+"I saw Madame Quenu standing at her door this evening," she would say
+sometimes. "It is quite amazing how well she wears. And she's so
+refined-looking, too; quite the lady, indeed. It's the counter that
+does it, I'm sure. A fine counter gives a woman such a respectable
+look."
+
+In this remark there was a veiled allusion to Monsieur Lebigre's
+proposal. The beautiful Norman would make no reply; but for a moment
+or two she would seem deep in thought. In her mind's eye she saw
+herself behind the counter of the wine shop at the other corner of the
+street, forming a pendent, as it were, to beautiful Lisa. It was this
+that first shook her love for Florent.
+
+To tell the truth, it was now becoming a very difficult thing to
+defend Florent. The whole neighbourhood was in arms against him; it
+seemed as though everyone had an immediate interest in exterminating
+him. Some of the market people swore that he had sold himself to the
+police; while others asserted that he had been seen in the butter-
+cellar, attempting to make holes in the wire grating, with the
+intention of tossing lighted matches through them. There was a vast
+increase of slander, a perfect flood of abuse, the source of which
+could not be exactly determined. The fish pavilion was the last one to
+join in the revolt against the inspector. The fish-wives liked Florent
+on account of his gentleness, and for some time they defended him;
+but, influenced by the stallkeepers of the butter and fruit pavilions,
+they at last gave way. Then hostilities began afresh between these
+huge, swelling women and the lean and lank inspector. He was lost in
+the whirl of the voluminous petticoats and buxom bodices which surged
+furiously around his scraggy shoulders. However, he understood
+nothing, but pursued his course towards the realisation of his one
+haunting idea.
+
+At every hour of the day, and in every corner of the market,
+Mademoiselle Saget's black bonnet was now to be seen in the midst of
+this outburst of indignation. Her little pale face seemed to multiply.
+She had sworn a terrible vengeance against the company which assembled
+in Monsieur Lebigre's little cabinet. She accused them of having
+circulated the story that she lived on waste scraps of meat. The truth
+was that old Gavard had told the others one evening that the "old
+nanny-goat" who came to play the spy upon them gorged herself with the
+filth which the Bonapartist clique tossed away. Clemence felt quite
+ill on hearing this, and Robine hurriedly gulped down a draught of
+beer, as though to wash his throat. In Gavard's opinion, the scraps of
+meat left on the Emperor's plate were so much political ordure, the
+putrid remnants of all the filth of the reign. Thenceforth the party
+at Monsieur Lebigre's looked on Mademoiselle Saget as a creature whom
+no one could touch except with tongs. She was regarded as some unclean
+animal that battened upon corruption. Clemence and Gavard circulated
+the story so freely in the markets that the old maid found herself
+seriously injured in her intercourse with the shopkeepers, who
+unceremoniously bade her go off to the scrap-stalls when she came to
+haggle and gossip at their establishments without the least intention
+of buying anything. This cut her off from her sources of information;
+and sometimes she was altogether ignorant of what was happening. She
+shed tears of rage, and in one such moment of anger she bluntly said
+to La Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur: "You needn't give me any more
+hints: I'll settle your Gavard's hash for him now--that I will!"
+
+The two women were rather startled, but refrained from all
+protestation. The next day, however, Mademoiselle Saget had calmed
+down, and again expressed much tender-hearted pity for that poor
+Monsieur Gavard who was so badly advised, and was certainly hastening
+to his ruin.
+
+Gavard was undoubtedly compromising himself. Ever since the conspiracy
+had begun to ripen he had carried the revolver, which caused Madame
+Leonce so much alarm, in his pocket wherever he went. It was a big,
+formidable-looking weapon, which he had bought of the principal
+gunmaker in Paris. He exhibited it to all the women in the poultry
+market, like a schoolboy who has got some prohibited novel hidden in
+his desk. First he would allow the barrel to peer out of his pocket,
+and call attention to it with a wink. Then he affected a mysterious
+reticence, indulged in vague hints and insinuations--played, in short,
+the part of a man who revelled in feigning fear. The possession of
+this revolver gave him immense importance, placed him definitely
+amongst the dangerous characters of Paris. Sometimes, when he was safe
+inside his stall, he would consent to take it out of his pocket, and
+exhibit it to two or three of the women. He made them stand before him
+so as to conceal him with their petticoats, and then he brandished the
+weapon, cocked the lock, caused the breech to revolve, and took aim at
+one of the geese or turkeys that were hanging in the stall. He was
+immensely delighted at the alarm manifested by the women; but
+eventually reassured them by stating that the revolver was not loaded.
+However, he carried a supply of cartridges about with him, in a case
+which he opened with the most elaborate precautions. When he had
+allowed his friends to feel the weight of the cartridges, he would
+again place both weapon and ammunition in his pockets. And afterwards,
+crossing his arms over his breast, he would chatter away jubilantly
+for hours.
+
+"A man's a man when he's got a weapon like that," he would say with a
+swaggering air. "I don't care a fig now for the gendarmes. A friend
+and I went to try it last Sunday on the plain of Saint Denis. Of
+course, you know, a man doesn't tell everyone that he's got a
+plaything of that sort. But, ah! my dears, we fired at a tree, and hit
+it every time. Ah, you'll see, you'll see. You'll hear of Anatole one
+of these days, I can tell you."
+
+He had bestowed the name of Anatole upon the revolver; and he carried
+things so far that in a week's time both weapon and cartridges were
+known to all the women in the pavilion. His friendship for Florent
+seemed to them suspicious; he was too sleek and rich to be visited
+with the hatred that was manifested towards the inspector; still, he
+lost the esteem of the shrewder heads amongst his acquaintances, and
+succeeded in terrifying the timid ones. This delighted him immensely.
+
+"It is very imprudent for a man to carry firearms about with him,"
+said Mademoiselle Saget. "Monsieur Gavard's revolver will end by
+playing him a nasty trick."
+
+Gavard now showed the most jubilant bearing at Monsieur Lebigre's.
+Florent, since ceasing to take his meals with the Quenus, had come
+almost to live in the little "cabinet." He breakfasted, dined, and
+constantly shut himself up there. In fact he had converted the place
+almost into a sort of private room of his own, where he left his old
+coats and books and papers lying about. Monsieur Lebigre had offered
+no objection to these proceedings; indeed, he had even removed one of
+the tables to make room for a cushioned bench, on which Florent could
+have slept had he felt so inclined. When the inspector manifested any
+scruples about taking advantage of Monsieur Lebigre's kindness, the
+latter told him to do as he pleased, saying that the whole house was
+at his service. Logre also manifested great friendship for him, and
+even constituted himself his lieutenant. He was constantly discussing
+affairs with him, rendering an account of the steps he was supposed to
+take, and furnishing the names of newly affiliated associates. Logre,
+indeed, had now assumed the duties of organiser; on him rested the
+task of bringing the various plotters together, forming the different
+sections, and weaving each mesh of the gigantic net into which Paris
+was to fall at a given signal. Florent meantime remained the leader,
+the soul of the conspiracy.
+
+However, much as the hunchback seemed to toil, he attained no
+appreciable result. Although he had loudly asserted that in each
+district of Paris he knew two or three groups of men as determined and
+trustworthy as those who met at Monsieur Lebigre's, he had never yet
+given any precise information about them, but had merely mentioned a
+name here and there, and recounted stories of endless alleged secret
+expeditions, and the wonderful enthusiasm that the people manifested
+for the cause. He made a great point of the hand-grasps he had
+received. So-and-so, whom he thou'd and thee'd, had squeezed his
+fingers and declared he would join them. At the Gros Caillou a big,
+burly fellow, who would make a magnificent sectional leader, had
+almost dislocated his arm in his enthusiasm; while in the Rue
+Popincourt a whole group of working men had embraced him. He declared
+that at a day's notice a hundred thousand active supporters could be
+gathered together. Each time that he made his appearance in the little
+room, wearing an exhausted air, and dropping with apparent fatigue on
+the bench, he launched into fresh variations of his usual reports,
+while Florent duly took notes of what he said, and relied on him to
+realise his many promises. And soon in Florent's pockets the plot
+assumed life. The notes were looked upon as realities, as indisputable
+facts, upon which the entire plan of the rising was constructed. All
+that now remained to be done was to wait for a favourable opportunity,
+and Logre asserted with passionate gesticulations that the whole thing
+would go on wheels.
+
+Florent was at last perfectly happy. His feet no longer seemed to
+tread the ground; he was borne aloft by his burning desire to pass
+sentence on all the wickedness he had seen committed. He had all the
+credulity of a little child, all the confidence of a hero. If Logre
+had told him that the Genius of Liberty perched on the Colonne de
+Juillet[*] would have come down and set itself at their head, he would
+hardly have expressed any surprise. In the evenings, at Monsieur
+Lebigre's, he showed great enthusiasm and spoke effusively of the
+approaching battle, as though it were a festival to which all good and
+honest folks would be invited. But although Gavard in his delight
+began to play with his revolver, Charvet got more snappish than ever,
+and sniggered and shrugged his shoulders. His rival's assumption of
+the leadership angered him extremely; indeed, quite disgusted him with
+politics. One evening when, arriving early, he happened to find
+himself alone with Logre and Lebigre, he frankly unbosomed himself.
+
+[*] The column erected on the Place de la Bastille in memory of the
+    Revolution of July 1830, by which Charles X was dethroned.--
+    Translator.
+
+"Why," said he, "that fellow Florent hasn't an idea about politics,
+and would have done far better to seek a berth as writing master in a
+ladies' school! It would be nothing short of a misfortune if he were
+to succeed, for, with his visionary social sentimentalities, he would
+crush us down beneath his confounded working men! It's all that, you
+know, which ruins the party. We don't need any more tearful
+sentimentalists, humanitarian poets, people who kiss and slobber over
+each other for the merest scratch. But he won't succeed! He'll just
+get locked up, and that will be the end of it."
+
+Logre and the wine dealer made no remark, but allowed Charvet to talk
+on without interruption.
+
+"And he'd have been locked up long ago," he continued, "if he were
+anything as dangerous as he fancies he is. The airs he puts on just
+because he's been to Cayenne are quite sickening. But I'm sure that
+the police knew of his return the very first day he set foot in Paris,
+and if they haven't interfered with him it's simply because they hold
+him in contempt."
+
+At this Logre gave a slight start.
+
+"They've been dogging me for the last fifteen years," resumed the
+Hebertist, with a touch of pride, "but you don't hear me proclaiming
+it from the house-tops. However, he won't catch me taking part in his
+riot. I'm not going to let myself be nabbed like a mere fool. I dare
+say he's already got half a dozen spies at his heels, who will take
+him by the scruff of the neck whenever the authorities give the word."
+
+"Oh, dear, no! What an idea!" exclaimed Monsieur Lebigre, who usually
+observed complete silence. He was rather pale, and looked at Logre,
+who was gently rubbing his hump against the partition.
+
+"That's mere imagination," murmured the hunchback.
+
+"Very well; call it imagination, if you like," replied the tutor; "but
+I know how these things are arranged. At all events, I don't mean to
+let the 'coppers' nab me this time. You others, of course, will please
+yourselves, but if you take my advice--and you especially, Monsieur
+Lebigre--you'll take care not to let your establishment be
+compromised, or the authorities will close it."
+
+At this Logre could not restrain a smile. On several subsequent
+occasions Charvet plied him and Lebigre with similar arguments, as
+though he wished to detach them from Florent's project by frightening
+them; and he was much surprised at the calmness and confidence which
+they both continued to manifest. For his own part, he still came
+pretty regularly in the evening with Clemence. The tall brunette was
+no longer a clerk at the fish auctions--Monsieur Manoury had
+discharged her.
+
+"Those salesmen are all scoundrels!" Logre growled, when he heard of
+her dismissal.
+
+Thereupon Clemence, who, lolling back against the partition, was
+rolling a cigarette between her long, slim fingers, replied in a sharp
+voice: "Oh, it's fair fighting! We don't hold the same political
+views, you know. That fellow Manoury, who's making no end of money,
+would lick the Emperor's boots. For my part, if I were an auctioneer,
+I wouldn't keep him in my service for an hour."
+
+The truth was that she had been indulging in some clumsy pleasantry,
+amusing herself one day by inscribing in the sale-book, alongside of
+the dabs and skate and mackerel sold by auction, the names of some of
+the best-known ladies and gentlemen of the Court. This bestowal of
+piscine names upon high dignitaries, these entries of the sale of
+duchesses and baronesses at thirty sous apiece, had caused Monsieur
+Manoury much alarm. Gavard was still laughing over it.
+
+"Well, never mind!" said he, patting Clemence's arm; "you are every
+inch a man, you are!"
+
+Clemence had discovered a new method of mixing her grog. She began by
+filling her glass with hot water; and after adding some sugar she
+poured the rum drop by drop upon the slice of lemon floating on the
+surface, in such wise that it did not mix with the water. Then she
+lighted it and with a grave expression watched it blaze, slowly
+smoking her cigarette while the flame of the alcohol cast a greenish
+tinge over her face. "Grog," however, was an expensive luxury in which
+she could not afford to indulge after she had lost her place. Charvet
+told her, with a strained laugh, that she was no longer a millionaire.
+She supported herself by giving French lessons, at a very early hour
+in the morning, to a young lady residing in the Rue de Miromesnil, who
+was perfecting her education in secrecy, unknown even to her maid. And
+so now Clemence merely ordered a glass of beer in the evenings, but
+this she drank, it must be admitted, with the most philosophical
+composure.
+
+The evenings in the little sanctum were now far less noisy than they
+had been. Charvet would suddenly lapse into silence, pale with
+suppressed rage, when the others deserted him to listen to his rival.
+The thought that he had been the king of the place, had ruled the
+whole party with despotic power before Florent's appearance there,
+gnawed at his heart, and he felt all the regretful pangs of a
+dethroned monarch. If he still came to the meetings, it was only
+because he could not resist the attraction of the little room where he
+had spent so many happy hours in tyrannising over Gavard and Robine.
+In those days even Logre's hump had been his property, as well as
+Alexandre's fleshy arms and Lacaille's gloomy face. He had done what
+he liked with them, stuffed his opinions down their throats,
+belaboured their shoulders with his sceptre. But now he endured much
+bitterness of spirit; and ended by quite ceasing to speak, simply
+shrugging his shoulders and whistling disdainfully, without
+condescending to combat the absurdities vented in his presence. What
+exasperated him more than anything else was the gradual way in which
+he had been ousted from his position of predominance without being
+conscious of it. He could not see that Florent was in any way his
+superior, and after hearing the latter speak for hours, in his gentle
+and somewhat sad voice, he often remarked: "Why, the fellow's a
+parson! He only wants a cassock!"
+
+The others, however, to all appearance eagerly absorbed whatever the
+inspector said. When Charvet saw Florent's clothes hanging from every
+peg, he pretended not to know where he could put his hat so that it
+would not be soiled. He swept away the papers that lay about the
+little room, declaring that there was no longer any comfort for anyone
+in the place since that "gentleman" had taken possession of it. He
+even complained to the landlord, and asked if the room belonged to a
+single customer or to the whole company. This invasion of his realm
+was indeed the last straw. Men were brutes, and he conceived an
+unspeakable scorn for humanity when he saw Logre and Monsieur Lebigre
+fixing their eyes on Florent with rapt attention. Gavard with his
+revolver irritated him, and Robine, who sat silent behind his glass of
+beer, seemed to him to be the only sensible person in the company, and
+one who doubtless judged people by their real value, and was not led
+away by mere words. As for Alexandre and Lacaille, they confirmed him
+in his belief that "the people" were mere fools, and would require at
+least ten years of revolutionary dictatorship to learn how to conduct
+themselves.
+
+Logre, however, declared that the sections would soon be completely
+organised; and Florent began to assign the different parts that each
+would have to play. One evening, after a final discussion in which he
+again got worsted, Charvet rose up, took his hat, and exclaimed:
+"Well, I'll wish you all good night. You can get your skulls cracked
+if it amuses you; but I would have you understand that I won't take
+any part in the business. I have never abetted anybody's ambition."
+
+Clemence, who had also risen and was putting on her shawl, coldly
+added: "The plan's absurd."
+
+Then, as Robine sat watching their departure with a gentle glance,
+Charvet asked him if he were not coming with them; but Robine, having
+still some beer left in his glass, contented himself with shaking
+hands. Charvet and Clemence never returned again; and Lacaille one day
+informed the company that they now frequented a beer-house in the Rue
+Serpente. He had seen them through the window, gesticulating with
+great energy, in the midst of an attentive group of very young men.
+
+Florent was never able to enlist Claude amongst his supporters. He had
+once entertained the idea of gaining him over to his own political
+views, of making a disciple of him, an assistant in his revolutionary
+task; and in order to initiate him he had taken him one evening to
+Monsieur Lebigre's. Claude, however, spent the whole time in making a
+sketch of Robine, in his hat and chestnut cloak, and with his beard
+resting on the knob of his walking-stick.
+
+"Really, you know," he said to Florent, as they came away, "all that
+you have been saying inside there doesn't interest me in the least. It
+may be very clever, but, for my own part, I see nothing in it. Still,
+you've got a splendid fellow there, that blessed Robine. He's as deep
+as a well. I'll come with you again some other time, but it won't be
+for politics. I shall make sketches of Logre and Gavard, so as to put
+them with Robine in a picture which I was thinking about while you
+were discussing the question of--what do you call it? eh? Oh, the
+question of the two Chambers. Just fancy, now, a picture of Gavard and
+Logre and Robine talking politics, entrenched behind their glasses of
+beer! It would be the success of the Salon, my dear fellow, an
+overwhelming success, a genuine modern picture!"
+
+Florent was grieved by the artist's political scepticism; so he took
+him up to his bedroom, and kept him on the narrow balcony in front of
+the bluish mass of the markets, till two o'clock in the morning,
+lecturing him, and telling him that he was no man to show himself so
+indifferent to the happiness of his country.
+
+"Well, you're perhaps right," replied Claude, shaking his head; "I'm
+an egotist. I can't even say that I paint for the good of my country;
+for, in the first place, my sketches frighten everybody, and then,
+when I'm busy painting, I think about nothing but the pleasure I take
+in it. When I'm painting, it is as though I were tickling myself; it
+makes me laugh all over my body. Well, I can't help it, you know; it's
+my nature to be like that; and you can't expect me to go and drown
+myself in consequence. Besides, France can get on very well without
+me, as my aunt Lisa says. And--may I be quite frank with you?--if I
+like you it's because you seem to me to follow politics just as I
+follow painting. You titillate yourself, my good friend."
+
+Then, as Florent protested, he continued:
+
+"Yes, yes; you are an artist in your own way; you dream of politics,
+and I'll wager you spend hours here at night gazing at the stars and
+imagining they are the voting-papers of infinity. And then you
+titillate yourself with your ideas of truth and justice; and this is
+so evidently the case that those ideas of yours cause just as much
+alarm to commonplace middle-class folks as my sketches do. Between
+ourselves, now, do you imagine that if you were Robine I should take
+any pleasure in your friendship? Ah, no, my friend, you are a great
+poet!"
+
+Then he began to joke on the subject, saying that politics caused him
+no trouble, and that he had got accustomed to hear people discussing
+them in beer shops and studios. This led him to speak of a cafe in the
+Rue Vauvilliers; the cafe on the ground-floor of the house where La
+Sarriette lodged. This smoky place, with its torn, velvet-cushioned
+seats, and marble table-tops discoloured by the drippings from coffee-
+cups, was the chief resort of the young people of the markets.
+Monsieur Jules reigned there over a company of porters, apprentices,
+and gentlemen in white blouses and velvet caps. Two curling "Newgate
+knockers" were glued against his temples; and to keep his neck white
+he had it scraped with a razor every Saturday at a hair-dresser's in
+the Rue des Deux Ecus. At the cafe he gave the tone to his associates,
+especially when he played billiards with studied airs and graces,
+showing off his figure to the best advantage. After the game the
+company would begin to chat. They were a very reactionary set, taking
+a delight in the doings of "society." For his part, Monsieur Jules
+read the lighter boulevardian newspapers, and knew the performers at
+the smaller theatres, talked familiarly of the celebrities of the day,
+and could always tell whether the piece first performed the previous
+evening had been a success or a failure. He had a weakness, however,
+for politics. His ideal man was Morny, as he curtly called him. He
+read the reports of the discussions of the Corps Legislatif, and
+laughed with glee over the slightest words that fell from Morny's
+lips. Ah, Morny was the man to sit upon your rascally republicans! And
+he would assert that only the scum detested the Emperor, for his
+Majesty desired that all respectable people should have a good time of
+it.
+
+"I've been to the cafe occasionally," Claude said to Florent. "The
+young men there are vastly amusing, with their clay pipes and their
+talk about the Court balls! To hear them chatter you might almost
+fancy they were invited to the Tuileries. La Sarriette's young man was
+making great fun of Gavard the other evening. He called him uncle.
+When La Sarriette came downstairs to look for him she was obliged to
+pay his bill. It cost her six francs, for he had lost at billiards,
+and the drinks they had played for were owing. And now, good night, my
+friend, and pleasant dreams. If ever you become a Minister, I'll give
+you some hints on the beautifying of Paris."
+
+Florent was obliged to relinquish the hope of making a docile disciple
+of Claude. This was a source of grief to him, for, blinded though he
+was by his fanatical ardour, he at last grew conscious of the ever-
+increasing hostility which surrounded him. Even at the Mehudins' he
+now met with a colder reception: the old woman would laugh slyly;
+Muche no longer obeyed him, and the beautiful Norman cast glances of
+hasty impatience at him, unable as she was to overcome his coldness.
+At the Quenus', too, he had lost Auguste's friendship. The assistant
+no longer came to see him in his room on the way to bed, being greatly
+alarmed by the reports which he heard concerning this man with whom he
+had previously shut himself up till midnight. Augustine had made her
+lover swear that he would never again be guilty of such imprudence;
+however, it was Lisa who turned the young man into Florent's
+determined enemy by begging him and Augustine to defer their marriage
+till her cousin should vacate the little bedroom at the top of the
+house, as she did not want to give that poky dressing-room on the
+first floor to the new shop girl whom she would have to engage. From
+that time forward Auguste was anxious that the "convict" should be
+arrested. He had found such a pork shop as he had long dreamed of, not
+at Plaisance certainly, but at Montrouge, a little farther away. And
+now trade had much improved, and Augustine, with her silly, overgrown
+girl's laugh, said that she was quite ready. So every night, whenever
+some slight noise awoke him, August was thrilled with delight as he
+imagined that the police were at last arresting Florent.
+
+Nothing was said at the Quenu-Gradelles' about all the rumours which
+circulated. There was a tacit understanding amongst the staff of the
+pork shop to keep silent respecting them in the presence of Quenu. The
+latter, somewhat saddened by the falling-out between his brother and
+his wife, sought consolation in stringing his sausages and salting his
+pork. Sometimes he would come and stand on his door-step, with his red
+face glowing brightly above his white apron, which his increasing
+corpulence stretched quite taut, and never did he suspect all the
+gossip which his appearance set on foot in the markets. Some of the
+women pitied him, and thought that he was losing flesh, though he was,
+indeed, stouter than ever; while others, on the contrary, reproached
+him for not having grown thin with shame at having such a brother as
+Florent. He, however, like one of those betrayed husbands who are
+always the last to know what has befallen them, continued in happy
+ignorance, displaying a light-heartedness which was quite affecting.
+He would stop some neighbour's wife on the footway to ask her if she
+found his brawn or truffled boar's head to her liking, and she would
+at once assume a sympathetic expression, and speak in a condoling way,
+as though all the pork on his premises had got jaundice.
+
+"What do they all mean by looking at me with such a funereal air?" he
+asked Lisa one day. "Do you think I'm looking ill?"
+
+Lisa, well aware that he was terribly afraid of illness, and groaned
+and made a dreadful disturbance if he suffered the slightest ailment,
+reassured him on this point, telling him that he was as blooming as a
+rose. The fine pork shop, however, was becoming gloomy; the mirrors
+seemed to pale, the marbles grew frigidly white, and the cooked meats
+on the counter stagnated in yellow fat or lakes of cloudy jelly. One
+day, even, Claude came into the shop to tell his aunt that the display
+in the window looked quite "in the dumps." This was really the truth.
+The Strasburg tongues on their beds of blue paper-shavings had a
+melancholy whiteness of hue, like the tongues of invalids; and the
+whilom chubby hams seemed to be wasting away beneath their mournful
+green top-knots. Inside the shop, too, when customers asked for a
+black-pudding or ten sous' worth of bacon, or half a pound of lard,
+they spoke in subdued, sorrowful voices, as though they were in the
+bed-chamber of a dying man. There were always two or three lachrymose
+women in front of the chilled heating-pan. Beautiful Lisa meantime
+discharged the duties of chief mourner with silent dignity. Her white
+apron fell more primly than ever over her black dress. Her hands,
+scrupulously clean and closely girded at the wrists by long white
+sleevelets, her face with its becoming air of sadness, plainly told
+all the neighbourhood, all the inquisitive gossips who streamed into
+the shop from morning to night, that they, the Quenu-Gradelles, were
+suffering from unmerited misfortune, but that she knew the cause of
+it, and would triumph over it at last. And sometimes she stooped to
+look at the two gold-fish, who also seemed ill at ease as they swam
+languidly around the aquarium in the window, and her glance seemed to
+promise them better days in the future.
+
+Beautiful Lisa now only allowed herself one indulgence. She fearlessly
+patted Marjolin's satiny chin. The young man had just come out of the
+hospital. His skull had healed, and he looked as fat and merry as
+ever; but even the little intelligence he had possessed had left him,
+he was now quite an idiot. The gash in his skull must have reached his
+brain, for he had become a mere animal. The mind of a child of five
+dwelt in his sturdy frame. He laughed and stammered, he could no
+longer pronounce his words properly, and he was as submissively
+obedient as a sheep. Cadine took entire possession of him again;
+surprised, at first, at the alteration in him, and then quite
+delighted at having this big fellow to do exactly as she liked with.
+He was her doll, her toy, her slave in all respects but one: she could
+not prevent him from going off to Madame Quenu's every now and then.
+She thumped him, but he did not seem to feel her blows; as soon as she
+had slung her basket round her neck, and set off to sell her violets
+in the Rue du Pont Neuf and the Rue de Turbigo, he went to prowl about
+in front of the pork shop.
+
+"Come in!" Lisa cried to him.
+
+She generally gave him some gherkins, of which he was extremely fond;
+and he ate them, laughing in a childish way, whilst he stood in front
+of the counter. The sight of the handsome mistress of the shop filled
+him with rapture; he often clapped his hands with joy and began to
+jump about and vent little cries of pleasure, like a child delighted
+at something shown to it. On the first few occasions when he came to
+see her after leaving the hospital Lisa had feared that he might
+remember what had happened.
+
+"Does your head still hurt you?" she asked him.
+
+But he swayed about and burst into a merry laugh as he answered no;
+and then Lisa gently inquired: "You had a fall, hadn't you?"
+
+"Yes, a fall, fall, fall," he sang, in a happy voice, tapping his
+skull the while.
+
+Then, as though he were in a sort of ecstasy, he continued in
+lingering notes, as he gazed at Lisa, "Beautiful, beautiful,
+beautiful!" This quite touched Madame Quenu. She had prevailed upon
+Gavard to keep him in his service. It was on the occasions when he so
+humbly vented his admiration that she caressed his chin, and told him
+that he was a good lad. He smiled with childish satisfaction, at times
+closing his eyes like some domestic pet fondled by its mistress; and
+Lisa thought to herself that she was making him some compensation for
+the blow with which she had felled him in the cellar of the poultry
+market.
+
+However, the Quenus' establishment still remained under a cloud.
+Florent sometimes ventured to show himself, and shook hands with his
+brother, while Lisa observed a frigid silence. He even dined with them
+sometimes on Sundays, at long intervals, and Quenu then made great
+efforts at gaiety, but could not succeed in imparting any cheerfulness
+to the meal. He ate badly, and ended by feeling altogether put out.
+One evening, after one of these icy family gatherings, he said to his
+wife with tears in his eyes:
+
+"What can be the matter with me? Is it true that I'm not ill? Don't
+you really see anything wrong in my appearance? I feel just as though
+I'd got a heavy weight somewhere inside me. And I'm so sad and
+depressed, too, without in the least knowing why. What can it be, do
+you think?"
+
+"Oh, a little attack of indigestion, I dare say," replied Lisa.
+
+"No, no; it's been going on too long for that; I feel quite crushed
+down. Yet the business is going on all right; I've no great worries,
+and I am leading just the same steady life as ever. But you, too, my
+dear, don't look well; you seem melancholy. If there isn't a change
+for the better soon, I shall send for the doctor."
+
+Lisa looked at him with a grave expression.
+
+"There's no need of a doctor," she said, "things will soon be all
+right again. There's something unhealthy in the atmosphere just now.
+All the neighbourhood is unwell." Then, as if yielding to an impulse
+of anxious affection, she added: "Don't worry yourself, my dear. I
+can't have you falling ill; that would be the crowning blow."
+
+As a rule she sent him back to the kitchen, knowing that the noise of
+the choppers, the tuneful simmering of the fat, and the bubbling of
+the pans had a cheering effect upon him. In this way, too, she kept
+him at a distance from the indiscreet chatter of Mademoiselle Saget,
+who now spent whole mornings in the shop. The old maid seemed bent on
+arousing Lisa's alarm, and thus driving her to some extreme step. She
+began by trying to obtain her confidence.
+
+"What a lot of mischievous folks there are about!" she exclaimed;
+"folks who would be much better employed in minding their own
+business. If you only knew, my dear Madame Quenu--but no, really, I
+should never dare to repeat such things to you."
+
+And, as Madame Quenu replied that she was quite indifferent to gossip,
+and that it had no effect upon her, the old maid whispered into her
+ear across the counter: "Well, people say, you know, that Monsieur
+Florent isn't your cousin at all."
+
+Then she gradually allowed Lisa to see that she knew the whole story;
+by way of proving that she had her quite at her mercy. When Lisa
+confessed the truth, equally as a matter of diplomacy, in order that
+she might have the assistance of some one who would keep her well
+posted in all the gossip of the neighbourhood, the old maid swore that
+for her own part she would be as mute as a fish, and deny the truth of
+the reports about Florent, even if she were to be led to the stake for
+it. And afterwards this drama brought her intense enjoyment; every
+morning she came to the shop with some fresh piece of disturbing news.
+
+"You must be careful," she whispered one day; "I have just heard two
+women in the tripe market talking about you know what. I can't
+interrupt people and tell them they are lying, you know. It would look
+so strange. But the story's got about, and it's spreading farther
+every day. It can't be stopped now, I fear; the truth will have to
+come out."
+
+A few days later she returned to the assault in all earnest. She made
+her appearance looking quite scared, and waited impatiently till there
+was no one in the shop, when she burst out in her sibilant voice:
+
+"Do you know what people are saying now? Well, they say that all those
+men who meet at Monsieur Lebigre's have got guns, and are going to
+break out again as they did in '48. It's quite distressing to see such
+a worthy man as Monsieur Gavard--rich, too, and so respectable--
+leaguing himself with such scoundrels! I was very anxious to let you
+know, on account of your brother-in-law."
+
+"Oh, it's mere nonsense, I'm sure; it can't be serious," rejoined
+Lisa, just to incite the old maid to tell her more.
+
+"Not serious, indeed! Why, when one passes along the Rue Pirouette in
+the evening one can hear them screaming out in the most dreadful way.
+Oh! they make no mystery of it all. You know yourself how they tried
+to corrupt your husband. And the cartridges which I have seen them
+making from my own window, are they mere nonsense? Well, well, I'm
+only telling you this for your own good."
+
+"Oh! I'm sure of that, and I'm very much obliged to you," replied
+Lisa; "but people do invent such stories, you know."
+
+"Ah, but this is no invention, unfortunately. The whole neighbourhood
+is talking of it. It is said, too, that if the police discover the
+matter there will be a great many people compromised--Monsieur Gavard,
+for instance."
+
+Madame Quenu shrugged her shoulders as though to say that Monsieur
+Gavard was an old fool, and that it would do him good to be locked up.
+
+"Well, I merely mention Monsieur Gavard as I might mention any of the
+others, your brother-in-law, for instance," resumed the old maid with
+a wily glance. "Your brother-in-law is the leader, it seems. That's
+very annoying for you, and I'm very sorry indeed; for if the police
+were to make a descent here they might march Monsieur Quenu off as
+well. Two brothers, you know, they're like two fingers of the same
+hand."
+
+Beautiful Lisa protested against this, but she turned very pale, for
+Mademoiselle Saget's last thrust had touched a vulnerable point. From
+that day forward the old maid was ever bringing her stories of
+innocent people who had been thrown into prison for extending
+hospitality to criminal scoundrels. In the evening, when La Saget went
+to get her black-currant syrup at the wine dealer's, she prepared her
+budget for the next morning. Rose was but little given to gossiping,
+and the old main reckoned chiefly on her own eyes and ears. She had
+been struck by Monsieur Lebigre's extremely kind and obliging manner
+towards Florent, his eagerness to keep him at his establishment, all
+the polite civilities, for which the little money which the other
+spent in the house could never recoup him. And this conduct of
+Monsieur Lebigre's surprised her the more as she was aware of the
+position in which the two men stood in respect to the beautiful
+Norman.
+
+"It looks as though Lebigre were fattening him up for sale," she
+reflected. "Whom can he want to sell him to, I wonder?"
+
+One evening when she was in the bar she saw Logre fling himself on the
+bench in the sanctum, and heard him speak of his perambulations
+through the faubourgs, with the remark that he was dead beat. She cast
+a hasty glance at his feet, and saw that there was not a speck of dust
+on his boots. Then she smiled quietly, and went off with her black-
+currant syrup, her lips closely compressed.
+
+She used to complete her budget of information on getting back to her
+window. It was very high up, commanding a view of all the neighbouring
+houses, and proved a source of endless enjoyment to her. She was
+constantly installed at it, as though it were an observatory from
+which she kept watch upon everything that went on in the
+neighbourhood. She was quite familiar with all the rooms opposite her,
+both on the right and the left, even to the smallest details of their
+furniture. She could have described, without the least omission, the
+habits of their tenants, have related if the latter's homes were happy
+or the contrary, have told when and how they washed themselves, what
+they had for dinner, and who it was that came to see them. Then she
+obtained a side view of the markets, and not a woman could walk along
+the Rue Rambuteau without being seen by her; and she could have
+correctly stated whence the woman had come and whither she was going,
+what she had got in her basket, and, in short, every detail about her,
+her husband, her clothes, her children, and her means. "That's Madame
+Loret, over there; she's giving her son a fine education; that's
+Madame Hutin, a poor little woman who's dreadfully neglected by her
+husband; that's Mademoiselle Cecile, the butcher's daughter, a girl
+that no one will marry because she's scrofulous." In this way she
+could have continued jerking out biographical scraps for days
+together, deriving extraordinary amusement from the most trivial,
+uninteresting incidents. However, as soon as eight o'clock struck, she
+only had eyes for the frosted "cabinet" window on which appeared the
+black shadows of the coterie of politicians. She discovered the
+secession of Charvet and Clemence by missing their bony silhouettes
+from the milky transparency. Not an incident occurred in that room but
+she sooner or later learnt it by some sudden motion of those silent
+arms and heads. She acquired great skill in interpretation, and could
+divine the meaning of protruding noses, spreading fingers, gaping
+mouths, and shrugging shoulders; and in this way she followed the
+progress of the conspiracy step by step, in such wise that she could
+have told day by day how matters stood. One evening the terrible
+outcome of it all was revealed to her. She saw the shadow of Gavard's
+revolver, a huge silhouette with pointed muzzle showing very blackly
+against the glimmering window. It kept appearing and disappearing so
+rapidly that it seemed as though the room was full of revolvers. Those
+were the firearms of which Mademoiselle Saget had spoken to Madame
+Quenu. On another evening she was much puzzled by the sight of endless
+lengths of some material or other, and came to the conclusion that the
+men must be manufacturing cartridges. The next morning, however, she
+made her appearance in the wine shop by eleven o'clock, on the pretext
+of asking Rose if she could let her have a candle, and, glancing
+furtively into the little sanctum, she espied a heap of red material
+lying on the table. This greatly alarmed her, and her next budget of
+news was one of decisive gravity.
+
+"I don't want to alarm you, Madame Quenu," she said, "but matters are
+really looking very serious. Upon my word, I'm quite alarmed. You must
+on no account repeat what I am going to confide to you. They would
+murder me if they knew I had told you."
+
+Then, when Lisa had sworn to say nothing that might compromise her,
+she told her about the red material.
+
+"I can't think what it can be. There was a great heap of it. It looked
+just like rags soaked in blood. Logre, the hunchback, you know, put
+one of the pieces over his shoulder. He looked like a headsman. You
+may be sure this is some fresh trickery or other."
+
+Lisa made no reply, but seemed deep in thought whilst with lowered
+eyes, she handled a fork and mechanically arranged some piece of salt
+pork on a dish.
+
+"If I were you," resumed Mademoiselle Saget softly, "I shouldn't be
+easy in mind; I should want to know the meaning of it all. Why
+shouldn't you go upstairs and examine your brother-in-law's bedroom?"
+
+At this Lisa gave a slight start, let the fork drop, and glanced
+uneasily at the old maid, believing that she had discovered her
+intentions. But the other continued: "You would certainly be justified
+in doing so. There's no knowing into what danger your brother-in-law
+may lead you, if you don't put a check on him. They were talking about
+you yesterday at Madame Taboureau's. Ah! you have a most devoted
+friend in her. Madame Taboureau said that you were much too easy-
+going, and that if she were you she would have put an end to all this
+long ago."
+
+"Madame Taboureau said that?" murmured Lisa thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes, indeed she did; and Madame Taboureau is a woman whose advice is
+worth listening to. Try to find out the meaning of all those red
+bands; and if you do, you'll tell me, won't you?"
+
+Lisa, however, was no longer listening to her. She was gazing
+abstractedly at the edible snails and Gervais cheeses between the
+festoons of sausages in the window. She seemed absorbed in a mental
+conflict, which brought two little furrows to her brow. The old maid,
+however, poked her nose over the dishes on the counter.
+
+"Ah, some slices of saveloy!" she muttered, as though she were
+speaking to herself. "They'll get very dry cut up like that. And that
+black-pudding's broken, I see--a fork's been stuck into it, I expect.
+It might be taken away--it's soiling the dish."
+
+Lisa, still absent-minded, gave her the black-pudding and slices of
+saveloy. "You may take them," she said, "if you would care for them."
+
+The black bag swallowed them up. Mademoiselle Saget was so accustomed
+to receiving presents that she had actually ceased to return thanks
+for them. Every morning she carried away all the scraps of the pork
+shop. And now she went off with the intention of obtaining her dessert
+from La Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur, by gossiping to them about
+Gavard.
+
+When Lisa was alone again she installed herself on the bench, behind
+the counter, as though she thought she would be able to come to a
+sounder decision if she were comfortably seated. For the last week she
+had been very anxious. Florent had asked Quenu for five hundred francs
+one evening, in the easy, matter-of-course way of a man who had money
+lying to his credit at the pork shop. Quenu referred him to his wife.
+This was distasteful to Florent, who felt somewhat uneasy on applying
+to beautiful Lisa. But she immediately went up to her bedroom, brought
+the money down and gave it to him, without saying a word, or making
+the least inquiry as to what he intended to do with it. She merely
+remarked that she had made a note of the payment on the paper
+containing the particulars of Florent's share of the inheritance.
+Three days later he took a thousand francs.
+
+"It was scarcely worth while trying to make himself out so
+disinterested," Lisa said to Quenu that night, as they went to bed. "I
+did quite right, you see, in keeping the account. By the way, I
+haven't noted down the thousand francs I gave him to-day."
+
+She sat down at the secretaire, and glanced over the page of figures.
+Then she added: "I did well to leave a blank space. I'll put down what
+I pay him on the margin. You'll see, now, he'll fritter it all away by
+degrees. That's what I've been expecting for a long time past."
+
+Quenu said nothing, but went to bed feeling very much put out. Every
+time that his wife opened the secretaire the drawer gave out a
+mournful creak which pierced his heart. He even thought of
+remonstrating with his brother, and trying to prevent him from ruining
+himself with the Mehudins; but when the time came, he did not dare to
+do it. Two days later Florent asked for another fifteen hundred
+francs. Logre had said one evening that things would ripen much faster
+if they could only get some money. The next day he was enchanted to
+find these words of his, uttered quite at random, result in the
+receipt of a little pile of gold, which he promptly pocketed,
+sniggering as he did so, and his hunch fairly shaking with delight.
+From that time forward money was constantly being needed: one section
+wished to hire a room where they could meet, while another was
+compelled to provide for various needy patriots. Then there were arms
+and ammunition to be purchased, men to be enlisted, and private police
+expenses. Florent would have paid for anything. He had bethought
+himself of Uncle Gradelle's treasure, and recalled La Normande's
+advice. So he made repeated calls upon Lisa's secretaire, being merely
+kept in check by the vague fear with which his sister-in-law's grave
+face inspired him. Never, thought he, could he have spent his money in
+a holier cause. Logre now manifested the greatest enthusiasm, and wore
+the most wonderful rose-coloured neckerchiefs and the shiniest of
+varnished boots, the sight of which made Lacaille glower blackly.
+
+"That makes three thousand francs in seven days," Lisa remarked to
+Quenu. "What do you think of that? A pretty state of affairs, isn't
+it? If he goes on at this rate his fifty thousand francs will last him
+barely four months. And yet it took old Gradelle forty years to put
+his fortune together!"
+
+"It's all your own fault!" cried Quenu. "There was no occasion for you
+to say anything to him about the money."
+
+Lisa gave her husband a severe glance. "It is his own," she said; "and
+he is entitled to take it all. It's not the giving him the money that
+vexes me, but the knowledge that he must make a bad use of it. I tell
+you again, as I have been telling you for a long time past, all this
+must come to an end."
+
+"Do whatever you like; I won't prevent you," at last exclaimed the
+pork butcher, who was tortured by his cupidity.
+
+He still loved his brother; but the thought of fifty thousand francs
+squandered in four months was agony to him. As for his wife, after all
+Mademoiselle Saget's chattering she guessed what became of the money.
+The old maid having ventured to refer to the inheritance, Lisa had
+taken advantage of the opportunity to let the neighbourhood know that
+Florent was drawing his share, and spending it after his own fashion.
+
+It was on the following day that the story of the strips of red
+material impelled Lisa to take definite actin. For a few moments she
+remained struggling with herself whilst gazing at the depressed
+appearance of the shop. The sides of pork hung all around in a sullen
+fashion, and Mouton, seated beside a bowl of fat, displayed the
+ruffled coat and dim eyes of a cat who no longer digests his meals in
+peace. Thereupon Lisa called to Augustine and told her to attend to
+the counter, and she herself went up to Florent's room.
+
+When she entered it, she received quite a shock. The bed, hitherto so
+spotless, was quite ensanguined by a bundle of long red scarves
+dangling down to the floor. On the mantelpiece, between the gilt
+cardboard boxes and the old pomatum-pots, were several red armlets and
+clusters of red cockades, looking like pools of blood. And hanging
+from every nail and peg against the faded grey wallpaper were pieces
+of bunting, square flags--yellow, blue, green, and black--in which
+Lisa recognised the distinguishing banners of the twenty sections. The
+childish simplicity of the room seemed quite scared by all this
+revolutionary decoration. The aspect of guileless stupidity which the
+shop girl had left behind her, the white innocence of the curtains and
+furniture, now glared as with the reflection of a fire; while the
+photograph of Auguste and Augustine looked white with terror. Lisa
+walked round the room, examining the flags, the armlets, and the
+scarves, without touching any of them, as though she feared that the
+dreadful things might burn her. She was reflecting that she had not
+been mistaken, that it was indeed on these and similar things that
+Florent's money had been spent. And to her this seemed an utter
+abomination, an incredibility which set her whole being surging with
+indignation. To think that her money, that money which had been so
+honestly earned, was being squandered to organise and defray the
+expenses of an insurrection!
+
+She stood there, gazing at the expanded blossoms of the pomegranate on
+the balcony--blossoms which seemed to her like an additional supply of
+crimson cockades--and listening to the sharp notes of the chaffinch,
+which resembled the echo of a distant fusillade. And then it struck
+her that the insurrection might break out the next day, or perhaps
+that very evening. She fancied she could see the banners streaming in
+the air and the scarves advancing in line, while a sudden roll of
+drums broke on her ear. Then she hastily went downstairs again,
+without even glancing at the papers which were lying on the table. She
+stopped on the first floor, went into her own room, and dressed
+herself.
+
+In this critical emergency Lisa arranged her hair with scrupulous care
+and perfect calmness. She was quite resolute; not a quiver of
+hesitation disturbed her; but a sterner expression than usual had come
+into her eyes. As she fastened her black silk dress, straining the
+waistband with all the strength of her fingers, she recalled Abbe
+Roustan's words; and she questioned herself, and her conscience
+answered that she was going to fulfil a duty. By the time she drew her
+broidered shawl round her broad shoulders, she felt that she was about
+to perform a deed of high morality. She put on a pair of dark mauve
+gloves, secured a thick veil to her bonnet; and before leaving the
+room she double-locked the secretaire, with a hopeful expression on
+her face which seemed to say that that much worried piece of furniture
+would at last be able to sleep in peace again.
+
+Quenu was exhibiting his white paunch at the shop door when his wife
+came down. He was surprised to see her going out in full dress at ten
+o'clock in the morning. "Hallo! Where are you off to?" he asked.
+
+She pretended that she was going out with Madame Taboureau, and added
+that she would call at the Gaite Theatre to buy some tickets. Quenu
+hurried after her to tell her to secure some front seats, so that they
+might be able to see well. Then, as he returned to the shop, Lisa made
+her way to the cab-stand opposite St. Eustache, got into a cab, pulled
+down the blinds, and told the driver to go to the Gaite Theatre. She
+felt afraid of being followed. When she had booked two seats, however,
+she directed the cabman to drive her to the Palais de Justice. There,
+in front of the gate, she discharged him, and then quietly made her
+way through the halls and corridors to the Prefecture of Police.
+
+She soon lost herself in a noisy crowd of police officers and
+gentlemen in long frock-coats, but at last gave a man half a franc to
+guide her to the Prefect's rooms. She found, however, that the Prefect
+only received such persons as came with letters of audience; and she
+was shown into a small apartment, furnished after the style of a
+boarding-house parlour. A fat, bald-headed official, dressed in black
+from head to foot, received her there with sullen coldness. What was
+her business? he inquired. Thereupon she raised her veil, gave her
+name, and told her story, clearly and distinctly, without a pause. The
+bald man listened with a weary air.
+
+"You are this man's sister-in-law, are you not?" he inquired, when she
+had finished.
+
+"Yes," Lisa candidly replied. "We are honest, straight-forward people,
+and I am anxious that my husband should not be compromised."
+
+The official shrugged his shoulders, as though to say that the whole
+affair was a great nuisance.
+
+"Do you know," he said impatiently, "that I have been pestered with
+this business for more than a year past? Denunciation after
+denunciation has been sent to me, and I am being continually goaded
+and pressed to take action. You will understand that if I haven't done
+so as yet, it is because I prefer to wait. We have good reasons for
+our conduct in the matter. Stay, now, here are the papers relating to
+it. I'll let you see them."
+
+He laid before her an immense collection of papers in a blue wrapper.
+Lisa turned them over. They were like detached chapters of the story
+she had just been relating. The commissaires of police at Havre,
+Rouen, and Vernon notified Florent's arrival within their respective
+jurisdictions. Then came a report which announced that he had taken up
+his residence with the Quenu-Gradelles. Next followed his appointment
+at the markets, an account of his mode of life, the spending of his
+evenings at Monsieur Lebigre's; not a detail was deficient. Lisa,
+quite astounded as she was, noticed that the reports were in
+duplicate, so that they must have emanated from two different sources.
+And at last she came upon a pile of letters, anonymous letters of
+every shape, and in every description of handwriting. They brought her
+amazement to a climax. In one letter she recognised the villainous
+hand of Mademoiselle Saget, denouncing the people who met in the
+little sanctum at Lebigre's. On a large piece of greasy paper she
+identified the heavy pot-hooks of Madame Lecoeur; and there was also a
+sheet of cream-laid note-paper, ornamented with a yellow pansy, and
+covered with the scrawls of La Sarriette and Monsieur Jules. These two
+letters warned the Government to beware of Gavard. Farther on Lisa
+recognised the coarse style of old Madame Mehudin, who in four pages
+of almost indecipherable scribble repeated all the wild stories about
+Florent that circulated in the markets. However, what startled her
+more than anything else was the discovery of a bill-head of her own
+establishment, with the inscription /Quenu-Gradelle, Pork Butcher/, on
+its face, whilst on the back of it Auguste had penned a denunciation
+of the man whom he looked upon as an obstacle to his marriage.
+
+The official had acted upon a secret idea in placing these papers
+before her. "You don't recognise any of these handwritings, do you?"
+he asked.
+
+"No," she stammered, rising from her seat, quite oppressed by what she
+had just learned; and she hastily pulled down her veil again to
+conceal the blush of confusion which was rising to her cheeks. Her
+silk dress rustled, and her dark gloves disappeared beneath her heavy
+shawl.
+
+"You see, madame," said the bald man with a faint smile, "your
+information comes a little late. But I promise you that your visit
+shall not be forgotten. And tell your husband not to stir. It is
+possible that something may happen soon that----"
+
+He did not complete his sentence, but, half rising from his armchair,
+made a slight bow to Lisa. It was a dismissal, and she took her leave.
+In the ante-room she caught sight of Logre and Monsieur Lebigre, who
+hastily turned their faces away; but she was more disturbed than they
+were. She went her way through the halls and along the corridors,
+feeling as if she were in the clutches of this system of police which,
+it now seemed to her, saw and knew everything. At last she came out
+upon the Place Dauphine. When she reached the Quai de l'Horloge she
+slackened her steps, and felt refreshed by the cool breeze blowing
+from the Seine.
+
+She now had a keen perception of the utter uselessness of what she had
+done. Her husband was in no danger whatever; and this thought, whilst
+relieving her, left her a somewhat remorseful feeling. She was
+exasperated with Auguste and the women who had put her in such a
+ridiculous position. She walked on yet more slowly, watching the Seine
+as it flowed past. Barges, black with coal-dust, were floating down
+the greenish water; and all along the bank anglers were casting their
+lines. After all, it was not she who had betrayed Florent. This
+reflection suddenly occurred to her and astonished her. Would she have
+been guilty of a wicked action, then, if she had been his betrayer?
+She was quite perplexed; surprised at the possibility of her
+conscience having deceived her. Those anonymous letters seemed
+extremely base. She herself had gone openly to the authorities, given
+her name, and saved innocent people from being compromised. Then at
+the sudden thought of old Gradelle's fortune she again examined
+herself, and felt ready to throw the money into the river if such a
+course should be necessary to remove the blight which had fallen on
+the pork shop. No, she was not avaricious, she was sure she wasn't; it
+was no thought of money that had prompted her in what she had just
+done. As she crossed the Pont au Change she grew quite calm again,
+recovering all her superb equanimity. On the whole, it was much
+better, she felt, that others should have anticipated her at the
+Prefecture. She would not have to deceive Quenu, and she would sleep
+with an easier conscience.
+
+"Have you booked the seats?" Quenu asked her when she returned home.
+
+He wanted to see the tickets, and made Lisa explain to him the exact
+position the seats occupied in the dress-circle. Lisa had imagined
+that the police would make a descent upon the house immediately after
+receiving her information, and her proposal to go to the theatre had
+only been a wily scheme for getting Quenu out of the way while the
+officers were arresting Florent. She had contemplated taking him for
+an outing in the afternoon--one of those little jaunts which they
+occasionally allowed themselves. They would then drive in an open cab
+to the Bois de Boulogne, dine at a restaurant, and amuse themselves
+for an hour or two at some cafe concern. But there was no need to go
+out now, she thought; so she spent the rest of the day behind her
+counter, with a rosy glow on her face, and seeming brighter and gayer,
+as though she were recovering from some indisposition.
+
+"You see, I told you it was fresh air you wanted!" exclaimed Quenu.
+"Your walk this morning has brightened you up wonderfully!"
+
+"No, indeed," she said after a pause, again assuming her look of
+severity; "the streets of Paris are not at all healthy places."
+
+In the evening they went to the Gaite to see the performance of "La
+Grace de Dieu." Quenu, in a frock-coat and drab gloves, with his hair
+carefully pomatumed and combed, was occupied most of the time in
+hunting for the names of the performers in the programme. Lisa looked
+superb in her low dress as she rested her hands in their tight-fitting
+white gloves on the crimson velvet balustrade. They were both of them
+deeply affected by the misfortunes of Marie. The commander, they
+thought, was certainly a desperate villain; while Pierrot made them
+laugh from the first moment of his appearance on the stage. But at
+last Madame Quenu cried. The departure of the child, the prayer in the
+maiden's chamber, the return of the poor mad creature, moistened her
+eyes with gentle tears, which she brushed away with her handkerchief.
+
+However, the pleasure which the evening afforded her turned into a
+feeling of triumph when she caught sight of La Normande and her mother
+sitting in the upper gallery. She thereupon puffed herself out more
+than ever, sent Quenu off to the refreshment bar for a box of
+caramels, and began to play with her fan, a mother-of-pearl fan,
+elaborately gilt. The fish-girl was quite crushed; and bent her head
+down to listen to her mother, who was whispering to her. When the
+performance was over and beautiful Lisa and the beautiful Norman met
+in the vestibule they exchanged a vague smile.
+
+Florent had dined early at Monsieur Lebigre's that day. He was
+expecting Logre, who had promised to introduce to him a retired
+sergeant, a capable man, with whom they were to discuss the plan of
+attack upon the Palais Bourbon and the Hotel de Ville. The night
+closed in, and the fine rain, which had begun to fall in the
+afternoon, shrouded the vast markets in a leaden gloom. They loomed
+darkly against the copper-tinted sky, while wisps of murky cloud
+skimmed by almost on a level with the roofs, looking as though they
+were caught and torn by the points of the lightning-conductors.
+Florent felt depressed by the sight of the muddy streets, and the
+streaming yellowish rain which seemed to sweep the twilight away and
+extinguish it in the mire. He watched the crowds of people who had
+taken refuge on the foot-pavements of the covered ways, the umbrellas
+flitting past in the downpour, and the cabs that dashed with increased
+clatter and speed along the wellnigh deserted roads. Presently there
+was a rift in the clouds; and a red glow arose in the west. Then a
+whole army of street-sweepers came into sight at the end of the Rue
+Montmartre, driving a lake of liquid mud before them with their
+brooms.
+
+Logre did not turn up with the sergeant; Gavard had gone to dine with
+some friends at Batignolles, and so Florent was reduced to spending
+the evening alone with Robine. He had all the talking to himself, and
+ended by feeling very low-spirited. His companion merely wagged his
+beard, and stretched out his hand every quarter of an hour to raise
+his glass of beer to his lips. At last Florent grew so bored that he
+went off to bed. Robine, however, though left to himself, still
+lingered there, contemplating his glass with an expression of deep
+thought. Rose and the waiter, who had hoped to shut up early, as the
+coterie of politicians was absent, had to wait a long half hour before
+he at last made up his mind to leave.
+
+When Florent got to his room, he felt afraid to go to bed. He was
+suffering from one of those nervous attacks which sometimes plunged
+him into horrible nightmares until dawn. On the previous day he had
+been to Clamart to attend the funeral of Monsieur Verlaque, who had
+died after terrible sufferings; and he still felt sad at the
+recollection of the narrow coffin which he had seen lowered into the
+earth. Nor could he banish from his mind the image of Madame Verlaque,
+who, with a tearful voice, though there was not a tear in her eyes,
+kept following him and speaking to him about the coffin, which was not
+paid for, and of the cost of the funeral, which she was quite at a
+loss about, as she had not a copper in the place, for the druggist, on
+hearing of her husband's death on the previous day, had insisted upon
+his bill being paid. So Florent had been obliged to advance the money
+for the coffin and other funeral expenses, and had even given the
+gratuities to the mutes. Just as he was going away, Madame Verlaque
+looked at him with such a heartbroken expression that he left her
+twenty francs.
+
+And now Monsieur Verlaque's death worried him very much. It affected
+his situation in the markets. He might lose his berth, or perhaps be
+formally appointed inspector. In either case he foresaw vexatious
+complications which might arouse the suspicions of the police. He
+would have been delighted if the insurrection could have broken out
+the very next day, so that he might at once have tossed the laced cap
+of his inspectorship into the streets. With his mind full of harassing
+thoughts like these, he stepped out upon the balcony, as though
+soliciting of the warm night some whiff of air to cool his fevered
+brow. The rain had laid the wind, and a stormy heat still reigned
+beneath the deep blue, cloudless heavens. The markets, washed by the
+downpour, spread out below him, similar in hue to the sky, and, like
+the sky, studded with the yellow stars of their gas lamps.
+
+Leaning on the iron balustrade, Florent recollected that sooner or
+later he would certainly be punished for having accepted the
+inspectorship. It seemed to lie like a stain on his life. He had
+become an official of the Prefecture, forswearing himself, serving the
+Empire in spite of all the oaths he had taken in his exile. His
+anxiety to please Lisa, the charitable purpose to which he had devoted
+the salary he received, the just and scrupulous manner in which he had
+always struggled to carry out his duties, no longer seemed to him
+valid excuses for his base abandonment of principle. If he had
+suffered in the midst of all that sleek fatness, he had deserved to
+suffer. And before him arose a vision of the evil year which he had
+just spent, his persecution by the fish-wives, the sickening
+sensations he had felt on close, damp days, the continuous indigestion
+which had afflicted his delicate stomach, and the latent hostility
+which was gathering strength against him. All these things he now
+accepted as chastisement. That dull rumbling of hostility and spite,
+the cause of which he could not divine, must forebode some coming
+catastrophe before whose approach he already stooped, with the shame
+of one who knows there is a transgression that he must expiate. Then
+he felt furious with himself as he thought of the popular rising he
+was preparing; and reflected that he was no longer unsullied enough to
+achieve success.
+
+In how many dreams he had indulged in that lofty little room, with his
+eyes wandering over the spreading roofs of the market pavilions! They
+usually appeared to him like grey seas that spoke to him of far-off
+countries. On moonless nights they would darken and turn into stagnant
+lakes of black and pestilential water. But on bright nights they
+became shimmering fountains of light, the moonbeams streaming over
+both tiers like water, gliding along the huge plates of zinc, and
+flowing over the edges of the vast superposed basins. Then frosty
+weather seemed to turn these roofs into rigid ice, like the Norwegian
+bays over which skaters skim; while the warm June nights lulled them
+into deep sleep. One December night, on opening his window, he had
+seen them white with snow, so lustrously white that they lighted up
+the coppery sky. Unsullied by a single footstep, they then stretched
+out like the lonely plains of the Far North, where never a sledge
+intrudes. Their silence was beautiful, their soft peacefulness
+suggestive of innocence.
+
+And at each fresh aspect of the ever-changing panorama before him,
+Florent yielded to dreams which were now sweet, now full of bitter
+pain. The snow calmed him; the vast sheet of whiteness seemed to him
+like a veil of purity thrown over the filth of the markets. The
+bright, clear nights, the shimmering moonbeams, carried him away into
+the fairy-land of story-books. It was only the dark, black nights, the
+burning nights of June, when he beheld, as it were, a miasmatic marsh,
+the stagnant water of a dead and accursed sea, that filled him with
+gloom and grief; and then ever the same dreadful visions haunted his
+brain.
+
+The markets were always there. He could never open the window and rest
+his elbows on the balustrade without having them before him, filling
+the horizon. He left the pavilions in the evening only to behold their
+endless roofs as he went to bed. They shut him off from the rest of
+Paris, ceaselessly intruded their huge bulk upon him, entered into
+every hour of his life. That night again horrible fancies came to him,
+fancies aggravated by the vague forebodings of evil which distressed
+him. The rain of the afternoon had filled the markets with malodorous
+dampness, and as they wallowed there in the centre of the city, like
+some drunken man lying, after his last bottle, under the table, they
+cast all their foul breath into his face. He seemed to see a thick
+vapour rising up from each pavilion. In the distance the meat and
+tripe markets reeked with the sickening steam of blood; nearer in, the
+vegetable and fruit pavilions diffused the odour of pungent cabbages,
+rotten apples, and decaying leaves; the butter and cheese exhaled a
+poisonous stench; from the fish market came a sharp, fresh gust; while
+from the ventilator in the tower of the poultry pavilion just below
+him, he could see a warm steam issuing, a fetid current rising in
+coils like the sooty smoke from a factory chimney. And all these
+exhalations coalesced above the roofs, drifted towards the
+neighbouring houses, and spread themselves out in a heavy cloud which
+stretched over the whole of Paris. It was as though the markets were
+bursting within their tight belt of iron, were beating the slumber of
+the gorged city with the stertorous fumes of their midnight
+indigestion.
+
+However, on the footway down below Florent presently heard a sound of
+voices, the laughter of happy folks. Then the door of the passage was
+closed noisily. It was Quenu and Lisa coming home from the theatre.
+Stupefied and intoxicated, as it were, by the atmosphere he was
+breathing, Florent thereupon left the balcony, his nerves still
+painfully excited by the thought of the tempest which he could feel
+gathering round his head. The source of his misery was yonder, in
+those markets, heated by the day's excesses. He closed the window with
+violence, and left them wallowing in the darkness, naked and
+perspiring beneath the stars.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI
+
+A week later, Florent thought that he would at last be able to proceed
+to action. A sufficiently serious outburst of public dissatisfaction
+furnished an opportunity for launching his insurrectionary forces upon
+Paris. The Corps Legislatif, whose members had lately shown great
+variance of opinion respecting certain grants to the Imperial family,
+was now discussing a bill for the imposition of a very unpopular tax,
+at which the lower orders had already begun to growl. The Ministry,
+fearing a defeat, was straining every nerve. It was probable, thought
+Florent, that no better pretext for a rising would for a long time
+present itself.
+
+One morning, at daybreak, he went to reconnoitre the neighbourhood of
+the Palais Bourbon. He forgot all about his duties as inspector, and
+lingered there, studying the approaches of the palace, till eight
+o'clock, without ever thinking that his absence would revolutionise
+the fish market. He perambulated all the surrounding streets, the Rue
+de Lille, the Rue de l'Universite, the Rue de Bourgogne, the Rue Saint
+Dominique, and even extended his examination to the Esplanade des
+Invalides, stopping at certain crossways, and measuring distances as
+he walked along. Then, on coming back to the Quai d'Orsay, he sat down
+on the parapet, and determined that the attack should be made
+simultaneously from all sides. The contingents from the Gros-Caillou
+district should arrive by way of the Champ de Mars; the sections from
+the north of Paris should come down by the Madeleine; while those from
+the west and the south would follow the quays, or make their way in
+small detachments through the then narrow streets of the Faubourg
+Saint Germain. However, the other side of the river, the Champs
+Elysees, with their open avenues, caused him some uneasiness; for he
+foresaw that cannon would be stationed there to sweep the quays. He
+thereupon modified several details of his plan, and marked down in a
+memorandum-book the different positions which the several sections
+should occupy during the combat. The chief attack, he concluded, must
+certainly be made from the Rue de Bourgogne and the Rue de
+l'Universite, while a diversion might be effected on the side of the
+river.
+
+Whilst he thus pondered over his plans the eight o'clock sun, warming
+the nape of his neck, shone gaily on the broad footways, and gilded
+the columns of the great structure in front of him. In imagination he
+already saw the contemplated battle; clusters of men clinging round
+those columns, the gates burst open, the peristyle invaded; and then
+scraggy arms suddenly appearing high aloft and planting a banner
+there.
+
+At last he slowly went his way homewards again with his gaze fixed
+upon the ground. But all at once a cooing sound made him look up, and
+he saw that he was passing through the garden of the Tuileries. A
+number of wood-pigeons, bridling their necks, were strutting over a
+lawn near by. Florent leant for a moment against the tub of an orange-
+tree, and looked at the grass and the pigeons steeped in sunshine.
+Right ahead under the chestnut-trees all was black. The garden was
+wrapped in a warm silence, broken only by the distant rumbling which
+came from behind the railings of the Rue de Rivoli. The scent of all
+the greenery affected Florent, reminding him of Madame Francois.
+However, a little girl ran past, trundling a hoop, and alarmed the
+pigeons. They flew off, and settled in a row on the arm of a marble
+statue of an antique wrestler standing in the middle of the lawn, and
+once more, but with less vivacity, they began to coo and bridle their
+necks.
+
+As Florent was returning to the markets by way of the Rue Vauvilliers,
+he heard Claude Lantier calling to him. The artist was going down into
+the basement of the poultry pavilion. "Come with me!" he cried. "I'm
+looking for that brute Marjolin."
+
+Florent followed, glad to forget his thoughts and to defer his return
+to the fish market for a little longer. Claude told him that his
+friend Marjolin now had nothing further to wish for: he had become an
+utter animal. Claude entertained an idea of making him pose on all-
+fours in future. Whenever he lost his temper over some disappointing
+sketch he came to spend whole hours in the idiot's company, never
+speaking, but striving to catch his expression when he laughed.
+
+"He'll be feeding his pigeons, I dare say," he said; "but
+unfortunately I don't know whereabouts Monsieur Gavard's storeroom
+is."
+
+They groped about the cellar. In the middle of it some water was
+trickling from a couple of taps in the dim gloom. The storerooms here
+are reserved for pigeons exclusively, and all along the trellising
+they heard faint cooings, like the hushed notes of birds nestling
+under the leaves when daylight is departing. Claude began to laugh as
+he heard it.
+
+"It sounds as though all the lovers in Paris were embracing each other
+inside here, doesn't it?" he exclaimed to his companion.
+
+However, they could not find a single storeroom open, and were
+beginning to think that Marjolin could not be in the cellar, when a
+sound of loud, smacking kisses made them suddenly halt before a door
+which stood slightly ajar. Claude pulled it open and beheld Marjolin,
+whom Cadine was kissing, whilst he, a mere dummy, offered his face
+without feeling the slightest thrill at the touch of her lips.
+
+"Oh, so this is your little game, is it?" said Claude with a laugh.
+
+"Oh," replied Cadine, quite unabashed, "he likes being kissed, because
+he feels afraid now in the dim light. You do feel frightened, don't
+you?"
+
+Like the idiot he was, Marjolin stroked his face with his hands as
+though trying to find the kisses which the girl had just printed
+there. And he was beginning to stammer out that he was afraid, when
+Cadine continued: "And, besides, I came to help him; I've been feeding
+the pigeons."
+
+Florent looked at the poor creatures. All along the shelves were rows
+of lidless boxes, in which pigeons, showing their motley plumage,
+crowded closely on their stiffened legs. Every now and then a tremor
+ran along the moving mass; and then the birds settled down again, and
+nothing was heard but their confused, subdued notes. Cadine had a
+saucepan near her; she filled her mouth with the water and tares which
+it contained, and then, taking up the pigeons one by one, shot the
+food down their throats with amazing rapidity. The poor creatures
+struggled and nearly choked, and finally fell down in the boxes with
+swimming eyes, intoxicated, as it were, by all the food which they
+were thus forced to swallow.[*]
+
+[*] This is the customary mode of fattening pigeons at the Paris
+    markets. The work is usually done by men who make a specialty of
+    it, and are called /gaveurs/.--Translator.
+
+"Poor creatures!" exclaimed Claude.
+
+"Oh, so much the worse for them," said Cadine, who had now finished.
+"They are much nicer eating when they've been well fed. In a couple of
+hours or so all those over yonder will be given a dose of salt water.
+That makes their flesh white and tender. Then two hours afterwards
+they'll be killed. If you would like to see the killing, there are
+some here which are quite ready. Marjolin will settle their account
+for them in a jiffy."
+
+Marjolin carried away a box containing some fifty pigeons, and Claude
+and Florent followed him. Squatting upon the ground near one of the
+water-taps, he placed the box by his side. Then he laid a framework of
+slender wooden bars on the top of a kind of zinc trough, and forthwith
+began to kill the pigeons. His knife flashed rapidly in his fingers,
+as he seized the birds by the wings, stunned them by a blow on the
+head from the knife-handle, and then thrust the point of the blade
+into their throats. They quivered for an instant, and ruffled their
+feathers as Marjolin laid them in a row, with their heads between the
+wooden bars above the zinc trough, into which their blood fell drop by
+drop. He repeated each different movement with the regularity of
+clockwork, the blows from the knife-handle falling with a monotonous
+tick-tack as he broke the birds' skulls, and his hand working
+backwards and forwards like a pendulum as he took up the living
+pigeons on one side and laid them down dead on the other. Soon,
+moreover, he worked with increasing rapidity, gloating over the
+massacre with glistening eyes, squatting there like a huge delighted
+bull-dog enjoying the sight of slaughtered vermin. "Tick-tack! Tick-
+tack!" whilst his tongue clucked as an accompaniment to the rhythmical
+movements of his knife. The pigeons hung down like wisps of silken
+stuff.
+
+"Ah, you enjoy that, don't you, you great stupid?" exclaimed Cadine.
+"How comical those pigeons look when they bury their heads in their
+shoulders to hide their necks! They're horrid things, you know, and
+would give one nasty bites if they got the chance." Then she laughed
+more loudly at Marjolin's increasing, feverish haste; and added: "I've
+killed them sometimes myself, but I can't get on as quickly as he
+does. One day he killed a hundred in ten minutes."
+
+The wooden frame was nearly full; the blood could be heard falling
+into the zinc trough; and as Claude happened to turn round he saw
+Florent looking so pale that he hurriedly led him away. When they got
+above-ground again he made him sit down on a step.
+
+"Why, what's the matter with you?" he exclaimed, tapping him on the
+shoulder. "You're fainting away like a woman!"
+
+"It's the smell of the cellar," murmured Florent, feeling a little
+ashamed of himself.
+
+The truth was, however, that those pigeons, which were forced to
+swallow tares and salt water, and then had their skulls broken and
+their throats slit, had reminded him of the wood-pigeons of the
+Tuileries gardens, strutting over the green turf, with their satiny
+plumage flashing iridescently in the sunlight. He again heard them
+cooing on the arm of the marble wrestler amidst the hushed silence of
+the garden, while children trundled their hoops in the deep gloom of
+the chestnuts. And then, on seeing that big fair-haired animal
+massacring his boxful of birds, stunning them with the handle of his
+knife and driving its point into their throats, in the depths of that
+foul-smelling cellar, he had felt sick and faint, his legs had almost
+given way beneath him, while his eyelids quivered tremulously.
+
+"Well, you'd never do for a soldier!" Claude said to him when he
+recovered from his faintness. "Those who sent you to Cayenne must have
+been very simple-minded folks to fear such a man as you! Why, my good
+fellow, if ever you do put yourself at the head of a rising, you won't
+dare to fire a shot. You'll be too much afraid of killing somebody."
+
+Florent got up without making any reply. He had become very gloomy,
+his face was furrowed by deep wrinkles; and he walked off, leaving
+Claude to go back to the cellar alone. As he made his way towards the
+fish market his thoughts returned to his plan of attack, to the levies
+of armed men who were to invade the Palais Bourbon. Cannon would roar
+from the Champs Elysees; the gates would be burst open; blood would
+stain the steps, and men's brains would bespatter the pillars. A
+vision of the fight passed rapidly before him; and he beheld himself
+in the midst of it, deadly pale, and hiding his face in his hands, not
+daring to look around him.
+
+As he was crossing the Rue du Pont Neuf he fancied he espied Auguste's
+pale face peering round the corner of the fruit pavilion. The
+assistant seemed to be watching for someone, and his eyes were
+starting from his head with an expression of intense excitement.
+Suddenly, however, he vanished and hastened back to the pork shop.
+
+"What's the matter with him?" thought Florent. "Is he frightened of
+me, I wonder?"
+
+Some very serious occurrences had taken place that morning at the
+Quenu-Gradelles'. Soon after daybreak, Auguste, breathless with
+excitement, had awakened his mistress to tell her that the police had
+come to arrest Monsieur Florent. And he added, with stammering
+incoherence, that the latter had gone out, and that he must have done
+so with the intention of escaping. Lisa, careless of appearances, at
+once hurried up to her brother-in-law's room in her dressing-wrapper,
+and took possession of La Normande's photograph, after glancing round
+to see if there was anything lying about that might compromise herself
+and Quenu. As she was making her way downstairs again, she met the
+police agents on the first floor. The commissary requested her to
+accompany them to Florent's room, where, after speaking to her for a
+moment in a low tone, he installed himself with his men, bidding her
+open the shop as usual so as to avoid giving the alarm to anyone. The
+trap was set.
+
+Lisa's only worry in the matter was the terrible blow that the arrest
+would prove to poor Quenu. She was much afraid that if he learned that
+the police were in the house, he would spoil everything by his tears;
+so she made Auguste swear to observe the most rigid silence on the
+subject. Then she went back to her room, put on her stays, and
+concocted some story for the benefit of Quenu, who was still drowsy.
+Half an hour later she was standing at the door of the shop with all
+her usual neatness of appearance, her hair smooth and glossy, and her
+face glowing rosily. Auguste was quietly setting out the window. Quenu
+came for a moment on to the footway, yawning slightly, and ridding
+himself of all sleepiness in the fresh morning air. There was nothing
+to indicate the drama that was in preparation upstairs.
+
+The commissary himself, however, gave the alarm to the neighbourhood
+by paying a domiciliary visit to the Mehudins' abode in the Rue
+Pirouette. He was in possession of the most precise information. In
+the anonymous letters which had been sent to the Prefecture, all sorts
+of statements were made respecting Florent's alleged intrigue with the
+beautiful Norman. Perhaps, thought the commissary, he had now taken
+refuge with her; and so, accompanied by two of his men, he proceeded
+to knock at the door in the name of the law. The Mehudins had only
+just got up. The old woman opened the door in a fury; but suddenly
+calmed down and began to smile when she learned the business on hand.
+She seated herself and fastened her clothes, while declaring to the
+officers: "We are honest folks here, and have nothing to be afraid of.
+You can search wherever you like."
+
+However, as La Normande delayed to open the door of her room, the
+commissary told his men to break it open. The young woman was scarcely
+clad when the others entered, and this unceremonious invasion, which
+she could not understand, fairly exasperated her. She flushed crimson
+from anger rather than from shame, and seemed as though she were about
+to fly at the officers. The commissary, at the sight, stepped forward
+to protect his men, repeating in his cold voice: "In the name of the
+law! In the name of the law!"
+
+Thereupon La Normande threw herself upon a chair, and burst into a
+wild fit of hysterical sobbing at finding herself so powerless. She
+was quite at a loss to understand what these men wanted with her. The
+commissary, however, had noticed how scantily she was clad, and taking
+a shawl from a peg, he flung it over her. Still she did not wrap it
+round her, but only sobbed the more bitterly as she watched the men
+roughly searching the apartment.
+
+"But what have I done?" she at last stammered out. "What are you
+looking for here?"
+
+Thereupon the commissary pronounced the name of Florent; and La
+Normande, catching sight of the old woman, who was standing at the
+door, cried out: "Oh, the wretch! This is her doing!" and she rushed
+at her mother.
+
+She would have struck her if she had reached her; but the police
+agents held her back, and forcibly wrapped her in the shawl.
+Meanwhile, she struggled violently, and exclaimed in a choking voice:
+
+"What do you take me for? That Florent has never been in this room, I
+tell you. There was nothing at all between us. People are always
+trying to injure me in the neighbourhood; but just let anyone come
+here and say anything before my face, and then you'll see! You'll lock
+me up afterwards, I dare say, but I don't mind that! Florent, indeed!
+What a lie! What nonsense!"
+
+This flood of words seemed to calm her; and her anger now turned
+against Florent, who was the cause of all the trouble. Addressing the
+commissary, she sought to justify herself.
+
+"I did not know his real character, sir," she said. "He had such a
+mild manner that he deceived us all. I was unwilling to believe all I
+heard, because I know people are so malicious. He only came here to
+give lessons to my little boy, and went away directly they were over.
+I gave him a meal here now and again, that's true and sometimes made
+him a present of a fine fish. That's all. But this will be a warning
+to me, and you won't catch me showing the same kindness to anyone
+again."
+
+"But hasn't he given you any of his papers to take care of?" asked the
+commissary.
+
+"Oh no, indeed! I swear it. I'd give them up to you at once if he had.
+I've had quite enough of this, I can tell you! It's no joke to see you
+tossing all my things about and ferreting everywhere in this way. Oh!
+you may look; there's nothing."
+
+The officers, who examined every article of furniture, now wished to
+enter the little closet where Muche slept. The child had been awakened
+by the noise, and for the last few moments he had been crying
+bitterly, as though he imagined that he was going to be murdered.
+
+"This is my boy's room," said La Normande, opening the door.
+
+Muche, quite naked, ran up and threw his arms round his mother's neck.
+She pacified him, and laid him down in her own bed. The officers came
+out of the little room again almost immediately, and the commissary
+had just made up his mind to retire, when the child, still in tears,
+whispered in his mother's ear: "They'll take my copy-books. Don't let
+them have my copy-books."
+
+"Oh, yes; that's true," cried La Normande; "there are some copy-books.
+Wait a moment, gentlemen, and I'll give them to you. I want you to see
+that I'm not hiding anything from you. Then, you'll find some of his
+writing inside these. You're quite at liberty to hang him as far as
+I'm concerned; you won't find me trying to cut him down."
+
+Thereupon she handed Muche's books and the copies set by Florent to
+the commissary. But at this the boy sprang angrily out of bed, and
+began to scratch and bite his mother, who put him back again with a
+box on the ears. Then he began to bellow.
+
+In the midst of the uproar, Mademoiselle Saget appeared on the
+threshold, craning her neck forward. Finding all the doors open, she
+had come in to offer her services to old Madame Mehudin. She spied
+about and listened, and expressed extreme pity for these poor women,
+who had no one to defend them. The commissary, however, had begun to
+read the copies with a grave air. The frequent repetition of such
+words as "tyrannically," "liberticide," "unconstitutional," and
+"revolutionary" made him frown; and on reading the sentence, "When the
+hour strikes, the guilty shall fall," he tapped his fingers on the
+paper and said: "This is very serious, very serious indeed."
+
+Thereupon he gave the books to one of his men, and went off. Claire,
+who had hitherto not shown herself, now opened her door, and watched
+the police officers go down the stairs. And afterwards she came into
+her sister's bedroom, which she had not entered for a year.
+Mademoiselle Saget appeared to be on the best of terms with La
+Normande, and was hanging over her in a caressing way, bringing the
+shawl forward to cover her the better, and listening to her angry
+indignation with an expression of the deepest sympathy.
+
+"You wretched coward!" exclaimed Claire, planting herself in front of
+her sister.
+
+La Normande sprang up, quivering with anger, and let the shawl fall to
+the floor.
+
+"Ah, you've been playing the spy, have you?" she screamed. "Dare to
+repeat what you've just said!"
+
+"You wretched coward!" repeated Claire, in still more insulting tones
+than before.
+
+Thereupon La Normande struck Claire with all her force; and in return
+Claire, turning terribly pale, sprang upon her sister and dug her
+nails into her neck. They struggled together for a moment or two,
+tearing at each other's hair and trying to choke one another. Claire,
+fragile though she was, pushed La Normande backward with such
+tremendous violence that they both fell against the wardrobe, smashing
+the mirror on its front. Muche was roaring, and old Madame Mehudin
+called to Mademoiselle Saget to come and help her separate the
+sisters. Claire, however, shook herself free.
+
+"Coward! Coward!" she cried; "I'll go and tell the poor fellow that it
+is you who have betrayed him."
+
+Her mother, however, blocked the doorway, and would not let her pass,
+while La Normande seized her from behind, and then, Mademoiselle Saget
+coming to the assistance of the other two, the three of them dragged
+Claire into her bedroom and locked the door upon her, in spite of all
+her frantic resistance. In her rage she tried to kick the door down,
+and smashed everything in the room. Soon afterwards, however, nothing
+could be heard except a furious scratching, the sound of metal
+scarping at the plaster. The girl was trying to loosen the door hinges
+with the points of her scissors.
+
+"She would have murdered me if she had had a knife," said La Normande,
+looking about for her clothes, in order to dress herself. "She'll be
+doing something dreadful, you'll see, one of these days, with that
+jealousy of hers! We mustn't let her get out on any account: she'd
+bring the whole neighbourhood down upon us!"
+
+Mademoiselle Saget went off in all haste. She reached the corner of
+the Rue Pirouette just as the commissary of police was re-entering the
+side passage of the Quenu-Gradelles' house. She grasped the situation
+at once, and entered the shop with such glistening eyes that Lisa
+enjoined silence by a gesture which called her attention to the
+presence of Quenu, who was hanging up some pieces of salt pork. As
+soon as he had returned to the kitchen, the old maid in a low voice
+described the scenes that had just taken place at the Mehudins'. Lisa,
+as she bent over the counter, with her hand resting on a dish of
+larded veal, listened to her with the happy face of one who triumphs.
+Then, as a customer entered the shop, and asked for a couple of pig's
+trotters, Lisa wrapped them up, and handed them over with a thoughtful
+air.
+
+"For my own part, I bear La Normande no ill-will," she said to
+Mademoiselle Saget, when they were alone again. "I used to be very
+fond of her, and have always been sorry that other people made
+mischief between us. The proof that I've no animosity against her is
+here in this photograph, which I saved from falling into the hands of
+the police, and which I'm quite ready to give her back if she will
+come and ask me for it herself."
+
+She took the photograph out of her pocket as she spoke. Mademoiselle
+Saget scrutinised it and sniggered as she read the inscription,
+"Louise, to her dear friend Florent."
+
+"I'm not sure you'll be acting wisely," she said in her cutting voice.
+"You'd do better to keep it."
+
+"No, no," replied Lisa; "I'm anxious for all this silly nonsense to
+come to an end. To-day is the day of reconciliation. We've had enough
+unpleasantness, and the neighbourhood's now going to be quiet and
+peaceful again."
+
+"Well, well, shall I go and tell La Normande that you are expecting
+her?" asked the old maid.
+
+"Yes; I shall be very glad if you will."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget then made her way back to the Rue Pirouette, and
+greatly frightened the fish-girl by telling her that she had just seen
+her photograph in Lisa's pocket. She could not, however, at once
+prevail upon her to comply with her rival's terms. La Normande
+propounded conditions of her own. She would go, but Madame Quenu must
+come to the door of the shop to receive her. Thus the old maid was
+obliged to make another couple of journeys between the two rivals
+before their meeting could be satisfactorily arranged. At last,
+however, to her great delight, she succeeded in negotiating the peace
+which was destined to cause so much talk and excitement. As she passed
+Claire's door for the last time she still heard the sound of the
+scissors scraping away at the plaster.
+
+When she had at last carried a definite reply to Madame Quenu,
+Mademoiselle Saget hurried off to find Madame Lecoeur and La
+Sarriette; and all three of them took up their position on the footway
+at the corner of the fish market, just in front of the pork shop. Here
+they would be certain to have a good view of every detail of the
+meeting. They felt extremely impatient, and while pretending to chat
+together kept an anxious look-out in the direction of the Rue
+Pirouette, along which La Normande must come. The news of the
+reconciliation was already travelling through the markets, and while
+some saleswomen stood up behind their stalls trying to get a view of
+what was taking place, others, still more inquisitive, actually left
+their places and took up a position in the covered way. Every eye in
+the markets was directed upon the pork shop; the whole neighbourhood
+was on the tip-toe of expectation.
+
+It was a very solemn affair. When La Normande at last turned the
+corner of the Rue Pirouette the excitement was so great that the women
+held their breath.
+
+"She has got her diamonds on," murmured La Sarriette.
+
+"Just look how she stalks along," added Madame Lecoeur; "the stuck-up
+creature!"
+
+The beautiful Norman was, indeed, advancing with the mien of a queen
+who condescends to make peace. She had made a most careful toilet,
+frizzing her hair and turning up a corner of her apron to display her
+cashmere skirt. She had even put on a new and rich lace bow. Conscious
+that the whole market was staring at her, she assumed a still
+haughtier air as she approached the pork shop. When she reached the
+door she stopped.
+
+"Now it's beautiful Lisa's turn," remarked Mademoiselle Saget. "Mind
+you pay attention."
+
+Beautiful Lisa smilingly quitted her counter. She crossed the shop-
+floor at a leisurely pace, and came and offered her hand to the
+beautiful Norman. She also was smartly dressed, with her dazzling
+linen and scrupulous neatness. A murmur ran through the crowd of fish-
+wives, all their heads gathered close together, and animated chatter
+ensued. The two women had gone inside the shop, and the /crepines/ in
+the window prevented them from being clearly seen. However, they
+seemed to be conversing affectionately, addressing pretty compliments
+to one another.
+
+"See!" suddenly exclaimed Mademoiselle Saget, "the beautiful Norman's
+buying something! What is it she's buying? It's a chitterling, I
+believe! Ah! Look! look! You didn't see it, did you? Well, beautiful
+Lisa just gave her the photograph; she slipped it into her hand with
+the chitterling."
+
+Fresh salutations were then seen to pass between the two women; and
+the beautiful Lisa, exceeding even the courtesies which had been
+agreed upon, accompanied the beautiful Norman to the footway. There
+they stood laughing together, exhibiting themselves to the
+neighbourhood like a couple of good friends. The markets were quite
+delighted; and the saleswomen returned to their stalls, declaring that
+everything had passed off extremely well.
+
+Mademoiselle Saget, however, detained Madame Lecoeur and La Sarriette.
+The drama was not over yet. All three kept their eyes fixed on the
+house opposite with such keen curiosity that they seemed trying to
+penetrate the very walls. To pass the time away they once more began
+to talk of the beautiful Norman.
+
+"She's without a lover now," remarked Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"Oh! she's got Monsieur Lebigre," replied La Sarriette, with a laugh.
+
+"But surely Monsieur Lebigre won't have anything more to say to her."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget shrugged her shoulders. "Ah, you don't know him,"
+she said. "He won't care a straw about all this business. He knows
+what he's about, and La Normande is rich. They'll come together in a
+couple of months, you'll see. Old Madame Mehudin's been scheming to
+bring about their marriage for a long time past."
+
+"Well, anyway," retorted the butter dealer, "the commissary found
+Florent at her lodgings."
+
+"No, no, indeed; I'm sure I never told you that. The long spindle-
+shanks had gone way," replied the old maid. She paused to take a
+breath; then resumed in an indignant tone, "What distressed me most
+was to hear of all the abominable things that the villain had taught
+little Muche. You'd really never believe it. There was a whole bundle
+of papers."
+
+"What sort of abominable things?" asked La Sarriette with interest.
+
+"Oh, all kinds of filth. The commissary said there was quite
+sufficient there to hang him. The fellow's a perfect monster! To go
+and demoralise a child! Why, it's almost past believing! Little Muche
+is certainly a scamp, but that's no reason why he should be given over
+to the 'Reds,' is it?"
+
+"Certainly not," assented the two others.
+
+"However, all these mysterious goings-on will come to an end now. You
+remember my telling you once that there was some strange goings-on at
+the Quenus'? Well, you see, I was right in my conclusions, wasn't I?
+Thank God, however, the neighbourhood will now be able to breathe
+easily. It was high time strong steps were taken, for things had got
+to such a pitch that one actually felt afraid of being murdered in
+broad daylight. There was no pleasure in life. All the dreadful
+stories and reports one heard were enough to worry one to death. And
+it was all owing to that man, that dreadful Florent. Now beautiful
+Lisa and the beautiful Norman have sensibly made friends again. It was
+their duty to do so for the sake of the peace and quietness of us all.
+Everything will go on satisfactorily now, you'll find. Ah! there's
+poor Monsieur Quenu laughing yonder!"
+
+Quenu had again come on to the footway, and was joking with Madame
+Taboureau's little servant. He seemed quite gay and skittish that
+morning. He took hold of the little servant's hands, and squeezed her
+fingers so tightly, in the exuberance of his spirits, that he made her
+cry out. Lisa had the greatest trouble to get him to go back into the
+kitchen. She was impatiently pacing about the shop, fearing lest
+Florent should make his appearance; and she called to her husband to
+come away, dreading a meeting between him and his brother.
+
+"She's getting quite vexed," said Mademoiselle Saget. "Poor Monsieur
+Quenu, you see, knows nothing at all about what's taking place. Just
+look at him there, laughing like a child! Madame Taboureau, you know,
+said that she should have nothing more to do with the Quenus if they
+persisted in bringing themselves into discredit by keeping that
+Florent with them."
+
+"Well, now, I suppose, they will stick to the fortune," remarked
+Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"Oh, no, indeed, my dear. The other one has had his share already."
+
+"Really? How do you know that?"
+
+"Oh, it's clear enough, that is!" replied the old maid after a
+momentary hesitation, but without giving any proof of her assertions.
+"He's had even more than his share. The Quenus will be several
+thousand francs out of pocket. Money flies, you know, when a man has
+such vices as he has. I dare say you don't know that there was another
+woman mixed up in it all. Yes, indeed, old Madame Verlaque, the wife
+of the former inspector; you know the sallow-faced thing well enough."
+
+The others protested that it surely wasn't possible. Why, Madame
+Verlaque was positively hideous!
+
+"What! do you think me a liar?" cried Mademoiselle Saget, with angry
+indignation. "Why, her letters to him have been found, a whole pile of
+letters, in which she asks for money, ten and twenty francs at a time.
+There's no doubt at all about it. I'm quite certain in my own mind
+that they killed the husband between them."
+
+La Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur were convinced; but they were
+beginning to get very impatient. They had been waiting on the footway
+for more than an hour, and feared that somebody might be robbing their
+stalls during their long absence. So Mademoiselle Saget began to give
+them some further interesting information to keep them from going off.
+Florent could not have taken to flight, said she; he was certain to
+return, and it would be very interesting to see him arrested. Then she
+went on to describe the trap that had been laid for him, while Madame
+Lecoeur and La Sarriette continued scrutinising the house from top to
+bottom, keeping watch upon every opening, and at each moment expecting
+to see the hats of the detectives appear at one of the doors or
+windows.
+
+"Who would ever imagine, now, that the place was full of police?"
+observed the butter dealer.
+
+"Oh! they're in the garret at the top," said the old maid. "They've
+left the window open, you see, just as they found it. Look! I think I
+can see one of them hiding behind the pomegranate on the balcony."
+
+The others excitedly craned out their necks, but could see nothing.
+
+"Ah, no, it's only a shadow," continued Mademoiselle Saget. "The
+little curtains even are perfectly still. The detectives must be
+sitting down in the room, and keeping quiet."
+
+Just at that moment the women caught sight of Gavard coming out of the
+fish market with a thoughtful air. They looked at him with glistening
+eyes, without speaking. They had drawn close to one another, and stood
+there rigid in their drooping skirts. The poultry dealer came up to
+them.
+
+"Have you seen Florent go by?" he asked.
+
+They replied that they had not.
+
+"I want to speak to him at once," continued Gavard. "He isn't in the
+fish market. He must have gone up to his room. But you would have seen
+him, though, if he had."
+
+The women had turned rather pale. They still kept looking at each
+other with a knowing expression, their lips twitching slightly every
+now and then. "We have only been here some five minutes, said Madame
+Lecoeur unblushingly, as her brother-in-law still stood hesitating.
+
+"Well, then, I'll go upstairs and see. I'll risk the five flights,"
+rejoined Gavard with a laugh.
+
+La Sarriette stepped forward as though she wished to detain him, but
+her aunt took hold of her arm and drew her back.
+
+"Let him alone, you big simpleton!" she whispered. "It's the best
+thing that can happen to him. It'll teach him to treat us with respect
+in future."
+
+"He won't say again that I ate tainted meat," muttered Mademoiselle
+Saget in a low tone.
+
+They said nothing more. La Sarriette was very red; but the two others
+still remained quite yellow. But they now averted their heads, feeling
+confused by each other's looks, and at a loss what to do with their
+hands, which they buried beneath their aprons. Presently their eyes
+instinctively came back to the house, penetrating the walls, as it
+were, following Gavard in his progress up the stairs. When they
+imagined that he had entered Florent's room they again exchanged
+furtive glances. La Sarriette laughed nervously. All at once they
+fancied they could see the window curtains moving, and this led them
+to believe that a struggle was taking place. But the house-front
+remained as tranquil as ever in the sunshine; and another quarter of
+an hour of unbroken quietness passed away, during which the three
+women's nervous excitement became more and more intense. They were
+beginning to feel quite faint when a man hurriedly came out of the
+passage and ran off to get a cab. Five minutes later Gavard appeared,
+followed by two police officers. Lisa, who had stepped out on to the
+footway on observing the cab, hastily hurried back into the shop.
+
+Gavard was very pale. The police had searched him upstairs, and had
+discovered the revolver and cartridge case in his possession. Judging
+by the commissary's stern expression on hearing his name, the poultry
+dealer deemed himself lost. This was a terrible ending to his plotting
+that had never entered into his calculations. The Tuileries would
+never forgive him! His legs gave way beneath him as though the firing
+party was already awaiting him outside. When he got into the street,
+however, his vanity lent him sufficient strength to walk erect; and he
+even managed to force a smile, as he knew the market people were
+looking at him. They should see him die bravely, he resolved.
+
+However, La Sarriette and Madame Lecoeur rushed up to him and
+anxiously inquired what was the matter; and the butter dealer began to
+cry, while La Sarriette embraced her uncle, manifesting the deepest
+emotion. As Gavard held her clasped in his arms, he slipped a key into
+her hand, and whispered in her ear: "Take everything, and burn the
+papers."
+
+Then he got into the cab with the same mien as he would have ascended
+the scaffold. As the vehicle disappeared round the corner of the Rue
+Pierre Lescot, Madame Lecoeur observed La Sarriette trying to hide the
+key in her pocket.
+
+"It's of no use you trying that little game on me, my dear," she
+exclaimed, clenching her teeth; "I saw him slip it into your hand. As
+true as there's a God in Heaven, I'll go to the gaol and tell him
+everything, if you don't treat me properly."
+
+"Of course I shall treat you properly, aunt, dear," replied La
+Sarriette, with an embarrassed smile.
+
+"Very well, then, let us go to his rooms at once. It's of no use to
+give the police time to poke their dirty hands in the cupboards."
+
+Mademoiselle Saget, who had been listening with gleaming eyes,
+followed them, running along in the rear as quickly as her short legs
+could carry her. She had no thought, now, of waiting for Florent. From
+the Rue Rambuteau to the Rue de la Cossonnerie she manifested the most
+humble obsequiousness, and volunteered to explain matters to Madame
+Leonce, the doorkeeper.
+
+"We'll see, we'll see," the butter dealer curtly replied.
+
+However, on reaching the house a preliminary parley--as Mademoiselle
+Saget had opined--proved to be necessary. Madame Leonce refused to
+allow the women to go up to her tenant's room. She put on an
+expression of severe austerity, and seemed greatly shocked by the
+sight of La Sarriette's loosely fastened fichu. However, after the old
+maid had whispered a few words to her and she was shown the key, she
+gave way. When they got upstairs she surrendered the rooms and
+furniture to the others article by article, apparently as heartbroken
+as if she had been compelled to show a party of burglars the place
+where her own money was secreted.
+
+"There, take everything and have done with it!" she cried at last,
+throwing herself into an arm-chair.
+
+La Sarriette was already eagerly trying the key in the locks of
+different closets. Madame Lecoeur, all suspicion, pressed her so
+closely that she exclaimed: "Really, aunt, you get in my way. Do leave
+my arms free, at any rate."
+
+At last they succeeded in opening a wardrobe opposite the window,
+between the fireplace and the bed. And then all four women broke into
+exclamations. On the middle shelf lay some ten thousand francs in
+gold, methodically arranged in little piles. Gavard, who had prudently
+deposited the bulk of his fortune in the hands of a notary, had kept
+this sum by him for the purposes of the coming outbreak. He had been
+wont to say with great solemnity that his contribution to the
+revolution was quite ready. The fact was that he had sold out certain
+stock, and every night took an intense delight in contemplating those
+ten thousand francs, gloating over them, and finding something quite
+roysterous and insurrectional in their appearance. Sometimes when he
+was in bed he dreamed that a fight was going on in the wardrobe; he
+could hear guns being fired there, paving-stones being torn up and
+piled into barricades, and voices shouting in clamorous triumph; and
+he said to himself that it was his money fighting against the
+Government.
+
+La Sarriette, however, had stretched out her hands with a cry of
+delight.
+
+"Paws off, little one!" exclaimed Madame Lecoeur in a hoarse voice.
+
+As she stood there in the reflection of the gold, she looked yellower
+than ever--her face discoloured by biliousness, her eyes glowing
+feverishly from the liver complaint which was secretly undermining
+her. Behind her Mademoiselle Saget on tip-toe was gazing ecstatically
+into the wardrobe, and Madame Leonce had now risen from her seat, and
+was growling sulkily.
+
+"My uncle said I was to take everything," declared the girl.
+
+"And am I to have nothing, then; I who have done so much for him?"
+cried the doorkeeper.
+
+Madame Lecoeur was almost choking with excitement. She pushed the
+others away, and clung hold of the wardrobe, screaming: "It all
+belongs to me! I am his nearest relative. You are a pack of thieves,
+you are! I'd rather throw it all out of the window than see you have
+it!"
+
+Then silence fell, and they all four stood glowering at each other.
+The kerchief that La Sarriette wore over her breast was now altogether
+unfastened, and she displayed her bosom heaving with warm life, her
+moist red lips, her rosy nostrils. Madame Lecoeur grew still more sour
+as she saw how lovely the girl looked in the excitement of her longing
+desire.
+
+"Well," she said in a lower tone, "we won't fight about it. You are
+his niece, and I'll divide the money with you. We will each take a
+pile in turn."
+
+Thereupon they pushed the other two aside. The butter dealer took the
+first pile, which at once disappeared within her skirts. Then La
+Sarriette took a pile. They kept a close watch upon one another, ready
+to fight at the slightest attempt at cheating. Their fingers were
+thrust forward in turn, the hideous knotted fingers of the aunt and
+the white fingers of the niece, soft and supple as silk. Slowly they
+filled their pockets. When there was only one pile left, La Sarriette
+objected to her aunt taking it, as she had commenced; and she suddenly
+divided it between Mademoiselle Saget and Madame Leonce, who had
+watched them pocket the gold with feverish impatience.
+
+"Much obliged to you!" snarled the doorkeeper. "Fifty francs for
+having coddled him up with tisane and broth! The old deceiver told me
+he had no relatives!"
+
+Before locking the wardrobe up again, Madame Lecoeur searched it
+thoroughly from top to bottom. It contained all the political works
+which were forbidden admission into the country, the pamphlets printed
+at Brussels, the scandalous histories of the Bonapartes, and the
+foreign caricatures ridiculing the Emperor. One of Gavard's greatest
+delights was to shut himself up with a friend, and show him all these
+compromising things.
+
+"He told me that I was to burn all the papers," said La Sarriette.
+
+"Oh, nonsense! we've no fire, and it would take up too long. The
+police will soon be here! We must get out of this!"
+
+They all four hastened off; but they had not reached the bottom of the
+stairs before the police met them, and made Madame Leonce return with
+them upstairs. The three others, making themselves as small as
+possible, hurriedly escaped into the street. They walked away in
+single file at a brisk pace; the aunt and niece considerably
+incommoded by the weight of their drooping pockets. Mademoiselle Saget
+had kept her fifty francs in her closed fist, and remained deep in
+thought, brooding over a plan for extracting something more from the
+heavy pockets in front of her.
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed, as they reached the corner of the fish market,
+"we've got here at a lucky moment. There's Florent yonder, just going
+to walk into the trap."
+
+Florent, indeed, was just then returning to the markets after his
+prolonged perambulation. He went into his office to change his coat,
+and then set about his daily duties, seeing that the marble slabs were
+properly washed, and slowly strolling along the alleys. He fancied
+that the fish-wives looked at him in a somewhat strange manner; they
+chuckled too, and smiled significantly as he passed them. Some new
+vexation, he thought, was in store for him. For some time past those
+huge, terrible women had not allowed him a day's peace. However, as he
+passed the Mehudins' stall he was very much surprised to hear the old
+woman address him in a honeyed tone: "There's just been a gentleman
+inquiring for you, Monsieur Florent; a middle-aged gentleman. He's
+gone to wait for you in your room."
+
+As the old fish-wife, who was squatting, all of a heap, on her chair,
+spoke these words, she felt such a delicious thrill of satisfied
+vengeance that her huge body fairly quivered. Florent, still doubtful,
+glanced at the beautiful Norman; but the young woman, now completely
+reconciled with her mother, turned on her tap and slapped her fish,
+pretending not to hear what was being said.
+
+"You are quite sure?" said Florent to Mother Mehudin.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed. Isn't that so, Louise?" said the old woman in a
+shriller voice.
+
+Florent concluded that it must be some one who wanted to see him about
+the great business, and he resolved to go up to his room. He was just
+about to leave the pavilion, when, happening to turn round, he
+observed the beautiful Norman watching him with a grave expression on
+her face. Then he passed in front of the three gossips.
+
+"Do you notice that there's no one in the pork shop?" remarked
+Mademoiselle Saget. "Beautiful Lisa's not the woman to compromise
+herself."
+
+The shop was, indeed, quite empty. The front of the house was still
+bright with sunshine; the building looked like some honest, prosperous
+pile guilelessly warming itself in the morning rays. Up above, the
+pomegranate on the balcony was in full bloom. As Florent crossed the
+roadway he gave a friendly nod to Logre and Monsieur Lebigre, who
+appeared to be enjoying the fresh air on the doorstep of the latter's
+establishment. They returned his greeting with a smile. Florent was
+then about to enter the side-passage, when he fancied he saw Auguste's
+pale face hastily vanishing from its dark and narrow depths. Thereupon
+he turned back and glanced into the shop to make sure that the middle-
+aged gentleman was not waiting for him there. But he saw no one but
+Mouton, who sat on a block displaying his double chin and bristling
+whiskers, and gazed at him defiantly with his great yellow eyes. And
+when he had at last made up his mind to enter the passage, Lisa's face
+appeared behind the little curtain of a glazed door at the back of the
+shop.
+
+A hush had fallen over the fish market. All the huge paunches and
+bosoms held their breath, waiting till Florent should disappear from
+sight. Then there was an uproarious outbreak; and the bosoms heaved
+wildly and the paunches nearly burst with malicious delight. The joke
+had succeeded. Nothing could be more comical. As old Mother Mehudin
+vented her merriment she shook and quivered like a wine-skin that is
+being emptied. Her story of the middle-aged gentleman went the round
+of the market, and the fish-wives found it extremely amusing. At last
+the long spindle-shanks was collared, and they would no longer always
+have his miserable face and gaol-bird's expression before their eyes.
+They all wished him a pleasant journey, and trusted that they might
+get a handsome fellow for their next inspector. And in their delight
+they rushed about from one stall to another, and felt inclined to
+dance round their marble slabs like a lot of holiday-making
+schoolgirls. The beautiful Norman, however, watched this outbreak of
+joy in a rigid attitude, not daring to move for fear she should burst
+into tears; and she kept her hands pressed upon a big skate to cool
+her feverish excitement.
+
+"You see how those Mehudins turn their backs upon him now that he's
+come to grief," said Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"Well, and they're quite right too," replied Mademoiselle Saget.
+"Besides, matters are settled now, my dear, and we're to have no more
+disputes. You've every reason to be satisfied; leave the others to act
+as they please."
+
+"It's only the old woman who is laughing," La Sarriette remarked; "La
+Normande looks anything but happy."
+
+Meantime, upstairs in his bedroom, Florent allowed himself to be taken
+as unresistingly as a sheep. The police officers sprang roughly upon
+him, expecting, no doubt, that they would meet with a desperate
+resistance. He quietly begged them to leave go of him; and then sat
+down on a chair while they packed up his papers, and the red scarves,
+armlets, and banners. He did not seem at all surprised at this ending;
+indeed, it was something of a relief to him, though he would not
+frankly confess it. But he suffered acutely at thought of the bitter
+hatred which had sent him into that room; he recalled Auguste's pale
+face and the sniggering looks of the fish-wives; he bethought himself
+of old Madame Mehudin's words, La Normande's silence, and the empty
+shop downstairs. The markets were leagued against him, he reflected;
+the whole neighbourhood had conspired to hand him over to the police.
+The mud of those greasy streets had risen up all around to overwhelm
+him!
+
+And amidst all the round faces which flitted before his mind's eye
+there suddenly appeared that of Quenu, and a spasm of mortal agony
+contracted his heart.
+
+"Come, get along downstairs!" exclaimed one of the officers, roughly.
+
+Florent rose and proceeded to go downstairs. When he reached the
+second floor he asked to be allowed to return; he had forgotten
+something, he said. But the officers refused to let him go back, and
+began to hustle him forward. Then he besought them to let him return
+to his room again, and even offered them the money he had in his
+pocket. Two of them at last consented to return with him, threatening
+to blow his brains out should he attempt to play them any trick; and
+they drew their revolvers out of their pockets as they spoke. However,
+on reaching his room once more Florent simply went straight to the
+chaffinch's cage, took the bird out of it, kissed it between its
+wings, and set it at liberty. He watched it fly away through the open
+window, into the sunshine, and alight, as though giddy, on the roof of
+the fish market. Then it flew off again and disappeared over the
+markets in the direction of the Square des Innocents. For a moment
+longer Florent remained face to face with the sky, the free and open
+sky; and he thought of the wood-pigeons cooing in the garden of the
+Tuileries, and of those other pigeons down in the market cellars with
+their throats slit by Marjolin's knife. Then he felt quite broken, and
+turned and followed the officers, who were putting their revolvers
+back into their pockets as they shrugged their shoulders.
+
+On reaching the bottom of the stairs, Florent stopped before the door
+which led into the kitchen. The commissary, who was waiting for him
+there, seemed almost touched by his gentle submissiveness, and asked
+him: "Would you like to say good-bye to your brother?"
+
+For a moment Florent hesitated. He looked at the door. A tremendous
+noise of cleavers and pans came from the kitchen. Lisa, with the
+design of keeping her husband occupied, had persuaded him to make the
+black-puddings in the morning instead of in the evening, as was his
+wont. The onions were simmering on the fire, and over all the noisy
+uproar Florent could hear Quenu's joyous voice exclaiming, "Ah, dash
+it all, the pudding will be excellent, that it will! Auguste, hand me
+the fat!"
+
+Florent thanked the commissary, but refused his offer. He was afraid
+to return any more into that warm kitchen, reeking with the odour of
+boiling onions, and so he went on past the door, happy in the thought
+that his brother knew nothing of what had happened to him, and
+hastening his steps as if to spare the establishment all further
+worry. However, on emerging into the open sunshine of the street he
+felt a touch of shame, and got into the cab with bent back and ashen
+face. He was conscious that the fish market was gazing at him in
+triumph; it seemed to him, indeed, as though the whole neighbourhood
+had gathered there to rejoice at his fall.
+
+"What a villainous expression he's got!" said Mademoiselle Saget.
+
+"Yes, indeed, he looks just like a thief caught with his hand in
+somebody's till," added Madame Lecoeur.
+
+"I once saw a man guillotined who looked exactly like he does,"
+asserted La Sarriette, showing her white teeth.
+
+They stepped forward, lengthened their necks, and tried to see into
+the cab. Just as it was starting, however, the old maid tugged sharply
+at the skirts of her companions, and pointed to Claire, who was coming
+round the corner of the Rue Pirouette, looking like a mad creature,
+with her hair loose and her nails bleeding. She had at last succeeded
+in opening her door. When she discovered that she was too late, and
+that Florent was being taken off, she darted after the cab, but
+checked herself almost immediately with a gesture of impotent rage,
+and shook her fists at the receding wheels. Then, with her face quite
+crimson beneath the fine plaster dust with which she was covered, she
+ran back again towards the Rue Pirouette.
+
+"Had he promised to marry her, eh?" exclaimed La Sarriette, laughing.
+"The silly fool must be quite cracked."
+
+Little by little the neighbourhood calmed down, though throughout the
+day groups of people constantly assembled and discussed the events of
+the morning. The pork shop was the object of much inquisitive
+curiosity. Lisa avoided appearing there, and left the counter in
+charge of Augustine. In the afternoon she felt bound to tell Quenu of
+what had happened, for fear the news might cause him too great a shock
+should he hear it from some gossiping neighbour. She waited till she
+was alone with him in the kitchen, knowing that there he was always
+most cheerful, and would weep less than if he were anywhere else.
+Moreover, she communicated her tidings with all sorts of motherly
+precautions. Nevertheless, as soon as he knew the truth he fell on the
+chopping-block, and began to cry like a calf.
+
+"Now, now, my poor dear, don't give way like that; you'll make
+yourself quite ill," exclaimed Lisa, taking him in her arms.
+
+His tears were inundating his white apron, the whole of his massive,
+torpid form quivered with grief. He seemed to be sinking, melting
+away. When he was at last able to speak, he stammered: "Oh, you don't
+know how good he was to me when we lived together in the Rue Royer-
+Collard! He did everything. He swept the room and cooked the meals. He
+loved me as though I were his own child; and after his day's work he
+used to come back splashed with mud, and so tired that he could
+scarcely move, while I stayed warm and comfortable in the house, and
+had nothing to do but eat. And now they're going to shoot him!"
+
+At this Lisa protested, saying that he would certainly not be shot.
+But Quenu only shook his head.
+
+"I haven't loved him half as much as I ought to have done," he
+continued. "I can see that very well now. I had a wicked heart, and I
+hesitated about giving him his half of the money."
+
+"Why, I offered it to him a dozen times and more!" Lisa interrupted.
+"I'm sure we've nothing to reproach ourselves with."
+
+"Oh, yes, I know that you are everything that is good, and that you
+would have given him every copper. But I hesitated, I didn't like to
+part with it; and now it will be a sorrow to me for the rest of my
+life. I shall always think that if I'd shared the fortune with him he
+wouldn't have gone wrong a second time. Oh, yes; it's my fault! It is
+I who have driven him to this."
+
+Then Lisa, expostulating still more gently, assured him that he had
+nothing to blame himself for, and even expressed some pity for
+Florent. But he was really very culpable, she said, and if he had had
+more money he would probably have perpetrated greater follies.
+Gradually she gave her husband to understand that it was impossible
+matters could have had any other termination, and that now everything
+would go on much better. Quenu was still weeping, wiping his cheeks
+with his apron, trying to suppress his sobs to listen to her, and then
+breaking into a wilder fit of tears than before. His fingers had
+mechanically sought a heap of sausage-meat lying on the block, and he
+was digging holes in it, and roughly kneading it together.
+
+"And how unwell you were feeling, you know," Lisa continued. "It was
+all because our life had got so shifted out of its usual course. I was
+very anxious, though I didn't tell you so, at seeing you getting so
+low."
+
+"Yes, wasn't I?" he murmured, ceasing to sob for a moment.
+
+"And the business has been quite under a cloud this year. It was as
+though a spell had been cast on it. Come, now, don't take on so;
+you'll see that everything will look up again now. You must take care
+of yourself, you know, for my sake and your daughter's. You have
+duties to us as well as to others, remember."
+
+Quenu was now kneading the sausage-meat more gently. Another burst of
+emotion was thrilling him, but it was a softer emotion, which was
+already bringing a vague smile to his grief-stricken face. Lisa felt
+that she had convinced him, and she turned and called to Pauline, who
+was playing in the shop, and sat her on Quenu's knee.
+
+"Tell your father, Pauline, that he ought not to give way like this.
+Ask him nicely not to go on distressing us so."
+
+The child did as she was told, and their fat, sleek forms united in a
+general embrace. They all three looked at one another, already feeling
+cured of that twelve months' depression from which they had but just
+emerged. Their big, round faces smiled, and Lisa softly repeated, "And
+after all, my dear, there are only we three, you know, only we three."
+
+Two months later Florent was again sentenced to transportation. The
+affair caused a great stir. The newspapers published all possible
+details, and gave portraits of the accused, sketches of the banners
+and scarves, and plans of the places where the conspirators had met.
+For a fortnight nothing but the great plot of the central markets was
+talked of in Paris. The police kept on launching more and more
+alarming reports, and it was at last even declared that the whole of
+the Montmartre Quarter was undermined. The excitement in the Corps
+Legislatif was so intense that the members of the Centre and the Right
+forgot their temporary disagreement over the Imperial Grant Bill, and
+became reconciled. And then by an overwhelming majority they voted the
+unpopular tax, of which even the lower classes, in the panic which was
+sweeping over the city, dared no longer complain.
+
+The trial lasted a week. Florent was very much surprised at the number
+of accomplices with which he found himself credited. Out of the twenty
+and more who were placed in the dock with him, he knew only some six
+or seven. After the sentence of the court had been read, he fancied he
+could see Robine's innocent-looking hat and back going off quietly
+through the crowd. Logre was acquitted, as was also Lacaille;
+Alexandre was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for his child-like
+complicity in the conspiracy; while as for Gavard, he, like Florent,
+was condemned to transportation. This was a heavy blow, which quite
+crushed him amidst the final enjoyment that he derived from those
+lengthy proceedings in which he had managed to make himself so
+conspicuous. He was paying very dearly for the way in which he had
+vented the spirit of perpetual opposition peculiar to the Paris
+shopkeeping classes. Two big tears coursed down his scared face--the
+face of a white-haired child.
+
+And then one morning in August, amidst the busy awakening of the
+markets, Claude Lantier, sauntering about in the thick of the arriving
+vegetables, with his waist tightly girded by his red sash, came to
+grasp Madame Francois's hand close by Saint Eustache. She was sitting
+on her carrots and turnips, and her long face looked very sad. The
+artist, too, was gloomy, notwithstanding the bright sun which was
+already softening the deep-green velvet of the mountains of cabbages.
+
+"Well, it's all over now," he said. "They are sending him back again.
+He's already on his way to Brest, I believe."
+
+Madame Francois made a gesture of mute grief. Then she gently waved
+her hand around, and murmured in a low voice; "Ah, it is all Paris's
+doing, this villainous Paris!"
+
+"No, no, not quite that; but I know whose doing it is, the
+contemptible creatures!" exclaimed Claude, clenching his fists. "Do
+you know, Madame Francois, there was nothing too ridiculous for those
+fellows in the court to say! Why, they even went ferreting in a
+child's copy-books! That great idiot of a Public Prosecutor made a
+tremendous fuss over them, and ranted about the respect due to
+children, and the wickedness of demagogical education! It makes me
+quite sick to think of it all!"
+
+A shudder of disgust shook him, and then, burying himself more deeply
+in his discoloured cloak, he resumed: "To think of it! A man who was
+as gentle as a girl! Why, I saw him turn quite faint at seeing a
+pigeon killed! I couldn't help smiling with pity when I saw him
+between two gendarmes. Ah, well, we shall never see him again! He
+won't come back this time."
+
+"He ought to have listened to me," said Madame Francois, after a
+pause, "and have come to live at Nanterre with my fowls and rabbits. I
+was very fond of him, you see, for I could tell that he was a good-
+hearted fellow. Ah, we might have been so happy together! It's a sad
+pity. Well, we must bear it as best we can, Monsieur Claude. Come and
+see me one of these days. I'll have an omelet ready for you."
+
+Her eyes were dim with tears; but all at once she sprang up like a
+brave woman who bears her sorrows with fortitude.
+
+"Ah!" she exclaimed, "here's old Mother Chantemesse coming to buy some
+turnips of me. The fat old lady's as sprightly as ever!"
+
+Claude went off, and strolled about the footways. The dawn had risen
+in the white sheaf of light at the end of the Rue Rambuteau; and the
+sun, now level with the house-tops, was diffusing rosy rays which
+already fell in warm patches on the pavements. Claude was conscious of
+a gay awakening in the huge resonant markets--indeed, all over the
+neighbourhood--crowded with piles of food. It was like the joy that
+comes after cure, the mirth of folks who are at last relieved of a
+heavy weight which has been pulling them down. He saw La Sarriette
+displaying a gold chain and singing amidst her plums and strawberries,
+while she playfully pulled the moustaches of Monsieur Jules, who was
+arrayed in a velvet jacket. He also caught sight of Madame Lecoeur and
+Mademoiselle Saget passing along one of the covered ways, and looking
+less sallow than usual--indeed, almost rosy--as they laughed like
+bosom friends over some amusing story. In the fish market, old Madame
+Mehudin, who had returned to her stall, was slapping her fish, abusing
+customers, and snubbing the new inspector, a presumptuous young man
+whom she had sworn to spank; while Claire, seemingly more languid and
+indolent than ever, extended her hands, blue from immersion in the
+water of her tanks, to gather together a great heap of edible snails,
+shimmering with silvery slime. In the tripe market Auguste and
+Augustine, with the foolish expression of newly-married people, had
+just been purchasing some pigs' trotters, and were starting off in a
+trap for their pork shop at Montrouge. Then, as it was now eight
+o'clock and already quite warm, Claude, on again coming to the Rue
+Rambuteau, perceived Muche and Pauline playing at horses. Muche was
+crawling along on all-fours, while Pauline sat on his back, and clung
+to his hair to keep herself from falling. However, a moving shadow
+which fell from the eaves of the market roof made Claude look up; and
+he then espied Cadine and Marjolin aloft, kissing and warming
+themselves in the sunshine, parading their loves before the whole
+neighbourhood like a pair of light-hearted animals.
+
+Claude shook his fist at them. All this joyousness down below and on
+high exasperated him. He reviled the Fat; the Fat, he declared, had
+conquered the Thin. All around him he could see none but the Fat
+protruding their paunches, bursting with robust health, and greeting
+with delight another day of gorging and digestion. And a last blow was
+dealt to him by the spectacle which he perceived on either hand as he
+halted opposite the Rue Pirouette.
+
+On his right, the beautiful Norman, or the beautiful Madame Lebigre,
+as she was now called, stood at the door of her shop. Her husband had
+at length been granted the privilege of adding a State tobacco
+agency[*] to his wine shop, a long-cherished dream of his which he had
+finally been able to realise through the great services he had
+rendered to the authorities. And to Claude the beautiful Madame
+Lebigre looked superb, with her silk dress and her frizzed hair, quite
+ready to take her seat behind her counter, whither all the gentlemen
+in the neighbourhood flocked to buy their cigars and packets of
+tobacco. She had become quite distinguished, quite the lady. The shop
+behind her had been newly painted, with borders of twining
+vine-branches showing against a soft background; the zinc-plated
+wine-counter gleamed brightly, and in the tall mirror the flasks of
+liqueurs set brighter flashes of colour than ever. And the mistress of
+all these things stood smiling radiantly at the bright sunshine.
+
+[*] Most readers will remember that the tobacco trade is a State
+    monopoly in France. The retail tobacconists are merely Government
+    agents.--Translator.
+
+Then, on Claude's left, the beautiful Lisa blocked up the doorway of
+her shop as she stood on the threshold. Never before had her linen
+shone with such dazzling whiteness; never had her serene face and rosy
+cheeks appeared in a more lustrous setting of glossy locks. She
+displayed the deep calmness of repletion, a massive tranquillity
+unruffled even by a smile. She was a picture of absolute quietude, of
+perfect felicity, not only cloudless but lifeless, the simple felicity
+of basking in the warm atmosphere. Her tightly stretched bodice seemed
+to be still digesting the happiness of yesterday; while her dimpled
+hands, hidden in the folds of her apron, did not even trouble to grasp
+at the happiness of to-day, certain as they were that it would come of
+itself. And the shop-window at her side seemed to display the same
+felicity. It had recovered from its former blight; the tongues lolled
+out, red and healthy; the hams had regained their old chubbiness of
+form; the festoons of sausages no longer wore that mournful air which
+had so greatly distressed Quenu. Hearty laughter, accompanied by a
+jubilant clattering of pans, sounded from the kitchen in the rear. The
+whole place again reeked with fat health. The flitches of bacon and
+the sides of pork that hung against the marble showed roundly like
+paunches, triumphant paunches, whilst Lisa, with her imposing breadth
+of shoulders and dignity of mien, bade the markets good morning with
+those big eyes of hers which so clearly bespoke a gross feeder.
+
+However, the two women bowed to each other. Beautiful Madame Lebigre
+and beautiful Madame Quenu exchanged a friendly salute.
+
+And then Claude, who had certainly forgotten to dine on the previous
+day, was thrilled with anger at seeing them standing there, looking so
+healthy and well-to-do with their buxom bosoms; and tightening his
+sash, he growled in a tone of irritation:
+
+"What blackguards respectable people are!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fat and the Thin, by Emile Zola
+
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