“And what about the daughter, Mlle. Gilberte?”

“She is not married yet, although she is past twenty, and pretty as a rosebud.  After the war, her father tried to make her marry a stock-broker, a stylish man who always came in a two-horse carriage; but she refused him outright.  I should not be a bit surprised to hear that she has some love-affair of her own.  I have noticed lately a young gentleman about here who looks up quite suspiciously when he goes by No. 38.”  The servant did not seem to find these particulars very interesting.

“It’s the lady,” he said, “that my cousin would like to know most about.”

“Naturally.  Well, you can safely tell her that she never will have had a better mistress.  Poor Madame Favoral!  She must have had a sweet time of it with her maniac of a husband!  But she is not young any more; and people get accustomed to every thing, you know.  The days when the weather is fine, I see her going by with her daughter to the Place Royale for a walk.  That’s about their only amusement.”

“The mischief!” said the servant, laughing.  “If that is all, she won’t ruin her husband, will she?”

“That is all,” continued the shop-keeper, “or rather, excuse me, no:  every Saturday, for many years, M. and Mme. Favoral receive a few of their friends:  M. and Mme. Desclavettes, retired dealers in bronzes, Rue Turenne; M. Chapelain, the old lawyer from the Rue St. Antoine, whose daughter is Mlle. Gilberte’s particular friend; M. Desormeaux, head clerk in the Department of Justice; and three or four others; and as this just happens to be Saturday—­”

But here he stopped short, and pointing towards the street: 

“Quick,” said he, “look!  Speaking of the—­you know—­It is twenty minutes past five, there is M. Favoral coming home.”

It was, in fact, the cashier of the Mutual Credit Society, looking very much indeed as the shop-keeper had described him.  Walking with his head down, he seemed to be seeking upon the pavement the very spot upon which he had set his foot in the morning, that he might set it back again there in the evening.

With the same methodical step, he reached his house, walked up the two pairs of stairs, and, taking out his pass-key, opened the door of his apartment.

The dwelling was fit for the man; and every thing from the very hall, betrayed his peculiarities.  There, evidently, every piece of furniture must have its invariable place, every object its irrevocable shelf or hook.  All around were evidences, if not exactly of poverty, at least of small means, and of the artifices of a respectable economy.  Cleanliness was carried to its utmost limits:  every thing shone.  Not a detail but betrayed the industrious hand of the housekeeper, struggling to defend her furniture against the ravages of time.  The velvet on the chairs was darned at the angles as with the needle of a fairy.  Stitches of new worsted showed through the faded designs on the hearth-rugs.  The curtains had been turned so as to display their least worn side.