During his earlier visits Helene judged it right to look after them.  She popped in sometimes quite suddenly to give an order, and there was Zephyrin always in his corner, between the table and the window, close to the stone filter, which forced him to draw in his legs.  The moment madame made her appearance he rose and stood upright, as though shouldering arms, and if she spoke to him his reply never went beyond a salute and a respectful grunt.  Little by little Helene grew somewhat easier; she saw that her entrance did not disturb them, and that their faces only expressed the quiet content of patient lovers.

At this time, too, Rosalie seemed even more wide awake than Zephyrin.  She had already been some months in Paris, and under its influence was fast losing her country rust, though as yet she only knew three streets—­the Rue de Passy, the Rue Franklin, and the Rue Vineuse.  Zephyrin, soldier though he was, remained quite a lubber.  As Rosalie confided to her mistress, he became more of a blockhead every day.  In the country he had been much sharper.  But, added she, it was the uniform’s fault; all the lads who donned the uniform became sad dolts.  The fact is, his change of life had quite muddled Zephyrin, who, with his staring round eyes and solemn swagger, looked like a goose.  Despite his epaulets he retained his rustic awkwardness and heaviness; the barracks had taught him nothing as yet of the fine words and victorious attitudes of the ideal Parisian fire-eater.  “Yes, madame,” Rosalie would wind up by saying, “you don’t need to disturb yourself; it is not in him to play any tricks!”

Thus the girl began to treat him in quite a motherly way.  While dressing her meat on the spit she would preach him a sermon, full of good counsel as to the pitfalls he should shun; and he in all obedience vigorously nodded approval of each injunction.  Every Sunday he had to swear to her that he had attended mass, and that he had solemnly repeated his prayers morning and evening.  She strongly inculcated the necessity of tidiness, gave him a brush down whenever he left her, stitched on a loose button of his tunic, and surveyed him from head to foot to see if aught were amiss in his appearance.  She also worried herself about his health, and gave him cures for all sorts of ailments.  In return for her kindly care Zephyrin professed himself anxious to fill her filter for her; but this proposal was long-rejected, through the fear that he might spill the water.  One day, however, he brought up two buckets without letting a drop of their contents fall on the stairs, and from that time he replenished the filter every Sunday.  He would also make himself useful in other ways, doing all the heavy work and was extremely handy in running to the greengrocer’s for butter, had she forgotten to purchase any.  At last, even, he began to share in the duties of kitchen-maid.  First he was permitted to peel the vegetables; later on the mincing was assigned to him.  At the end of six weeks, though still forbidden to touch the sauces, he watched over them with wooden spoon in hand.  Rosalie had fairly made him her helpmate, and would sometimes burst out laughing as she saw him, with his red trousers and yellow collar, working busily before the fire with a dishcloth over his arm, like some scullery-servant.