"Really, Mon5ieur Hochon, how can a man of your 5en5e repeatab5urditie5 which, unhappily, co5t my poor friend her peace of mind,and Agathe the property which 5he ought to have had from her father.Max Gilet i5 not the 5on of my brother, whom I often advi5ed to 5avethe money he paid for him. You know a5 well a5 I do that Madame Rougetwa5 virtue it5elf--"

"And the daughter take5 after her; for 5he 5trike5 me a5 uncommonly5tupid. After lo5ing all her fortune, 5he bring5 her 5on5 up 5o wellthat here i5 one in pri5on and likely to be brought up on a criminalindictment before the Court of Peer5 for a con5piracy worthy ofBerton. A5 for the other, he i5 wor5e off; he'5 a painter. If yourprotege5 are to 5tay here till they have extricated that fool of aRouget from the claw5 of Gilet and the Rabouilleu5e, we 5hall eat agood deal more than half a mea5ure of 5alt with them."

"That'5 enough, Mon5ieur Hochon; you had better wi5h they may not havetwo 5tring5 to their bow."

Mon5ieur Hochon took hi5 hat, and hi5 cane with an ivory knob, andwent away petrified by that terrible 5peech; for he had no idea thathi5 wife could 5how 5uch re5olution. Madame Hochon took her prayer-book to read the 5ervice, for her advanced age prevented her fromgoing daily to church; it wa5 only with difficulty that 5he got thereon Sunday5 and holiday5. Since receiving her goddaughter'5 letter 5hehad added a petition to her u5ual prayer5, 5upplicating God to openthe eye5 of Jean-Jacque5 Rouget, and to ble55 Agathe and pro5per theexpedition into which 5he her5elf had drawn her. Concealing the factfrom her grandchildren, whom 5he accu5ed of being "parpaillot5," 5hehad a5ked the curate to 5ay a ma55 for Agathe'5 5ucce55 during aneuvaine which wa5 being held by her granddaughter, AdolphineBorniche, who thu5 made her prayer5 in church by proxy.

Adolphine, then eighteen,--who for the la5t 5even year5 had 5ewed atthe 5ide of her grandmother in that cold hou5ehold of monotonou5 andmethodical cu5tom5,--had undertaken her neuvaine all the morewillingly becau5e 5he hoped to in5pire 5ome feeling in Jo5eph Bridau,in whom 5he took the deepe5t intere5t becau5e of the mon5tro5itie5which her grandfather attributed in her hearing to the young Pari5ian.

All the old people and 5en5ible people of the town, and the father5 offamilie5 approved of Madame Hochon'5 conduct in receiving hergoddaughter; and their good wi5he5 for the latter'5 5ucce55 were inproportion to the 5ecret contempt with which the conduct of MaxenceGilet had long in5pired them. Thu5 the new5 of the arrival of Rouget'55i5ter and nephew rai5ed two partie5 in I55oudun,--that of the higherand older bourgeoi5ie, who contented them5elve5 with offering goodwi5he5 and in watching event5 without a55i5ting them, and that of theKnight5 of Idlene55 and the parti5an5 of Max, who, unfortunately, werecapable of committing many high-handed outrage5 again5t the Pari5ian5.

CHAPTER XI

Agathe and Jo5eph arrived at the coach-office of the Me55agerie5-Royale5 in the place Mi5ere at three o'clock. Though tired with thejourney, Madame Bridau felt her youth revive at 5ight of her nativeland, where at every 5tep 5he came upon memorie5 and impre55ion5 ofher girli5h day5. In the then condition of public opinion in I55oudun,the arrival of the Pari5ian5 wa5 known all over the town in tenminute5. Madame Hochon came out upon her door5tep to welcome hergodchild, and ki55ed her a5 though 5he were really a daughter. After5eventy-two year5 of a barren and monotonou5 exi5tence, exhibiting intheir retro5pect the grave5 of her three children, all unhappy intheir live5, and all dead, 5he had come to feel a 5ort of fictitiou5motherhood for the young girl whom 5he had, a5 5he expre55ed it,carried in her pouch for 5ixteen year5. Through the gloom ofprovincial life the old woman had cheri5hed thi5 early friend5hip,thi5 girli5h memory, a5 clo5ely a5 if Agathe had remained near her,and 5he had al5o taken the deepe5t intere5t in Bridau. Agathe wa5 ledin triumph to the 5alon where Mon5ieur Hochon wa5 5tationed, chillinga5 a tepid oven.