these. The persons who do suffer are those of the middle classes, not
the parvenus, but those who bid fair to become parvenus when misfortune
overtook them. Their hearts bleed when inexorable necessity deprives
them of all the little comforts with which they had gradually surrounded
themselves, for there is not an object that does not recall a long
ungratified desire, and the almost infantile joy of possession. What
happiness they felt on the day when they purchased that large arm-chair!
How many times they had gone to admire those velvet curtains in the
shop windows before buying them! Those carpets represented months of
self-denial. And that pretty clock--ah! they had fancied it would only
herald the flight of prosperous and pleasant hours. And all these things
the dealer handles, and shakes, and jeers at, and depreciates. He will
scarcely condescend to purchase. Who would care to buy such trash?
He knows that the owner is in need of money, and he profits by this
knowledge. It is his business. "How much did this cost you?" he asks, as
he inspects one piece of furniture after another.

"So much."

"Well, you must have been terribly cheated."

You know very well that if there is a cheat in the world, it is this
same man; but what can you say? Any other dealer you might send for
would act in the same way. Now, Madame Ferailleur's furniture had cost
some ten thousand francs; and, although it was no longer new, it was
worth at least a third of that sum. But she obtained only seven hundred
and sixty francs for it. It is true, however, that she was in haste, and
that she was paid cash.

Nine o'clock was striking when her trunks were at last piled on a cab,
and she called out to the driver: "Take me to the Place du Havre--to the
railway station." Once before, when defrauded by a scoundrel, she had
been obliged to part with all her household treasures. Once before she
had left her home, taking merely the wreck of her fortune with her. But
what a difference between then and now!

Then, the esteem and sympathy of all who knew her was hers, and the
admiring praise she received divested the sacrifice of much of its
bitterness, and increased her courage two-fold. Now, she was flying
secretly, and alone, under an assumed name, trembling at the thought
of pursuit or recognition--flying as a criminal flies at thought of his
crime, and fear of punishment. She had far less suffered on the day,
when, with her son upon her knees, sh