n's fortune-telling. "Here is Mamma Vauquerre,
fair as a starr-r-r, dressed within an inch of her life.--Aren't we a
trifle pinched for room?" he inquired, with his arm round the lady;
"we are screwed up very tightly about the bust, mamma! If we are much
agitated, there may be an explosion; but I will pick up the fragments
with all the care of an antiquary."

"There is a man who can talk the language of French gallantry!" said the
widow, bending to speak in Mme. Couture's ear.

"Good-bye, little ones!" said Vautrin, turning to Eugene and Victorine.
"Bless you both!" and he laid a hand on either head. "Take my word for
it, young lady, an honest man's prayers are worth something; they should
bring you happiness, for God hears them."

"Good-bye, dear," said Mme. Vauquer to her lodger. "Do you think that M.
Vautrin means to run away with me?" she added, lowering her voice.

"Lack-a-day!" said the widow.

"Oh! mamma dear, suppose it should really happen as that kind M. Vautrin
said!" said Victorine with a sigh as she looked at her hands. The two
women were alone together.

"Why, it wouldn't take much to bring it to pass," said the elderly lady;
"just a fall from his horse, and your monster of a brother----"

"Oh! mamma."

"Good Lord! Well, perhaps it is a sin to wish bad luck to an enemy," the
widow remarked. "I will do penance for it. Still, I would strew
flowers on his grave with the greatest pleasure, and that is the truth.
Black-hearted, that he is! The coward couldn't speak up for his own
mother, and cheats you out of your share by deceit and trickery. My
cousin had a pretty fortune of her own, but unluckily for you, nothing
was said in the marriage-contract about anything that she might come in
for."

"It would be very hard if my fortune is to cost some one else his life,"
said Victorine. "If I cannot be happy unless my brother is to be taken
out of the world, I would rather stay here all my life."

"_Mon Dieu!_ it is just as that good M. Vautrin says, and he is full of
piety, you see," Mme. Couture remarked. "I am very glad to find that
he is not an unbeliever like the rest of them that talk of the Almighty
with less respect than they do of the Devil. Well, as he was saying, who
can know the ways by which it may please Providence to lead us?"

With Sylvie's help the two women at last succeeded in getting Eugene
up to his room; they laid him on the bed, and the cook unfastened
his clothes to make him more