mer of whom resided at Marseilles and the latter in
Paris.

After they had settled their affairs they would much have liked to take
up their abode in the new town, the quarter of the retired traders, but
they dared not do so. Their income was too small; they were afraid that
they would cut but a poor figure there. So, as a sort of compromise,
they took apartments in the Rue de la Banne, the street which separates
the old quarter from the new one. As their abode was one of the row
of houses bordering the old quarter, they still lived among the common
people; nevertheless, they could see the town of the richer classes from
their windows, so that they were just on the threshold of the promised
land.

Their apartments, situated on the second floor, consisted of three
large rooms--dining-room, drawing-room, and bedroom. The first floor was
occupied by the owner of the house, a stick and umbrella manufacturer,
who had a shop on the ground floor. The house, which was narrow and
by no means deep, had only two storeys. Felicite moved into it with a
bitter pang. In the provinces, to live in another person's house is an
avowal of poverty. Every family of position at Plassans has a house
of its own, landed property being very cheap there. Pierre kept the
purse-strings well tied; he would not hear of any embellishments. The
old furniture, faded, worn, damaged though it was, had to suffice,
without even being repaired. Felicite, however, who keenly felt the
necessity for this parsimony, exerted herself to give fresh polish to
all the wreckage; she herself knocked nails into some of the furniture
which was more dilapidated than the rest, and darned the frayed velvet
of the arm-chairs.

The dining-room, which, like the kitchen, was at the back of the house,
was nearly bare; a table and a dozen chairs were lost in the gloom of
this large apartment, whose window faced the grey wall of a neighbouring
building. As no strangers ever went into the bedroom, Felicite had
stowed all her useless furniture there; thus, besides a bedstead,
wardrobe, secretaire, and wash-stand, it contained two cradles, one
perched atop of the other, a sideboard whose doors were missing, and an
empty bookcase, venerable ruins which the old woman could not make up
her mind to part with. All her cares, however, were bestowed upon the
drawing-room, and she almost succeeded in making it comfortable and
decent. The furniture was covered with yellowish velvet with sat