to save the town as Rougon did.
Yesterday, when I was calling upon some very distinguished persons, they
could scarcely believe it possible that you had made so much noise with
a mere hammer."

Granoux stammered his thanks, and, blushing like a maiden at her first
confession of love, whispered in Roudier's ear: "Don't say anything
about it, but I have reason to believe that Rougon will ask the ribbon
for me. He's a good fellow at heart, you know."

The old hosier thereupon became grave, and assumed a very affable
manner. When Vuillet came and spoke to him of the well-deserved reward
that their friend had just received, he replied in a loud voice, so as
to be heard by Felicite, who was sitting a little way off, that "men
like Rougon were an ornament to the Legion of Honour." The bookseller
joined in the chorus; he had that morning received a formal assurance
that the custom of the college would be restored to him. As for
Sicardot, he at first felt somewhat annoyed to find himself no longer
the only one of the set who was decorated. According to him, none but
soldiers had a right to the ribbon. Pierre's valour surprised him.
However, being in reality a good-natured fellow, he at last grew warmer,
and ended by saying that the Napoleons always knew how to distinguish
men of spirit and energy.

Rougon and Aristide consequently had an enthusiastic reception; on their
arrival all hands were held out to them. Some of the guests went so
far as to embrace them. Angele sat on the sofa, by the side of her
mother-in-law, feeling very happy, and gazing at the table with the
astonishment of a gourmand who has never seen so many dishes at once.
When Aristide approached, Sicardot complimented his son-in-law upon his
superb article in the "Independant." He restored his friendship to
him. The young man, in answer to the fatherly questions which Sicardot
addressed to him, replied that he was anxious to take his little family
with him to Paris, where his brother Eugene would push him forward; but
he was in want of five hundred francs. Sicardot thereupon promised
him the money, already foreseeing the day when his daughter would be
received at the Tuileries by Napoleon III.

In the meantime, Felicite had made a sign to her husband. Pierre,
surrounded by everybody and anxiously questioned about his pallor, could
only escape for a minute. He was just able to whisper in his wife's ear
that he had found Pascal and that Macquart would leave t