ood times are
coming back for you and me; we'll amuse ourselves once more, or we
are not the pair we really are. If you can send me five hundred
more cartridges I'll bite them.

Adieu, my old fire-eater. Light your pipe with this letter. Mind,
the daughter of the officer is to come from Chateauroux, and must
seem to be in need of assistance. I hope however that I shall not
be driven to such dangerous expedients. Remember me to Mariette
and all our friends.

Agathe, informed by Madame Hochon of what had happened, rushed to
Issoudun, and was received by her brother, who gave her Philippe's
former room. The poor mother's tenderness for the worthless son
revived in all its maternal strength; a few happy days were hers at
last, as she listened to the praises which the whole town bestowed
upon her hero.

"After all, my child," said Madame Hochon on the day of her arrival,
"youth must have its fling. The dissipations of a soldier under the
Empire must, of course, be greater than those of young men who are
looked after by their fathers. Oh! if you only knew what went on here
at night under that wretched Max! Thanks to your son, Issoudun now
breathes and sleeps in peace. Philippe has come to his senses rather
late; he told us frankly that those three months in the Luxembourg
sobered him. Monsieur Hochon is delighted with his conduct here; every
one thinks highly of it. If he can be kept away from the temptations
of Paris, he will end by being a comfort to you."

Hearing these consolatory words Agathe's eyes filled with tears.

Philippe played the saint to his mother, for he had need of her. That
wily politician did not wish to have recourse to Cesarine unless he
continued to be an object of horror to Mademoiselle Brazier. He saw
that Flore had been thoroughly broken to harness by Max; he knew she
was an essential part of his uncle's life, and he greatly preferred to
use her rather than send for the ballet-girl, who might take it into
her head to marry the old man. Fouche advised Louis XVIII. to sleep in
Napoleon's sheets instead of granting the charter; and Philippe would
have liked to remain in Gilet's sheets; but he was reluctant to risk
the good reputation he had made for himself in Berry. To take Max's
place with the Rabouilleuse would be as odious on his part as on hers.
He could, without discredit and by the laws of nepotism, live in his
uncle's house and at his uncle's expense; but he could not have