t the old man died of
indigestion.

Madame Rouget was in her element in the midst of this excessively
decollete society; but Philippe gave her in charge of Mariette, and
that monitress did not allow the widow--whose mourning was diversified
with a few amusements--to commit any actual follies.

In October, 1823, Philippe returned to Issoudun, furnished with a
power of attorney from his aunt, to liquidate the estate of his uncle;
a business that was soon over, for he returned to Paris in March,
1824, with sixteen hundred thousand francs,--the net proceeds of old
Rouget's property, not counting the precious pictures, which had never
left Monsieur Hochon's hands. Philippe put the whole property into the
hands of Mongenod and Sons, where young Baruch Borniche was employed,
and on whose solvency and business probity old Hochon had given him
satisfactory assurances. This house took his sixteen hundred thousand
francs at six per cent per annum, on condition of three months' notice
in case of the withdrawal of the money.

One fine day, Philippe went to see his mother, and invited her to be
present at his marriage, which was witnessed by Giroudeau, Finot,
Nathan, and Bixiou. By the terms of the marriage contract, the widow
Rouget, whose portion of her late husband's property amounted to a
million of francs, secured to her future husband her whole fortune in
case she died without children. No invitations to the wedding were
sent out, nor any "billets de faire part"; Philippe had his designs.
He lodged his wife in an _appartement_ in the rue Saint-Georges, which
he bought ready-furnished from Lolotte. Madame Bridau the younger
thought it delightful, and her husband rarely set foot in it. Without
her knowledge, Philippe purchased in the rue de Clichy, at a time when
no one suspected the value which property in that quarter would one
day acquire, a magnificent hotel for two hundred and fifty thousand
francs; of which he paid one hundred and fifty thousand down, taking
two years to pay the remainder. He spent large sums in altering the
interior and furnishing it; in fact, he put his income for two years
into this outlay. The pictures, now restored, and estimated at three
hundred thousand francs, appeared in such surroundings in all their
beauty.

The accession of Charles X. had brought into still greater court favor
the family of the Duc de Chaulieu, whose eldest son, the Duc de
Rhetore, was in the habit of seeing Philippe at Tul