l it shone, and kept everything about the house in
a state of cleanliness worthy of Holland. She managed the avalanches
of soiled linen and the floods of water that go by the name of "the
wash," which was done, according to provincial usage, three times a
year. She kept a housewifely eye to the linen, and mended it
carefully. Then, desirous of learning little by little the secret of
the family property, she acquired the very limited business knowledge
which Rouget possessed, and increased it by conversations with the
notary of the late doctor, Monsieur Heron. Thus instructed, she gave
excellent advice to her little Jean-Jacques. Sure of being always
mistress, she was as eager and solicitous about the old bachelor's
interests as if they had been her own. She was not obliged to guard
against the exactions of her uncle, for two months before the doctor's
death Brazier died of a fall as he was leaving a wine-shop, where,
since his rise in fortune, he spent most of his time. Flore had also
lost her father; thus she served her master with all the affection
which an orphan, thankful to make herself a home and a settlement in
life, would naturally feel.

This period of his life was paradise to poor Jean-Jacques, who now
acquired the gentle habits of an animal, trained into a sort of
monastic regularity. He slept late. Flore, who was up at daybreak
attending to her housekeeping, woke him so that he should find his
breakfast ready as soon as he had finished dressing. After breakfast,
about eleven o'clock, Jean-Jacques went to walk; talked with the
people he met, and came home at three in the afternoon to read the
papers,--those of the department, and a journal from Paris which he
received three days after publication, well greased by the thirty
hands through which it came, browned by the snuffy noses that had
pored over it, and soiled by the various tables on which it had lain.
The old bachelor thus got through the day until it was time for
dinner; over that meal he spent as much time as it was possible to
give to it. Flore told him the news of the town, repeating the cackle
that was current, which she had carefully picked up. Towards eight
o'clock the lights were put out. Going to bed early is a saving of
fire and candles very commonly practised in the provinces, which
contributes no doubt to the empty-mindedness of the inhabitants. Too
much sleep dulls and weakens the brain.

Such was the life of these two persons during a pe