c," said Clement in an undertone. "We are a little
too big."

The judge's hearing was keen enough to catch these words, which brought
a cloud to the Marquis' brow. Popinot took pleasure in contemplating the
picture of the father and his boys. His eyes went back with a sense
of pathos to M. d'Espard's face; his features, his expression, and his
manner all expressed honesty in its noblest aspect, intellectual and
chivalrous honesty, nobility in all its beauty.

"You--you see, monsieur," said the Marquis, and his hesitation had
returned, "you see that Justice may look in--in here at any time--yes,
at any time--here. If there is anybody crazy, it can only be the
children--the children--who are a little crazy about their father,
and the father who is very crazy about his children--but that sort of
madness rings true."

At this juncture Madame Jeanrenaud's voice was heard in the ante-room,
and the good woman came bustling in, in spite of the man-servant's
remonstrances.

"I take no roundabout ways, I can tell you!" she exclaimed. "Yes,
Monsieur le Marquis, I want to speak to you, this very minute," she went
on, with a comprehensive bow to the company. "By George, and I am too
late as it is, since Monsieur the criminal Judge is before me."

"Criminal!" cried the two boys.

"Good reason why I did not find you at your own house, since you are
here. Well, well! the Law is always to the fore when there is mischief
brewing.--I came, Monsieur le Marquis, to tell you that my son and I are
of one mind to give you everything back, since our honor is threatened.
My son and I, we had rather give you back everything than cause you
the smallest trouble. My word, they must be as stupid as pans without
handles to call you a lunatic----"

"A lunatic! My father?" exclaimed the boys, clinging to the Marquis.
"What is this?"

"Silence, madame," said Popinot.

"Children, leave us," said the Marquis.

The two boys went into the garden without a word, but very much alarmed.

"Madame," said the judge, "the moneys paid to you by Monsieur le Marquis
were legally due, though given to you in virtue of a very far-reaching
theory of honesty. If all the people possessed of confiscated goods, by
whatever cause, even if acquired by treachery, were compelled to make
restitution every hundred and fifty years, there would be few legitimate
owners in France. The possessions of Jacques Coeur enriched twenty noble
families; the confiscations pronounc