is_ any sin in the business," she said to him in the
middle of the garden, "you can confess it."

"The devil!" cried Thuillier, "a man owes himself to his relatives, and
you are one of us now."

"Then I decide to do it," replied la Peyrade, in a voice of emotion;
"but on conditions that I must now distinctly state. I will not, in
marrying Celeste, be accused of greed and mercenary motives. If you lay
remorse upon me, at least you must consent that I shall remain as I
am for the present. Do not settle upon Celeste, my old Thuillier, the
future possession of the property I am about to obtain for you--"

"You are right."

"Don't rob yourself; and let my dear little aunt here act in the same
way in relation to the marriage contract. Put the remainder of the
capital in Madame Thuillier's name, on the Grand Livre, and she can do
what she likes with it. We shall all live together as one family, and
I'll undertake to make my own fortune, now that I am free from anxiety
about the future."

"That suits me," said Thuillier; "that's the talk of an honest man."

"Let me kiss you on the forehead, my son," said the old maid; "but,
inasmuch as Celeste cannot be allowed to go without a 'dot,' we shall
give her sixty thousand francs."

"For her dress," said la Peyrade.

"We are all three persons of honor," cried Thuillier. "It is now
settled, isn't it? You are to manage the purchase of the house; we
are to write together, you and I, my political work; and you'll bestir
yourself to get me the decoration?"

"You will have that as soon as you are made a municipal councillor on
the 1st of May. Only, my good friend, I must beg you, and you, too, dear
aunt, to keep the most profound secrecy about me in this affair; and do
not listen to the calumnies which all the men I am about to trick will
spread about me. I shall become, you'll see, a vagabond, a swindler, a
dangerous man, a Jesuit, an ambitious fortune-hunter. Can you hear those
accusations against me with composure?"

"Fear nothing," replied Brigitte.

CHAPTER XI. THE REIGN OF THEODOSE

From that day forth Thuillier became a dear, good friend. "My dear, good
friend," was the name given to him by Theodose, with voice inflections
of varieties of tenderness which astonished Flavie. But "little aunt,"
a name that flattered Brigitte deeply, was only given in family secrecy,
and occasionally before Flavie. The activity of Theodose and Dutocq,
Cerizet, Barbet, Metivier, Mina