mplain of us? It is you
who are behindhand in your promises. That cross which was to have been
granted within a week, and that pamphlet, which ought to have appeared a
long time ago--"

"The pamphlet and the cross will both appear in good time; the one will
bring the other," said la Peyrade, rising. "Tell Thuillier to come
and see me to-morrow evening, and I think we can then correct the last
sheet. But, above all, don't listen to the spitefulness of Madame
de Godollo; I have an idea that in order to make herself completely
mistress of this house she wants to alienate all your old friends, and
also that she is casting her net for Thuillier."

"Well, in point of fact," said the old maid, whom the parting shot of
the infernal barrister had touched on the ever-sensitive point of her
authority, "I must look into that matter you speak of there; she is
rather coquettish, that little woman."

La Peyrade gained a second benefit out of that speech so adroitly
flung out; he saw by Brigitte's answer to it that the countess had
not mentioned to her the visit he had paid her during the day. This
reticence might have a serious meaning.

Four days later, the printer, the stitcher, the paper glazier having
fulfilled their offices, Thuillier had the inexpressible happiness of
beginning on the boulevards a promenade, which he continued through
the Passages, and even to the Palais-Royal, pausing before all the
book-shops where he saw, shining in black letters on a yellow poster,
the famous title:--

TAXATION AND THE SLIDING-SCALE by J. Thuillier,
Member of the Council-General of the Seine.

Having reached the point of persuading himself that the care he had
bestowed upon the correction of proofs made the merit of the work his
own, his paternal heart, like that of Maitre Corbeau, could not contain
itself for joy. We ought to add that he held in very low esteem those
booksellers who did not announce the sale of the new work, destined to
become, as he believed, a European event. Without actually deciding the
manner in which he would punish their indifference, he nevertheless made
a list of these rebellious persons, and wished them as much evil as if
they had offered him a personal affront.

The next day he spent a delightful morning in writing a certain number
of letters, sending the publication to friends, and putting into paper
covers some fifty copies, to which the sacramental phrase, "From the
author," imp