he young man's welfare as I do myself, I shall say
to you in parting: Do not be uneasy about him; sooner or later, such
choice souls come back to us, and if the return of these prodigals
should be long delayed I should not fear, on seeing them go to God, that
His infinite mercy would fail them."

So saying, the abbe looked about to find his hat, and proceeded to slip
quietly away.

Suddenly a fearful uproar was heard. Rushing into the dining-room,
whence came a sound of furniture overturned and glasses breaking,
Brigitte found Colleville occupied in adjusting his cravat and looking
himself over to be sure that his coat, cruelly pulled awry, bore no
signs of being actually torn.

"What is the matter?" cried Brigitte.

"It is that old idiot," replied Colleville, "who is in a fury. I came
to take my coffee with him, just to keep him company, and he took a
joke amiss, and collared me, and knocked over two chairs and a tray of
glasses because Josephine didn't get out of his way in time."

"It is all because you've been teasing him," said Brigitte, crossly;
"why couldn't you stay in the salon instead of coming here to play your
jokes, as you call them? You think you are still in the orchestra of the
Opera-Comique."

This sharp rebuke delivered, Brigitte, like the resolute woman that she
was, saw that she absolutely must get rid of the ferocious old man
who threatened her household with flames and blood. Accordingly, she
approached pere Picot, who was tranquilly engaged in burning brandy in
his saucer.

"Monsieur," she said, at the top of her lungs, as if she were speaking
to a deaf person (evidently thinking that a blind one ought to be
treated in the same manner), "I have come to tell you something that
may annoy you. Monsieur and Madame Phellion have just arrived, and they
inform me that their son, Monsieur Felix, is not coming. He has a cold
and a sore-throat."

"Then he got it this afternoon reading that lecture," cried the
professor, joyfully. "That's justice!--Madame, where do you get your
brandy?"

"Why, at my grocer's," replied Brigitte, taken aback by the question.

"Well, madame, I ought to tell you that in a house where one can drink
such excellent champagne, which reminds me of that we used to quaff at
the table of Monsieur de Fontanes, grand-master of the University, it is
shameful to keep such brandy. I tell you, with the frankness I put into
everything, that it is good only to wash your horses' fee