he excess of joy which
innundated her heart; yet the eyes of both expressed the same sentiment
as their souls flowed together in one thought,--the future was theirs.
This soft emotion was all the more precious to Charles in the midst
of his heavy grief because it was wholly unexpected. The sound of the
knocker recalled the women to their usual station. Happily they were
able to run downstairs with sufficient rapidity to be seated at their
work when Grandet entered; had he met them under the archway it would
have been enough to rouse his suspicions. After breakfast, which the
goodman took standing, the keeper from Froidfond, to whom the promised
indemnity had never yet been paid, made his appearance, bearing a hare
and some partridges shot in the park, with eels and two pike sent as
tribute by the millers.

"Ha, ha! poor Cornoiller; here he comes, like fish in Lent. Is all that
fit to eat?"

"Yes, my dear, generous master; it has been killed two days."

"Come, Nanon, bestir yourself," said Grandet; "take these things,
they'll do for dinner. I have invited the two Cruchots."

Nanon opened her eyes, stupid with amazement, and looked at everybody in
the room.

"Well!" she said, "and how am I to get the lard and the spices?"

"Wife," said Grandet, "give Nanon six francs, and remind me to get some
of the good wine out of the cellar."

"Well, then, Monsieur Grandet," said the keeper, who had come prepared
with an harangue for the purpose of settling the question of the
indemnity, "Monsieur Grandet--"

"Ta, ta, ta, ta!" said Grandet; "I know what you want to say. You are a
good fellow; we will see about it to-morrow, I'm too busy to-day. Wife,
give him five francs," he added to Madame Grandet as he decamped.

The poor woman was only too happy to buy peace at the cost of eleven
francs. She knew that Grandet would let her alone for a fortnight after
he had thus taken back, franc by franc, the money he had given her.

"Here, Cornoiller," she said, slipping ten francs into the man's hand,
"some day we will reward your services."

Cornoiller could say nothing, so he went away.

"Madame," said Nanon, who had put on her black coif and taken her
basket, "I want only three francs. You keep the rest; it'll go fast
enough somehow."

"Have a good dinner, Nanon; my cousin will come down," said Eugenie.

"Something very extraordinary is going on, I am certain of it," said
Madame Grandet. "This is only the third time since ou