e added, turning eagerly to her. "Ah! a gold
thimble. And you, little girl? What! diamond buttons? Yes, I'll accept
your present, nephew," he answered, shaking Charles by the hand.
"But--you must let me--pay--your--yes, your passage to the Indies. Yes,
I wish to pay your passage because--d'ye see, my boy?--in valuing
your jewels I estimated only the weight of the gold; very likely the
workmanship is worth something. So let us settle it that I am to give
you fifteen hundred francs--in _livres_; Cruchot will lend them to me. I
haven't got a copper farthing here,--unless Perrotet, who is behindhand
with his rent, should pay up. By the bye, I'll go and see him."

He took his hat, put on his gloves, and went out.

"Then you are really going?" said Eugenie to her cousin, with a sad
look, mingled with admiration.

"I must," he said, bowing his head.

For some days past, Charles's whole bearing, manners, and speech had
become those of a man who, in spite of his profound affliction, feels
the weight of immense obligations and has the strength to gather courage
from misfortune. He no longer repined, he became a man. Eugenie never
augured better of her cousin's character than when she saw him come
down in the plain black clothes which suited well with his pale face and
sombre countenance. On that day the two women put on their own mourning,
and all three assisted at a Requiem celebrated in the parish church for
the soul of the late Guillaume Grandet.

At the second breakfast Charles received letters from Paris and began to
read them.

"Well, cousin, are you satisfied with the management of your affairs?"
said Eugenie in a low voice.

"Never ask such questions, my daughter," said Grandet. "What the devil!
do I tell you my affairs? Why do you poke your nose into your cousin's?
Let the lad alone!"

"Oh! I haven't any secrets," said Charles.

"Ta, ta, ta, ta, nephew; you'll soon find out that you must hold your
tongue in business."

When the two lovers were alone in the garden, Charles said to Eugenie,
drawing her down on the old bench beneath the walnut-tree,--

"I did right to trust Alphonse; he has done famously. He has managed my
affairs with prudence and good faith. I now owe nothing in Paris. All my
things have been sold; and he tells me that he has taken the advice
of an old sea-captain and spent three thousand francs on a commercial
outfit of European curiosities which will be sure to be in demand in the
Indies.