wn flowers.

Sylvie, on the other hand, was thinking so deeply, pen in hand, that
she forgot to scold the clerks; she was receiving the bourgeoisie of
Provins, she was looking at herself in the mirrors of her salon, and
admiring the beauties of a marvellous cap. The brother and sister began
to think the atmosphere of the rue Saint-Denis unhealthy, and the
smell of the mud in the markets made them long for the fragrance of the
Provins roses. They were the victims of a genuine nostalgia, and also
of a monomania, frustrated at present by the necessity of selling their
tapes and bobbins before they could leave Paris. The promised land of
the valley of Provins attracted these Hebrews all the more because they
had really suffered, and for a long time, as they crossed breathlessly
the sandy wastes of a mercer's business.

The Lorrains' letter reached them in the midst of meditations inspired
by this glorious future. They knew scarcely anything about their cousin,
Pierrette Lorrain. Their father got possession of the Auffray property
after they left home, and the old man said little to any one of his
business affairs. They hardly remembered their aunt Lorrain. It took
an hour of genealogical discussion before they made her out to be the
younger sister of their own mother by the second marriage of their
grandfather Auffray. It immediately struck them that this second
marriage had been fatally injurious to their interests by dividing the
Auffray property between two daughters. In times past they had heard
their father, who was given to sneering, complain of it.

The brother and sister considered the application of the Lorrains from
the point of view of such reminiscences, which were not at all favorable
for Pierrette. To take charge of an orphan, a girl, a cousin, who might
become their legal heir in case neither of them married,--this was a
matter that needed discussion. The question was considered and
debated under all its aspects. In the first place, they had never seen
Pierrette. Then, what a trouble it would be to have a young girl to look
after. Wouldn't it commit them to some obligations towards her? Could
they send the girl away if they did not like her? Besides, wouldn't they
have to marry her? and if Jerome found a yoke-mate among the heiresses
of Provins they ought to keep all their property for his children. A
yokemate for Jerome, according to Sylvie, meant a stupid, rich and
ugly girl who would let herself be gover