know how those things are managed.
However, just before the inspection--as the colonel is a crotchety old
maniac--I said to Burle: 'I say, old man, look to your accounts; I am
answerable, you know,' and then I felt perfectly secure. Well, about a
month ago, as he seemed queer and some nasty stories were circulating,
I peered a little closer into the books and pottered over the entries. I
thought everything looked straight and very well kept--"

At this point he stopped, convulsed by such a fit of rage that he had to
relieve himself by a volley of appalling oaths. Finally he resumed: "It
isn't the swindle that angers me; it is his disgusting behavior to me.
He has gammoned me, Madame Burle. By God! Does he take me for an old
fool?"

"So he stole?" the mother again questioned.

"This evening," continued the major more quietly, "I had just finished
my dinner when Gagneux came in--you know Gagneux, the butcher at the
corner of the Place aux Herbes? Another dirty beast who got the meat
contract and makes our men eat all the diseased cow flesh in the
neighborhood! Well, I received him like a dog, and then he let it all
out--blurted out the whole thing, and a pretty mess it is! It appears
that Burle only paid him in driblets and had got himself into a
muddle--a confusion of figures which the devil himself couldn't
disentangle. In short, Burle owes the butcher two thousand francs, and
Gagneux threatens that he'll inform the colonel if he is not paid. To
make matters worse, Burle, just to blind me, handed me every week a
forged receipt which he had squarely signed with Gagneux's name. To
think he did that to me, his old friend! Ah, curse him!"

With increasing profanity the major rose to his feet, shook his fist at
the ceiling and then fell back in his chair. Mme Burle again repeated:
"He has stolen. It was inevitable."

Then without a word of judgment or condemnation she added simply: "Two
thousand francs--we have not got them. There are barely thirty francs in
the house."

"I expected as much," said Laguitte. "And do you know where all the
money goes? Why, Melanie gets it--yes, Melanie, a creature who has
turned Burle into a perfect fool. Ah, those women! Those fiendish women!
I always said they would do for him! I cannot conceive what he is made
of! He is only five years younger than I am, and yet he is as mad as
ever. What a woman hunter he is!"

Another long silence followed. Outside the rain was increasing in
viol