e, 'your reading-room is a hole of a place. You will
lose your complexion; the gas will ruin your eyesight. You ought to come
out of it; and, look here, let us take advantage of an opportunity. I
have found a young lady for you that asks no better than to buy your
reading-room. She is a ruined woman with nothing before her but a plunge
into the river; but she had four thousand francs in cash, and the best
thing to do is to turn them to account, so as to feed and educate a
couple of children.'

"'Very well. It is kind of you, Daddy Croizeau,' said Antonia.

"'Oh, I shall be much kinder before I have done. Just imagine it, poor
M. Denisart has been worried into the jaundice! Yes, it has gone to
the liver, as it usually does with susceptible old men. It is a pity he
feels things so. I told him so myself; I said, "Be passionate, there
is no harm in that, but as for taking things to heart--draw the line
at that! It is the way to kill yourself."--Really, I would not have
expected him to take on so about it; a man that has sense enough and
experience enough to keep away as he does while he digests his dinner--'

"'But what is the matter?' inquired Mlle. Chocardelle.

"'That little baggage with whom I dined has cleared out and left him!
... Yes. Gave him the slip without any warning but a letter, in which
the spelling was all to seek.'

"'There, Daddy Croizeau, you see what comes of boring a woman--'

"'It is indeed a lesson, my pretty lady,' said the guileful Croizeau.
'Meanwhile, I have never seen a man in such a state. Our friend Denisart
cannot tell his left hand from his right; he will not go back to look at
the "scene of his happiness," as he calls it. He has so thoroughly lost
his wits, that he proposes that I should buy all Hortense's furniture
(Hortense was her name) for four thousand francs.'

"'A pretty name,' said Antonia.

"'Yes. Napoleon's stepdaughter was called Hortense. I built carriages
for her, as you know.'

"'Very well, I will see,' said cunning Antonia; 'begin by sending this
young woman to me.'

"Antonia hurried off to see the furniture, and came back fascinated.
She brought Maxime under the spell of antiquarian enthusiasm. That
very evening the Count agreed to the sale of the reading-room. The
establishment, you see, nominally belonged to Mlle. Chocardelle. Maxime
burst out laughing at the idea of little Croizeau's finding him a buyer.
The firm of Maxime and Chocardelle was losing two thousand