"We shall not be at the Chalet," said the Comte de La Bastie. "Dumay
will have sole possession of it. I return to the villa, having bought it
back under a deed of redemption within six months, which I have to-day
signed with Monsieur Vilquin."

"I hope," said Dumay, "that Vilquin will not be able to return to you
the sum you have just lent him, and that the villa will remain yours."

"It is an abode in keeping with your fortune," said Canalis.

"You mean the fortune that I am supposed to have," replied Charles
Mignon, hastily.

"It would be too sad," said Canalis, turning to Modeste with a charming
little bow, "if this Madonna were not framed in a manner worthy of her
divine perfections."

That was the only thing Canalis said to Modeste. He affected not to
look at her, and behaved like a man to whom all idea of marriage was
interdicted.

"Ah! my dear Madame Mignon," cried the notary's wife, as soon as the
gravel was heard to grit under the feet of the Parisians, "what an
intellect!"

"Is he rich?--that is the question," said Gobenheim.

Modeste was at the window, not losing a single movement of the great
poet, and paying no attention to his companion. When Monsieur Mignon
returned to the salon, and Modeste, having received a last bow from the
two friends as the carriage turned, went back to her seat, a weighty
discussion took place, such as provincials invariably hold over
Parisians after a first interview. Gobenheim repeated his phrase, "Is
he rich?" as a chorus to the songs of praise sung by Madame Latournelle,
Modeste, and her mother.

"Rich!" exclaimed Modeste; "what can that signify! Do you not see that
Monsieur de Canalis is one of those men who are destined for the highest
places in the State. He has more than fortune; he possesses that which
gives fortune."

"He will be minister or ambassador," said Monsieur Mignon.

"That won't hinder tax-payers from having to pay the costs of his
funeral," remarked the notary.

"How so?" asked Charles Mignon.

"He strikes me as a man who will waste all the fortunes with whose gifts
Mademoiselle Modeste so liberally endows him," answered Latournelle.

"Modeste can't avoid being liberal to a poet who called her a Madonna,"
said Dumay, sneering, and faithful to the repulsion with which Canalis
had originally inspired him.

Gobenheim arranged the whist-table with all the more persistency
because, since the return of Monsieur Mignon, Latournelle and Dumay had