isting
temptations; of which, in a great city like Paris, there are many at
every step. Live in your mother's home, in the garret; go straight to
the law-school; from there to your lawyer's office; drudge night and
day, and study at home. Become, by the time you are twenty-two, a second
clerk; by the time you are twenty-four, head-clerk; be steady, and you
will win all. If, moreover, you shouldn't like the profession, you
might enter the office of my son the notary, and eventually succeed
him. Therefore, work, patience, discretion, honesty,--those are your
landmarks."

"God grant that you may live thirty years longer to see your fifth child
realizing all we expect from him," cried Madame Clapart, seizing uncle
Cardot's hand and pressing it with a gesture that recalled her youth.

"Now come to breakfast," replied the kind old man, leading Oscar by the
ear.

During the meal uncle Cardot observed his nephew without appearing to do
so, and soon saw that the lad knew nothing of life.

"Send him here to me now and then," he said to Madame Clapart, as he
bade her good-bye, "and I'll form him for you."

This visit calmed the anxieties of the poor mother, who had not hoped
for such brilliant success. For the next fortnight she took Oscar to
walk daily, and watched him tyrannically. This brought matters to the
end of October. One morning as the poor household was breakfasting on a
salad of herring and lettuce, with milk for a dessert, Oscar beheld with
terror the formidable ex-steward, who entered the room and surprised
this scene of poverty.

"We are now living in Paris--but not as we lived at Presles," said
Moreau, wishing to make known to Madame Clapart the change in their
relations caused by Oscar's folly. "I shall seldom be here myself; for
I have gone into partnership with Pere Leger and Pere Margueron of
Beaumont. We are speculating in land, and we have begun by purchasing
the estate of Persan. I am the head of the concern, which has a capital
of a million; part of which I have borrowed on my own securities. When I
find a good thing, Pere Leger and I examine it; my partners have each a
quarter and I a half in the profits; but I do nearly all the work, and
for that reason I shall be constantly on the road. My wife lives here,
in the faubourg du Roule, very plainly. When we see how the business
turns out, if we risk only the profits, and if Oscar behaves himself, we
may, perhaps, employ him."

"Ah! my friend, the ca