,"
he added, "is very rich; he has inherited from his father (who was a
widower) eighteen thousand francs a year, and with the twelve thousand
which an uncle has just left to each of us, he has an income of thirty
thousand. So he pays his debts, and gives up the law. He hopes to be
Marquis de las Florentinas, for the young widow is marquise in her own
right, and has the privilege of giving her titles to her husband."

Though the clerks were still a good deal undecided in mind as to the
marquise, the double perspective of a breakfast at the Rocher de Cancale
and a fashionable festivity put them into a state of joyous expectation.
They reserved all points as to the Spanish lady, intending to judge her
without appeal after the meeting.

The Marquise de las Florentinas y Cabirolos was neither more nor less
than Mademoiselle Agathe-Florentine Cabirolle, first danseuse at
the Gaiete, with whom uncle Cardot was in the habit of singing "Mere
Godichon." A year after the very reparable loss of Madame Cardot, the
successful merchant encountered Florentine as she was leaving Coulon's
dancing-class. Attracted by the beauty of that choregraphic flower
(Florentine was then about thirteen years of age), he followed her to
the rue Pastourel, where he found that the future star of the ballet was
the daughter of a portress. Two weeks later, the mother and daughter,
established in the rue de Crussol, were enjoying a modest competence. It
was to this protector of the arts--to use the consecrated phrase--that
the theatre owed the brilliant danseuse. The generous Maecenas made two
beings almost beside themselves with joy in the possession of mahogany
furniture, hangings, carpets, and a regular kitchen; he allowed them a
woman-of-all-work, and gave them two hundred and fifty francs a month
for their living. Pere Cardot, with his hair in "pigeon-wings," seemed
like an angel, and was treated with the attention due to a benefactor.
To him this was the age of gold.

For three years the warbler of "Mere Godichon" had the wise policy to
keep Mademoiselle Cabirolle and her mother in this little apartment,
which was only ten steps from the theatre; but he gave the girl, out of
love for the choregraphic art, the great Vestris for a master. In 1820
he had the pleasure of seeing Florentine dance her first "pas" in the
ballet of a melodrama entitled "The Ruins of Babylon." Florentine was
then about sixteen. Shortly after this debut Pere Cardot became an