which, however,
would not bear close examination. She was of medium height, plump, and
fresh, with fine shoulders and a rather rosy complexion. Her blond hair,
bordering on chestnut, showed, in spite of her husband's catastrophe,
not a tinge of gray. She loved good cheer, and liked to concoct nice
little made dishes; yet, fond as she was of eating, she also adored
the theatre and cherished a vice which she wrapped in impenetrable
mystery--she bought into lotteries. Can that be the abyss of which
mythology warns us under the fable of the Danaides and their cask?
Madame Descoings, like other women who are lucky enough to keep young
for many years, spend rather too much upon her dress; but aside from
these trifling defects she was the pleasantest of women to live with.
Of every one's opinion, never opposing anybody, her kindly and
communicative gayety gave pleasure to all. She had, moreover, a Parisian
quality which charmed the retired clerks and elderly merchants of her
circle,--she could take and give a jest. If she did not marry a third
time it was no doubt the fault of the times. During the wars of the
Empire, marrying men found rich and handsome girls too easily to trouble
themselves about women of sixty.

Madame Descoings, always anxious to cheer Madame Bridau, often took the
latter to the theatre, or to drive; prepared excellent little dinners
for her delectation, and even tried to marry her to her own son by her
first husband, Bixiou. Alas! to do this, she was forced to reveal a
terrible secret, carefully kept by her, by her late husband, and by
her notary. The young and beautiful Madame Descoings, who passed for
thirty-six years old, had a son who was thirty-five, named Bixiou,
already a widower, a major in the Twenty-Fourth Infantry, who
subsequently perished at Lutzen, leaving behind him an only son. Madame
Descoings, who only saw her grandson secretly, gave out that he was the
son of the first wife of her first husband. The revelation was partly
a prudential act; for this grandson was being educated with Madame
Bridau's sons at the Imperial Lyceum, where he had a half-scholarship.
The lad, who was clever and shrewd at school, soon after made himself a
great reputation as draughtsman and designer, and also as a wit.

Agathe, who lived only for her children, declined to re-marry, as much
from good sense as from fidelity to her husband. But it is easier for a
woman to be a good wife than to be a good mother. A w