eginning to let fly certain witticisms;
and although Philippe, so far, had not understood him, there was always
a chance that one of the barbed arrows might piece the colonel's thick
skull and put the sharp jester in peril.

"You must be tired," whispered Agathe in Philippe's ear; "come to bed."

"Travel educates youth," said Bixiou, grinning, when Madame Bridau and
the colonel had disappeared.

Joseph, who got up at dawn and went to bed early, did not see the end of
the party. The next morning Agathe and Madame Descoings, while preparing
breakfast, could not help remarking that soires would be terribly
expensive if Philippe were to go on playing that sort of game, as the
Descoings phrased it. The worthy old woman, then seventy-six years of
age, proposed to sell her furniture, give up her _appartement_ on the
second floor (which the owner was only too glad to occupy), and take
Agathe's parlor for her chamber, making the other room a sitting-room
and dining-room for the family. In this way they could save seven
hundred francs a year; which would enable them to give Philippe fifty
francs a month until he could find something to do. Agathe accepted the
sacrifice. When the colonel came down and his mother had asked how he
liked his little bedroom, the two widows explained to him the situation
of the family. Madame Descoings and Agathe possessed, by putting all
their resources together, an income of five thousand three hundred
francs, four thousand of which belonged to Madame Descoings and were
merely a life annuity. The Descoings made an allowance of six hundred
a year to Bixiou, whom she had acknowledged as her grandson during the
last few months, also six hundred to Joseph; the rest of her income,
together with that of Agathe, was spent for the household wants. All
their savings were by this time eaten up.

"Make yourselves easy," said the lieutenant-colonel. "I'll find a
situation and put you to no expense; all I need for the present is board
and lodging."

Agathe kissed her son, and Madame Descoings slipped a hundred francs
into his hand to pay for his losses of the night before. In ten days
the furniture was sold, the _appartement_ given up, and the change in
Agathe's domestic arrangements accomplished with a celerity seldom seen
outside of Paris. During those ten days, Philippe regularly decamped
after breakfast, came back for dinner, was off again for the evening,
and only got home about midnight to go to bed. H