anything.

"The business was worth fifteen thousand three hundred and ten francs,"
Lisa re-asserted, calmly. "You will agree with me, my dear Florent, that
it is quite unnecessary to bring a lawyer into our affairs. It is for us
to arrange the division between ourselves, since you have now turned up
again. I naturally thought of this as soon as you arrived; and, while
you were in bed with the fever, I did my best to draw up this little
inventory. It contains, as you see, a fairly complete statement of
everything. I have been through our old books, and have called up my
memory to help me. Read it aloud, and I will give you any additional
information you may want."

Florent ended by smiling. He was touched by this easy and, as it were,
natural display of probity. Placing the sheet of figures on the young
woman's knee, he took hold of her hand and said, "I am very glad, my
dear Lisa, to hear that you are prosperous, but I will not take your
money. The heritage belongs to you and my brother, who took care of my
uncle up to the last. I don't require anything, and I don't intend to
hamper you in carrying on your business."

Lisa insisted, and even showed some vexation, while Quenu gnawed his
thumbs in silence to restrain himself.

"Ah!" resumed Florent with a laugh, "if Uncle Gradelle could hear you,
I think he'd come back and take the money away again. I was never a
favourite of his, you know."

"Well, no," muttered Quenu, no longer able to keep still, "he certainly
wasn't over fond of you."

Lisa, however, still pressed the matter. She did not like to have money
in her secretaire that did not belong to her; it would worry her, said
she; the thought of it would disturb her peace. Thereupon Florent, still
in a joking way, proposed to invest his share in the business. Moreover,
said he, he did not intend to refuse their help; he would, no doubt, be
unable to find employment all at once; and then, too, he would need a
complete outfit, for he was scarcely presentable.

"Of course," cried Quenu, "you will board and lodge with us, and we will
buy you all that you want. That's understood. You know very well that we
are not likely to leave you in the streets, I hope!"

He was quite moved now, and even felt a trifle ashamed of the alarm he
had experienced at the thought of having to hand over a large amount of
money all at once. He began to joke, and told his brother that he would
undertake to fatten him. Florent gently sh