or now's the time to make an end of
that damned Shopman. As I drove over here I came to the conclusion it
would be best to get up a quarrel between the courts and him, so that
the Keeper of the Seals would be wary of making the changes he may ask
in their members."

"Bravo for the son of the Church!" cried Lupin, slapping Rigou on the
shoulder.

Madame Soudry was here struck by an idea which could come only to a
former waiting-maid of an Opera divinity.

"If," she said, "one could only get the Shopman to the fete at
Soulanges, and throw some fine girl in his way who would turn his head,
we could easily set his wife against him by letting her know that the
son of an upholsterer has gone back to the style of his early loves."

"Ah, my beauty!" said Soudry, "you have more sense in your head than the
Prefecture of police in Paris."

"That's an idea which proves that Madame reigns by mind as well as by
beauty," said Lupin, who was rewarded by a grimace which the leading
society of Soulanges were in the habit of accepting without protest for
a smile.

"One might do better still," said Rigou, after some thought; "if we
could only turn it into a downright scandal."

"Complaint and indictment! affair in the police court!" cried Lupin.
"Oh! that would be grand!"

"Glorious!" said Soudry, candidly. "What happiness to see the Comte de
Montcornet, grand cross of the Legion of honor, commander of the Order
of Saint Louis, and lieutenant-general, accused of having attempted, in
a public resort, the virtue--just think of it!"

"He loves his wife too well," said Lupin, reflectively. "He couldn't be
got to that."

"That's no obstacle," remarked Rigou; "but I don't know a single girl in
the whole arrondissement who is capable of making a sinner of a saint. I
have been looking out for one for the abbe."

"What do you say to that handsome Gatienne Giboulard, of Auxerre, whom
Sarcus, junior, is mad after?" asked Lupin.

"That's the only one," answered Rigou, "but she is not suitable; she
thinks she has only to be seen to be admired; she's not complying
enough; we want a witch and a sly-boots, too. Never mind, the right one
will turn up sooner or later."

"Yes," said Lupin, "the more pretty girls he sees the greater the
chances are."

"But perhaps you can't get the Shopman to the fair," said the
ex-gendarme. "And if he does come, will he go to the Tivoli ball?"

"The reason that has always kept him away from the fair doesn