resome! However, he cried out through the door:

"Jeanne, it is I!"

She must have been very frightened, for he heard her jump out of her bed
and speak to herself, as if she were in a dream. Then she went to her
dressing room, opened and closed the door, and went quickly up and down
her room barefoot two or three times, shaking the furniture till the
vases and glasses sounded. Then at last she asked:

"Is it you, Alexander?"

"Yes, yes," he replied; "make haste and open the door."

As soon as she had done so, she threw herself into his arms, exclaiming:

"Oh, what a fright! What a surprise! What a pleasure!"

He began to undress himself methodically, as he did everything, and took
from a chair his overcoat, which he was in the habit of hanging up
in the hall. But suddenly he remained motionless, struck dumb with
astonishment--there was a red ribbon in the buttonhole:

"Why," he stammered, "this--this--this overcoat has got the ribbon in
it!"

In a second, his wife threw herself on him, and, taking it from his
hands, she said:

"No! you have made a mistake--give it to me."

But he still held it by one of the sleeves, without letting it go,
repeating in a half-dazed manner:

"Oh! Why? Just explain--Whose overcoat is it? It is not mine, as it has
the Legion of Honor on it."

She tried to take it from him, terrified and hardly able to say:

"Listen--listen! Give it to me! I must not tell you! It is a secret.
Listen to me!"

But he grew angry and turned pale.

"I want to know how this overcoat comes to be here? It does not belong
to me."

Then she almost screamed at him:

"Yes, it does; listen! Swear to me--well--you are decorated!"

She did not intend to joke at his expense.

He was so overcome that he let the overcoat fall and dropped into an
armchair.

"I am--you say I am--decorated?"

"Yes, but it is a secret, a great secret."

She had put the glorious garment into a cupboard, and came to her
husband pale and trembling.

"Yes," she continued, "it is a new overcoat that I have had made for
you. But I swore that I would not tell you anything about it, as it will
not be officially announced for a month or six weeks, and you were not
to have known till your return from your business journey. M. Rosselin
managed it for you."

"Rosselin!" he contrived to utter in his joy. "He has obtained the
decoration for me? He--Oh!"

And he was obliged to drink a glass of water.

A little piece of white