place, totally indifferent as to who might see her, and so
persistently that anybody who saw her, would think that she was suffering
from something like the itch. The only ornaments that she allowed herself
were silk ribbons, which she had in great profusion, and of various
colors mixed together, in the pretentious caps which she wore at home.

As soon as she saw her husband she got up and said, as she kissed his
whiskers:

"Did you remember Potin, my dear?"

He fell into a chair, in consternation, for that was the fourth time on
which he had forgotten a commission that he had promised to do for her.

"It is a fatality," he said; "it is no good for me to think of it all day
long, for I am sure to forget it in the evening."

But as she seemed really so very sorry, she merely said, quietly:

"You will think of it to-morrow, I daresay. Anything fresh at the
office?"

"Yes, a great piece of news: another tinman has been appointed second
chief clerk," and she became very serious.

"So he succeeds Ramon, this was the very post that I wanted you to have.
And what about Ramon?"

"He retires on his pension."

She grew furious, and her cap slid down on her shoulder, and she
continued:

"There is nothing more to be done in that shop now. And what is the name
of the new commissioner?"

"Bonassot."

She took up the _Naval Year Book_, which she always kept close at hand,
and looked him up.

"'Bonassot--Toulon. Born in 1851. Student-Commissioner in 1871.
Sub-Commissioner in 1875.' Has he been to sea?" she continued, and at
that question Caravan's looks cleared up, and he laughed until his sides
shook.

"Just like Balin--just like Balin, his chief." And he added an old office
joke, and laughed more than ever:

"It would not even do to send them by water to inspect the
_Point-du-Jour_, for they would be sick on the penny steamboats on
the Seine."

But she remained as serious as if she had not heard him, and then she
said in a low voice, while she scratched her chin:

"If only we had a Deputy to fall back upon. When the Chamber hears
everything that is going on at the Admiralty, the Minister will be turned
out..."

She was interrupted by a terrible noise on the stairs. Marie-Louise and
Philippe-Auguste, who had just come in from the gutter, were giving each
other slaps all the way upstairs. Their mother rushed at them furiously,
and taking each of them by an arm, she dragged them into the room,
shaking them vi