plain ... 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 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 paper fell to the floor out of the pocket of the
overcoat. Caillard picked it up; it was a visiting-card, and he read
out:

"Rosselin--Deputy."

"You see how it is," said his wife.

He almost cried with joy, and, a week later, it was announced in the
_Journal Officiel_ that M. Caillard had been awarded the Legion of Honor
on account of his exceptional services.

THE ACCURSED BREAD

Daddy Taille had three daughters: Anna, the eldest, who was scarcely
ever mentioned in the family; Rose, the second girl, who was eighteen;
and Clara, the youngest, who was a girl of fifteen.

Old Taille was a widower, and a foreman in M. Lebrument's
button-manufactory. He was a very upright man, very well thought of,
abstemious; in fact a sort of model workman. He lived at Havre, in the
Rue d'Angouleme.

When Anna ran away the old man flew into a fearful rage. He threatened
to kill the seducer, who was head clerk in a large draper's
establishment in that town. Then, when he was told by various people
that she was keeping very steady and investing money in Government
securities, that she was no gadabout, but was kept by a Mons. Dubois,
who was a judge of the Tribunal of Commerce