nts, to whose interests he supposed the others to be devoted. If
he should evade these sons of Argus, he would yet be wrecked under the
stern eye of the old draper or of Madame Guillaume. The very vehemence
of his passion hindered the young painter from hitting on the ingenious
expedients which, in prisoners and in lovers, seem to be the last effort
of intelligence spurred by a wild craving for liberty, or by the fire of
love. Theodore wandered about the neighborhood with the restlessness of
a madman, as though movement might inspire him with some device.
After racking his imagination, it occurred to him to bribe the blowsy
waiting-maid with gold. Thus a few notes were exchanged at long
intervals during the fortnight following the ill-starred morning when
Monsieur Guillaume and Theodore had so scrutinized one another. At
the present moment the young couple had agreed to see each other at a
certain hour of the day, and on Sunday, at Saint-Leu, during Mass and
vespers. Augustine had sent her dear Theodore a list of the relations
and friends of the family, to whom the young painter tried to get
access, in the hope of interesting, if it were possible, in his love
affairs, one of these souls absorbed in money and trade, to whom a
genuine passion must appear a quite monstrous speculation, a thing
unheard-of. Nothing meanwhile, was altered at the sign of the Cat and
Racket. If Augustine was absent-minded, if, against all obedience to the
domestic code, she stole up to her room to make signals by means of
a jar of flowers, if she sighed, if she were lost in thought, no one
observed it, not even her mother. This will cause some surprise to those
who have entered into the spirit of the household, where an idea tainted
with poetry would be in startling contrast to persons and things, where
no one could venture on a gesture or a look which would not be seen and
analyzed. Nothing, however, could be more natural: the quiet barque that
navigated the stormy waters of the Paris Exchange, under the flag of
the Cat and Racket, was just now in the toils of one of these tempests
which, returning periodically, might be termed equinoctial. For the
last fortnight the five men forming the crew, with Madame Guillaume and
Mademoiselle Virginie, had been devoting themselves to the hard labor,
known as stock-taking.

Every bale was turned over, and the length verified to ascertain the
exact value of the remnant. The ticket attached to each parcel wa