ouncillor of the Supreme Court was broken off.

"What, Cousin! you here? This is the first time you have ever been to
see me, and it is certainly not for love of my fine eyes that you have
come now."

"Fine eyes is the truth," said the Baron; "you have as fine eyes as I
have ever seen----"

"Come, what are you here for? I really am ashamed to receive you in such
a kennel."

The outer room of the two inhabited by Lisbeth served her as
sitting-room, dining-room, kitchen, and workroom. The furniture was such
as beseemed a well-to-do artisan--walnut-wood chairs with straw seats,
a small walnut-wood dining table, a work table, some colored prints in
black wooden frames, short muslin curtains to the windows, the floor
well polished and shining with cleanliness, not a speck of dust
anywhere, but all cold and dingy, like a picture by Terburg in every
particular, even to the gray tone given by a wall paper once blue and
now faded to gray. As to the bedroom, no human being had ever penetrated
its secrets.

The Baron took it all in at a glance, saw the sign-manual of commonness
on every detail, from the cast-iron stove to the household utensils, and
his gorge rose as he said to himself, "And _this_ is virtue!--What am I
here for?" said he aloud. "You are far too cunning not to guess, and
I had better tell you plainly," cried he, sitting down and looking out
across the courtyard through an opening he made in the puckered curtain.
"There is a very pretty woman in the house----"

"Madame Marneffe! Now I understand!" she exclaimed, seeing it all. "But
Josepha?"

"Alas, Cousin, Josepha is no more. I was turned out of doors like a
discarded footman."

"And you would like...?" said Lisbeth, looking at the Baron with the
dignity of a prude on her guard a quarter of an hour too soon.

"As Madame Marneffe is very much the lady, and the wife of an employe,
you can meet her without compromising yourself," the Baron went on, "and
I should like to see you neighborly. Oh! you need not be alarmed; she
will have the greatest consideration for the cousin of her husband's
chief."

At this moment the rustle of a gown was heard on the stairs and the
footstep of a woman wearing the thinnest boots. The sound ceased on the
landing. There was a tap at the door, and Madame Marneffe came in.

"Pray excuse me, mademoiselle, for thus intruding upon you, but I failed
to find you yesterday when I came to call; we are near neighbors; and
if I had