tion of a fortune than the Baron displayed in shoving his head
into a wasp's nest: He did all the business of his department, he
hurried on the upholsterers, he talked to the workmen, he kept a sharp
lookout on the smallest details of the house in the Rue Vanneau. Wholly
devoted to Madame Marneffe, he nevertheless attended the sittings of the
Chambers; he was everywhere at once, and neither his family nor anybody
else discovered where his thoughts were.

Adeline, quite amazed to hear that her uncle was rescued, and to see a
handsome sum figure in the marriage-contract, was not altogether easy,
in spite of her joy at seeing her daughter married under such creditable
circumstances. But, on the day before the wedding, fixed by the Baron
to coincide with Madame Marneffe's removal to her new apartment, Hector
allayed his wife's astonishment by this ministerial communication:--

"Now, Adeline, our girl is married; all our anxieties on the subject are
at an end. The time is come for us to retire from the world: I shall not
remain in office more than three years longer--only the time necessary
to secure my pension. Why, henceforth, should we be at any unnecessary
expense? Our apartment costs us six thousand francs a year in rent, we
have four servants, we eat thirty thousand francs' worth of food in a
year. If you want me to pay off my bills--for I have pledged my salary
for the sums I needed to give Hortense her little money, and pay off
your uncle----"

"You did very right!" said she, interrupting her husband, and kissing
his hands.

This explanation relieved Adeline of all her fears.

"I shall have to ask some little sacrifices of you," he went on,
disengaging his hands and kissing his wife's brow. "I have found in the
Rue Plumet a very good flat on the first floor, handsome, splendidly
paneled, at only fifteen hundred francs a year, where you would only
need one woman to wait on you, and I could be quite content with a boy."

"Yes, my dear."

"If we keep house in a quiet way, keeping up a proper appearance of
course, we should not spend more than six thousand francs a year,
excepting my private account, which I will provide for."

The generous-hearted woman threw her arms round her husband's neck in
her joy.

"How happy I shall be, beginning again to show you how truly I love
you!" she exclaimed. "And what a capital manager you are!"

"We will have the children to dine with us once a week. I, as you know,
rarely