dinner, improvised by Celestine, reminded the old man of the
singer's banquets; he was dazzled by the splendor of his home.

"A feast in honor of the return of the prodigal father?" said he in a
murmur to Adeline.

"Hush!" said she, "all is forgotten."

"And Lisbeth?" he asked, not seeing the old maid.

"I am sorry to say that she is in bed," replied Hortense. "She can never
get up, and we shall have the grief of losing her ere long. She hopes to
see you after dinner."

At daybreak next morning Victorin Hulot was informed by the porter's
wife that soldiers of the municipal guard were posted all round the
premises; the police demanded Baron Hulot. The bailiff, who had followed
the woman, laid a summons in due form before the lawyer, and asked
him whether he meant to pay his father's debts. The claim was for ten
thousand francs at the suit of an usurer named Samanon, who had probably
lent the Baron two or three thousand at most. Victorin desired the
bailiff to dismiss his men, and paid.

"But is it the last?" he anxiously wondered.

Lisbeth, miserable already at seeing the family so prosperous, could not
survive this happy event. She grew so rapidly worse that Bianchon gave
her but a week to live, conquered at last in the long struggle in which
she had scored so many victories.

She kept the secret of her hatred even through a painful death from
pulmonary consumption. And, indeed, she had the supreme satisfaction
of seeing Adeline, Hortense, Hulot, Victorin, Steinbock, Celestine, and
their children standing in tears round her bed and mourning for her as
the angel of the family.

Baron Hulot, enjoying a course of solid food such as he had not known
for nearly three years, recovered flesh and strength, and was almost
himself again. This improvement was such a joy to Adeline that her
nervous trembling perceptibly diminished.

"She will be happy after all," said Lisbeth to herself on the day before
she died, as she saw the veneration with which the Baron regarded his
wife, of whose sufferings he had heard from Hortense and Victorin.

And vindictiveness hastened Cousin Betty's end. The family followed her,
weeping, to the grave.

The Baron and Baroness, having reached the age which looks for perfect
rest, gave up the handsome rooms on the first floor to the Count
and Countess Steinbock, and took those above. The Baron by his son's
exertions found an official position in the management of a railroad,
in 1845, wit