siness, you see--business."

The worthy woman shook her head. "Always business!" she exclaimed.

"Yes--when a fellow hasn't ten thousand francs a year."

"You have become a worker, Toto, and that makes me very happy; but you
are too eager for money, and that frightens me."

"That's to say, you fear I shall do something dishonest. Ah! mother! do
you think I can forget you and Monsieur Andre?"

His mother said no more, and he entered the tiny nook which he so
pompously styled his chamber, and quickly changed the clothes he was
wearing (his Sunday toggery) for an old pair of checked trousers, a
black blouse, and a glazed cap. And when he had finished, and given a
peculiar turn to his hair, no one would have recognized him. In place of
M. Fortunat's respectable clerk, there appeared one of those vagabonds
who hang about cafes and theatres from six in the evening till midnight,
and spend the rest of their time playing cards in the low drinking dens
near the barrieres. It was the old Chupin come to life once more--Toto
Chupin as he had appeared before his conversion. And as he took a
last look in the little glass hanging over the table, he was himself
astonished at the transformation. "Ah!" he muttered, "I was a sorry
looking devil in those days."

Although he had cautiously avoided making any noise in dressing, his
mother, with the wonderfully acute hearing of the blind, had followed
each of his movements as surely as if she had been standing near
watching him. "You have changed your clothes, Toto," she remarked.

"Yes, mother."

"But why have you put on your blouse, my son?"

Although accustomed to his mother's remarkable quickness of perception,
he was amazed. Still he did not think of denying it. She would only have
to extend her hand to prove that he was telling a falsehood. The blind
woman's usually placid face had become stern. "So it is necessary to
disguise yourself," she said, gravely.

"But, mother----"

"Hush, my son! When a man doesn't wish to be recognized, he's evidently
doing something he's ashamed of. Ever since your employer came here, you
have been concealing something from me. Take care, Toto! Since I heard
that man's voice, I'm sure that he is quite as capable of urging you to
commit a crime as others were in days gone by."

The blind woman was preaching to a convert; for during the past three
days, M. Fortunat had shown himself in such a light that Chupin had
secretly resolved to change his