ely--if she struck out one way you might be certain that success was
there. In all her enterprises, "good luck" stood close by her; she
scented failures from afar, and the firm never made a bad debt. Still
Michel continued to tremble. The first mill had been followed by many
more; then the old system appeared insufficient to Madame Desvarennes. As
she wished to keep up with the increase of business she had steam-mills
built,--which are now grinding three hundred million francs' worth of
corn every year.

Fortune had favored the house immensely, but Michel continued to tremble.
From time to time when the mistress launched out a new business, he
timidly ventured on his usual saying:

"Wife, you're going to ruin us."

But one felt it was only for form's sake, and that he himself no longer
meant what he said. Madame Desvarennes received this plaintive
remonstrance with a calm smile, and answered, maternally, as to a child:

"There, there, don't be frightened."

Then she would set to work again, and direct with irresistible vigor the
army of clerks who peopled her counting-houses.

In fifteen years' time, by prodigious efforts of will and energy, Madame
Desvarennes had made her way from the lonely and muddy Rue
Neuve-Coquenard to the mansion in the Rue Saint-Dominique. Of the bakery
there was no longer question. It was some time since the business in the
Rue Vivienne had been transferred to the foreman of the shop. The flour
trade alone occupied Madame Desvarennes's attention. She ruled the prices
in the market; and great bankers came to her office and did business with
her on a footing of equality. She did not become any prouder for it, she
knew too well the strength and weakness of life to have pride; her former
plain dealing had not stiffened into self-sufficiency. Such as one had
known her when beginning business, such one found her in the zenith of
her fortune. Instead of a woollen gown she wore a silk one, but the color
was still black; her language had not become refined; she retained the
same blunt familiar accent, and at the end of five minutes' conversation
with any one of importance she could not resist calling him "my dear," to
come morally near him. Her commands had more fulness. In giving her
orders, she had the manner of a commander-in-chief, and it was useless to
haggle when she had spoken. The best thing to do was to obey, as well and
as promptly as possible.

Placed in a political sphere, this marvel