, don't get preaching!" said Bourdin, coarsely, "or your sermons
may keep us here till night, which is what I can't stand, for I am
almost froze to death as it is. Ugh! what a kennel! what a hole!"

Morel rose from his knees and was about to follow the bailiff, when the
words, "Father! father!" sounded up the staircase.

"Louise!" exclaimed the lapidary, raising his hands towards heaven in a
transport of gratitude; "thank God I shall be able to embrace you before
I go!"

"Heaven be praised, I am here in time!" cried the voice, as it rapidly
approached, and quick, light steps were distinguishable, swiftly
ascending the stairs.

"Don't be uneasy, my dear," said a second voice, evidently proceeding
from some individual considerably behind the first speaker, but whose
thick puffing and laborious breathing announced the coming of one who
did not find mounting to the top of the house so easy an affair as it
seemed to her light-footed companion.

The reader may, perhaps, have already guessed that the last comer was no
other than Madame Pipelet, who, less agile than Louise, was compelled to
advance at a much slower pace.

"Louise! Is it, indeed, you, my own, my good Louise?" said Morel, still
weeping. "But how pale you look! For mercy's sake, my child, what is the
matter?"

"Nothing, father, nothing, I assure you!" said Louise, in much
agitation; "but I have run so fast! See, I have brought the money!"

"What?"

"You are free!"

"You knew, then, that--"

"Oh, yes! Here, sir, you will find it quite right," said the poor girl,
placing the rouleau of gold in the hands of Malicorne.

"But this money, Louise,--how did you become possessed of it?"

"I will tell you all about it by and by; pray do not be uneasy; let us
go and comfort my mother. Come, father."

"No, not just this minute!" cried Morel, remembering that, as yet,
Louise was entirely ignorant of the death of her little sister; "wait an
instant. I have something to say to you first. But about this money?"

"All right," said Malicorne, as, having finished counting the gold, he
put it in his pocket; "precisely one thousand three hundred francs. And
is that all you have got for me, my pretty dear?"

"I thought, father," said Louise, struck with alarm and surprise at the
man's question, "that you only owed one thousand three hundred francs."

"Nor do I," replied Morel.

"Precisely so!" answered the bailiff; "the original debt is one thousand
three hundred