ad kept up his
relations with his wife's uncle; for M. Gaufre, who was servilely
polite to all those in whom he had an interest, was usually disdainful,
sometimes even insolent, to those who were of no use to him. During
his niece's life he had troubled himself very little about her, and had
given her for a wedding present only an ivory crucifix with a shell
for holy water, such as he sold by the gross to be used in convents.
A self-made man, having already amassed--so they said--a considerable
fortune, M. Gaufre held in very low estimation this poor devil of a
commonplace employe whose slow advancement was doubtless due to the fact
that he was lazy and incapable. From the greeting that he received, M.
Violette suspected the poor opinion that M. Gaufre had of him. If
he went there in spite of his natural pride it was only on his son's
account. For M. Gaufre was rich, and he was not young. Perhaps--who
could tell?--he might not forget Amedee, his nephew, in his will? It
was necessary for him to see the child occasionally, and M. Violette, in
pursuance of his paternal duty, condemned himself, three or four times a
year, to the infliction of a visit at the "Bon Marche des Paroisses."

The hopes that M. Violette had formed as to his son's inheriting from M.
Gaufre were very problematical; for the father, whom M. Gaufre had not
been able to avoid receiving at his table occasionally, had been struck,
even shocked, by the familiar and despotic tone of the old merchant's
servant, a superb Normandy woman of about twenty-five years, answering
to the royal name of Berenice. The impertinent ways of this robust woman
betrayed her position in her master's house, as much as the diamonds
that glittered in her ears. This creature would surely watch the will
of her patron, a sexagenarian with an apoplectic neck, which became the
color of dregs of wine after a glass of brandy.

M. Gaufre, although very practical and a churchwarden at St. Sulpice,
had always had a taste for liaisons. His wife, during her life--he had
been a widower for a dozen years--had been one of those unfortunate
beings of whom people said, "That poor lady is to be pitied; she never
can keep a servant." She had in vain taken girls from the provinces,
without beauty and certified to be virtuous. One by one--a Flemish girl,
an Alsatian, three Nivernaise, two from Picardy; even a young girl from
Beauce, hired on account of her certificate as "the best-behaved girl in
the