wife, who still lived in his memory fresh as upon the day he took her
away as his bride from her Norman home. Upon every recurrence of that
day, and upon some other special times and holidays, his bounty was
doubled, and the Bourgeois made preparations, as he jocularly used to
say, "not only for the twelve apostles, but for the seventy disciples as
well!"

He had just dressed himself with scrupulous neatness in the fashion of
a plain gentleman, as was his wont, without a trace of foppery. With his
stout gold-headed cane in his hand, he was descending the stairs to go
out as usual to the market, when Dame Rochelle accosted him in the hall.

Her eyes and whole demeanor wore an expression of deep anxiety as the
good dame looked up in the face of the Bourgeois.

"Do not go to the market to-day, dear master!" said she, beseechingly;
"I have been there myself and have ordered all we need for the due honor
of the day."

"Thanks, good dame, for remembering the blessed anniversary, but you
know I am expected in the market. It is one of my special days. Who is
to fill the baskets of the poor people who feel a delicacy about coming
for alms to the door, unless I go? Charity fulfills its mission best
when it respects the misfortune of being poor in the persons of its
recipients. I must make my round of the market, good dame."

"And still, dear master, go not to-day; I never asked you before; I do
this time. I fear some evil this morning!"

The Bourgeois looked at her inquiringly. He knew the good dame too well
not to be sure she had some weighty reason for her request.

"What particularly moves you to this singular request, Dame Rochelle?"
asked he.

"A potent reason, master, but it would not weigh a grain with you as
with me. There is this morning a wild spirit afloat,--people's minds
have been excited by a sermon from one of the college fathers. The
friends of the Intendant are gathered in force, they say, to clear the
market of the Honnetes Gens. A disturbance is impending. That, master,
is one reason. My other is a presentiment that some harm will befall you
if you go to the market in the midst of such excitement."

"Thanks, good dame," replied the Bourgeois calmly, "both for your
information and your presentiment; but they only furnish an additional
reason why I should go to try to prevent any disturbance among my
fellow-citizens."

"Still, master, you see not what I see, and hear not what I hear, and
would not b