e
bouquet of flowers in her hand, would listen to the instruments, while
Frederick, leaning close to her ear, would tell her comic or amatory
stories. At other times they took an open carriage to drive to the Bois
de Boulogne. They kept walking about slowly until the middle of the
night. At last they made their way home through the Arc de Triomphe and
the grand avenue, inhaling the breeze, with the stars above their heads,
and with all the gas-lamps ranged in the background of the perspective
like a double string of luminous pearls.

Frederick always waited for her when they were going out together. She
was a very long time fastening the two ribbons of her bonnet; and she
smiled at herself in the mirror set in the wardrobe; then she would draw
her arm over his, and, making him look at himself in the glass beside
her:

"We produce a good effect in this way, the two of us side by side. Ah!
my poor darling, I could eat you!"

He was now her chattel, her property. She wore on her face a continuous
radiance, while at the same time she appeared more languishing in
manner, more rounded in figure; and, without being able to explain in
what way, he found her altered, nevertheless.

One day she informed him, as if it were a very important bit of news,
that my lord Arnoux had lately set up a linen-draper's shop for a woman
who was formerly employed in his pottery-works. He used to go there
every evening--"he spent a great deal on it no later than a week ago; he
had even given her a set of rosewood furniture."

"How do you know that?" said Frederick.

"Oh! I'm sure of it."

Delphine, while carrying out some orders for her, had made enquiries
about the matter, She must, then, be much attached to Arnoux to take
such a deep interest in his movements. He contented himself with saying
to her in reply:

"What does this signify to you?"

Rosanette looked surprised at this question.

"Why, the rascal owes me money. Isn't it atrocious to see him keeping
beggars?"

Then, with an expression of triumphant hate in her face:

"Besides, she is having a nice laugh at him. She has three others on
hand. So much the better; and I'll be glad if she eats him up, even to
the last farthing!"

Arnoux had, in fact, let himself be made use of by the girl from
Bordeaux with the indulgence which characterises senile attachments. His
manufactory was no longer going on. The entire state of his affairs was
pitiable; so that, in order to set the