explaining thus the lives of all
men of science.

"It depends," Madame Adolphe said. "If you go by way of the Pont des
Arts you need one sou."

"You are right," replied the man of science, as if he were retracing
instructions for a voyage to the North Pole. "I will go through the
Luxembourg, the Rue de Seine, the Pont des Arts, the Louvre, the Rue
du Coq, the Rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs, the Rue des Fosses-Montmartre.
It is the shortest route to the Faubourg Poissonniere."

"It is three o'clock," Madame Adolphe said. "Your sister-in-law dines
at six. You have three hours before you--Yes--you'll be there, but
you'll be late." She searched her apron pocket for two sous, which she
handed to the professor.

"Very well, then," she said to him. "Do not eat too much. You are not
a glutton, but you think of other things. You are frugal, but you eat
when you are absent-minded as if you had no bread at home. Take care
not to make Madame Vernet, your sister-in-law, wait. If you make her
wait, you will never be permitted again to go there alone, and it will
be shameful for you."

Madame Adolphe returned to the threshold of the little door and from
there watched her master. She had to cry to him, "To the right! To the
right!" for he was turning toward the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs.

"And yet he is a man of science, people say," she muttered to herself.
"How did he ever manage to get married? I'll ask Madame when I dress
her hair."

IV

INCONVENIENCE OF QUAYS WHERE ARE BOOK STALLS

At four o'clock, Professor Marmus was at the end of the Rue de Seine,
under the arcades of the Institute. Those who know him will admit that
he had done nobly, since he had taken only one hour to go through the
Luxembourg and down the Rue de Seine.

There a lamentable voice, the voice of a child, plucked from the good
man the two sous that Madame Adolphe had given to him. When he reached
the Pont des Arts he remembered that he had to pay toll and turned
back suddenly to beg for a sou from the child.

The little rascal had gone to break the coin, in order to give only
one sou to his mother. She was walking up and down the Rue Mazarine
with her baby at her breast.

It became necessary for the professor to turn his back on the veteran
soldier who guards against the possibility of a Parisian passing over
the bridge without paying the toll.

Two roads were open to him: the Pont Neuf and the Po