in money the liberally
estimated value of her share. It was in order to fill up the void
thus created in his finances that he had espoused the half-million
represented by Constance--an ugly creature, as he himself bitterly
acknowledged, coarse male as he was. Truth to tell, she was so thin, so
scraggy, that before consenting to make her his wife he had often called
her "that bag of bones." But, on the other hand, thanks to his marriage
with her, all his losses were made good in five or six years' time; the
business of the works even doubled, and great prosperity set in. And
Mathieu, having become a most active and necessary coadjutor, ended
by taking the post of chief designer, at a salary of four thousand two
hundred francs per annum.

Morange, the chief accountant, whose office was near Mathieu's,
thrust his head through the doorway as soon as he heard the young man
installing himself at his drawing-table. "I say, my dear Froment," he
exclaimed, "don't forget that you are to take dejeuner with us."

"Yes, yes, my good Morange, it's understood. I will look in for you at
twelve o'clock."

Then Mathieu very carefully scrutinized a wash drawing of a very simple
but powerful steam thresher, an invention of his own, on which he had
been working for some time past, and which a big landowner of Beauce, M.
Firon-Badinier, was to examine during the afternoon.

The door of the master's private room was suddenly thrown wide open
and Beauchene appeared--tall, with a ruddy face, a narrow brow, and big
brown, protruding eyes. He had a rather large nose, thick lips, and a
full black beard, on which he bestowed great care, as he likewise did on
his hair, which was carefully combed over his head in order to conceal
the serious baldness that was already coming upon him, although he was
scarcely two-and-thirty. Frock-coated the first thing in the morning,
he was already smoking a big cigar; and his loud voice, his peals of
gayety, his bustling ways, all betokened an egotist and good liver still
in his prime, a man for whom money--capital increased and increased by
the labor of others--was the one only sovereign power.

"Ah! ah! it's ready, is it not?" said he; "Monsieur Firon-Badinier has
again written me that he will be here at three o'clock. And you know
that I'm going to take you to the restaurant with him this evening; for
one can never induce those fellows to give orders unless one plies them
with good wine. It annoys Constance