than crowns. And so, as
he's now a scholar, he may as well try his fortune in Paris. There's
nothing like city life to sharpen a man's wits."

Madame Lepailleur, who never took her eyes from her son, but remained in
admiration before him as formerly before her husband, now exclaimed
with an air of rapture: "Yes, yes, he has a place as a clerk with Maitre
Rousselet, the attorney. We have rented a little room for him; I have
seen about the furniture and the linen, and to-day's the great day; he
will sleep there to-night, after we have dined, all three, at a good
restaurant. Ah! yes, I'm very pleased; he's making a start now."

"And he will perhaps end by being a minister of state," said Mathieu,
with a smile; "who knows? Everything is possible nowadays."

It all typified the exodus from the country districts towards the towns,
the feverish impatience to make a fortune, which was becoming general.
Even the parents nowadays celebrated their child's departure, and
accompanied the adventurer on his way, anxious and proud to climb the
social ladder with him. And that which brought a smile to the lips of
the farmer of Chantebled, the bourgeois who had become a peasant, was
the thought of the double change: the miller's son going to Paris,
whereas he had gone to the earth, the mother of all strength and
regeneration.

Antonin, however, had also begun to laugh with the air of an artful
idler who was more particularly attracted by the free dissipation of
Paris life. "Oh! minister?" said he, "I haven't much taste for that. I
would much sooner win a million at once so as to rest afterwards."

Delighted with this display of wit, the Lepailleurs burst into noisy
merriment. Oh! their boy would do great things, that was quite certain!

Marianne, her heart oppressed by thought of the mourning which awaited
her, had hitherto kept silent. She now asked, however, why little
Therese did not form one of the party. Lepailleur dryly replied that he
did not choose to embarrass himself with a child but six years old,
who did not know how to behave. Her arrival had upset everything in the
house; things would have been much better if she had never been born.
Then, as Marianne began to protest, saying that she had seldom seen a
more intelligent and prettier little girl, Madame Lepailleur answered
more gently: "Oh! she's sharp; that's true enough; but one can't send
girls to Paris. She'll have to be put somewhere, and it will mean a lot
of tro