eme; but it was impossible for
even one woman to exist on the three hundred francs of income brought
in by the investment of the purchase-money, so the mother and daughter
accepted the position, and worked to earn a living. The mother went
out as a monthly nurse, and for her gentle manners was preferred to any
other among the wealthy houses, where she lived without expense to
her children, and earned some seven francs a week. To save her son the
embarrassment of seeing his mother reduced to this humble position, she
assumed the name of Madame Charlotte; and persons requiring her services
were requested to apply to M. Postel, M. Chardon's successor in the
business. Lucien's sister worked for a laundress, a decent woman much
respected in L'Houmeau, and earned fifteen daily sous. As Mme. Prieur's
forewoman she had a certain position in the workroom, which raised her
slightly above the class of working-girls.

The two women's slender earnings, together with Mme. Chardon's three
hundred francs of _rentes_, amounted to about eight hundred francs a
year, and on this sum three persons must be fed, clothed, and lodged.
Yet, with all their frugal thrift, the pittance was scarcely sufficient;
nearly the whole of it was needed for Lucien. Mme. Chardon and her
daughter Eve believed in Lucien as Mahomet's wife believed in her
husband; their devotion for his future knew no bounds. Their present
landlord was the successor to the business, for M. Postel let them have
rooms at the further end of a yard at the back of the laboratory for
a very low rent, and Lucien slept in the poor garret above. A father's
passion for natural science had stimulated the boy, and at first induced
him to follow in the same path. Lucien was one of the most brilliant
pupils at the grammar school of Angouleme, and when David Sechard left,
his future friend was in the third form.

When chance brought the school-fellows together again, Lucien was weary
of drinking from the rude cup of penury, and ready for any of the rash,
decisive steps that youth takes at the age of twenty. David's generous
offer of forty francs a month if Lucien would come to him and learn the
work of a printer's reader came in time; David had no need whatever of a
printer's reader, but he saved Lucien from despair. The ties of a
school friendship thus renewed were soon drawn closer than ever by
the similarity of their lot in life and the dissimilarity of their
characters. Both felt high swel