good influence to bear on them.

He rose from his chair and was about to retire, when the attack which had
all along threatened him burst forth. The children, unsuspectedly rising
from their chairs, had concerted together with a glance, and now they
opened their campaign. The worthy doctor all at once found the twins upon
his shoulders, while the younger boy clasped him round the waist and the
little girl clung to his legs.

"Puff! puff! do the railway train, do the railway train, please do."

They pushed and shook him, amid peal after peal of flute-like laughter,
while their father and mother rushed to his assistance, scolding and
angry. But he calmed the parents by saying: "Let them be! they are simply
wishing me good day. And besides, I must bear with them, you know, since,
as our friend Beauchene says, it is a little bit my fault if they are in
the world. What charms me with your children is that they enjoy such good
health, just like their mother. For the present, at all events, one can
ask nothing more of them."

When he had set them down on the floor, and given each a smacking kiss,
he took hold of Marianne's hands and said to her that everything was
going on beautifully, and that he was very pleased. Then he went off,
escorted to the front door by Mathieu, the pair of them jesting and
laughing gayly.

Directly after the midday meal Mathieu wished to go out, in order that
Marianne might profit by the bright sunshine. The children had been
dressed in readiness before sitting down to table, and it was scarcely
more than one o'clock when the family turned the corner of the Rue de la