brought his bill. Is he to be paid?"

He looked up at her in surprise.

"Why do you ask me that?" he said. "Do you not always pay him without
consulting me?"

It was, in effect, Martine who kept the purse. The amount deposited
with M. Grandguillot, notary at Plassans, produced a round sum of six
thousand francs income. Every three months the fifteen hundred francs
were remitted to the servant, and she disposed of them to the best
interests of the house; bought and paid for everything with the
strictest economy, for she was of so saving a disposition that they
bantered her about it continually. Clotilde, who spent very little,
had never thought of asking a separate purse for herself. As for the
doctor, he took what he required for his experiments and his pocket
money from the three or four thousand francs which he still earned
every year, and which he kept lying in the drawer of his writing desk;
so that there was quite a little treasure there in gold and bank
bills, of which he never knew the exact amount.

"Undoubtedly, monsieur, I pay, when it is I who have bought the
things; but this time the bill is so large on account of the brains
which the butcher has furnished you--"

The doctor interrupted her brusquely:

"Ah, come! so you, too, are going to set yourself against me, are you?
No, no; both of you--that would be too much! Yesterday you pained me
greatly, and I was angry. But this must cease. I will not have the