financial position. At that time three hundred thousand francs were
left; the income of twenty-four thousand francs was reduced to
eighteen thousand. Wirth had kept up this state of things for three
years! After that confidential interview, Malvina put down the
carriage, sold the horses, and dismissed the coachman, without her
mother's knowledge. The furniture, now ten years old, could not be
renewed, but it all faded together, and for those that like harmony
the effect was not half bad. The Baroness herself, that so
well-preserved flower, began to look like the last solitary
frost-touched rose on a November bush. I myself watched the slow
decline of luxury by half-tones and semi-tones! Frightful, upon my
honor! It was my last trouble of the kind; afterwards I said to myself,
'It is silly to care so much about other people.' But while I was in
civil service, I was fool enough to take a personal interest in the
houses where I dined; I used to stand up for them; I would say no ill
of them myself; I--oh! I was a child.

"Well, when the ci-devant pearl's daughter put the state of the case
before her, 'Oh my poor children,' cried she, 'who will make my
dresses now? I cannot afford new bonnets; I cannot see visitors here
nor go out.'--Now by what token do you know that a man is in love?"
said Bixiou, interrupting himself. "The question is, whether
Beaudenord was genuinely in love with the fair-haired girl."

"He neglects his interests," said Couture.

"He changes his shirt three times a day," opined Blondet; "a man of
more than ordinary ability, can he, and ought he, to fall in love?"

"My friends," resumed Bixiou, with a sentimental air, "there is a kind