a cat, and was capable of bringing about some cold and complete
vengeance, and then laying it to the account of God. Until her
marriage the Saillards lived without other society than that of the
Abbe Gaudron, a priest from Auvergne appointed vicar of Saint-Paul's
after the restoration of Catholic worship. Besides this ecclesiastic,
who was a friend of the late Madame Bidault, a paternal uncle of
Madame Saillard, an old paper-dealer retired from business ever since
the year II. of the Republic, and now sixty-nine years old, came to
see them on Sundays only, because on that day no government business
went on.

This little old man, with a livid face blazoned by the red nose of
a tippler and lighted by two gleaming vulture eyes, allowed his
gray hair to hang loose under a three-cornered hat, wore breeches
with straps that extended beyond the buckles, cotton stockings of
mottled thread knitted by his niece, whom he always called "the
little Saillard," stout shoes with silver buckles, and a surtout
coat of mixed colors. He looked very much like those
verger-beadle-bell-ringing-grave-digging-parish-clerks who are taken
to be caricatures until we see them performing their various functions.
On the present occasion he had come on foot to dine with the Saillards,
intending to return in the same way to the rue Greneta, where he lived
on the third floor of an old house. His business was that of
discounting commercial paper in the quartier Saint-Martin, where he was
known by the nickname of "Gigonnet," from the nervous convulsive
movement with which he lifted his legs in walking, like a cat. Monsieur
Bidault began this business in the year II. in partnership with a
dutchman named Werbrust, a friend of Gobseck.

Some time later Saillard made the acquaintance of Monsieur and Madame