had, unconsciously, come to do nothing whatever without consulting
her. Old Saillard would say, innocently, "Isn't she clever, that
Elisabeth of mine?" But Baudoyer, too great a fool not to be puffed up
by the false reputation the quartier Saint-Antoine bestowed upon him,
denied his wife's cleverness all the while that he was making use of
it.

Elisabeth had long felt sure that her uncle Bidault, otherwise called
Gigonnet, was rich and handled vast sums of money. Enlightened by
self-interest, she had come to understand Monsieur des Lupeaulx far
better than the minister understood him. Finding herself married to a
fool, she never allowed herself to think that life might have gone
better with her, she only imagined the possibility of better things
without expecting or wishing to attain them. All her best affections
found their vocation in her love for her daughter, to whom she spared
the pains and privations she had borne in her own childhood; she
believed that in this affection she had her full share in the world of
feeling. Solely for her daughter's sake she had persuaded her father
to take the important step of going into partnership with Falleix.
Falleix had been brought to the Saillard's house by old Bidault, who
lent him money on his merchandise. Falleix thought his old countryman
extortionate, and complained to the Saillards that Gigonnet demanded
eighteen per cent from an Auvergnat. Madame Saillard ventured to
remonstrate with her uncle.

"It is just because he is an Auvergnat that I take only eighteen per
cent," said Gigonnet, when she spoke of him.

Falleix, who had made a discovery at the age of twenty-eight, and
communicated it to Saillard, seemed to carry his heart in his hand (an