subject was accumulating. He had too prying an eye not to have guessed
that Rabourdin was engaged in some great work outside of his official
labors, and he was provoked to feel that he knew nothing about it,
whereas that little Sebastien was, wholly or in part, in the secret.
Dutocq was intimate with Godard, under-head-clerk to Baudoyer, and the
high esteem in which Dutocq held Baudoyer was the original cause of
his acquaintance with Godard; not that Dutocq was sincere even in
this; but by praising Baudoyer and saying nothing of Rabourdin he
satisfied his hatred after the fashion of little minds.

Joseph Godard, a cousin of Mitral on the mother's side, made
pretension to the hand of Mademoiselle Baudoyer, not perceiving that
her mother was laying siege to Falliex as a son-in-law. He brought
little gifts to the young lady, artificial flowers, bonbons on
New-Year's day and pretty boxes for her birthday. Twenty-six years of
age, a worker working without purpose, steady as a girl, monotonous and
apathetic, holding cafes, cigars, and horsemanship in detestation,
going to bed regularly at ten o'clock and rising at seven, gifted with
some social talents, such as playing quadrille music on the flute,
which first brought him into favor with the Saillards and the
Baudoyers. He was moreover a fifer in the National Guard,--to escape
his turn of sitting up all night in a barrack-room. Godard was devoted
more especially to natural history. He made collections of shells and
minerals, knew how to stuff birds, kept a mass of curiosities bought
for nothing in his bedroom; took possession of phials and empty
perfume bottles for his specimens; pinned butterflies and beetles
under glass, hung Chinese parasols on the walls, together with dried
fishskins. He lived with his sister, an artificial-flower maker, in
the due de Richelieu. Though much admired by mammas this model young
man was looked down upon by his sister's shop-girls, who had tried to