of the cafe, who repeated it to the journalists of the Left.

Philippe did not go back to the rue Mazarin; he went to Mariette and
told her of his forthcoming appointment on a newspaper with ten
thousand subscribers, in which her choregraphic claims should be
warmly advanced.

Agathe and Madame Descoings waited up for Philippe in fear and
trembling, for the Duc de Berry had just been assassinated. The
colonel came home a few minutes after breakfast; and when his mother
showed her uneasiness at his absence, he grew angry and asked if he
were not of age.

"In the name of thunder, what's all this! here have I brought you some
good news, and you both look like tombstones. The Duc de Berry is
dead, is he?--well, so much the better! that's one the less, at any
rate. As for me, I am to be cashier of a newspaper, with a salary of
three thousand francs, and there you are, out of all your anxieties on
my account."

"Is it possible?" cried Agathe.

"Yes; provided you can go security for me in twenty thousand francs;
you need only deposit your shares in the Funds, you will draw the
interest all the same."

The two widows, who for nearly two months had been desperately anxious
to find out what Philippe was about, and how he could be provided for,
were so overjoyed at this prospect that they gave no thought to their
other catastrophes. That evening, the Grecian sages, old Du Bruel,