settle?"

"I don't know," replied the valet, "but the fat's in the fire. Last
night I was sent to the stable to order the Daumont carriage to be
ready to go to Presles at seven this morning. But when seven o'clock
came, Monsieur le comte countermanded it. Augustin, his valet de
chambre, attributes the change to the visit of a lady who called last
night, and again this morning,--he thought she came from the country."

"Could she have told him anything against Monsieur Moreau?--the best
of men, the most honest of men, a king of men, hey! He might have made
a deal more than he has out of his position, if he'd chosen; I can
tell you that."

"Then he was foolish," answered the valet, sententiously.

"Is Monsieur le Serizy going to live at Presles at last?" asked
Pierrotin; "for you know they have just repaired and refurnished the
chateau. Do you think it is true he has already spent two hundred
thousand francs upon it?"

"If you or I had half what he has spent upon it, you and I would be
rich bourgeois. If Madame la comtesse goes there--ha! I tell you what!
no more ease and comfort for the Moreaus," said the valet, with an air
of mystery.

"He's a worthy man, Monsieur Moreau," remarked Pierrotin, thinking of
the thousand francs he wanted to get from the steward. "He is a man
who makes others work, but he doesn't cheapen what they do; and he
gets all he can out of the land--for his master. Honest man! He often