Each man put his ball into the wicker basket with a narrow throat,
used to hold the numbered balls when card-players draw for their
places at pool. We were all roused to a more or less keen curiosity;
for this balloting to clarify morality was certainly original.
Inspection of the ballot-box showed the presence of nine white balls!
The result did not surprise me; but it came into my heard to count the
young men of my own age whom I had brought to sit in judgment. These
casuists were precisely nine in number; they all had the same thought.

"Oh, oh!" I said to myself, "here is secret unanimity to forbid the
marriage, and secret unanimity to sanction it! How shall I solve that
problem?"

"Where does the father-in-law live?" asked one my school-friends,
heedlessly, being less sophisticated than the others.

"There's no longer a father-in-law," I replied. "Hitherto, my
conscience has spoken plainly enough to make your verdict superfluous.
If to-day its voice is weakened, here is the cause of my cowardice. I
received, about two months ago, this all-seducing letter."

And I showed them the following invitation, which I took from my
pocket-book:--

"You are invited to be present at the funeral procession, burial
services, and interment of Monsieur Jean-Frederic Taillefer, of
the house of Taillefer and Company, formerly Purveyor of
Commissary-meats, in his lifetime chevalier of the Legion of
honor, and of the Golden Spur, captain of the first company of the
Grenadiers of the National Guard of Paris, deceased, May 1st, at