investments were extended, or repaired, or doubled. Whence it became
necessary to begin again with increased ardor, to accumulate more
crown-pieces, without its ever entering the brain of these laborious
ants to ask--"To what end?"

Favored by this annual turmoil, the happy Augustine escaped the
investigations of her Argus-eyed relations. At last, one Saturday
evening, the stock-taking was finished. The figures of the sum-total
showed a row of 0's long enough to allow Guillaume for once to relax
the stern rule as to dessert which reigned throughout the year. The
shrewd old draper rubbed his hands, and allowed his assistants to
remain at table. The members of the crew had hardly swallowed their
thimbleful of some home-made liqueur, when the rumble of a carriage
was heard. The family party were going to see _Cendrillon_ at the
Varietes, while the two younger apprentices each received a crown of
six francs, with permission to go wherever they chose, provided they
were in by midnight.

Notwithstanding this debauch, the old cloth-merchant was shaving
himself at six next morning, put on his maroon-colored coat, of which
the glowing lights afforded him perennial enjoyment, fastened a pair
of gold buckles on the knee-straps of his ample satin breeches; and
then, at about seven o'clock, while all were still sleeping in the
house, he made his way to the little office adjoining the shop on the
first floor. Daylight came in through a window, fortified by iron
bars, and looking out on a small yard surrounded by such black walls
that it was very like a well. The old merchant opened the iron-lined
shutters, which were so familiar to him, and threw up the lower half
of the sash window. The icy air of the courtyard came in to cool the
hot atmosphere of the little room, full of the odor peculiar to