no concern with business, she exclaimed:

"Really, monsieur, you are so weak with your daughters! However----"

The sound of a carriage, which stopped at the door, interrupted the
rating which the old draper already quaked at. In a minute Madame
Roguin was standing in the middle of the room, and looking at the
actors in this domestic scene: "I know all, my dear cousin," said she,
with a patronizing air.

Madame Roguin made the great mistake of supposing that a Paris
notary's wife could play the part of a favorite of fashion.

"I know all," she repeated, "and I have come into Noah's Ark, like the
dove, with the olive-branch. I read that allegory in the _Genie du
Christianisme_," she added, turning to Madame Guillaume; "the allusion
ought to please you, cousin. Do you know," she went on, smiling at
Augustine, "that Monsieur de Sommervieux is a charming man? He gave me
my portrait this morning, painted by a master's hand. It is worth at
least six thousand francs." And at these words she patted Monsieur
Guillaume on the arm. The old draper could not help making a grimace
with his lips, which was peculiar to him.

"I know Monsieur de Sommervieux very well," the Dove ran on. "He has
come to my evenings this fortnight past, and made them delightful. He
has told me all his woes, and commissioned me to plead for him. I know
since this morning that he adores Augustine, and he shall have her.
Ah, cousin, do not shake your head in refusal. He will be created
Baron, I can tell you, and has just been made Chevalier of the Legion
of Honor, by the Emperor himself, at the Salon. Roguin is now his