He started off the moment he had swallowed the last mouthful of his
breakfast, came home at six o'clock, dined in haste, and disappeared
again, not to return until about midnight. He had hours of delirious
joy, and moments of frightful discouragement. Sometimes he seemed
horribly uneasy.

"What can he be doing?" thought Mme. Favoral.

She ventured to ask him the question one morning, when he was in
fine humor.

"Well," he answered, "am I not the master? I am operating at the
bourse, that's all!"

He could hardly have owned to any thing that would have frightened
the poor woman as much.

"Are you not afraid," she objected, "to lose all we have so
painfully accumulated? We have children--"

He did not allow her to proceed.

"Do you take me for a child?" he exclaimed; "or do I look to you
like a man so easy to be duped? Mind to economize in your household
expenses, and don't meddle with my business."

And he continued. And he must have been lucky in his operations;
for he had never been so pleasant at home. All his ways had changed.
He had had clothes made at a first-class tailor's, and was evidently
trying to look elegant. He gave up his pipe, and smoked only cigars.