He got tired of giving every morning the money for the house, and
took the habit of handing it to his wife every week, on Sunday. A
mark of vast confidence, as he observed to her. And so, the first
time:

"Be careful," he said, "that you don't find yourself penniless
before Thursday."

He became also more communicative. Often during the dinner, he
would tell what he had heard during the day, anecdotes, gossip.
He enumerated the persons with whom he had spoken. He named a
number of people whom he called his friends, and whose names Mme.
Favoral carefully stored away in her memory.

There was one especially, who seemed to inspire him with a profound
respect, a boundless admiration, and of whom he never tired of
talking. He was, said he, a man of his age,--M. de Thaller, the
Baron de Thaller.

"This one," he kept repeating, "is really mad: he is rich, he has
ideas, he'll go far. It would be a great piece of luck if I could
get him to do something for me!"

Until at last one day:

"Your parents were very rich once?" he asked his wife.

"I have heard it said," she answered.

"They spent a good deal of money, did they not? They had friends: