people do say that M. Maxence is a worthless scamp, who leads a very
dissipated life; but I say that his father kept him too close. The
boy is twenty-five, quite good looking, and has a very stylish
mistress: I have seen her. . . . I would have done just as he did."

"And what about the daughter, Mlle. Gilberte?"

"She is not married yet, although she is past twenty, and pretty as
a rosebud. After the war, her father tried to make her marry a
stock-broker, a stylish man who always came in a two-horse carriage;
but she refused him outright. I should not be a bit surprised to
hear that she has some love-affair of her own. I have noticed
lately a young gentleman about here who looks up quite suspiciously
when he goes by No. 38." The servant did not seem to find these
particulars very interesting.

"It's the lady," he said, "that my cousin would like to know most
about."

"Naturally. Well, you can safely tell her that she never will have
had a better mistress. Poor Madame Favoral! She must have had a
sweet time of it with her maniac of a husband! But she is not young
any more; and people get accustomed to every thing, you know. The
days when the weather is fine, I see her going by with her daughter
to the Place Royale for a walk. That's about their only amusement."

"The mischief!" said the servant, laughing. "If that is all, she
won't ruin her husband, will she?"

"That is all," continued the shop-keeper, "or rather, excuse me, no: