drawer the first twenty-franc-piece she had earned, a beautiful
gold-piece, which belonged to her without contest, and which she
might spend as she pleased, without having to render any account
to any one!

And with what pride, from week to week, she saw her little treasure
swell, despite the drafts she made upon it, sometimes to buy a toy
for Maxence, sometimes to add a few ribbons or trinkets to Gilberte's
toilet!

This was the happiest time of her life, a halt in that painful
journey through which she had been dragging herself for so many
years. Between her two children, the hours flew light and rapid
as so many seconds. If all the hopes of the young girl and of the
woman had withered before they had blossomed, the mother's joys
at least should not fail her. Because, whilst the present sufficed
to her modest ambition, the future had ceased to cause her any
uneasiness.

No reference had ever been made, between herself and her husband,
to that famous dinner-party: he never spoke to her of the Mutual
Credit Society; but now and then he allowed some words or exclamations
to escape, which she carefully recorded, and which betrayed a
prosperous state of affairs.

"That Thaller is a tough fellow!" he would exclaim, "and he has the
most infernal luck!"

And at other times,