"We are too old, you and I, to see the triumph of the Parisian
bourgeoisie, but it will triumph, I tell you, in times to come as it
did of yore. Ha! the king must rest upon it in order to resist, and we
have always sold him our help dear. The last time, all the burghers
were ennobled, and he gave them permission to buy seignorial estates
and take titles from the land without special letters from the king.
You and I, grandsons of the Goix through our mothers, are not we as
good as any lord?"

These words were so alarming to the jeweller and the two women that
they were followed by a dead silence. The ferments of 1789 were
already tingling in the veins of Lecamus, who was not yet so old but
what he could live to see the bold burghers of the Ligue.

"Are you selling well in spite of these troubles?" said Lallier to
Mademoiselle Lecamus.

"Troubles always do harm," she replied.

"That's one reason why I am so set on making my son a lawyer," said
Lecamus; "for squabbles and law go on forever."

The conversation then turned to commonplace topics, to the great
satisfaction of the jeweller, who was not fond of either political
troubles or audacity of thought.



III