unless properly shaved, cleaned, and dressed for the day. When he was
in business, he departed to his office after breakfast and returned
only in time for dinner. Since 1832, he had substituted for his
business occupations a daily visit to his father-in-law, a promenade
about the town, or visits to his friends.

In all weather he wore boots, blue coat and trousers, and a white
waistcoat,--the style of dress exacted by his wife. His linen was
remarkable for its fineness and purity, owing to the fact that
Severine obliged him to change it daily. Such care for his person,
seldom taken in the provinces, contributed to make him considered in
Arcis very much as a man of elegance is considered in Paris.
Externally this worthy seller of cotton hose seemed to be a personage;
for his wife had sense enough never to utter a word which could put
the public of Arcis on the scent of her disappointment and the utter
nullity of her husband, who, thanks to his smiles, his handsome dress,
and his manners, passed for a man of importance. People said that
Severine was so jealous of him that she prevented him from going out
in the evening, while in point of fact Phileas was bathing the roses
and lilies of his skin in happy slumber.

Beauvisage, who lived according to his tastes, pampered by his wife,
well served by his two servants, cajoled by his daughter, called
himself the happiest man in Arcis, and really was so. The feeling of
Severine for this nullity of a man never went beyond the protecting
pity of a mother for her child. She disguised the harshness of the
words she was frequently obliged to say to him by a joking manner. No
household was ever more tranquil; and the aversion Phileas felt for
society, where he went to sleep, and where he could not play cards
(being incapable of learning a game), had made Severine sole mistress