I'll talk to her."

"I knew, father, that you were thinking of our future, but I had no
idea you expected it to be so brilliant," said Madame Beauvisage,
taking the hands of the old man and kissing them.

"I have pondered the matter so deeply," said Grevin, "that in 1831 I
bought the Beauseant mansion in Paris, which you have probably seen."

Madame de Beauvisage made a movement of surprise on hearing this
secret, until then so carefully kept, but she did not interrupt her
father.

"It will be my wedding present," he went on. "In 1832 I let it for
seven years to an Englishman for twenty-four thousand francs a year,
--a pretty stroke of business; for it only cost me three hundred and
twenty-five thousand francs, of which I thus recover nearly two
hundred thousand. The lease ends in July of this year."

Severine kissed her father on the forehead and on both cheeks. This
last revelation so magnified her future that she was well-nigh
dazzled.

"I shall advise my father," she said to herself, as she recrossed the
bridge, "to give only the reversion of that property to his
grandchildren, and let me have the life-interest in it. I have no idea
of letting my daughter and son-in-law turn me out of doors; they must
live with me."

At dessert, when the two women-servants were safely at their own