misfortune to be married to a man who snores fit to crack the planks
and the rafters. If I fall asleep first, oh! I sleep so sound nothing
can wake me; but if Mollot drops off first my night is ruined--"

"Don't you ever go off together?" said Achille Pigoult, joining the
group. "I see you are talking of sleep."

"Hush, naughty boy!" replied Madame Mollot, graciously.

"Do you know what they mean?" whispered Cecile to Ernestine.

"At any rate, he was not in at one o'clock in the morning," continued
Madame Mollot.

"Then he defrauded you!--came home without your knowing it!" said
Achille Pigoult. "Ha! that man is sly indeed; he'll put us all in his
pouch and sell us in the market-place."

"To whom?" asked Vinet.

"Oh! to a project! to an idea! to a system!" replied the notary, to
whom Olivier smiled with a knowing air.

"Imagine my surprise," continued Madame Mollot, "when I saw a stuff, a
material, of splendid magnificence, most beautiful! dazzling! I said
to myself, 'That must be a dressing-gown of the spun-glass material I
have sometimes seen in exhibitions of industrial products.' So I
fetched my opera-glass to examine it. But, good gracious! what do you
think I saw? Above the dressing-gown, where the head ought to have
been, I saw an enormous mass, something like a knee--I can't tell you