Cape jessamine, the cedronella, the volcameria, the moss-rose, or any
of the divine perfumes which woo to love, and sing to the heart their
hymns of fragrance. Graslin left Veronique that night in the grasp of
such emotions.

From this time forth, as soon as all Limoges was sleeping, the banker
would slip along the walls to the Sauviats' house. There he would tap
gently on the window-shutter; the dog did not bark; old Sauviat came
down and let him in, and Graslin would then spend an hour or two with
Veronique in the brown room, where Madame Sauviat always served him a
true Auvergnat supper. Never did this singular lover arrive without a
bouquet made of the rarest flowers from the greenhouse of his old
partner, Monsieur Grossetete, the only person who as yet knew of the
approaching marriage. The man-of-all-work went every evening to fetch
the bunch, which Monsieur Grossetete made himself.

Graslin made about fifty such visits in two months; each time, besides
the flowers, he brought with him some rich present,--rings, a watch, a
gold chain, a work-box, etc. These inconceivable extravagances must be
explained, and a word suffices. Veronique's dowry, promised by her
father, consisted of nearly the whole of old Sauviat's property,
namely, seven hundred and fifty thousand francs. The old man retained
an income of eight thousand francs derived from the Funds, bought for
him originally for sixty thousand francs in assignats by his
correspondent Brezac, to whom, at the time of his imprisonment, he had
confided that sum, and who kept it for him safely. These sixty
thousand francs in assignats were the half of Sauviat's fortune at the
time he came so near being guillotined. Brezac was also, at the same
time, the faithful repository of the rest, namely, seven hundred louis
d'or (an enormous sum at that time in gold), with which old Sauviat