"God grant," she said, smiling, as she looked at the magnificent
volume, "that this may be your last excess of elegance."

Looking at the clothes of the four men present and observing how in
every particular they were reduced to mere utility and neatness, and
seeing, too, how rigorously the same principle was applied to all the
details of the house, Godefroid understood the value of the reproach
so courteously made to him.

"Madame," he said, "the persons whom you obliged this morning are
scoundrels; I overheard, without intending it, what they said to each
other when they left the house; it was full of the basest
ingratitude."

"They were the two locksmiths of the rue Mouffetard," said Madame de
la Chanterie to Monsieur Nicolas; "that is your affair."

"The fish gets away more than once before it is caught," said Monsieur
Alain, laughing.

The perfect indifference of Madame de la Chanterie on hearing of the
immediate ingratitude of persons to whom she had, no doubt, given
money, surprised Godefroid, who became thoughtful.

The dinner was enlivened by Monsieur Alain and Monsieur Joseph; but
Monsieur Nicolas remained quiet, sad, and cold; he bore on his
features the ineffaceable imprint of some bitter grief, some eternal
sorrow. Madame de la Chanterie paid equal attentions to all. Godefroid
felt himself observed by these persons, whose prudence equalled their
piety; his vanity led him to imitate their reserve, and he measured