them. The daughters of Eve adore adornment. You yourself, Therese--
who are so serious and sensible--what a fuss you make when you have
no white apron to wait at table in! But, tell me, have they got
everything necessary in their attic?"

"How could they have it, Monsieur?" my housekeeper made answer.
"The husband, whom you have just seen, used to be a jewellery-peddler--
at least, so the concierge tells me--and nobody knows why he stopped
selling watches. you have just seen that his is now selling
almanacs. That is no way to make an honest living, and I never will
believe that God's blessing can come to an almanac-peddler. Between
ourselves, the wife looks to me for all the world like a good-for-nothing--
a Marie-couche toi-la. I think she would be just as capable of
bringing up a child as I should be of playing the guitar. Nobody
seems to know where they came from; but I am sure they must have come
by Misery's coach from the country of Sans-souci."

"Wherever they have come from, Therese, they are unfortunate; and
their attic is cold."

"Pardi!--the roof is broken in several places and the rain comes
through in streams. They have neither furniture nor clothing. I
don't think cabinet-makers and weavers work much for Christians of
that sect!"

"That is very sad, Therese; a Christian woman much less well provided
for than this pagan, Hamilcar here!--what does she have to say?"

"Monsieur, I never speak to those people; I don't know what she says
or what she sings. But she sings all day long; I hear her from the