a half of wood, and four or five sous-worth of oil in the day for my
lamp; that makes nearly eighteen francs a year for my light and fire."

"So that there remain to you more than a hundred francs for your
clothing?"

"Yes; and it is from that I have saved the three francs and a half."

"But your dresses--your shoes and stockings--this pretty cap?"

"My caps I only wear when I go out, and that does not ruin me, for I
make them myself; at home I am satisfied with my hair. As to my
dresses and boots--is there not the Temple?"--"Oh, yes, that
contentment, excellent Temple! Well, you buy there--"

"Very good and pretty dresses. You must know that rich ladies are
accustomed to give their old dresses to their waiting maids--when I
say old, I mean that maybe they have worn them in their carriages a
month or two--and their servants go and sell them to people who keep
shops at the Temple for almost nothing. Thus, you see, I have a nice
merino dress that I bought for fifteen francs, which perhaps cost
sixty; it has hardly been put on and is beautifully fine. I altered it
to fit me, and I flatter myself it does me credit."

"Indeed you do it much credit! Thanks to the resources of the Temple,
I begin to think you can manage to dress respectably with a hundred
francs a year."

"To be sure I can. Why, I can buy charming dresses for five or six
francs; and boots, the same that I have on now, and almost new, for