During the five years of silver and gold Pere Cardot had laid by

eighty thousand francs. The old gentleman, wise from experience,
foresaw that by the time he was seventy Florentine would be of age,

probably engaged at the Opera, and, consequently, wanting all the
luxury of a theatrical star. Some days before the party mentioned by

Georges, Pere Cardot had spent the sum of forty-five thousand francs
in fitting up for his Florentine the former apartment of the late

Coralie. In Paris there are suites of rooms as well as houses and
streets that have their predestinations. Enriched with a magnificent

service of plate, the "prima danseuse" of the Gaiete began to give
dinners, spent three hundred francs a month on her dress, never went

out except in a hired carriage, and had a maid for herself, a cook,
and a little footman.

In fact, an engagement at the Opera was already in the wind. The Cocon
d'Or did homage to its first master by sending its most splendid

products for the gratification of Mademoiselle Cabirolle, now called
Florentine. The magnificence which suddenly burst upon her apartment

in the rue de Vendome would have satisfied the most ambitious
supernumerary. After being the master of the ship for seven years,

Cardot now found himself towed along by a force of unlimited caprice.
But the luckless old gentleman was fond of his tyrant. Florentine was

to close his eyes; he meant to leave her a hundred thousand francs.
The iron age had now begun.

Georges Marest, with thirty thousand francs a year, and a handsome
face, courted Florentine. Every danseuse makes a point of having some

young man who will take her to drive, and arrange the gay excursions
into the country which all such women delight in. However

disinterested she may be, the courtship of such a star is a passion
which costs some trifles to the favored mortal. There are dinners at

restaurants, boxes at the theatres, carriages to go to the environs
and return, choice wines consumed in profusion,--for an opera danseuse

eats and drinks like an athlete. Georges amused himself like other
young men who pass at a jump from paternaldiscipline to a rich

independence, and the death of his uncle, nearly doubling his means,
had still further enlarged his ideas. As long as he had only his

patrimony of eighteen thousand francs a year, his intention was to
become a notary, but (as his cousin remarked to the clerks of

Desroches) a man must be stupid who begins a profession with the
fortune most men hope to acquire in order to leave it. Wiser then

Georges, Frederic persisted in following the career of public office,
and of putting himself, as we have seen, in training for it.

A young man as handsome and attractive as Georges might very well
aspire to the hand of a rich creole; and the clerks in Desroches'

office, all of them the sons of poor parents, having never frequented
the great world, or, indeed, known anything about it, put themselves

into their best clothes on the following day, impatient enough to
behold, and be presented to the Mexican Marquise de las Florentinas y

Cabirolos.
"What luck," said Oscar to Godeschal, as they were getting up in the

morning, "that I had just ordered a new coat and trousers and
waistcoat, and that my dear mother had made me that fine outfit! I

have six frilled shirts of fine linen in the dozen she made for me. We
shall make an appearance! Ha! ha! suppose one of us were to carry off

the Creole marchioness from that Georges Marest!"
"Fine occupation that, for a clerk in our office!" cried Godeschal.

"Will you never control your vanity, popinjay?"
"Ah! monsieur," said Madame Clapart, who entered the room at that

moment to bring her son some cravats, and overhead the last words of
the head-clerk, "would to God that my Oscar might always follow your

advice. It is what I tell him all the time: 'Imitate Monsieur
Godeschal; listen to what he tells you.'"

"He'll go all right, madame," interposed Godeschal, "but he mustn't
commit any more blunders like one he was guilty of last night, or

he'll lose the confidence of the master. Monsieur Desroches won't
stand any one not succeeding in what he tells them to do. He ordered

your son, for a first employment in his new clerkship, to get a copy
of a judgment which ought to have been served last evening, and Oscar,

instead of doing so, allowed himself to be fooled. The master was
furious. It's a chance if I have been able to repair the mischief by

going this morning, at six o'clock, to see the head-clerk at the
Palais, who has promised me to have a copy ready by seven o'clock to-

morrow morning."
"Ah, Godeschal!" cried Oscar, going up to him and pressing his hand.

"You are, indeed, a true friend."
"Ah, monsieur!" said Madame Clapart, "a mother is happy, indeed, in

knowing that her son has a friend like you; you may rely upon a
gratitude which can end only with my life. Oscar, one thing I want to

say to you now. Distrust that Georges Marest. I wish you had never met
him again, for he was the cause of your first great misfortune in

life."
"Was he? How so?" asked Godeschal.

The too devoted mother explained succinctly the adventure of her poor
Oscar in Pierrotin's coucou.

"I am certain," said Godeschal, "that that blagueur is preparing some
trick against us for this evening. As for me, I can't go to the

Marquise de las Florentinas' party, for my sister wants me to draw up
the terms of her new engagement; I shall have to leave after the

dessert. But, Oscar, be on your guard. They will ask you to play, and,
of course, the Desroches office mustn't draw back; but be careful. You

shall play for both of us; here's a hundred francs," said the good
fellow, knowing that Oscar's purse was dry from the demands of his

tailor and bootmaker. "Be prudent; remember not to play beyond that
sum; and don't let yourself get tipsy, either with play or libations.

Saperlotte! a second clerk is already a man of weight, and shouldn't
gamble on notes, or go beyond a certain limit in anything. His

business is to get himself admitted to the bar. Therefore don't drink
too much, don't play too long, and maintain a proper dignity,--that's

your rule of conduct. Above all, get home by midnight; for, remember,
you must be at the Palais to-morrow morning by seven to get that

judgment. A man is not forbidden to amuse himself, but business first,
my boy."

"Do you hear that, Oscar?" said Madame Clapart. "Monsieur Godeschal is
indulgent; see how well he knows how to combine the pleasures of youth

and the duties of his calling."
Madame Clapart, on the arrival of the tailor and the bootmaker with

Oscar's new clothes, remained alone with Godeschal, in order to return
him the hundred francs he had just given her son.

"Ah, monsieur!" she said, "the blessings of a mother will follow you
wherever you go, and in all your enterprises."

Poor woman! she now had the supreme delight of seeing her son well-
dressed, and she gave him a gold watch, the price of which she had

saved by economy, as the reward of his good conduct.
"You draw for the conscription next week," she said, "and to prepare,

in case you get a bad number, I have been to see your uncle Cardot. He
is very much pleased with you; and so delighted to know you are a

second clerk at twenty, and to hear of your successful examination at
the law-school, that he promised me the money for a substitute. Are

not you glad to think that your own good conduct has brought such
reward? Though you have some privations to bear, remember the

happiness of being able, five years from now, to buy a practice. And
think, too, my dear little kitten, how happy you make your mother."

Oscar's face, somewhat thinned by study, had acquired, through habits
of business, a serious expression. He had reached his full growth, his

beard was thriving; adolescence had given place to virility. The
mother could not refrain from admiring her son and kissing him, as she

said:--
"Amuse yourself, my dear boy, but remember the advice of our good

Monsieur Godeschal. Ah! by the bye, I was nearly forgetting! Here's a
present our friend Moreau sends you. See! what a pretty pocket-book."