When at length it was evidently impossible to borrow any longer,
whether because the amount of the debt was now so greatly increased,

or because Castanier was unable to pay the large amount of interest on
the aforesaid sums of money, the cashier saw bankruptcy before him. On

making this discovery, he decided for a fraudulent bankruptcy rather
than an ordinary failure, and preferred a crime to a misdemeanor. He

determined, after the fashion of the celebratedcashier of the Royal
Treasury, to abuse the trust deservedly won, and to increase the

number of his creditors by making a final loan of the sum sufficient
to keep him in comfort in a foreign country for the rest of his days.

All this, as has been seen, he had prepared to do.
Aquilina knew nothing of the irksome cares of this life; she enjoyed

her existence, as many a woman does, making no inquiry as to where the
money came from, even as sundry other folk will eat their buttered

rolls untroubled by any restless spirit of curiosity as to the culture
and growth of wheat; but as the labor and miscalculations of

agriculture lie on the other side of the baker's oven, so beneath the
unappreciated luxury of many a Parisian household lie intolerable

anxieties and exorbitant toil.
While Castanier was enduring the torture of the strain, and his

thoughts were full of the deed that should change his whole life,
Aquilina was lying luxuriously back in a great armchair by the

fireside, beguiling the time by chatting with her waiting-maid. As
frequently happens in such cases the maid had become the mistress'

confidant, Jenny having first assured herself that her mistress'
ascendency over Castanier was complete.

"What are we to do this evening? Leon seems determined to come," Mme.
de la Garde was saying, as she read a passionateepistle indited upon

a faint gray notepaper.
"Here is the master!" said Jenny.

Castanier came in. Aquilina, nowise disconcerted, crumpled up the
letter, took it with the tongs, and held it in the flames.

"So that is what you do with your love-letters, is it?" asked
Castanier.

"Oh goodness, yes," said Aquilina; "is it not the best way of keeping
them safe? Besides, fire should go to fire, as water makes for the

river."
"You are talking as if it were a real love-letter, Naqui----"

"Well, am I not handsome enough to receive them?" she said, holding up
her forehead for a kiss. There was a carelessness in her manner that

would have told any man less blind than Castanier that it was only a
piece of conjugal duty, as it were, to give this joy to the cashier,

but use and wont had brought Castanier to the point where clear-
sightedness is no longer possible for love.

"I have taken a box at the Gymnase this evening," he said; "let us
have dinner early, and then we need not dine in a hurry."

"Go and take Jenny. I am tired of plays. I do not know what is the
matter with me this evening; I would rather stay here by the fire."

"Come, all the same though, Naqui; I shall not be here to bore you
much longer. Yes, Quiqui, I am going to start to-night, and it will be

some time before I come back again. I am leaving everything in your
charge. Will you keep your heart for me too?"

"Neither my heart nor anything else," she said; "but when you come
back again, Naqui will still be Naqui for you."

"Well, this is frankness. So you would not follow me?"
"No."

"Why not?"
"Eh! why, how can I leave the lover who writes me such sweet little

notes?" she asked, pointing to the blackened scrap of paper with a
mocking smile.

"Is there any truth in it?" asked Castanier. "Have you really a
lover?"

"Really!" cried Aquilina; "and have you never given it a serious
thought, dear? To begin with, you are fifty years old. Then you have

just the sort of face to put on a fruit stall; if the woman tried to
see you for a pumpkin, no one would contradict her. You puff and blow

like a seal when you come upstairs; your paunch rises and falls like a
diamond on a woman's forehead! It is pretty plain that you served in

the dragoons; you are a very ugly-looking old man. Fiddle-de-dee. If
you have any mind to keep my respect, I recommend you not to add

imbecility to these qualities by imagining that such a girl as I am
will be content with your asthmatic love, and not look for youth and

good looks and pleasure by way of a variety----"
"Aquilina! you are laughing, of course?"

"Oh, very well; and are you not laughing too? Do you take me for a
fool, telling me that you are going away? 'I am going to start

to-night!' " she said, mimicking his tones. "Stuff and nonsense! Would
you talk like that if you were really going from your Naqui? You would

cry, like the booby that you are!"
"After all, if I go, will you follow?" he asked.

"Tell me first whether this journey of yours is a bad joke or not."
"Yes, seriously, I am going."

"Well, then, seriously, I shall stay. A pleasant journey to you, my
boy! I will wait till you come back. I would sooner take leave of life

than take leave of my dear, cozy Paris----"
"Will you not come to Italy, to Naples, and lead a pleasant life

there--a delicious, luxurious life, with this stout old fogy of yours,
who puffs and blows like a seal?"

"No."
"Ungrateful girl!"

"Ungrateful?" she cried, rising to her feet. "I might leave this house
this moment and take nothing out of it but myself. I shall have given

you all the treasures a young girl can give, and something that not
every drop in your veins and mine can ever give me back. If, by any

means whatever, by selling my hopes of eternity, for instance, I could
recover my past self, body and soul (for I have, perhaps, redeemed my

soul), and be pure as a lily for my lover, I would not hesitate a
moment! What sort of devotion has rewarded mine? You have housed and

fed me, just as you give a dog food and a kennel because he is a
protection to the house, and he may take kicks when we are out of

humor, and lick our hands as soon as we are pleased to call him. And
which of us two will have been the more generous?"

"Oh! dear child, do you not see that I am joking?" returned Castanier.
"I am going on a short journey; I shall not be away for very long. But

come with me to the Gymnase; I shall start just before midnight, after
I have had time to say good-bye to you."

"Poor pet! so you are really going, are you?" she said. She put her
arms round his neck, and drew down his head against her bodice.

"You are smothering me!" cried Castanier, with his face buried in
Aquilina's breast. That damsel turned to say in Jenny's ear, "Go to

Leon, and tell him not to come till one o'clock. If you do not find
him, and he comes here during the leave-taking, keep him in your

room.--Well," she went on, setting free Castanier, and giving a tweak
to the tip of his nose, "never mind, handsomest of seals that you are.

I will go to the theatre with you this evening? But all in good time;
let us have dinner! There is a nice little dinner for you--just what

you like."
"It is very hard to part from such a woman as you!" exclaimed

Castanier.
"Very well then, why do you go?" asked she.

"Ah! why? why? If I were to begin to begin to explain the reasons why,
I must tell you things that would prove to you that I love you almost

to madness. Ah! if you have sacrificed your honor for me, I have sold
mine for you; we are quits. Is that love?"

"What is all this about?" said she. "Come, now, promise me that if I
had a lover you would still love me as a father; that would be love!