"Well," said Achilles to Nestor, as the cabriolet rolled away, "you

have been truly patriarchal to-night. The fact is, those young people
would certainly have ruined themselves."

"I felt anxious about their future," replied Mathias, keeping silent
as to the real motives of his proposition.

At this moment the two notaries were like a pair of actors arm in arm
behind the stage on which they have played a scene of hatred and

provocation.
"But," said Solonet, thinking of his rights as notary, "isn't it my

place to buy that land you mentioned? The money is part of our dowry."
"How can you put property bought in the name of Mademoiselle

Evangelista into the creation of an entail by the Comte de
Manerville?" replied Mathias.

"We shall have to ask the chancellor about that," said Solonet.
"But I am the notary of the seller as well as of the buyer of that

land," said Mathias. "Besides, Monsieur de Manerville can buy in his
own name. At the time of payment we can make mention of the fact that

the dowry funds are put into it."
"You've an answer for everything, old man," said Solonet, laughing.

"You were really surpassing to-night; you beat us squarely."
"For an old fellow who didn't expect your batteries of grape-shot, I

did pretty well, didn't I?"
"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Solonet.

The odious struggle in which the material welfare of a family had been
so perilously near destruction was to the two notaries nothing more

than a matter of professional polemics.
"I haven't been forty years in harness for nothing," remarked Mathias.

"Look here, Solonet," he added, "I'm a good fellow; you shall help in
drawing the deeds for the sale of those lands."

"Thanks, my dear Mathias. I'll serve you in return on the very first
occasion."

While the two notaries were peacefully returning homeward, with no
other sensations than a little throaty warmth, Paul and Madame

Evangelista were left a prey to the nervous trepidation, the quivering
of the flesh and brain which excitable natures pass through after a

scene in which their interests and their feelings have been violently
shaken. In Madame Evangelista these last mutterings of the storm were

overshadowed by a terrible reflection, a lurid gleam which she wanted,
at any cost, to dispel.

"Has Maitre Mathias destroyed in a few minutes the work I have been
doing for six months?" she asked herself. "Was he withdrawing Paul

from my influence by filling his mind with suspicion during their
secret conference in the next room?"

She was standing absorbed in these thoughts before the fireplace, her
elbow resting on the marble mantel-shelf. When the porte-cochere

closed behind the carriage of the two notaries, she turned to her
future son-in-law, impatient to solve her doubts.

"This has been the most terrible day of my life," cried Paul,
overjoyed to see all difficulties vanish. "I know no one so downright

in speech as that old Mathias. May God hear him, and make me peer of
France! Dear Natalie, I desire this for your sake more than for my

own. You are my ambition; I live only in you."
Hearing this speech uttered in the accents of the heart, and noting,

more especially, the limpid azure of Paul's eyes, whose glance
betrayed no thought of double meaning, Madame Evangelista's

satisfaction was complete. She regretted the sharp language with which
she had spurred him, and in the joy of success she resolved to

reassure him as to the future. Calming her countenance, and giving to
her eyes that expression of tender friendship which made her so

attractive, she smiled and answered:--
"I can say as much to you. Perhaps, dear Paul, my Spanish nature has

led me farther than my heart desired. Be what you are,--kind as God
himself,--and do not be angry with me for a few hasty words. Shake

hands."
Paul was abashed; he fancied himself to blame, and he kissed Madame

Evangelista.
"Dear Paul," she said with much emotion, "why could not those two

sharks have settled this matter without dragging us into it, since it
was so easy to settle?"

"In that case I should not have known how grand and generous you can
be," replied Paul.

"Indeed she is, Paul," cried Natalie, pressing his hand.
"We have still a few little matters to settle, my dear son," said

Madame Evangelista. "My daughter and I are above the foolish vanities
to which so many persons cling. Natalie does not need my diamonds, but

I am glad to give them to her."
"Ah! my dear mother, do you suppose that I will accept them?"

"Yes, my child; they are one of the conditions of the contract."
"I will not allow it; I will not marry at all," cried Natalie,

vehemently. "Keep those jewels which my father took such pride in
collecting for you. How could Monsieur Paul exact--"

"Hush, my dear," said her mother, whose eyes now filled with tears.
"My ignorance of business compels me to a greater sacrifice than

that."
"What sacrifice?"

"I must sell my house in order to pay the money that I owe to you."
"What money can you possibly owe to me?" she said; "to me, who owe you

life! If my marriage costs you the slightest sacrifice, I will not
marry."

"Child!"
"Dear Natalie, try to understand that neither I, nor your mother, nor

you yourself, require these sacrifices, but our children."
"Suppose I do not marry at all?"

"Do you not love me?" said Paul, tenderly.
"Come, come, my silly child; do you imagine that a contract is like a

house of cards which you can blow down at will? Dear little ignoramus,
you don't know what trouble we have had to found an entail for the

benefit of your eldest son. Don't cast us back into the discussions
from which we have just escaped."

"Why do you wish to ruin my mother?" said Natalie, looking at Paul.
"Why are you so rich?" he replied, smiling.

"Don't quarrel, my children, you are not yet married," said Madame
Evangelista. "Paul," she continued, "you are not to give either

corbeille, or jewels, or trousseau. Natalie has everything in
profusion. Lay by the money you would otherwise put into wedding

presents. I know nothing more stupidly bourgeois and commonplace than
to spend a hundred thousand francs on a corbeille, when five thousand

a year given to a young woman saves her much anxiety and lasts her
lifetime. Besides, the money for a corbeille is needed to decorate

your house in Paris. We will return to Lanstrac in the spring; for
Solonet is to settle my debts during the winter."

"All is for the best," cried Paul, at the summit of happiness.
"So I shall see Paris!" cried Natalie, in a tone that would justly

have alarmed de Marsay.
"If we decide upon this plan," said Paul, "I'll write to de Marsay and

get him to take a box for me at the Bouffons and also at the Italian
opera."

"You are very kind; I should never have dared to ask for it," said
Natalie. "Marriage is a very agreeableinstitution if it gives

husbands a talent for divining the wishes of their wives."
"It is nothing else," replied Paul. "But see how late it is; I ought

to go."
"Why leave so soon to-night?" said Madame Evangelista, employing those

coaxing ways to which men are so sensitive.
Though all this passed on the best of terms, and according to the laws