Bargeton's, he must not be my foreman any longer, poor fellow! He
ought not to live in L'Houmeau; you ought not to be a working girl;

and your mother must give up her employment as well. If you would
consent to be my wife, the difficulties will all be smoothed away.

Lucien might live on the second floor in the Place du Murier until I
can build rooms for him over the shed at the back of the yard (if my

father will allow it, that is.). And in that way we would arrange a
free and independent life for him. The wish to support Lucien will

give me a better will to work than I ever should have had for myself
alone; but it rests with you to give me the right to devote myself to

him. Some day, perhaps, he will go to Paris, the only place that can
bring out all that is in him, and where his talents will be

appreciated and rewarded. Living in Paris is expensive, and the
earnings of all three of us will be needed for his support. And

besides, will not you and your mother need some one to lean upon then?
Dear Eve, marry me for love of Lucien; perhaps afterwards you will

love me when you see how I shall strive to help him and to make you
happy. We are, both of us, equally simple in our tastes; we have few

wants; Lucien's welfare shall be the great object of our lives. His
heart shall be our treasure-house, we will lay up all our fortune, and

think and feel and hope in him."
"Worldly considerations keep us apart," said Eve, moved by this love

that tried to explain away its greatness. "You are rich and I am poor.
One must love indeed to overcome such a difficulty."

"Then you do not care enough for me?" cried the stricken David.
"But perhaps your father would object----"

"Never mind," said David; "if asking my father is all that is
necessary, you will be my wife. Eve, my dear Eve, how you have

lightened life for me in a moment; and my heart has been very heavy
with thoughts that I could not utter, I did not know how to speak of

them. Only tell me that you care for me a little, and I will take
courage to tell you the rest."

"Indeed," she said, "you make me quite ashamed; but confidence for
confidence, I will tell you this, that I have never thought of any one

but you in my life. I looked upon you as one of those men to whom a
woman might be proud to belong, and I did not dare to hope so great a

thing for myself, a penniless working girl with no prospects."
"That is enough, that is enough," he answered, sitting down on the bar

by the weir, for they had gone to and fro like mad creatures over the
same length of pathway.

"What is the matter?" she asked, her voice expressing for the first
time a woman's sweet anxiety for one who belongs to her.

"Nothing but good," he answered. "It is the sight of a whole lifetime
of happiness that dazzles me, as it were; it is overwhelming. Why am I

happier than you?" he asked, with a touch of sadness. "For I know that
I am happier."

Eve looked at David with mischievous, doubtful eyes that asked an
explanation.

"Dear Eve, I am taking more than I give. So I shall always love you
more than you love me, because I have more reason to love. You are an

angel; I am a man."
"I am not so learned," Eve said, smiling. "I love you----"

"As much as you love Lucien?" he broke in.
"Enough to be your wife, enough to devote myself to you, to try not to

add anything to your burdens, for we shall have some struggles; it
will not be quite easy at first."

"Dear Eve, have you known that I loved you since the first day I saw
you?"

"Where is the woman who does not feel that she is loved?"
"Now let me get rid of your scruples as to my imaginaryriches. I am a

poor man, dear. Yes, it pleased my father to ruin me; he made a
speculation of me, as a good many so-called benefactors do. If I make

a fortune, it will be entirely through you. That is not a lover's
speech, but sober, serious earnest. I ought to tell you about my

faults, for they are exceedingly bad ones in a man who has his way to
make. My character and habits and favorite occupations all unfit me

for business and money-getting, and yet we can only make money by some
kind of industry; if I have some faculty for the discovery of gold-

mines, I am singularly ill-adapted for getting the gold out of them.
But you who, for your brother's sake, went into the smallest details,

with a talent for thrift, and the patient watchfulness of the born man
of business, you will reap the harvest that I shall sow. The present

state of things, for I have been like one of the family for a long
time, weighs so heavily upon me, that I have spent days and nights in

search of some way of making a fortune. I know something of chemistry,
and a knowledge of commercialrequirements has put me on the scent of

a discovery that is likely to pay. I can say nothing as yet about it;
there will be a long while to wait; perhaps for some years we may have

a hard time of it; but I shall find out how to make a commercial
article at last. Others are busy making the same researches, and if I

am first in the field, we shall have a large fortune. I have said
nothing to Lucien, his enthusiastic nature would spoil everything; he

would convert my hopes into realities, and begin to live like a lord,
and perhaps get into debt. So keep my secret for me. Your sweet and

dear companionship will be consolation in itself during the long time
of experiment, and the desire to gain wealth for you and Lucien will

give me persistence and tenacity----"
"I had guessed this too," Eve said, interrupting him; "I knew that you

were one of those inventors, like my poor father, who must have a
woman to take care of them."

"Then you love me! Ah! say so without fear to me, who saw a symbol of
my love for you in your name. Eve was the one woman in the world; if

it was true in the outward world for Adam, it is true again in the
inner world of my heart for me. My God! do you love me?"

"Yes," said she, lengthening out the word as if to make it cover the
extent of feeling expressed by a single syllable.

"Well, let us sit here," he said, and taking Eve's hand, he went to a
great baulk of timber lying below the wheels of a paper-mill. "Let me

breathe the evening air, and hear the frogs croak, and watch the
moonlight quivering upon the river; let me take all this world about

us into my soul, for it seems to me that my happiness is written large
over it all; I am seeing it for the first time in all its splendor,

lighted up by love, grown fair through you. Eve, dearest, this is the
first moment of pure and unmixed joy that fate has given to me! I do

not think that Lucien can be as happy as I am."
David felt Eve's hand, damp and quivering in his own, and a tear fell

upon it.
"May I not know the secret?" she pleaded coaxingly.

"You have a right to know it, for your father was interested in the
matter, and to-day it is a pressing question, and for this reason.

Since the downfall of the Empire, calico has come more and more into
use, because it is so much cheaper than linen. At the present moment,

paper is made of a mixture of hemp and linen rags, but the raw
material is dear, and the expense naturally retards the great advance

which the French press is bound to make. Now you cannot increase the
output of linen rags, a given population gives a pretty constant

result, and it only increases with the birth-rate. To make any
perceptible difference in the population for this purpose, it would

take a quarter of a century and a great revolution in habits of life,
trade, and agriculture. And if the supply of linen rags is not enough

to meet one-half nor one-third of the demand, some cheaper material
than linen rags must be found for cheap paper. This deduction is based

on facts that came under my knowledge here. The Angouleme paper-
makers, the last to use pure linen rags, say that the proportion of

cotton in the pulp has increased to a frightfulextent of late years."
In answer to a question from Eve, who did not know what "pulp" meant,

David gave an account of paper-making, which will not be out of place
in a volume which owes its existence in book form to the paper