Your affectionate brother,

J.-J. Rouget.
"Say that we are at breakfast, but that Madame Bridau will send an

answer presently, and the invitations are all accepted," said Monsieur
Hochon to the servant.

The old man laid a finger on his lips, to require silence from
everybody. When the street-door was shut, Monsieur Hochon, little

suspecting the intimacy between his grandsons and Max, threw one of
his slyest looks at his wife and Agathe, remarking,--

"He is just as capable of writing that note as I am of giving away
twenty-five louis; it is the soldier who is corresponding with us!"

"What does that portend?" asked Madame Hochon. "Well, never mind; we
will answer him. As for you, monsieur," she added, turning to Joseph,

"you must dine there; but if--"
The old lady was stopped short by a look from her husband. Knowing how

warm a friendship she felt for Agathe, old Hochon was in dread lest
she should leave some legacy to her goddaughter in case the latter

lost the Rouget property. Though fifteen years older than his wife,
the miser hoped to inherit her fortune, and to become eventually the

sole master of their whole property. That hope was a fixed idea with
him. Madame Hochon knew that the best means of obtaining a few

concessions from her husband was to threaten him with her will.
Monsieur Hochon now took sides with his guests. An enormous fortune

was at stake; with a sense of social justice, he wished it to go to
the natural heirs, instead of being pillaged by unworthy outsiders.

Moreover, the sooner the matter was decided, the sooner he should get
rid of his guests. Now that the struggle between the interlopers and

the heirs, hitherto existing only in his wife's mind, had become an
actual fact, Monsieur Hochon's keen intelligence, lulled to sleep by

the monotony of provincial life, was fully roused. Madame Hochon had
been agreeably surprised that morning to perceive, from a few

affectionate words which the old man had said to her about Agathe,
that so able and subtle an auxiliary was on the Bridau side.

Towards midday the brains of Monsieur and Madame Hochon, of Agathe,
and Joseph (the latter much amazed at the scrupulous care of the old

people in the choice of words), were delivered of the following
answer, concocted solely for the benefit of Max and Flore:--

My dear Brother,--If I have stayed away from Issoudun, and kept up
no intercourse with any one, not even with you, the fault lies not

merely with the strange and false ideas my father conceived about
me, but with the joys and sorrows of my life in Paris; for if God

made me a happy wife, he has also deeply afflicted me as a mother.
You are aware that my son, your nephew Philippe, lies under

accusation of a capital offence in consequence of his devotion to
the Emperor. Therefore you can hardly be surprised if a widow,

compelled to take a humble situation in a lottery-office for a
living, should come to seek consolation from those among whom she

was born.
The profession adopted by the son who accompanies me is one that

requires great talent, many sacrifices, and prolonged studies
before any results can be obtained. Glory for an artist precedes

fortune; is not that to say that Joseph, though he may bring honor
to the family, will still be poor? Your sister, my dear Jean-

Jacques, would have borne in silence the penalties of paternal
injustice, but you will pardon a mother for reminding you that you

have two nephews; one of whom carried the Emperor's orders at the
battle of Montereau and served in the Guard at Waterloo, and is

now in prison for his devotion to Napoleon; the other, from his
thirteenth year, has been impelled by natural gifts to enter a

difficult though glorious career.
I thank you for your letter, my dear brother, with heart-felt

warmth, for my own sake, and also for Joseph's, who will certainly
accept your invitation. Illness excuses everything, my dear Jean-

Jacques, and I shall therefore go to see you in your own house. A
sister is always at home with a brother, no matter what may be the

life he has adopted.
I embrace you tenderly.

Agathe Rouget
"There's the matter started. Now, when you see him," said Monsieur

Hochon to Agathe, "you must speak plainly to him about his nephews."
The letter was carried over by Gritte, who returned ten minutes later

to render an account to her masters of all that she had seen and
heard, according to a settled provincial custom.

"Since yesterday Madame has had the whole house cleaned up, which she
left--"

"Whom do you mean by Madame?" asked old Hochon.
"That's what they call the Rabouilleuse over there," answered Gritte.

"She left the salon and all Monsieur Rouget's part of the house in a
pitiable state; but since yesterday the rooms have been made to look

like what they were before Monsieur Maxence went to live there. You
can see your face on the floors. La Vedie told me that Kouski went off

on horseback at five o'clock this morning, and came back at nine,
bringing provisions. It is going to be a grand dinner!--a dinner fit

for the archbishop of Bourges! There's a fine bustle in the kitchen,
and they are as busy as bees. The old man says, 'I want to do honor to

my nephew,' and he pokes his nose into everything. It appears THE
ROUGETS are highly flattered by the letter. Madame came and told me

so. Oh! she had on such a dress! I never saw anything so handsome in
my life. Two diamonds in her ears!--two diamonds that cost, Vedie told

me, three thousand francs apiece; and such lace! rings on her fingers,
and bracelets! you'd think she was a shrine; and a silk dress as fine

as an altar-cloth. So then she said to me, 'Monsieur is delighted to
find his sister so amiable, and I hope she will permit us to pay her

all the attention she deserves. We shall count on her good opinion
after the welcome we mean to give her son. Monsieur is very impatient

to see his nephew.' Madame had little black satin slippers; and her
stockings! my! they were marvels,--flowers in silk and openwork, just

like lace, and you could see her rosy little feet through them. Oh!
she's in high feather, and she had a lovely little apron in front of

her which, Vedie says, cost more than two years of our wages put
together."

"Well done! We shall have to dress up," said the artist laughing.
"What do you think of all this, Monsieur Hochon?" said the old lady

when Gritte had departed.
Madame Hochon made Agathe observe her husband, who was sitting with

his head in his hands, his elbows on the arms of his chair, plunged in
thought.

"You have to do with a Maitre Bonin!" said the old man at last. "With
your ideas, young man," he added, looking at Joseph, "you haven't

force enough to struggle with a practised scoundrel like Maxence
Gilet. No matter what I say to you, you will commit some folly. But,

at any rate, tell me everything you see, and hear, and do to-night.
Go, and God be with you! Try to get alone with your uncle. If, in

spite of all your genius, you can't manage it, that in itself will
throw some light upon their scheme. But if you do get a moment alone

with him, out of ear-shot, damn it, you must pull the wool from his
eyes as to the situation those two have put him in, and plead your

mother's cause."
CHAPTER XII

At four o'clock, Joseph crossed the open space which separated the
Rouget house from the Hochon house,--a sort of avenue of weakly

lindens, two hundred feet long and of the same width as the rue Grande
Narette. When the nephew arrived, Kouski, in polished boots, black

cloth trousers, white waistcoat, and black coat, announced him. The
table was set in the large hall, and Joseph, who easily distinguished

his uncle, went up to him, kissed him, and bowed to Flore and Max.
"We have not seen each other since I came into the world, my dear