hundred thousand francs, and a life annuity of thirty thousand more.

After the wedding, which was sumptuous, Agathe returned to Paris the
happiest of mothers, and told Joseph and Desroches what she called the

good news.
"Your son Philippe is too wily a man not to keep his paw on that

inheritance," said the lawyer, when he had heard Madame Bridau to the
end. "You and your poor Joseph will never get one penny of your

brother's property."
"You, and Joseph too, will always be unjust to that poor boy," said

the mother. "His conduct before the Court of Peers was worthy of a
statesman; he succeeded in saving many heads. Philippe's errors came

from his great faculties being unemployed. He now sees how faults of
conduct injure the prospects of a man who has his way to make. He is

ambitious; that I am sure of; and I am not the only one to predict his
future. Monsieur Hochon firmly believes that Philippe has a noble

destiny before him."
"Oh! if he chooses to apply his perverted powers to making his

fortune, I have no doubt he will succeed: he is capable of everything;
and such fellows go fast and far," said Desroches.

"Why do you suppose that he will not succeed by honest means?"
demanded Madame Bridau.

"You will see!" exclaimed Desroches. "Fortunate or unfortunate,
Philippe will remain the man of the rue Mazarin, the murderer of

Madame Descoings, the domestic thief. But don't worry yourself; he
will manage to appear honest to the world."

After breakfast, on the morning succeeding the marriage, Philippe took
Madame Rouget by the arm when his uncle rose from table and went

upstairs to dress,--for the pair had come down, the one in her
morning-robe, and the other in his dressing-gown.

"My dear aunt," said the colonel, leading her into the recess of a
window, "you now belong to the family. Thanks to me, the law has tied

the knot. Now, no nonsense. I intend that you and I should play above
board. I know the tricks you will try against me; and I shall watch

you like a duenna. You will never go out of this house except on my
arm; and you will never leave me. As to what passes within the house,

damn it, you'll find me like a spider in the middle of his web. Here
is something," he continued, showing the bewildered woman a letter,

"which will prove to you that I could, while you were lying ill
upstairs, unable to move hand or foot, have turned you out of doors

without a penny. Read it."
He gave her the letter.

My dear Fellow,--Florentine, who has just made her debut at the
new Opera House in a "pas de trois" with Mariette and Tullia, is

thinking steadily about your affair, and so is Florine,--who has
finally given up Lousteau and taken Nathan. That shrewd pair have

found you a most delicious little creature,--only seventeen,
beautiful as an English woman, demure as a "lady," up to all

mischief, sly as Desroches, faithful as Godeschal. Mariette is
forming her, so as to give you a fair chance. No woman could hold

her own against this little angel, who is a devil under her skin;
she can play any part you please; get complete possession of your

uncle, or drive him crazy with love. She has that celestial look
poor Coralie used to have; she can weep,--the tones of her voice

will draw a thousand-franc note from a granite heart; and the
young mischief soaks up champagne better than any of us. It is a

precious discovery; she is under obligations to Mariette, and
wants to pay them off. After squandering the fortunes of two

Englishmen, a Russian, and an Italian prince, Mademoiselle Esther
is now in poverty; give her ten thousand francs, that will satisfy

her. She has just remarked, laughing, that she has never yet
fricasseed a bourgeois, and it will get her hand in. Esther is

well known to Finot, Bixiou, and des Lupeaulx, in fact to all our
set. Ah! if there were any real fortunes left in France, she would

be the greatest courtesan of modern times.
All the editorial staff, Nathan, Finot, Bixiou, etc., are now

joking the aforesaid Esther in a magnificent appartement just
arranged for Florine by old Lord Dudley (the real father of de

Marsay); the livelyactress captured him by the dress of her new
role. Tullia is with the Duc de Rhetore, Mariette is still with

the Duc de Maufrigneuse; between them, they will get your sentence
remitted in time for the King's fete. Bury your uncle under the

roses before the Saint-Louis, bring away the property, and spend a
little of it with Esther and your old friends, who sign this

epistle in a body, to remind you of them.
Nathan, Florine, Bixiou, Finot, Mariette,

Florentine, Giroudeau, Tullia
The letter shook in the trembling hands of Madame Rouget, and betrayed

the terror of her mind and body. The aunt dared not look at the
nephew, who fixed his eyes upon her with terrible meaning.

"I trust you," he said, "as you see; but I expect some return. I have
made you my aunt intending to marry you some day. You are worth more

to me than Esther in managing my uncle. In a year from now, we must be
in Paris; the only place where beauty really lives. You will amuse

yourself much better there than here; it is a perpetual carnival. I
shall return to the army, and become a general, and you will be a

great lady. There's our future; now work for it. But I must have a
pledge to bind this agreement. You are to give me, within a month from

now, a power of attorney from my uncle, which you must obtain under
pretence of relieving him of the fatigues of business. Also, a month

later, I must have a special power of attorney to transfer the income
in the Funds. When that stands in my name, you and I have an equal

interest in marrying each other. There it all is, my beautiful aunt,
as plain as day. Between you and me there must be no ambiguity. I can

marry my aunt at the end of a year's widowhood; but I could not marry
a disgraced girl."

He left the room without waiting for an answer. When Vedie came in,
fifteen minutes later, to clear the table, she found her mistress pale

and moist with perspiration, in spite of the season. Flore felt like a
woman who had fallen to the bottom of a precipice; the future loomed

black before her; and on its blackness, in the far distance, were
shapes of monstrous things, indistinctly perceptible, and terrifying.

She felt the damp chill of vaults, instinctive fear of the man crushed
her; and yet a voice cried in her ear that she deserved to have him

for her master. She was helpless against her fate. Flore Brazier had
had a room of her own in Rouget's house; but Madame Rouget belonged to

her husband, and was now deprived of the free-will of a servant-
mistress. In the horrible situation in which she now found herself,

the hope of having a child came into her mind; but she soon recognized
its impossibility. The marriage was to Jean-Jacques what the second

marriage of Louis XII. was to that king. The incessant watchfulness of
a man like Philippe, who had nothing to do and never quitted his post

of observation, made any form of vengeance impossible. Benjamin was
his innocent and devoted spy. The Vedie trembled before him. Flore

felt herself deserted and utterly helpless. She began to fear death.
Without knowing how Philippe might manage to kill her, she felt

certain that whenever he suspected her of pregnancy her doom would be
sealed. The sound of that voice, the veiled glitter of that gambler's

eye, the slightest movement of the soldier, who treated her with a
brutality that was still polite, made her shudder. As to the power of

attorney demanded by the ferociouscolonel, who in the eyes of all
Issoudun was a hero, he had it as soon as he wanted it; for Flore fell

under the man's dominion as France had fallen under that of Napoleon.
Like a butterfly whose feet are caught in the incandescent wax of a

taper, Rouget rapidly dissipated his remaining strength. In presence
of that decay, the nephew remained as cold and impassible as the

diplomatists of 1814 during the convulsions of imperial France.
Philippe, who did not believe in Napoleon II., now wrote the following

letter to the minister of war, which Mariette made the Duc de
Maufrigneuse convey to that functionary:--

Monseigneur,--Napoleon is no more. I desired to remain faithful to
him according to my oath; now I am free to offer my services to

His Majesty. If your Excellency deigns to explain my conduct to
His Majesty, the King will see that it is in keeping with the laws

of honor, if not with those of his government. The King, who
thought it proper that his aide-de-camp, General Rapp, should