Madame Lacombe was totally unrecognisable. Her face, formerly so haggard and worn, was the picture of health, while her countenance beamed with happiness and benevolence; her silver white hair was smoothly brushed back beneath a dainty lace cap, and her silk dress was half concealed by a beautiful cashmere shawl--a tasty toilet which gave her a most dignified and imposing appearance. Louis Richard's features bore an expression of grave and reserved felicity, and he seemingly realized the full grandeur of the duties he had imposed upon himself; while Mariette, who had grown still prettier in this beneficial atmosphere, distinguished herself by that air of sweet gravity so becoming to young mothers. In her legitimate pride, she still retained the modest dress of her girlhood and wore the coquettish little cap of the shop-girl; and Providence, no doubt, rewarded her for her modesty, for she looked bewitchingly fresh and pretty beneath the lace head-gear, with its knots of pale blue ribbon, as she smiled sweetly on the blond rosy child at her side. Next came six young girls, in white dresses and crowned with orange blossoms, accompanied by their fiancés and relatives, all belonging to the laboring class; then came the twenty-four couples united in the four previous years, followed by the school children and the crippled old women who had found refuge in the charitable institutions founded with the miser's money. The old mulatto gazed in silent reflection at the procession, while his neighbors commented freely on the memorable event. "They owe all this happiness to old Richard," he heard some one say. "And to his son," added another voice. "Undoubtedly; but the son would have been powerless without the father's money." "Do you know that more than a hundred and fifty persons assembled here owe everything to the good old man?" "Yes; and in the last four years, six or seven hundred persons must have shared the benefits of the inheritance." "And if M. Louis lives thirty years longer, the number will reach five or six thousands--thousands saved from misery and crime, perhaps." "You forget the children of these happily married couples, who will have the advantages of education and good breeding procured by this generous dowry." "You are right; the good accomplished by old Richard is beyond calculation. What a pity so few know how to spend their money!" "Yes; but there are few such men as Richard and his son. But why are you weeping?" concluded the speaker, turning suddenly toward the old mulatto. "The praises I hear on all sides of--of this Richard and his son, and the sight of so much happiness causes me a strange emotion," explained the old man. "If you are interested in the ceremony, you may follow the cortege to the _House of Providence_, my good man," returned his first informant, as he moved toward the entrance of the church.