"There ain't no sheets but for one bed, and it's no more'n fair for me to have 'em, old as I am. His father sleeps on a sack of straw same as he does. He don't sleep no worse for it either, I tell you." "Here, Mère Madeleine, take this, and buy a bed for the child, and don't be so harsh with him." As he spoke, Auguste rose, and put six more five-franc pieces in the old woman's hand. She, having never before seen so much money at one time, made curtsy after curtsy, overwhelming the stranger with thanks, and saying to the child: "Come, Coco, thank monsieur for giving me all this money for you. Thank him, I say, quick!" The child looked up at his grandmother in evident embarrassment. "Let him alone," said Auguste, as he kissed him; "he doesn't know the value of money yet. The kiss he gives me is all the more sincere on that account. Adieu, my little Coco.--By the way, which is the road to Livry, please?" "Follow this path, monsieur, and it'll take you to the main road. You'll be there in half an hour. Do you want Coco to show you the way?" "It isn't necessary." Auguste left the hovel; the child bade him good-bye and called after him: "Come and play with me again, won't you?" "Yes," said Auguste, "I promise." IV SOME PORTRAITS AFTER NATURE Since eleven o'clock Dalville had been expected at Monsieur Destival's. Madame, a brunette of thirty, with a bright eye and a most expressive glance, who was an adept in the art of making the most of a shapely figure and seductive contours by an effective costume,--madame had finished her toilet. In the country it was, of course, very simple; but there are some négligé costumes which require much preparation. However, as madame was pretty and still young, she had spent only a half hour in donning a filmy white dress, confined at the waist by an orange sash; in arranging her curls becomingly and adorning them with a bow of the same color as her sash. Nor had she asked Julie more than six times if the yellow was becoming to her. Julie replied that madame was fascinating, that yellow was always becoming to brunettes, and, in fact, that madame need not be afraid to wear any color. Madame smiled slightly at Julie, who was only twenty-four, but was extremely ugly, which is almost always considered a valuable quality in a lady's maid. Monsieur Destival was ten years older than his wife; he was tall and thin; his face was not handsome, but it had character; unfortunately its expression was not of the sort that denotes an amiable person, whose wit causes one to forget his ugliness; it denoted self-sufficiency, conceit, and a constant tendency to be cunning. His rustic cap, set well forward on his head, seemed to put a seal upon all the rest.