“Think, Marsac, twenty thousand francs in hand; thirty thousand more coming; forty thousand francs profit each from the brewery shares we can now buy; a thousand francs for a picture; a play placed; clothes enough for two years,--hurrah for Uncle Maurice!” “Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! for Uncle Maurice!” shouted Marsac, capering wildly about. Fontaine ran and opened the closet door to let out the two ballet-girls, who had gone to sleep. He pulled them out, and began dancing gaily with them; while Marsac, finding Madame Schmid at the keyhole listening, dragged her in out of the corridor, and seizing her round the waist, began to waltz furiously, both of them hurrahing for Uncle Maurice at the top of their lungs, and singing doggerel verses made up as they danced, and all ending with a joyous refrain of,-- “Houp-là! for Uncle Maurice!” [Illustration] Chapter III The dinner at Passy resulted in several things. Fontaine and Claire could no longer conceal their infatuation with each other, and a tacit engagement ensued, to be announced as soon as Fontaine could free himself wholly from Madame Fleury,--which meant, as soon as she gave up the pursuit of him. [Illustration] The two friends had escaped from under the roof of 17 Rue Montignal by the exercise of an ingenuity akin to that which enables men to dig under castle walls, to steal past sentries, and to find their way over prison gates. They secretly hired another lodging, and, to avoid suspicion, made no move toward paying their rent to Madame Fleury, in spite of their coming into ready money. This apparent absence of cash led her to believe, more than ever, that the story of the rich uncle was an invention of Marsac’s. They had little to move, except their new clothes and Uncle Maurice’s portrait. For a week before their flight, every day they came downstairs whistling, and wearing two and sometimes three suits of clothes, which they shed, as a snake sheds his skin, at their new lodgings. At last, in the dead of night, they crept softly out of their apartment, leaving on the table a note addressed to Madame Fleury, enclosing the full amount of their indebtedness; and stealing downstairs,--Marsac with his violin case, and Fontaine with Uncle Maurice’s portrait,--they gained the street, where they ran as if Satan were after them.