"What has she?" cried Hippolyte, pausing in the final stage of his operations upon the highly perfumed Flique. "Do I know?" replied his wife with a shrug. "She thinks I stole her cat--_I!_" "Quite simply, she hates you," put in Flique. "And why not? She is old, and fat, and her business is taking itself off, like that! You are young and"--with a bow, as he rose--"beautiful, and your affairs march to a marvel. She is jealous, c'est tout! It is a bad character, that." "But, mon Dieu!"-- "But what does that say to you? Let her go her way, she and her cat. Au r'voir, 'sieurs, 'dame." And, rattling a couple of sous into the little urn reserved for tips, the policeman took his departure, amid a chorus of "Merci, m'sieu', au r'voir, m'sieu'," from Hippolyte and his duck-clad aids. But what he had said remained behind. All day Madame Sergeot pondered upon the incident of the morning and Abel Flique's comments thereupon, seeking out some more plausible reason for this hitherto unsuspected enmity than the mere contrast between her material conditions and those of Madame Caille seemed to her to afford. For, to a natural placidity of temperament, which manifested itself in a reluctance to incur the displeasure of any one, had been lately added in Espérance a shrewd commercial instinct, which told her that the fortunes of the Salon Malakoff might readily be imperiled by an unfriendly tongue. In the quartier, gossip spread quickly and took deep root. It was quite imaginably within the power of Madame Caille to circulate such rumors of Sergeot dishonesty as should draw their lately won custom from them and leave but empty chairs and discontent where now all was prosperity and satisfaction. Suddenly there came to her the memory of that visit which she had never returned. Mon Dieu! and was not that reason enough? She, the youngest patronne in the quartier, to ignore deliberately the friendly call of a neighbor! At least it was not too late to make amends. So, when business lagged a little in the late afternoon, Madame Sergeot slipped from her desk, and, after a furtive touch to her hair, went in next door to pour oil upon the troubled waters. Madame Caille, throned at her counter, received her visitor with unexampled frigidity. "Ah, it is you," she said. "You have come to make some purchases, no doubt." "Eggs, madame," answered her visitor, disconcerted, but tactfully accepting the hint. "The best quality--or--?" demanded Alexandrine, with the suggestion of a sneer. "The best, evidently, madame. Six, if you please. Spring weather at last, it would seem."