IX

"What, monsieur?" replied Joseph Lebas, looking at his master as

keenly as his master looked at him, "you knew that I was in love?"

"I know everything, you rascal," said the worthy and cunning old

merchant, pulling the assistant's ear. "And I forgive you--I did the

same myself."

"And you will give her to me?"

"Yes--with fifty thousand crowns; and I will leave you as much by

will, and we will start on our new career under the name of a new

firm. We will do good business yet, my boy!" added the old man,

getting up and flourishing his arms. "I tell you, son-in-law, there is

nothing like trade. Those who ask what pleasure is to be found in it

are simpletons. To be on the scent of a good bargain, to hold your own

on 'Change, to watch as anxiously as at the gaming-table whether

Etienne and Co. will fail or no, to see a regiment of Guards march

past all dressed in your cloth, to trip your neighbor up--honestly of

course!--to make the goods cheaper than others can; then to carry out

an undertaking which you have planned, which begins, grows, totters,

and succeeds! to know the workings of every house of business as well

as a minister of police, so as never to make a mistake; to hold up

your head in the midst of wrecks, to have friends by correspondence in

every manufacturing town; is not that a perpetual game, Joseph? That

is life, that is! I shall die in that harness, like old Chevrel, but

taking it easy now, all the same."

In the heat of his eager rhetoric, old Guillaume had scarcely looked

at his assistant, who was weeping copiously. "Why, Joseph, my poor

boy, what is the matter?"

"Oh, I love her so! Monsieur Guillaume, that my heart fails me; I

believe----"

"Well, well, boy," said the old man, touched, "you are happier than

you know, by God! For she loves you. I know it."

And he blinked his little green eyes as he looked at the young man.

"Mademoiselle Augustine! Mademoiselle Augustine!" exclaimed Joseph

Lebas in his rapture.

He was about to rush out of the room when he felt himself clutched by

a hand of iron, and his astonished master spun him round in front of

him once more.

"What has Augustine to do with this matter?" he asked, in a voice

which instantly froze the luckless Joseph.

"Is it not she that--that--I love?" stammered the assistant.

Much put out by his own want of perspicacity, Guillaume sat down

again, and rested his long head in his hands to consider the

perplexing situation in which he found himself. Joseph Lebas,

shamefaced and in despair, remained standing.

"Joseph," the draper said with frigid dignity, "I was speaking of

Virginie. Love cannot be made to order, I know. I know, too, that you

can be trusted. We will forget all this. I will not let Augustine

marry before Virginie.--Your interest will be ten per cent."

The young man, to whom love gave I know not what power of courage and

eloquence, clasped his hand, and spoke in his turn--spoke for a

quarter of an hour, with so much warmth and feeling, that he altered

the situation. If the question had been a matter of business the old

tradesman would have had fixed principles to guide his decision; but,

tossed a thousand miles from commerce, on the ocean of sentiment,

without a compass, he floated, as he told himself, undecided in the

face of such an unexpected event. Carried away by his fatherly

kindness, he began to beat about the bush.

"Deuce take it, Joseph, you must know that there are ten years between

my two children. Mademoiselle Chevrel was no beauty, still she has had

nothing to complain of in me. Do as I did. Come, come, don't cry. Can

you be so silly? What is to be done? It can be managed perhaps. There

is always some way out of a scrape. And we men are not always devoted

Celadons to our wives--you understand? Madame Guillaume is very pious.

. . . Come. By Gad, boy, give your arm to Augustine this morning as we

go to Mass."

These were the phrases spoken at random by the old draper, and their

conclusion made the lover happy. He was already thinking of a friend

of his as a match for Mademoiselle Virginie, as he went out of the

smoky office, pressing his future father-in-law's hand, after saying

with a knowing look that all would turn out for the best.

"What will Madame Guillaume say to it?" was the idea that greatly

troubled the worthy merchant when he found himself alone.

At breakfast Madame Guillaume and Virginie, to whom the draper had not

yet confided his disappointment, cast meaning glances at Joseph Lebas,

who was extremely embarrassed. The young assistant's bashfulness

commended him to his mother-in-law's good graces. The matron became so

cheerful that she smiled as she looked at her husband, and allowed

herself some little pleasantries of time-honored acceptance in such

simple families. She wondered whether Joseph or Virginie were the

taller, to ask them to compare their height. This preliminary fooling

brought a cloud to the master's brow, and he even made such a point of

decorum that he desired Augustine to take the assistant's arm on their

way to Saint-Leu. Madame Guillaume, surprised at this manly delicacy,

honored her husband with a nod of approval. So the procession left the

house in such order as to suggest no suspicious meaning to the

neighbors.