It was a curious spectacle, the return of those braves for whomParisian slang had invented the new and significant expression offranc-fileur.

They were not so proud then as they have been since. Feeling ratherembarrassed in the midst of a population still quivering with theemotions of the siege, they had at least the good taste to try andfind pretexts for their absence.

"I was cut off," affirmed the Baron de Thaller. "I had gone toSwitzerland to place my wife and daughter in safety. When I cameback, good-by! the Prussians had closed the doors. For more thana week, I wandered around Paris, trying to find an opening. Ibecame suspected of being a spy. I was arrested. A little more,and I was shot dead!""As to myself," declared M. Costeclar, "I foresaw exactly what hashappened. I knew that it was outside, to organize armies of relief,that men would be wanted. I went to offer my services to thegovernment of defence; and everybody in Bordeaux saw me booted andspurred, and ready to leave."He was consequently soliciting the Cross of the Legion of Honor,and was not without hopes of obtaining it through the all-powerfulinfluence of his financial connections.

"Didn't So-and-so get it?" he replied to objections. And he namedthis or that individual whose feats of arms consisted principallyin having exhibited themselves in uniforms covered with gold laceto the very shoulders.

"But I am the man who deserves it most, that cross," insisted theyounger M. Jottras; "for I, at least, have rendered valuableservices."And he went on telling how, after searching for arms all overEngland, he had sailed for New York, where he had purchased anynumber of guns and cartridges, and even some batteries of artillery.

This last journey had been very wearisome to him, he added and yethe did not regret it; for it had furnished him an opportunity tostudy on the spot the financial morals of America; and he hadreturned with ideas enough to make the fortune of three or fourstock companies with twenty millions of capital.

"Ah, those Americans!" he exclaimed. "They are the men whounderstand business! We are but children by the side of them."It was through M. Chapelain, the Desciavettes, and old Desormeaux,that these news reached the Rue St. Gilles.

It was also through Maxence, whose battalion had been dissolved,and who, whilst waiting for something better, had accepted aclerkship in the office of the Orleans Railway, where he earnedtwo hundred francs a month. For M. Favoral saw and heard nothingthat was going on around him. He was wholly absorbed in hisbusiness: he left earlier, came home later, and hardly allowedhimself time to eat and drink.

He told all his friends that business was looking up again in themost unexpected manner; that there were fortunes to be made bythose who could command ready cash; and that it was necessary tomake up for lost time.

He pretended that the enormous indemnity to be paid to the Prussianswould necessitate an enormous movement of capital, financialcombinations, a loan, and that so many millions could not be handledwithout allowing a few little millions to fall into intelligentpockets.

Dazzled by the mere enumeration of those fabulous sums, "I shouldnot be a bit surprised," said the others, "to see Favoral doubleand treble his fortune. What a famous match his daughter will be!"Alas! never had Mlle. Gilberte felt in her heart so much hatredand disgust for that money, the only thought, the sole subject ofconversation, of those around her, - for that cursed money whichhad risen like an insurmountable obstacle between Marius andherself.

For two weeks past, the communications had been completely restored;and there was as yet no sign of M. de Tregars. It was with the mostviolent palpitations of her heart that she awaited each day the hourof the Signor Gismondo Pulei's lesson: and more painful each timebecame her anguish when she heard him exclaim,"Nothing, not a line, not a word. The pupil has forgotten his oldmaster!"But Mlle. Gilberte knew well that Marius did not forget. Her bloodfroze in her veins when she read in the papers the interminablelist of those poor soldiers who had succumbed during the invasion,- the more fortunate ones under Prussian bullets; the others alongthe roads, in the mud or in the snow, of cold, of fatigue, ofsuffering and of want.

She could not drive from her mind the memory of that lugubriousvision which had so much frightened her; and she was asking herselfwhether it was not one of those inexplicable presentiments, ofwhich there are examples, which announce the death of a belovedperson.

Alone at night in her little room, Mlle. Gilberte withdrew from thehiding-place, where she kept it preciously, that package whichMarius had confided to her, recommending her not to open............