at the office the two men seemed to live on good enough terms. a sort of tacit pact was entered into between them to conceal from their colleagues their internal warfare. they addressed each other as "my dear cachelin, my dear lesable;" they even feigned to laugh and talk together as men who were satisfied and happy in their domestic relations.

lesable and maze, for their part, comported themselves in the presence of each other with the ceremonious politeness of adversaries who had met in battle.

the duel they had escaped, but whose shadow had chilled them, exacted of them an exaggerated courtesy, a more marked consideration, and perhaps a secret desire for reconciliation, born of the vague fear of a new complication. their attitude was recognised and approved as that of men of the world, who had had an affair of honour. they saluted each other from a distance with severe gravity, and with a flourish of hats that was graceful and dignified. they did not speak, their pride preventing either from making the first advances. but one day, lesable, whom the chief demanded to see immediately, to show his zeal, started with a great rush through the lobby and ran right into the stomach of an employee. it was maze. they recoiled before each other, and lesable exclaimed with eager politeness: "i hope i have not hurt you. monsieur?"

maze responded: "not at all, sir."

from this moment they thought it expedient to exchange some phrases when they met. then, in the interchange of courtesies, there were little attentions they paid each other from which arose in a short time certain familiarities, then an intimacy tempered with reserve and restrained by a certain hesitation; then on the strength of their increasing goodwill and visits made to the room of each other, a comradeship was established. they often gossiped together now of the news that found its way into the bureau. lesable laid aside his air of superiority, and maze no longer paraded his social successes. cachelin often joined in the conversation and watched with interest their growing friendship. sometimes as the handsome maze left the apartment with head erect and square shoulders, he turned to his son-in-law and hissed: "there goes a fine man!" one morning when they were all four together, for old savon never left his copying, the chair of the old clerk, having been tampered with no doubt by some practical joker, collapsed under him, and the good man rolled on the floor uttering cries of affright. the three others flew to his assistance. the order-clerk attributed this machination to the communists, and maze earnestly desired to see the wounded part. cachelin and he even essayed to take off the poor old fellow's clothes to dress the injury, they said, but he resisted desperately, crying that he was not hurt.

when the fun was over, cachelin suddenly exclaimed: "i say, m. maze, now that we are all together, can you not do us the honour of dining with us next sunday? it will give pleasure to all three of us, myself, my son-in-law, and my daughter, who has often heard your name when we speak of the office. shall it be yes?"

lesable added his entreaty, but more coldly than his father-in-law:

"pray come," he said; "it will give us great pleasure."

maze hesitated, embarrassed and smiling at the remembrance of past events.

cachelin urged him: "come, say we may expect you!"

"very well, then, i accept."

cachelin said on entering the house: "cora, do you know that m. maze is coming here to dinner next sunday?"

cora, surprised at first, stammered: "m. maze? really!" she blushed up to her hair without knowing why. she had so often heard him spoken of, his manners, his successes, for he was looked upon at the office as a man who was irresistible with women, that she had long felt a desire to know him.

cachelin continued rubbing his hands: "you will see that he is a real man, and a fine fellow. he is as tall as a carbineer; he does not resemble your husband there."

she did not reply, confused as if they had divined her dreams of him.

they prepared this dinner with as much solicitude as the one to which lesable had been formerly invited. cachelin discussed the dishes, wishing to have everything served in perfection; and as though a confidence unavowed and still undetermined had risen up in his heart, he seemed more gay, tranquilised by some secret and sure prevision.

through all that sunday he watched the preparations with the utmost solicitude, while lesable was doing some urgent work, brought the evening before from the office.

it was the first week of november, and the new year was at hand.

at seven o'clock maze arrived, in high good humour. he entered as though he felt very much at home, with a compliment and a great bouquet of roses for cora. he added, as he presented them, in the familiar tone of a man of the world: "it seems to me, madame, i know you already, and that i have known you from your childhood, for many years your father has spoken to me of you."

cachelin, seeing the flowers, cried: "ah they are charming!" and his daughter recalled that lesable had not brought her a bouquet the day he was introduced. the handsome clerk seemed enchanted, laughing and bestowing on cora the most delicate flatteries, which brought the colour to her cheeks.

he found her very attractive. she thought him charming and seductive. when he had gone, cachelin exclaimed: "isn't he a fine fellow? what havoc he creates! they say he can wheedle any woman!"

cora, less demonstrative, avowed, however, that she thought him very agreeable, and not so much of a poseur as she had believed.

lesable, who seemed less sad and weary than usual, acknowledged that he had underrated maze on his first acquaintance.

maze returned at intervals, which gradually grew shorter. he delighted everybody. they petted and coddled him. cora prepared for him the dishes he liked, and the intimacy of the three men soon became so great that they were seldom seen apart.

the new friend took the whole family to the theatre in boxes procured through the press. they returned on foot, through the streets thronged with people, to the door of lesable's apartments, maze and cora walking before, keeping step, hip to hip, swinging with the same movement, the same rhythm, like two beings created to walk side by side through life. they spoke to each other in a low tone, laughing softly together, and seemed to understand each other instinctively: sometimes the young woman would turn her head and throw behind her a glance at her husband and father.

cachelin followed them with a look of benevolent regard, and often, forgetting that he spoke to his son-in-law, he declared: "they have the same physique exactly. it is a pleasure to see them together."

lesable replied quietly: "yes, they are about the same figure." he was happy now in the consciousness that his heart was beating more vigorously, that his lungs acted more freely, and that his health had improved in every respect; his rancour against his father-in-law, whose cruel taunts had now entirely ceased, vanished little by little.

the first day of january he was promoted to the chief clerkship. his joy was so excessive over his happy event that on returning home he embraced his wife for the first time in six months. she appeared embarrassed, as if he had done something improper, and she looked at maze, who had called to present to her his devotion and respect on the first day of the year. he also had an embarrassed air, and turned toward the window like a man who does not wish to see.

but cachelin very soon resumed his brutalities, and began to harass his son-in-law with his coarse jests.

sometimes he even attacked maze, as though he blamed him also for the catastrophe suspended over them—the inevitable date of which approached nearer every minute.

cora alone appeared composed, entirely happy and radiant. she had forgotten, it seemed, the threatening nearness of the term.

march had come. ah hope seemed lost, for it would be three years on the twentieth of july since aunt charlotte's death.

an early spring had advanced the vegetation, and maze proposed to his friends one sunday to make an excursion to the banks of the seine, to gather the violets in the shady places. they set out by a morning train and got off at maisons-laffitte. a breath of winter still lingered among the bare branches, but the turf was green and lustrous, flecked with flowers of white and blue, and the fruit-trees on the hillsides seemed garlanded with roses as their bare branches showed through the clustering blossoms. the seine, thick and muddy from the late rains, flowed slowly between its banks gnawed by the frosts of winter; and all the country, steeped in vapour, exhaled a savour of sweet humidity under the warmth of the first days of spring.

they wandered in the park. cachelin, more glum than usual, tapped his cane on the gravelled walk, thinking bitterly of their misfortune, so soon to be irremediable lesable, morose also, feared to wet his feet in the grass, while his wife and maze were gathering flowers to make a bouquet. cora for several days had seemed suffering, and looked weary and pale. she was soon tired and wished to return for luncheon. they came upon a little restaurant near an old ruined mill, and the traditional repast of a parisian picnic party was soon served under a green arbour, on a little table covered with two napkins, and quite near the banks of the river. they had fried gudgeons, roast beef cooked with potatoes, and they had come to the salad of fresh green lettuce, when cora rose brusquely and ran toward the river, pressing her napkin with both hands to her mouth.

lesable, uneasy, wondered what could be the matter. maze disconcerted, blushed, and stammered, "i do not know—she was well a moment since."

cachelin appeared frightened, and remained seated, with his fork in the air, a leaf of salad suspended at the end. then he rose, trying to see his daughter. bending forward, he perceived her leaning against a tree and seeming very ill. a swift suspicion flashed through his mind, and he fell back into his seat and regarded with an embarrassed air the two men, both of whom seemed now equally confused. he looked at them with anxious eyes, no longer daring to speak, wild with anguish and hope.

a quarter of an hour passed in utter silence. then cora reappeared, a little pale and walking slowly. no one questioned her; each seemed to divine a happy event, difficult to speak of. they burned to know, but feared also to hear, the truth. cachelin alone had the courage to ask: "you are better now?" and she replied: "yes, thank you; there is not much the matter; but we will return early, as i have a light headache." when they set out she took the arm of her husband as if to signify something mysterious she had not yet dared to avow.

they separated at the station of saint-lazare. maze, making a pretext of some business affair which he had just remembered, bade them adieu, after having shaken hands with all of them. as soon as cachelin was alone with his daughter and his son-in-law, he asked: "what was the matter with you at breakfast?"

but cora, did not reply at first; after hesitating for a moment she said: "it was nothing much; a little sickness of the stomach was all." she walked with a languid step, but with a smile on her lips.

lesable was ill at ease, his mind distracted; haunted with confused and contradictory ideas, angry, feeling an unavowable shame, cherishing a cowardly jealousy, he was like those sleepers who close their eyes in the morning that they may not see the ray of light which glides between the curtains and strikes the bed like a brilliant shaft.

as soon as he entered the house, he shut himself in his own room, pretending to be occupied with some unfinished work. then cachelin, placing his hands on his daughter's shoulders, exclaimed: "you are pregnant, aren't you?"

she stammered: "yes, i think so. two months."

before she had finished speaking, he bounded with joy, then began to dance the cancan around her, an old recollection of his garrison days. he lifted his leg and leaped like a young kid in spite of his great paunch, and made the whole apartment shake with his gambols. the furniture jostled, the glasses on the buffet rattled, and the chandelier oscillated like the lamp of a ship.

he took his beloved daughter in his arms and embraced her frantically. then tapping her lightly on the shoulder he cried: "ah, it is done, then, at last! have you told your husband?"

she murmured, suddenly intimidated: "no,—not yet—i—i—was waiting—"

but cachelin exclaimed: "good, very good. you find it awkward. i will run and tell him myself." and he rushed to the apartment of his son-in-law. on seeing him enter, lesable, who was doing nothing, rose and looked inquiringly at cachelin, who left him no time for conjecture, but cried: "do you know your wife is in the family way?"

the husband was stricken speechless, his countenance changed, and the blood surged to the roots of his hair: "what? how? cora? you say—" he faltered when he recovered his voice.

"i say that she is pregnant; do you understand? now is our chance!"

in his joy he took lesable's hands and pressed and shook them, as if to felicitate him, to thank him, and cried: "ah, at last it is true, it is true! it is true! think of the fortune we shall have!" and unable to contain himself longer, he caught his son-in-law in his arms and embraced him, crying: "more than a million! think of it! more than a million!" and he began to dance more violently than ever.

"but come, she is waiting for you, come and embrace her, at least," and taking him by the shoulders he pushed lesable before him, and threw him like a ball into the apartment where cora stood anxiously waiting and listening.

the moment she saw her husband, she recoiled, stifled with a sudden emotion. he stood before her, pale and severe. he had the air of a judge, and she of a culprit. at last he said: "it seems that you are pregnant."

she stammered in a trembling voice: "yes, that seems to be the case."

but cachelin seized each of them by the neck, and, bringing them face to face, cried: "now kiss each other, by george! it is a fitting occasion."

and after releasing them, he capered about like a schoolboy, shouting: "victory, victory, we have won our case! i say, léopold, we must purchase a country house; there, at least, you will certainly recover your health." at this idea lesable trembled. his father-in-law continued: "we will invite m. torchebeuf and his wife to visit us, and as the under-chief is at the end of his term you may take his place. that is the way to bring it about."

lesable was now beginning to regard things from cachelin's standpoint, and he saw himself receiving his chief at a beautiful country place on the banks of the river, dressed in coat of white twill, with a panama hat on his head.

something sweet entered into his heart with this hope, something warm and good seemed to melt within him, rendering him light of heart and healthier in feeling. he smiled, still without speaking.

cachelin, intoxicated with joy, transported at the thought of his fine prospects, continued:

"who knows, we may gain some political influence. perhaps you will be deputy. at all events, we can see the society of the neighbourhood, and enjoy some luxuries. and you shall have a little pony to convey you every morning to the station."

these images of luxury, of elegance and prosperity aroused the drooping spirits of lesable. the thought that he could be driven in his own carriage, like the rich people he had so often envied, filled him with satisfaction, and he could not refrain from exclaiming: "ah, that will be delightful indeed."

cora, seeing him won over, smiled tenderly and gratefully, and cachelin, who saw no obstacles now in the way of indulgence, declared: "we will dine at the restaurant, to celebrate the happy event."

when they reached home, the two men were a little tipsy, and lesable, who saw double and whose ideas were all topsy-turvy, could not find his bedroom. he made his way by mistake, or forgetfulness, into the long vacant bed of his wife. and all night long it seemed to him that the bed oscillated like a boat, rolling and pitching as though it would upset. he was even a little seasick.

he was surprised on awaking to find cora in his arms. she opened her eyes with a smile and kissed him with a sudden effusion of gratitude and affection. then she said to him, in that caressing voice which women employ in their cajoleries: "if you wish to be very nice, you will not go to your office to-day. there is no need to be so punctual now that we are going to be rich, and we will make a little visit to the country, all by ourselves."

lesable was content to remain quiet, with the feeling for self-indulgence which follows an evening of excess, and the warmth of the bed was grateful. he felt the drowsy wish to lie a long time, to do nothing more but to live in tranquil idleness. an unusual sloth paralyzed his soul and subdued his body, and one vague, happy, and continuous thought never left him—"he was going to be rich, independent."

but suddenly a fear seized him, and he whispered softly, as if he thought the walls might hear him: "are you very sure you are pregnant, after all?"

she reassured him at once. "oh, yes! i am certain of it. i could not be mistaken."

and, as if still doubting, he traced the outline of her figure with his hand, and feeling convinced declared: "yes, it is true—but you will not be brought to bed before the date. they will contest our right on that account, perhaps."

at this supposition she grew angry.

"oh, no indeed, they are not going to trick us now after so much misery, so much trouble, and so many efforts. oh, no, indeed!" she was overwhelmed with indignation. "let us go at once to the notary," she said.

but his advice was to get a physician's certificate first, and they presented themselves again to dr. lefilleul.

he recognized them immediately, and exclaimed:

"ah well, have you succeeded?"

they both blushed up to their ears, and cora a little shamefacedly stammered: "i believe we have, doctor."

the doctor rubbed his hands, crying: "i expected it, i expected it. the means i recommended to you never fail; at least, only from some radical incapacity of one of the parties."

when he had made an examination of the young wife, he declared: "it is true, bravo!" and he wrote on a sheet of paper:

"i, the undersigned, doctor of medicine, of the faculty of paris, certify that madame léopold lesable, née cachelin, presents all the symptoms of pregnancy, dating from over three months."

then, turning toward lesable: "and you," he said, "how is that chest and that heart?" and having made an auscultation, he declared that the patient was entirely cured. they set out happy and joyous, arm in arm, with elastic steps. but on the route léopold had an idea. "we had better go home before we see the lawyer, and rearrange your dress; you'll put two or three towels under your belt it will draw attention to it and that will be better; he will not believe then that we are trying to gain time."

they returned home, and he himself undressed his wife in order to adjust the deception. ten consecutive times lesable changed the position of the towels, and stepped back some paces to get the proper effect, wishing to obtain an absolutely perfect resemblance. satisfied with the result at last, they set out again, and walked proudly through the streets, lesable carrying himself with the air of one whose virility was established and patent to all the world.

the notary received them kindly. then he listened to their explanation, ran his eye over the certificate, and, as lesable insisted, "for the rest, monsieur, it is only necessary to glance for a second," he threw a convinced look on the tell-tale figure of the young woman.

there was a moment of anxious suspense, when the man of law declared: "assuredly, whether the infant is born or to be born, it exists, it lives; so we will suspend the execution of the testament till the confinement of madame."

after leaving the office of the notary, they embraced each other on the stairway, so exuberant was their joy.