You will allow me just to attend to my guests, won't you?
I will be with you in an instant." She thereupon returned to the table on which the tray had been placed, in order to serve the coffee and the liqueurs, with her daughter's assistance.

Gerard, however, remained with Pierre; and, it so chanced, began to speak to him of the Asylum for the Invalids of Labour, where they had met one another at the recent laying of the foundation-stone of a new pavilion which was being erected, thanks to a handsome donation of 100,000 francs made by Baron Duvillard.

So far, the enterprise only comprised four pavilions out of the fourteen which it was proposed to erect on the vast site given by the City of Paris on the peninsula of Gennevilliers*; and so the subscription fund remained open, and, indeed, no little noise was made over this charitable enterprise, which was regarded as a complete and peremptory reply to the accusations of those evilly disposed persons who charged the satiated _bourgeoisie_ with doing nothing for the workers.

But the truth was that a magnificent chapel, erected in the centre of the site, had absorbed two-thirds of the funds hitherto collected.

Numerous lady patronesses, chosen from all the "worlds" of Paris--the Baroness Duvillard, the Countess de Quinsac, the Princess Rosemonde de Harn, and a score of others--were entrusted with the task of keeping the enterprise alive by dint of collections and fancy bazaars.