Without doubt they were quite safe; indeed, she would never have dared ask him questions about them, for she was wont to be blushingly diffident with that bird, as Mme Lerat called him.

She trembled lest he should think her capable of quarreling with him about halfpence.

He had certainly promised to subscribe toward their common household expenses, and in the early days he had given out three francs every morning.

But he was as exacting as a boarder; he wanted everything for his three francs--butter, meat, early fruit and early vegetables--and if she ventured to make an observation, if she hinted that you could not have everything in the market for three francs, he flew into a temper and treated her as a useless, wasteful woman, a confounded donkey whom the tradespeople were robbing.

Moreover, he was always ready to threaten that he would take lodgings somewhere else.