On these occasions Zelie sent to Paris for delicacies--obliging Dionis the notary to emulate her display.

Goupil, whom the Minorets endeavored to ignore as a questionable person who might tarnish their splendor, was not invited until the end of July.

The clerk, who was fully aware of this intended neglect, was forced to be respectful to Desire, who, since his entrance into office, had assumed a haughty and dignified air, even in his own family.
"You must have forgotten Esther," Goupil said to him, "as you are so much in love with Mademoiselle Mirouet." "In the first place, Esther is dead, monsieur; and in the next I have never even thought of Ursula," said the new magistrate.
"Why, what did you tell me, papa Minoret ?" cried Goupil, insolently.
Minoret, caught in a lie by a man whom he feared, would have lost countenance if it had not been for a project in his head, which was, in fact, the reason why Goupil was invited to dinner,--Minoret having remembered the proposition the clerk had once made to prevent the marriage between Savinien and Ursula.

For all answer, he led Goupil hurriedly to the end of the garden.
"You'll soon be twenty-eight years old, my good fellow," said he, "and I don't see that you are on the road to fortune.

I wish you well, for after all you were once my son's companion.