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them." Through the door of the passage which led to the kitchen he saw
la Grande Nanon sitting beside her fire with a candle and preparing to
spin there, so as not to intrude among the guests.

"Nanon," he said, going into the passage, "put out that fire and that
candle, and come and sit with us. Pardieu! the hall is big enough for
all."

"But monsieur, you are to have the great people."

"Are not you as good as they? They are descended from Adam, and so are
you."

Grandet came back to the president and said,--

"Have you sold your vintage?"

"No, not I; I shall keep it. If the wine is good this year, it will be
better two years hence. The proprietors, you know, have made an
agreement to keep up the price; and this year the Belgians won't get
the better of us. Suppose they are sent off empty-handed for once,
faith! they'll come back."

"Yes, but let us mind what we are about," said Grandet in a tone which
made the president tremble.

"Is he driving some bargain?" thought Cruchot.

At this moment the knocker announced the des Grassins family, and
their arrival interrupted a conversation which had begun between
Madame Grandet and the abbe.

Madame des Grassins was one of those lively, plump little women, with
pink-and-white skins, who, thanks to the claustral calm of the
provinces and the habits of a virtuous life, keep their youth until
they are past forty. She was like the last rose of autumn,--pleasant
to the eye, though the petals have a certain frostiness, and their
perfume is slight. She dressed well, got her fashions from Paris, set
the tone to Saumur, and gave parties. Her husband, formerly a
quartermaster in the Imperial guard, who had been desperately wounded
at Austerlitz, and had since retired, still retained, in spite of his
respect for Grandet, the seeming frankness of an old soldier.

"Good evening, Grandet," he said, holding out his hand and affecting a
sort of superiority, with which he always crushed the Cruchots.
"Mademoiselle," he added, turning to Eugenie, after bowing to Madame
Grandet, "you are always beautiful and good, and truly I do not know
what to wish you." So saying, he offered her a little box which his
servant had brought and which contained a Cape heather,--a flower
lately imported into Europe and very rare.

Madame des Grassins kissed Eugenie very affectionately, pressed her
hand, and said: "Adolphe wishes to make you my little offering."

A tall, blond young man, pale and slight, with tolerable manners and
seemingly rather shy, although he had just spent eight or ten thousand
francs over his allowance in Paris, where he had been sent to study
law, now came forward and kissed Eugenie on both cheeks, offering her
a workbox with utensils in silver-gilt,--mere show-case trumpery, in
spite of the monogram E.G. in gothic letters rather well engraved,
which belonged properly to something in better taste.

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