“Bravo for the son of the Church!” cried Lupin, slapping Rigou on the shoulder.

Madame Soudry was here struck by an idea which could come only to a former waiting-maid of an Opera divinity.

“If,” she said, “one could only get the Shopman to the fete at Soulanges, and throw some fine girl in his way who would turn his head, we could easily set his wife against him by letting her know that the son of an upholsterer has gone back to the style of his early loves.”

“Ah, my beauty!” said Soudry, “you have more sense in your head than the Prefecture of police in Paris.”

“That’s an idea which proves that Madame reigns by mind as well as by beauty,” said Lupin, who was rewarded by a grimace which the leading society of Soulanges were in the habit of accepting without protest for a smile.

“One might do better still,” said Rigou, after some thought; “if we could only turn it into a downright scandal.”

“Complaint and indictment! affair in the police court!” cried Lupin.  “Oh! that would be grand!”

“Glorious!” said Soudry, candidly.  “What happiness to see the Comte de Montcornet, grand cross of the Legion of honor, commander of the Order of Saint Louis, and lieutenant-general, accused of having attempted, in a public resort, the virtue—­just think of it!”

“He loves his wife too well,” said Lupin, reflectively.  “He couldn’t be got to that.”

“That’s no obstacle,” remarked Rigou; “but I don’t know a single girl in the whole arrondissement who is capable of making a sinner of a saint.  I have been looking out for one for the abbe.”

“What do you say to that handsome Gatienne Giboulard, of Auxerre, whom Sarcus, junior, is mad after?” asked Lupin.

“That’s the only one,” answered Rigou, “but she is not suitable; she thinks she has only to be seen to be admired; she’s not complying enough; we want a witch and a sly-boots, too.  Never mind, the right one will turn up sooner or later.”

“Yes,” said Lupin, “the more pretty girls he sees the greater the chances are.”

“But perhaps you can’t get the Shopman to the fair,” said the ex-gendarme.  “And if he does come, will he go to the Tivoli ball?”

“The reason that has always kept him away from the fair doesn’t exist this year, my love,” said Madame Soudry.

“What reason, dearest?” asked Soudry.

“The Shopman wanted to marry Mademoiselle de Soulanges,” said the notary.  “The family replied that she was too young, and that mortified him.  That is why Monsieur de Soulanges and Monsieur de Montcornet, two old friends who both served in the Imperial Guard, are so cool to each other that they never speak.  The Shopman doesn’t want to meet the Soulanges at the fair; but this year the family are not coming.”

Usually the Soulanges party stayed at the chateau from July to October, but the general was then in command of the artillery in Spain, under the Duc d’Angouleme, and the countess had accompanied him.  At the siege of Cadiz the Comte de Soulanges obtained, as every one knows, the marshal’s baton, which he kept till 1826.