their end and object, never think of asking, ‘What good does that do? what is the use of this?’ Besides, I must assure you that the stars are not as useless as you seem to think.  Without them how would navigators cross the sea?  They would be puzzled to get you the vanilla with which you have flavored the delicious cream I am now eating.  So, as Monsieur Colleville has perceived, there is more affinity than you think between a dish and a star; no one should be despised,—­neither an astronomer nor a good housekeeper—­”

The abbe was here interrupted by the noise of a lively altercation in the antechamber.

“I tell you that I will go in,” said a loud voice.

“No, monsieur, you shall not go in,” said another voice, that of the man-servant.  “The company are at table, I tell you, and nobody has the right to force himself in.”

Thuillier turned pale; ever since the seizure of his pamphlet, he fancied all sudden arrivals meant the coming of the police.

Among the various social rules imparted to Brigitte by Madame de Godollo, the one that most needed repeating was the injunction never, as mistress of the house, to rise from the table until she gave the signal for retiring.  But present circumstances appeared to warrant the infraction of the rule.

“I’ll go and see what it is,” she said to Thuillier, whose anxiety she noticed at once.  “What is the matter?” she said to the servant as soon as she reached the scene of action.

“Here’s a gentleman who wants to come in, and says that no one is ever dining at eight o’clock at night.”

“But who are you, monsieur?” said Brigitte, addressing an old man very oddly dressed, whose eyes were protected by a green shade.

“Madame, I am neither a beggar nor a vagabond,” replied the old man, in stentorian tones; “my name is Picot, professor of mathematics.”

“Rue du Val-de-Grace?” asked Brigitte.

“Yes, madame,—­No. 9, next to the print-shop.”

“Come in, monsieur, come in; we shall be only too happy to receive you,” cried Thuillier, who, on hearing the name, had hurried out to meet the savant.

“Hein! you scamp,” said the learned man, turning upon the man-servant, who had retired, seeing that the matter was being settled amicably, “I told you I should get in.”

Pere Picot was a tall old man, with an angular, stern face, who, despite the corrective of a blond wig with heavy curls, and that of the pacific green shade we have already mentioned, expressed on his large features, upon which the fury of study had produced a surface of leaden pallor, a snappish and quarrelsome disposition.  Of this he had already given proof before entering the dining-room, where every one now rose to receive him.