anybody. ' '

I insist upon Rose's domestic virtues.

' ' You will not easily replace her, Captain. ' '

Decidedly, he is not touched at all. One would say even, from looking at his eyes that have sud- denly become brighter and from -watching his movements, now more alert, that he has been re- lieved from a great weight.

"Bah! " says he, after a short silence, "every- thing can be replaced. ' '

This resignation astonishes me, and even scan- dalizes me a little. To amuse myself, I try to make him understand all he has lost in losing Rose.

" She knew so well your habits, your tastes, your manias ! She was so devoted to you ! ' '

' « Well, if she had not been, that would have been the last straw, ' ' he growled. ■And, making a gesture by which he seems to put aside all sorts of objections, he goes on:

" Besides, was she so devoted to me? Oh! I may as well tell you the truth. I had had enough of Rose. Yes, indeed! After we took a little boy to help us, she attended to nothing in the house, and everything went badly, very badly. I could not even have an egg boiled to my taste. And the scen'es that went on, from morning to night, apropos of nothing. If I spent ten sous, there were cries and reproaches. And, when I talked with you, as I am doing now, — well, there was a row, indeed ; for she was jealous, jealous. Oh! no. She went