And a fierce look set her lip curling. At last she would be

"Madame," and for the sake of earning a few louis all those women

whose slops she had emptied during the last fifteen years would

prostrate themselves before her.

Mignon wished to be announced, and Zoe left him for a moment after

remarking that Madame had passed a miserable day. He had only been

at the house once before, and he did not know it at all. The dining

room with its Gobelin tapestry, its sideboard and its plate filled