.

DREAMS OF LOVE.
Solemn moment approached for the two friends.

They were to take their examinations for graduation.

Upon the days when M.Violette--they now called him at the office "Father Violette," he had grown so aged and decrepit--was not too much "consoled" in the cafe in the Rue du Four, and when he was less silent and gloomy than usual, he would say to his son, after the soup: "Do you know, Amedee, I shall not be easy in my mind until you have received your degree.

Say what they may, it leads to everything." To everything indeed! M.Violette had a college friend upon whom all the good marks had been showered, who, having been successively schoolmaster, journalist, theatrical critic, a boarder in Mazas prison, insurance agent, director of an athletic ring--he quoted Homer in his harangue--at present pushed back the curtains at the entrance to the Ambigu, and waited for his soup at the barracks gate, holding out an old tomato-can to be filled.
But M.Violette had no cause to fear! Amedee received his degree on the same day with his friend Maurice, and both passed honorably.