He is received with enthusiasm; his name has become a proverb.

Rossignol _pere_, alas, is dead, long since.

Dear Madame Rossignol lives, but my father sees at a glance that she will not live long.

The excitement of meeting him was almost too much for her--pale, sweet little woman.

Thibaut was keeping shop with her, but he seemed out of place there; a fine lad of eighteen; very intelligent, wonderfully good-humoured, and his poor mother had no peace, night or day, for the thought of what would become of him after her death; he had no male kinsfolk, and certainly would not stick to a dull little trade.