Pierre's valour surprised him.
However, being in reality a good-natured fellow, he at last grew warmer, and ended by saying that the Napoleons always knew how to distinguish men of spirit and energy.
Rougon and Aristide consequently had an enthusiastic reception; on their arrival all hands were held out to them.

Some of the guests went so far as to embrace them.

Angele sat on the sofa, by the side of her mother-in-law, feeling very happy, and gazing at the table with the astonishment of a gourmand who has never seen so many dishes at once.
When Aristide approached, Sicardot complimented his son-in-law upon his superb article in the "Independant." He restored his friendship to him.

The young man, in answer to the fatherly questions which Sicardot addressed to him, replied that he was anxious to take his little family with him to Paris, where his brother Eugene would push him forward; but he was in want of five hundred francs.

Sicardot thereupon promised him the money, already foreseeing the day when his daughter would be received at the Tuileries by Napoleon III.
In the meantime, Felicite had made a sign to her husband.