He carried the flowers she had finished, on his way to the bureau, and bought her materials on his way back; then, while waiting for dinner, he stamped out her leaves, trimmed the twigs, or rubbed her colors.

Small, slim, and wiry, with crisp red hair, eyes of a light yellow, a skin of dazzling fairness, though blotched with red, the man had a sturdy courage that made no show.

He knew the science of writing quite as well as Vimeux.

At the office he kept in the background, doing his allotted task with the collected air of a man who thinks and suffers.

His white eyelashes and lack of eyebrows induced the relentless Bixiou to name him "the white rabbit." Minard--the Rabourdin of a lower sphere--was filled with the desire of placing his Zelie in better circumstances, and his mind searched the ocean of the wants of luxury in hopes of finding an idea, of making some discovery or some improvement which would bring him a rapid fortune.