Madame Descoings's passion forced her to be content with fifty francs a month for her domestic expenses, so as to gamble with the rest.
On the other hand, Madame Bridau, motherly love, kept her expenses down to the same sum.

By way of penance for her former over-confidence, she heroically cut off her own little enjoyments.

As with other timid souls of limited intelligence, one shock to her feelings rousing her distrust led her to exaggerate a defect in her character until it assumed the consistency of a virtue.

The Emperor, she said to herself, might forget them; he might die in battle; her pension, at any rate, ceased with her life.

She shuddered at the risk her children ran of being left alone in the world without means.