You might as well not live here at all.

Really, madame, you would have been delighted had you heard the praises showered on Monsieur Claes and on you." "You acted like a faithful friend in repelling imputations whose least evil is to make me ridiculous," said Balthazar.

"Ha! so they think me ruined?
Well, my dear Pierquin, two months hence I shall give a fete in honor of my wedding-day whose magnificence will get me back the respect my dear townsmen bestow on wealth." Madame Claes colored deeply.

For two years the anniversary had been forgotten.

Like madmen whose faculties shine at times with unwonted brilliancy, Balthazar was never more gracious and delightful in his tenderness than at this moment.