Moreover, being perfectly sure of Latournelle's and Butscha's discretion, he could talk over difficult business matters, obtain the advice of the notary gratis, and get an inkling of the real truth of the gossip of the street.

This stolid gold-glutton (the epithet is Butscha's) belonged by nature to the class of substances which chemistry terms absorbents.

Ever since the catastrophe of the house of Mignon, where the Kellers had placed him to learn the principles of maritime commerce, no one at the Chalet had ever asked him to do the smallest thing, no matter what; his reply was too well known.

The young fellow looked at Modeste precisely as he would have looked at a cheap lithograph.
"He's one of the pistons of the big engine called 'Commerce,'" said poor Butscha, whose clever mind made itself felt occasionally by such little sayings timidly jerked out.
The four Latournelles bowed with the most respectful deference to an old lady dressed in black velvet, who did not rise from the armchair in which she was seated, for the reason that both eyes were covered with the yellow film produced by cataract.

Madame Mignon may be sketched in one sentence.