In the mean time her family had gone down in the world, and she had been obliged to live in a house in the suburbs, where she had remained for five-and-twenty years.

Boltay meanwhile had become a rich man, and had purchased the house in which Teresa lived, and this gave him an opportunity of doing little kindnesses to Teresa, which she could not very well refuse.

Thus, he turned the yard into a garden, gave the noisier of his tenants notice to quit, and charged her a purely nominal rent.

And yet, for all that, they never exchanged a word together.

Boltay himself lived at the opposite end of the town, over his shop; but he knew very well, all the same, what was going on at Teresa's.