The little girl looked longer and with more interest，probably becauseshe was in her own house，while he was a traveler and accustomed tos~ange sights．And，besides，there was no galette in the case with her． All the time of supper there was nothing spoken of but my younglord．The two parents were both absurdly fond of their child．Monsieurkept insisting on his sagacity；how he knew all the children at schoolby name，and when this utterly failed on trial，how he was cautious andexact to a strange degree，and if asked anything，he would sit and thinkand think，and if he did not know it，“my fmth，he wouldn’t tell youat all—ma foi．ilne VOUS le dira pas．”Which is certainly a very high degree of caution．At intervals，Mr．Hector would appeal tO his wife withhis mouth full of beefsteak，as to the little fellow’S age at such or such a time when he had said or done something memorable；and I noticedthat Madame usually pooh-poohed these inquiries．She herself was not boastful in her vein；but she never had her fill of caressing the child；and she seemed to take a gentle pleasure in recalling all that was fortunate in his little existence．No schoolboy could have talked more of the holidays which were just beginning and less of the black school time which mustinevitably follow after．She showed，with a pride perhaps partly mercantilein origin，his pockets preposterously swollen with tops，and whistles，and string．~llen she called at a house in the way of business，it appeared he kept her company；and，whenever a sale was made，received a SOU out of the profit．Indeed，they spoiled him vastly，these two good people．But they had an eye to his manners，for all that，and reproved him for some little faults in breeding which occurred from time to time during supper．
On the whole．1 was not much hurt at being taken for a peddler．I might think that I ate with greater delicacy，or that my mistakes in French belonged to a different order；but it was plain that these distinctions Would be thrown away upon the landlady and the two laborers．In all essential things we and the Gilliards cut very much the same figure in the alehouse kitchen．Mr．Hector was more at home，indeed，and took a higher tone with the world；but that was explicable on the ground of his driving a donkey cart，while we poor bodies tramped by foot．I dare、say the rest of the company thought US dying with envy，though in no ill sense，to be as far up in the profession as the new arrival．