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As Monsieur Verlaque was helping him to extricate himself from the crowd, they found themselves face to face with the handsome Norman. She remained stock-still in front of them, and with her queenly air inquired: "Well, is it quite settled? You are going to desert us, Monsieur Verlaque?" "Yes, yes," replied the little man; "I am going to take a rest in the country, at Clamart.

It had been arranged that during the next few days he should make him acquainted with the turbulent sphere which he would have to supervise. Poor Verlaque, as Gavard called him was a pale little man, swathed in flannels, handkerchiefs, and mufflers.

Yes, indeed, old Madame Verlaque, the wife of the former inspector; you know the sallow-faced thing well enough." The others protested that it surely wasn't possible. Why, Madame Verlaque was positively hideous! "What! do you think me a liar?" cried Mademoiselle Saget, with angry indignation.

And the tall, dark-complexioned female clerk, with eyes shining calmly in her face, which had been slightly reddened by the cold, sat on her high wooden chair, quietly writing, apparently unruffled by the continuous rattle which came from the hunchback below her. "That fellow Logre is wonderful," muttered Monsieur Verlaque with a smile. "He is the best crier in the markets.

He seemed to find something very ridiculous in the appearance of the police officers whom they met on the Quai de l'Horloge, for, as he passed them, he slightly shrugged his shoulders and made the grimace of a man seeking to restrain himself from laughing in people's faces. On the following morning Monsieur Verlaque began to initiate the new inspector into the duties of his office.

However, there was a knock at the passage door, and Gavard, who stayed at Monsieur Lebigre's every evening until midnight, came in. He had called for a definite answer about the fish inspectorship. "You must understand," he said, "that Monsieur Verlaque cannot wait any longer; he is too ill. So Florent must make up his mind. I have promised to give a positive answer early to-morrow."

Then, as they were now alone again, he began to tell them of the situation he had found for Florent. A friend of his, he said, Monsieur Verlaque, one of the fish market inspectors, was so ill that he was obliged to take a rest; and that very morning the poor man had told him that he should be very glad to find a substitute who would keep his berth open for him in case he should recover.

Monsieur Verlaque coughed. The dampness was affecting him, and he wrapped his muffler more closely about his neck. "Now," said he, "we will pass on to the fresh water fish." This was in a pavilion beside the fruit market, the last one, indeed, in the direction of the Rue Rambuteau.

When Monsieur Verlaque had finished instructing Florent in his new duties, he advised him to conciliate certain of the stall-holders, if he wished his life to be endurable; and he even carried his sympathy so far as to put him in possession of the little secrets of the office, such as the various little breaches of rule that it was necessary to wink at, and those at which he would have to feign stern displeasure; and also the circumstances under which he might accept a small present.

So Florent had been obliged to advance the money for the coffin and other funeral expenses, and had even given the gratuities to the mutes. Just as he was going away, Madame Verlaque looked at him with such a heartbroken expression that he left her twenty francs. And now Monsieur Verlaque's death worried him very much. It affected his situation in the markets.