"How  they  slander  her!"  whispered  Lisbeth  to  Crevel,
pointing  to  this  picture  as  they  opened  the  door.  **Look  at
her  hair — ^not  in  the  least  tumbled.  To  hear  Victorin,  you
might  have  expected  to  find  two  turtle-doves  in  a  nest."

"My  dear  Lisbeth,"  replied  Crevel,  in  his  favorite  position,
**you  see  that  to  turn  Lucretia  into  Aspasia,  you  have  only  to
inspire  a  passion !"

"And  have  I  not  always  told  you,"  said  Lisbeth,  **that
women  like  a  burly  profligate  like  you  r^'

"And  she  would  be  most  ungrateful  too,"  said  Crevel ;  "for
as  to  the  money  I  have  spent  here,  Grindot  and  I  alone  can
teU!"

And  he  waved  a  hand  at  the  staircase.
In  decorating  this  house,  which  Crevel  regarded  as  his  own,
Grindot  had  tried  to  compete  with  Cleretti,  in  whose  hands
the  Due  d'H6rouville  had  placed  Jos^pha's  villa.  But  Crevel,
incapable  of  understanding  art,  had,  like  all  sordid  souls,
wanted  to  spend  a  certain  sum  fixed  beforehand.  Grindot,
fettered  by  a  contract,  had  found  it  impossible  to  embody
his  architectural  dream.
