Uncle Cardot lived at Belleville, in one of the first houses above the
Courtille. He there occupied, on the first floor, an apartment
overlooking the valley of the Seine, with a southern exposure, and the
exclusive enjoyment of a large garden, for the sum of a thousand
francs a year. He troubled himself not at all about the three or four
other tenants of the same vast country-house. Certain, through a long
lease, of ending his days there, he lived rather plainly, served by an
old cook and the former maid of the late Madame Cardot,--both of whom
expected to reap an annuity of some six hundred francs apiece on the
old man's death. These two women took the utmost care of him, and were
all the more interested in doing so because no one was ever less fussy
or less fault-finding than he. The apartment, furnished by the late
Madame Cardot, had remained in the same condition for the last six
years,--the old man being perfectly contented with it. He spent in all
not more than three thousand francs a year there; for he dined in
Paris five days in the week, and returned home at midnight in a
hackney-coach, which belonged to an establishment at Courtille. The
cook had only her master's breakfast to provide on those days. This
was served at eleven o'clock; after that he dressed and perfumed
himself, and departed for Paris. Usually, a bourgeois gives notice in
the household if he dines out; old Cardot, on the contrary, gave
notice when he dined at home.

This little old man--fat, rosy, squat, and strong--always looked, in
popular speech, as if he had stepped from a bandbox. He appeared in
black silk stockings, breeches of "pou-de-soie" (paduasoy), a white
pique waistcoat, dazzling shirt-front, a blue-bottle coat, violet silk
gloves, gold buckles to his shoes and his breeches, and, lastly, a
touch of powder and a little queue tied with black ribbon. His face
was remarkable for a pair of eyebrows as thick as bushes, beneath