talked it over at length, and they decided that to stay in Gruchy would
be to forfeit all hope of winning fame and fortune.

Gruchy held nothing for them; possibly Paris did.

And anyway, to go down in a struggle for better things was not so
ignominious an end as to allow one's powers to rust out, held back only
through fear of failure.

They started for Paris.

Yes, Paris remembered Jean Francois. How could Paris forget him--he was
so preposterous and his work so impossible!

It was still a struggle for bread.

Marriages and births have a fixed relation to the price of corn, the
sociologists say. Perhaps they are right; but not in this case.

The babies came along with the years, and all brought love with them.

The devotion of Jean Francois to his wife and children had a deep, sober,
religious quality, such as we associate with Abraham and Jacob and the
other patriarchs of old.

The heart of Millet was often wrung by the thought of the privation and
hardships his wife and children had to undergo. He blamed himself for
their lack of creature comforts, and the salt tears rained down his beard
when he had to go home and report that he had tramped the streets all day
with a picture under his arm, looking for a buyer, but no buyer could be