"
"Go without sugar at your age! I'd rather buy you some out of my own
pocket."
"Mind your own business."
In spite of the recent fall in prices, sugar was still in Grandet's
eyes the most valuable of all the colonial products; to him it was
always six francs a pound. The necessity of economizing it, acquired
under the Empire, had grown to be the most inveterate of his habits.
All women, even the greatest ninnies, know how to dodge and dodge to
get their ends; Nanon abandoned the sugar for the sake of getting the
_galette_.
"Mademoiselle!" she called through the window, "do you want some
_galette_?"
"No, no," answered Eugenie.
"Come, Nanon," said Grandet, hearing his daughter's voice. "See here."
He opened the cupboard where the flour was kept, gave her a cupful,
and added a few ounces of butter to the piece he had already cut off.
"I shall want wood for the oven," said the implacable Nanon.
"Well, take what you want," he answered sadly; "but in that case you
must make us a fruit-tart, and you'll cook the whole dinner in the
oven. In that way you won't need two fires."
"Goodness!" cried Nanon, "you needn't tell me that."
Grandet cast a look that was well-nigh paternal upon his faithful
deputy.
"Mademoiselle," she cried, when his back was turned, "we shall have
the _galette_."
Pere Grandet returned from the garden with the fruit and arranged a
plateful on the kitchen-table.
"Just see, monsieur," said Nanon, "what pretty boots your nephew has.
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