In this way they
could save seven hundred francs a year; which would enable them to
give Philippe fifty francs a month until he could find something to
do. Agathe accepted the sacrifice. When the colonel came down and his
mother had asked how he liked his little bedroom, the two widows
explained to him the situation of the family. Madame Descoings and
Agathe possessed, by putting all their resources together, an income
of five thousand three hundred francs, four thousand of which belonged
to Madame Descoings and were merely a life annuity. The Descoings made
an allowance of six hundred a year to Bixiou, whom she had
acknowledged as her grandson during the last few months, also six
hundred to Joseph; the rest of her income, together with that of
Agathe, was spent for the household wants. All their savings were by
this time eaten up.
"Make yourselves easy," said the lieutenant-colonel. "I'll find a
situation and put you to no expense; all I need for the present is
board and lodging."
Agathe kissed her son, and Madame Descoings slipped a hundred francs
into his hand to pay for his losses of the night before. In ten days
the furniture was sold, the _appartement_ given up, and the change in
Agathe's domestic arrangements accomplished with a celerity seldom
seen outside of Paris. During those ten days, Philippe regularly
decamped after breakfast, came back for dinner, was off again for the
evening, and only got home about midnight to go to bed. He contracted
certain habits half mechanically, and they soon became rooted in him;
he got his boots blacked on the Pont Neuf for the two sous it would
have cost him to go by the Pont des Arts to the Palais-Royal, where he
consumed regularly two glasses of brandy while reading the newspapers,
--an occupation which employed him till midday; after that he
sauntered along the rue Vivienne to the cafe Minerve, where the
Liberals congregated, and where he played at billiards with a number
of old comrades.
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