"To-morrow night, then, at Paillard's," Van Degen concluded.

The Widow Ducrot had promised it to Paillard, he of the prosperous commission business, the prominent embonpoint, and four children.

Monsieur Paillard possessed an establishment of his own, but it was a villa in the suburbs; and so, each day at noon, for his déjeûné he left his office and crossed the street to the Café Ducrot.

At first it was the widow's cooking that attracted him, then for a time the widow herself; but when from the convent Claire came to assist her mother in the café, and when from a lanky, big-eyed, long-legged child she grew into a slim, joyous, and charming young woman, she alone was the attraction, and the Widower Paillard decided to make her his wife.

Paillard himself took the proposed alliance calmly.

These doubts assailed Papa Paillard; these speculations were in his mind.

Ages and ages ago, before the flood, before Napoleon, even before old Paillard with his four children, it was arranged in heaven that you were to marry me.

Now, we can't try to get married here," continued Billy, "without your mother and Paillard knowing it.

Her mother might marry her to Paillard; Claire might fall ill; without him at her elbow to keep her to their purpose the voyage to an unknown land might require more courage than she possessed.

[Footnote 115: 'Paillards:' a French word for licentious persons.]

The former, indeed, would probably have sheltered himself under the mantle of Lucretius; but he should have recollected, that Palamon speaks the language of chivalry, and ought not, to use an expression of Lord Herbert, to have spoken like a paillard, but a cavalier.

We were dining at Paillard's, and two really nice-looking Frenchmen had the next table.