Truth to
tell, she was so thin, so scraggy, that before consenting to make her his
wife he had often called her "that bag of bones." But, on the other hand,
thanks to his marriage with her, all his losses were made good in five or
six years' time; the business of the works even doubled, and great
prosperity set in. And Mathieu, having become a most active and necessary
coadjutor, ended by taking the post of chief designer, at a salary of
four thousand two hundred francs per annum.
Morange, the chief accountant, whose office was near Mathieu's, thrust
his head through the doorway as soon as he heard the young man installing
himself at his drawing-table. "I say, my dear Froment," he exclaimed,
"don't forget that you are to take dejeuner with us."
"Yes, yes, my good Morange, it's understood. I will look in for you at
twelve o'clock."
Then Mathieu very carefully scrutinized a wash drawing of a very simple
but powerful steam thresher, an invention of his own, on which he had
been working for some time past, and which a big landowner of Beauce, M.
Firon-Badinier, was to examine during the afternoon.
The door of the master's private room was suddenly thrown wide open and
Beauchene appeared--tall, with a ruddy face, a narrow brow, and big
brown, protruding eyes.
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