d workmen full
of ardor. Grossetete promised Madame Graslin to send her some trees
and to ask her other friends to do the same; for the nurseries of
the chateau would evidently not suffice to supply such an extensive
plantation. Toward the close of the day, which was to end in a grand
dinner at the chateau, Farrabesche requested Madame Graslin to grant him
an audience for a few moments.

"Madame," he said, presenting himself with Catherine, "you were so good
as to offer me the farm at the chateau. By granting me so great a favor
I know you intended to put me in the way of making my fortune. But
Catherine has ideas about our future which we desire to submit to you.
If I were to succeed and make money there would certainly be persons
envious of my good fortune; a word is soon said; I might have
quarrels,--I fear them; besides, Catherine would always be uneasy. In
short, too close intercourse with the world will not suit us. I have
come therefore to ask you to give us only the land at the opening of
the Gabou on the commons, with a small piece of the woodland behind
the Roche-Vive. In July you will have a great many workmen here, and it
would be very easy then to build a farmhouse in a good position on the
slope of the hill. We should be happy there. I will send for Guepin. My
poor comrade will work like a horse; perhaps I could marry him here. My
son is not a do-nothing either. No one would put us out of countenance;
we could colonize this corner of the estate, and I should make it
my ambition to turn it into a fine farm for you. Moreover, I want
to propose as farmer of your great farm near the chateau a cousin of
Catherine, who has money and would therefore be more capable than I
could be of managing such a large affair as that farm. If it please God
to bless your enterprise, in five years from now you will have five or
six thousand horned beasts or horses on that plain below, and it wants a
better head than mine to manage them."

Madame Graslin agreed to his request, doing justice to the good sense of
it.

From the time the work on the plain began, Veronique's life assumed the
regularity of country existence. In the morning she heard mass, took
care of her son, whom she idolized, and went to see her laborers. After
dinner she received her friends from Montegnac in the little salon to
the right of the clock-tower. She taught Roubaud, Clousier, and the
rector to play whist, which Gerard knew already. The rubbers usuall