ne of those men whom superiority
attracts and intimidates,--who dislike it and yet cultivate it. "He
would embrace me and condemn me," the Abbe Dutheil said of him. The Abbe
de Grancour had neither friends nor enemies; he was therefore likely
to live and die a vicar-general. He said he was drawn to visit Madame
Graslin by the desire of counselling so religious and benevolent a
person; and the bishop approved of his doing so,--Monsieur de Grancour's
real object being to spend a few evenings with the Abbe Dutheil in
Veronique's salon.

The two priests now came pretty regularly to see Madame Graslin, and
make her a sort of report about her poor and discuss the best means
of succoring and improving them. But Monsieur Graslin had now begun to
tighten his purse-strings, having made the discovery, in spite of the
innocent deceptions of his wife and her maid, that the money he paid did
not go solely for household expenses and for dress. He was angry when
he found out how much money his wife's charities cost him; he called the
cook to account, inquired into all the details of the housekeeping, and
showed what a grand administrator he was by practically proving that his
house could be splendidly kept for three thousand francs a year. Then he
put his wife on an allowance of a hundred francs a month, and boasted of
his liberality in so doing. The office-boy, who liked flowers, was made
to take care of the garden on Sundays. Having dismissed the gardener,
Graslin used the greenhouse to store articles conveyed to him as
security for loans. He let the birds in the aviary die for want of
care, to avoid the cost of their food and attendance. And he even took
advantage of a winter when there was no ice, to give up his icehouse and
save the expense of filling it.

By 1828 there was not a single article of luxury in the house which he
had not in some way got rid of. Parsimony reigned unchecked in the hotel
Graslin. The master's face, greatly improved during the three years
spent with his wife (who induced him to follow his physician's advice),
now became redder, more fiery, more blotched than before. Business
had taken such proportions that it was necessary to promote the
boy-of-all-work to the position of cashier, and to find some stout
Auvergnat for the rougher service of the hotel Graslin.

Thus, four years after her marriage, this very rich woman could not
dispose of a single penny by her own will. The avarice of her husband
succeed