s supply of milk. The
Cruchots and Des Grassins retired discomfited before the presence of
Charles Grandet. The young Parisian, brought up in luxury by his father,
could not understand why he should have been sent to this outlandish
place, and he was the more mystified by his uncle telling him they would
talk over "important business" on the morrow. Then, indeed, in plain and
brutal words he learnt the contents of the fatal letter he had brought
from his father. It was twenty-three years since old Grandet had seen
his brother in Paris, but this brother had become a rich man, too; of
that old Grandet was aware. And now Victor-Ange-Guillaume Grandet wrote
to him from Paris, saying: "By the time that this letter is in your
hands, I shall cease to exist. The failure of my stockbroker and my
notary has ruined me, and while I owe nearly four million francs, my
assets are only a quarter of my debts. I cannot survive the disgrace of
bankruptcy. I know you cannot satisfy my creditors, but you can be a
father to my unhappy child, Charles, who is now alone in the world. Lay
everything before him, and tell him that in my work he can restore the
fortune he has lost. My failure is due neither to dishonesty nor to
carelessness, but to causes beyond my control."

Old Grandet told his nephew plainly that his father was dead, and even
showed him a paragraph already in the papers referring to the ruin and
suicide of the unhappy man--so quickly is such news spread abroad.

For the moment, his penniless state was nothing to the young man; the
loss of his father was the only grief.

Old Grandet let him alone, and in a day or two Charles gathered up
strength to face the situation.

Mme. Grandet and Eugenie were full of tender sympathy for the unhappy
young man, and this sympathy in Eugenie's case ripened into love. One
day, when Eugenie passed her cousin's chamber, the door stood ajar; she
thrust it open, and saw that Charles had fallen asleep in his chair. She
entered and found out from a letter her cousin had written to Annette,
which she read as it lay on the table, that he was in want of money--for
old Grandet was resolved to do nothing for his nephew beyond paying his
passage to Nantes. The next night she brought him all her store of gold
coins, worth six thousand francs. Her confidence and devoted affection
touched Charles deeply. He accepted the money, and in return gave into
her keeping a small leather box containing portraits of h