f the
country-side for a circuit of thirty miles:--

"Monsieur de Serizy has a second self in Moreau."

Being a prudent man, Moreau invested yearly, after 1817, both his
profits and his salary on the Grand Livre, piling up his heap with the
utmost secrecy. He often refused proposals on the plea of want of money;
and he played the poor man so successfully with the count that the
latter gave him the means to send both his sons to the school Henri IV.
At the present moment Moreau was worth one hundred and twenty thousand
francs of capital invested in the Consolidated thirds, now paying
five per cent, and quoted at eighty francs. These carefully hidden one
hundred and twenty thousand francs, and his farm at Champagne, enlarged
by subsequent purchases, amounted to a fortune of about two hundred and
eighty thousand francs, giving him an income of some sixteen thousand.

Such was the position of the steward at the time when the Comte de
Serizy desired to purchase the farm of Moulineaux,--the ownership
of which was indispensable to his comfort. This farm consisted of
ninety-six parcels of land bordering the estate of Presles, and
frequently running into it, producing the most annoying discussions
as to the trimming of hedges and ditches and the cutting of trees. Any
other than a cabinet minister would probably have had scores of lawsuits
on his hands. Pere Leger only wished to buy the property in order
to sell to the count at a handsome advance. In order to secure the
exorbitant sum on which his mind was set, the farmer had long endeavored
to come to an understanding with Moreau. Impelled by circumstances, he
had, only three days before this critical Sunday, had a talk with the
steward in the open field, and proved to him clearly that he (Moreau)
could make the count invest his money at two and a half per cent, and
thus appear to serve his patron's interests, while he himself pocketed
forty thousand francs which Leger offered him to bring about the
transaction.

"I tell you what," said the steward to his wife, as he went to bed
that night, "if I make fifty thousand francs out of the Moulineaux
affair,--and I certainly shall, for the count will give me ten thousand
as a fee,--we'll retire to Isle-Adam and live in the Pavillon de
Nogent."

This "pavillon" was a charming place, originally built by the Prince de
Conti for a mistress, and in it every convenience and luxury had been
placed.

"That will suit me," said his wife