took them just as they came.
Thus in every situation that arose he cut an eminently respectable
figure which he would have assuredly failed to do, had he been given to
meditating on the foundations of morality. He was irritable and
hot-tempered and possessed of a sense of honour which he was at great
pains to cultivate. He was neither vain nor ambitious. Like the majority
of Frenchmen, he disliked parting with his money. Women would never have
obtained anything from him had they not known the way to make him give.
He believed he despised them; the truth was he adored them. He indulged
his appetites so naturally that he never suspected that he had any. What
people did not know, himself least of all,--though the gleam that
occasionally shone in his fine, light-brown eyes might have furnished
the hint--was that he had a warm heart and was capable of friendship.
For the rest, he was, in the ordinary intercourse of life, no very
brilliant specimen.

CHAPTER II

WHEREIN USEFUL INFORMATION WILL BE FOUND CONCERNING A
LIBRARY WHERE STRANGE THINGS WILL SHORTLY COME TO PASS

Desirous of embracing the whole circle of human knowledge, and anxious
to bequeath to the world a concrete symbol of his encyclopaedic genius
and a display in keeping with his pecuniary resources, Baron Alexandre
d'Esparvieu had formed a library of three hundred and sixty thousand
volumes, both printed and in manuscript, whereof the greater part
emanated from the Benedictines of Liguge.

By a special clause in his will he enjoined his heirs to add to his
library, after his death, whatever they might deem worthy of note in
natural, moral, political, philosophical, and religious science.

He had indicated the sums which might be drawn from his estate for the
fulfilment of this object, and charged his eldest son, Fulgence-Adolphe,
to proceed with these additions. Fulgence-Adolphe accomplished with
filial respect the wishes expressed by his illustrious father.

After him, this huge library, which represented more than one child's
share of the estate, remained undivided between the Senator's three sons
and two daughters; and Rene d'Esparvieu, on whom devolved the house in
the Rue Garanciere, became the guardian of the valuable collection. His
two sisters, Madame Paulet de Saint-Fain and Madame Cuissart, repeatedly
demanded that such a large but unremunerative piece of property should
be turned into money. But Rene and Gaetan bought in the s