s death Brazier died of a fall as he
was leaving a wine-shop, where, since his rise in fortune, he spent most
of his time. Flore had also lost her father; thus she served her master
with all the affection which an orphan, thankful to make herself a home
and a settlement in life, would naturally feel.

This period of his life was paradise to poor Jean-Jacques, who now
acquired the gentle habits of an animal, trained into a sort of monastic
regularity. He slept late. Flore, who was up at daybreak attending to
her housekeeping, woke him so that he should find his breakfast ready as
soon as he had finished dressing. After breakfast, about eleven o'clock,
Jean-Jacques went to walk; talked with the people he met, and came home
at three in the afternoon to read the papers,--those of the department,
and a journal from Paris which he received three days after publication,
well greased by the thirty hands through which it came, browned by the
snuffy noses that had pored over it, and soiled by the various tables
on which it had lain. The old bachelor thus got through the day until
it was time for dinner; over that meal he spent as much time as it was
possible to give to it. Flore told him the news of the town, repeating
the cackle that was current, which she had carefully picked up. Towards
eight o'clock the lights were put out. Going to bed early is a saving
of fire and candles very commonly practised in the provinces, which
contributes no doubt to the empty-mindedness of the inhabitants. Too
much sleep dulls and weakens the brain.

Such was the life of these two persons during a period of nine years,
the great events of which were a few journeys to Bourges, Vierzon,
Chateauroux, or somewhat further, if the notaries of those towns and
Monsieur Heron had no investments ready for acceptance. Rouget lent his
money at five per cent on a first mortgage, with release of the wife's
rights in case the owner was married. He never lent more than a third of
the value of the property, and required notes payable to his order for
an additional interest of two and a half per cent spread over the whole
duration of the loan. Such were the rules his father had told him to
follow. Usury, that clog upon the ambition of the peasantry, is the
destroyer of country regions. This levy of seven and a half per cent
seemed, therefore, so reasonable to the borrowers that Jean-Jacques
Rouget had his choice of investments; and the notaries of the different
to