ted gray, was so damp that the lower panels showed
the geometrical cracks of rotten wood when the paint no longer binds it.
The red-tiled floor, polished by the old lady's one servant, required,
for comfort's sake, before each seat small round mats of brown straw, on
one of which the abbe was now resting his feet. The old damask curtains
of light green with green flowers were drawn, and the outside blinds had
been closed. Two wax candles lighted the table, leaving the rest of
the room in semi-obscurity. Is it necessary to say that between the two
windows was a fine pastel by Latour representing the famous Admiral de
Portenduere, the rival of the Suffren, Guichen, Kergarouet and Simeuse
naval heroes? On the paneled wall opposite to the fireplace were
portraits of the Vicomte de Portenduere and of the mother of the old
lady, a Kergarouet-Ploegat. Savinien's great-uncle was therefore the
Vice-admiral de Kergarouet, and his cousin was the Comte de Portenduere,
grandson of the admiral,--both of them very rich.

The Vice-admiral de Kergarouet lived in Paris and the Comte de
Portenduere at the chateau of that name in Dauphine. The count
represented the elder branch, and Savinien was the only scion of the
younger. The count, who was over forty years of age and married to
a rich wife, had three children. His fortune, increased by various
legacies, amounted, it was said, to sixty thousand francs a year. As
deputy from Isere he passed his winters in Paris, where he had bought
the hotel de Portenduere with the indemnities he obtained under
the Villele law. The vice-admiral had recently married his niece by
marriage, for the sole purpose of securing his money to her.

The faults of the young viscount were therefore likely to cost him the
favor of two powerful protectors. If Savinien had entered the navy,
young and handsome as he was, with a famous name, and backed by the
influence of an admiral and a deputy, he might, at twenty-three years
of age, been a lieutenant; but his mother, unwilling that her only son
should go into either naval or military service, had kept him at Nemours
under the tutelage of one of the Abbe Chaperon's assistants, hoping that
she could keep him near her until her death. She meant to marry him to a
demoiselle d'Aiglemont with a fortune of twelve thousand francs a year;
to whose hand the name of Portenduere and the farm at Bordieres enabled
him to pretend. This narrow but judicious plan, which would have car