her to make any resistance. But before risking this
last throw in the game he thought it best to have an explanation with
Minoret, and he chose his opportunity at Rouvre, where he went with his
patron for the first time after the deeds were signed.

Minoret had that morning received a confidential letter from his son
asking him for information as to what was happening in connection with
Ursula, information that he desired to obtain before going to Nemours
with the procureur du roi to place her under shelter from these
atrocities in the convent of the Adoration. Desire exhorted his father,
in case this persecution should be the work of any of their friends, to
give to whoever it might be warning and good advice; for even if the law
could not punish this crime it would certainly discover the truth and
hold it over the delinquent's head. Minoret had now attained a great
object. Owner of the chateau du Rouvre, one of the finest estates in the
Gatinais, he had also a rent-roll of some forty odd thousand francs
a year from the rich domains which surrounded the park. He could well
afford to snap his fingers at Goupil. Besides, he intended to live on
the estate, where the sight of Ursula would no longer trouble him.

"My boy," he said to Goupil, as they walked along the terrace, "let my
young cousin alone, now."

"Pooh!" said the clerk, unable to imagine what capricious conduct meant.

"Oh! I'm not ungrateful; you have enabled me to get this fine brick
chateau with the stone copings (which couldn't be built now for two
hundred thousand francs) and those farms and preserves and the park and
gardens and woods, all for two hundred and eighty thousand francs. No,
I'm not ungrateful; I'll give you ten per cent, twenty thousand francs,
for your services, and you can buy a sheriff's practice in Nemours. I'll
guarantee you a marriage with one of Cremiere's daughters, the eldest."

"The one who talks piston!" cried Goupil.

"She'll have thirty thousand francs," replied Minoret. "Don't you see,
my dear boy, that you are cut out for a sheriff, just as I was to be a
post master? People should keep to their vocation."

"Very well, then," said Goupil, falling from the pinnacle of his hopes;
"here's a stamped cheque; write me an order for twenty thousand francs;
I want the money in hand at once."

Minoret had eighteen thousand francs by him at that moment of which his
wife knew nothing. He thought the best way to get rid of Goupil was