put into the fourth class.

Cremiere, Massin, and Minoret-Levrault, extremely common persons, were
"rated without appeal" by the doctor within two months of his arrival
in Nemours, during which time they courted, less their uncle than his
property. Persons who are led by instinct have one great disadvantage
against others with ideas. They are quickly found out; the suggestions
of instinct are too natural, too open to the eye not to be seen at a
glance; whereas, the conceptions of the mind require an equal amount of
intellect to discover them. After buying the gratitude of his heirs, and
thus, as it were, shutting their mouths, the wily doctor made a pretext
of his occupations, his habits, and the care of the little Ursula to
avoid receiving his relatives without exactly closing his doors to them.
He liked to dine alone; he went to bed late and he got up late; he had
returned to his native place for the very purpose of finding rest
in solitude. These whims of an old man seemed to be natural, and his
relatives contented themselves with paying him weekly visits on Sundays
from one to four o'clock, to which, however, he tried to put a stop by
saying: "Don't come and see me unless you want something."

The doctor, while not refusing to be called in consultation over serious
cases, especially if the patients were indigent, would not serve as a
physician in the little hospital of Nemours, and declared that he no
longer practiced his profession.

"I've killed enough people," he said, laughing, to the Abbe Chaperon,
who, knowing his benevolence, would often get him to attend the poor.

"He's an original!" These words, said of Doctor Minoret, were the
harmless revenge of various wounded vanities; for a doctor collects
about him a society of persons who have many of the characteristics of
a set of heirs. Those of the bourgeoisie who thought themselves entitled
to visit this distinguished physician kept up a ferment of jealousy
against the few privileged friends whom he did admit to his intimacy,
which had in the long run some unfortunate results.

CHAPTER III. THE DOCTOR'S FRIENDS

Curiously enough, though it explains the old proverb that "extremes
meet," the materialistic doctor and the cure of Nemours were soon
friends. The old man loved backgammon, a favorite game of the
priesthood, and the Abbe Chaperon played it with about as much skill as
he himself. The game was the first tie between them. Then Minoret was
chari