tor's intention to send away his housekeeper,
La Bougival secretly learned to cook, became neat and handy, and
discovered the old man's ways. She took the utmost care of the house and
furniture; in short she was indefatigable. Not only did the doctor wish
to keep his private life within four walls, as the saying is, but he
also had certain reasons for hiding a knowledge of his business affairs
from his relatives. At the end of the second year after his arrival La
Bougival was the only servant in the house; on her discretion he knew he
could count, and he disguised his real purposes by the all-powerful open
reason of a necessary economy. To the great satisfaction of his heirs he
became a miser. Without fawning or wheedling, solely by the influence of
her devotion and solicitude, La Bougival, who was forty-three years old
at the time this tale begins, was the housekeeper of the doctor and
his protegee, the pivot on which the whole house turned, in short,
the confidential servant. She was called La Bougival from the admitted
impossibility of applying to her person the name that actually belonged
to her, Antoinette--for names and forms do obey the laws of harmony.

The doctor's miserliness was not mere talk; it was real, and it had an
object. From the year 1817 he cut off two of his newspapers and ceased
subscribing to periodicals. His annual expenses, which all Nemours could
estimate, did not exceed eighteen hundred francs a year. Like most old
men his wants in linen, boots, and clothing, were very few. Every six
months he went to Paris, no doubt to draw and reinvest his income. In
fifteen years he never said a single word to any one in relation to his
affairs. His confidence in Bongrand was of slow growth; it was not until
after the revolution of 1830 that he told him of his projects. Nothing
further was known of the doctor's life either by the bourgeoisie at
large or by his heirs. As for his political opinions, he did not meddle
in public matters seeing that he paid less than a hundred francs a year
in taxes, and refused, impartially, to subscribe to either royalist or
liberal demands. His known horror for the priesthood, and his deism were
so little obtrusive that he turned out of his house a commercial runner
sent by his great-nephew Desire to ask a subscription to the "Cure
Meslier" and the "Discours du General Foy." Such tolerance seemed
inexplicable to the liberals of Nemours.

The doctor's three collateral heirs, M