e of social feelings, family interests.

"Well, Monsieur Minoret," said the mayor (formerly a miller who had now
become royalist, named Levrault-Cremiere), "when the devil gets old the
devil a monk would be. Your uncle, they say, is one of us."

"Better late than never, cousin," responded the post master, trying to
conceal his annoyance.

"How that fellow will grin if we are defrauded! He is capable of
marrying his son to that damned girl--may the devil get her!" cried
Cremiere, shaking his fists at the mayor as he entered the porch.

"What's Cremiere grumbling about?" said the butcher of the town, a
Levrault-Levrault the elder. "Isn't he pleased to see his uncle on the
road to paradise?"

"Who would ever have believed it!" ejaculated Massin.

"Ha! one should never say, 'Fountain, I'll not drink of your water,'"
remarked the notary, who, seeing the group from afar, had left his wife
to go to church without him.

"Come, Monsieur Dionis," said Cremiere, taking the notary by the arm,
"what do you advise me to do under the circumstances?"

"I advise you," said the notary, addressing the heirs collectively, "to
go to bed and get up at your usual hour; to eat your soup before it gets
cold; to put your feet in your shoes and your hats on your heads;
in short, to continue your ways of life precisely as if nothing had
happened."

"You are not consoling," said Massin.

In spite of his squat, dumpy figure and heavy face, Cremiere-Dionis
was really as keen as a blade. In pursuit of usurious fortune he did
business secretly with Massin, to whom he no doubt pointed out such
peasants as were hampered in means, and such pieces of land as could
be bought for a song. The two men were in a position to choose their
opportunities; none that were good escaped them, and they shared the
profits of mortgage-usury, which retards, though it does not prevent,
the acquirement of the soil by the peasantry. So Dionis took a lively
interest in the doctor's inheritance, not so much for the post master
and the collector as for his friend the clerk of the court; sooner or
later Massin's share in the doctor's money would swell the capital with
which these secret associates worked the canton.

"We must try to find out through Monsieur Bongrand where the influence
comes from," said the notary in a low voice, with a sign to Massin to
keep quiet.

"What are you about, Minoret?" cried a little woman, suddenly descending
upon the group in the mid