made, a lawyer
came from Paris on the evening before the final settlement, and employed
a notary at Ville-aux-Fayes, who happened to be one of his former
clerks, to buy the estate of Les Aigues, which he did for eleven hundred
thousand francs. None of the conspirators dared outbid an offer of
eleven hundred thousand francs. Gaubertin suspected some treachery
on Soudry's part, and Soudry and Lupin thought they were tricked by
Gaubertin. But a statement on the part of the purchasing agent, the
notary of Ville-aux-Fayes, disabused them of these suspicions. The
latter, though suspecting the plan formed by Gaubertin, Lupin, and
Soudry, refrained from informing the lawyer in Paris, for the reason
that if the new owners indiscreetly repeated his words, he would have
too many enemies at his heels to be able to stay where he was. This
reticence, peculiar to provincials, was in this particular case amply
justified by succeeding events. If the dwellers in the provinces are
dissemblers, they are forced to be so; their excuse lies in the danger
expressed in the old proverb, "We must howl with the wolves," a meaning
which underlies the character of Phillinte.

When General Montcornet took possession of Les Aigues, Gaubertin was no
longer rich enough to give up his place. In order to marry his daughter
to a rich banker he was obliged to give her a dowry of two hundred
thousand francs; he had to pay thirty thousand for his son's practice;
and all that remained of his accumulations was three hundred and seventy
thousand, out of which he would be forced, sooner or later, to pay the
dowry of his remaining daughter, Elise, for whom he hoped to arrange a
marriage at least as good as that of her sister. The steward determined
to study the general, in order to find out if he could disgust him with
the place,--hoping still to be able to carry out his defeated plan in
his own interests.

With the peculiar instinct which characterizes those who make their
fortunes by craft, Gaubertin believed in a resemblance of nature (which
was not improbable) between an old soldier and an Opera-singer. An
actress, and a general of the Empire,--surely they would have the same
extravagant habits, the same careless prodigality? To the one as to the
other, riches came capriciously and by lucky chances. If some soldiers
are wily and astute and clever politicians, they are exceptions; a
soldier is, usually, especially an accomplished cavalry officer like
Montcor