ries. He does not even escape competition; the
peasant, the small proprietor, is at his heels with an avidity which
leads to transactions to which well-bred persons cannot condescend.

A land-steward must understand surveying, the customs of the locality,
the methods of sale and of labor, together with a little quibbling in
the interests of those he serves; he must also understand book-keeping
and commercial matters, and be in perfect health, with a liking for
active life and horse exercise. His duty being to represent his master
and to be always in communication with him, the steward ought not to be
a man of the people. As the salary of his office seldom exceeds three
thousand francs, the problem seems insoluble. How is it possible to
obtain so many qualifications for such a very moderate price,--in
a region, moreover, where the men who are provided with them are
admissible to all other employments? Bring down a stranger to fill the
place, and you will pay dear for the experience he must acquire. Train
a young man on the spot, and you are more than likely to get a thorn
of ingratitude in your side. It therefore becomes necessary to choose
between incompetent honesty, which injures your property through its
blindness and inertia, and the cleverness which looks out for itself.
Hence the social nomenclature and natural history of land-stewards as
defined by a great Polish noble.

"There are," he said, "two kinds of stewards: he who thinks only of
himself, and he who thinks of himself and of us; happy the land-owner
who lays his hands on the latter! As for the steward who would think
only of us, he is not to be met with."

Elsewhere can be found a steward who thought of this master's interests
as well as of his own. ("Un Debut dans la vie," "Scenes de la vie
privee.") Gaubertin is the steward who thinks of himself only. To
represent the third figure of the problem would be to hold up to public
admiration a very unlikely personage, yet one that was not unknown to
the old nobility, though he has, alas! disappeared with them. (See "Le
Cabinet des Antiques," "Scenes de la vie de province.") Through the
endless subdivision of fortunes aristocratic habits and customs are
inevitably changed. If there be not now in France twenty great fortunes
managed by intendants, in fifty years from now there will not be a
hundred estates in the hands of stewards, unless a great change is made
in the law. Every land-owner will be brought by t