. Her father is in heaven." If the common belief
could be trusted, M. Caudray subordinated the text, "Honour thy father
and thy mother," to that other text, in his eyes of higher significance,
"The woman is the flesh of the man. She shall leave her father and
mother to follow her husband." This tendency, however, to circumscribe
the parental authority and to favour religiously every mode of forming
the conjugal tie, is peculiar to all Protestantism, particularly in
England, and singularly so in America.

V

A DESERVED SUCCESS HAS ALWAYS ITS DETRACTORS

At this period the affairs of Mess Lethierry were in this position:--The
Durande had well fulfilled all his expectations. He had paid his debts,
repaired his misfortunes, discharged his obligations at Breme, met his
acceptances at St. Malo. He had paid off the mortgage upon his house at
the Bravees, and had bought up all the little local rent charges upon
the property. He was also the proprietor of a great productive capital.
This was the Durande herself. The net revenue from the boat was about a
thousand pounds sterling per annum, and the traffic was constantly
increasing. Strictly speaking, the Durande constituted his entire
fortune. She was also the fortune of the island. The carriage of cattle
being one of the most profitable portions of her trade, he had been
obliged, in order to facilitate the stowage, and the embarking and
disembarking of animals, to do away with the luggage-boxes and the two
boats. It was, perhaps, imprudent. The Durande had but one boat--namely,
her long-boat; but this was an excellent one.

Ten years had elapsed since Rantaine's robbery.

This prosperity of the Durande had its weak point. It inspired no
confidence. People regarded it as a risk. Lethierry's good fortune was
looked upon as exceptional. He was considered to have gained by a lucky
rashness. Some one in the Isle of Wight who had imitated him had not
succeeded. The enterprise had ruined the shareholders. The engines, in
fact, were badly constructed. But people shook their heads. Innovations
have always to contend with the difficulty that few wish them well. The
least false step compromises them.

One of the commercial oracles of the Channel Islands, a certain banker
from Paris, named Jauge, being consulted upon a steamboat speculation,
was reported to have turned his back, with the remark, "An investment is
it you propose to me? Exactly; an investment in smoke."

On th