Unlike most people, he did not forget his past hopes at the moment when
they might be realized.

He married Martha Barrois, and, leaving the country to work out its
own salvation without his assistance, he gave his time and attention to
agriculture.

Any close observer, in those days, would have felt certain that the man
was bewildered by the sudden change in his situation.

His manner was so troubled and anxious that one, to see him, would
have supposed him a servant in constant fear of being detected in some
indiscretion.

He did not open the chateau, but installed himself and his young wife in
the cottage formerly occupied by the head game-keeper, near the entrance
of the park.

But, little by little, with the habit of possession, came assurance.

The Consulate had succeeded the Directory, the Empire succeeded the
Consulate, Citoyen Lacheneur became M. Lacheneur.

Appointed mayor two years later, he left the cottage and took possession
of the chateau.

The former ploughboy slumbered in the bed of the Ducs de Sairmeuse; he
ate from the massive plate, graven with their coat-of-arms; he received
his visitors in the magnificent salon in which the Ducs de Sairmeuse had
received their friends in years gone by.

To those who had known him in former days, M. Lacheneur had become
unrecognizable. He had adapted himself to his lofty station. Blushing
at his own ignorance; he had found the courage--wonderful in one of his
age--to acquire the education which he lacked.

Then, all his undertakings were successful to such a degree that
his good fortune had become proverbial. That he took any part in an
enterprise, sufficed to make it turn out well.

His wife had given him two lovely children, a son and a daughter.

His property, managed with a shrewdness and sagacity which the former
owners had not possessed, yielded him an income of at least sixty
thousand francs.

How many, under similar circumstances, would have lost their heads! But
he, M. Lacheneur, had been wise enough to retain his _sang-froid_.

In spite of the princely luxury that surrounded him, his own habits were
simple and frugal. He had never had an attendant for his own person. His
large income he consecrated almost entirely to the improvement of his
estate or to the purchase of more land. And yet, he was not avaricious.
In all that concerned his wife or children, he did not count the cost.
His son, Jean, had been educated in Paris; he wished him to