n, a sight
_Dis hominibusque_; but not in the Rue des Saladiers. It was on his own
farm, the farm near Chartres, which he bought, in his bewildering
fashion, as soon as lawyers could prepare the necessary documents. He
took train the day after his proposal of marriage to Blanquette, and
returned, I remember, somewhat crestfallen, because he could not
conclude the purchase then and there.

"My dear sir," said the lawyer whom he consulted, "you can't buy landed
property as you can a pound of sugar over a counter."

"Why not?" asked Paragot.

"Because," said the lawyer, "the law of France mercifully concedes to
men of my profession the right of gaining a livelihood."

"I see that you are a real lawyer," said Paragot, pleased by the irony,
"and it is an amiable Providence that has guided my steps to your
_cabinet_."

But Paragot was married, and the little _appartement_ in the Rue des
Saladiers passed into alien hands, and the newly wedded pair settled
down on the farm, long before all the legal formalities of purchase were
accomplished. It takes my breath away, even now, to think of the hurry
of those days. He decided human destinies in the fraction of a second.

"My son," said he, "when I have paid for this farm, I shall have very
little indeed of the capital, on the interest of which we have been
living. I am now a married man, with the responsibilities of a wife and
a future family. I have put L200 to your credit at the Credit Lyonnais
and that is all your fortune. If art can't support you, when you have
spent it, you will have to come to La Haye (the farm) and feed pigs.
You'll be richer if you paint them; the piggier they are, and the
heavier the gold watch chains across their bellies, the richer you will
be; but you'll be happier if you feed them. _Crede experturo._"

I went to bed that night swearing a great oath that I would neither
paint pigs nor feed pigs, but that I would prove myself worthy of the
generosity of my master and benefactor. I felt then that his goodness
was great; but how great it was I only realised in after years when I
came to learn his financial position. Bearing in mind the relativity of
things, I know that few fathers have sent their sons out into the world
with so princely a capital.

Fortune smiled on me; why, I don't know; perhaps because I was small and
sandy haired and harmless, and did not worry her. I sold two or three
pictures, I obtained regular employment on an illustrated