o this square pavilion, consisting of a kitchen and
other underground offices, a ground floor, a first floor, and the top
rooms, in one of which Louise had slept. The pavilion also appeared in a
state of great dilapidation. There were deep chinks in the walls; the
window-frames and outside blinds, once painted gray, had become almost
black by time; the six windows on the first floor, looking out into the
courtyard, had no curtains; a sort of greasy and opaque deposit covered
the glass; on the ground floor there were visible through the
window-panes more transparent, faded yellow cotton curtains, with red
bindings.

On the garden side the pavilion had only four windows. The garden,
overgrown with parasitical plants, seemed wholly neglected. There was no
flower border, not a bush; a clump of elms; five or six large green
trees; some acacias and elder-trees; a yellowish grass-plat, half
destroyed by moss and the scorch of the sun; muddy paths, choked up with
weeds; at the bottom, a sort of half cellar; for horizon, the high,
naked, gray walls of the adjacent houses, having here and there
skylights barred like prison windows,--such was the miserable appearance
of the garden and dwelling of the notary.

To this appearance, or rather reality, M. Ferrand attached great
importance. In the eyes of the vulgar, carelessness about comfort almost
always passes for disinterestedness; dirt, for austerity. Comparing the
vast financial luxury of some notaries, or the costly toilets of their
wives, to the dull abode of M. Ferrand, so opposed to elegance, expense,
or splendour, clients felt a sort of respect for, or rather blind
confidence in, a man who, according to his large practice and the
fortune attributed to him, could say, like many of his professional
brethren, my carriage, my evening party, my country-house, my box at
the opera, etc. But, far from this, Jacques Ferrand lived with rigid
economy; and thus deposits, investments, powers of attorney, in fact,
all matters of trust and business requiring the most scrupulous and
recognised integrity, accumulated in his hands.

Living thus meanly as he did, the notary lived in the way he liked. He
detested the world, show, dearly purchased pleasures; and, even had it
been otherwise, he would unhesitatingly have sacrificed his dearest
inclinations to the appearances which he found it so profitable to
assume.

A word or two on the character of the man. He was one of the children of
th