thus became one of the largest landowners in the kingdom. He was able
to marry my mother, a Grandlieu of the younger branch. Though ill-

gotten, this property has been singularly profitable.
"For my part, being determined to remedy the mischief, I wrote to

Switzerland, and knew no peace till I was on the traces of the
Protestant victim's heirs. At last I discovered that the Jeanrenauds,

reduced to abject want, had left Fribourg and returned to live in
France. Finally, I found a M. Jeanrenaud, lieutenant in a cavalry

regiment under Napoleon, the sole heir of this unhappy family. In my
eyes, monsieur, the rights of the Jeanrenauds were clear. To establish

a prescriptive right is it not necessary that there should have been
some possibility of proceeding against those who are in the enjoyment

of it? To whom could these refugees have appealed? Their Court of
Justice was on high, or rather, monsieur, it was here," and the

Marquis struck his hand on his heart. "I did not choose that my
children should be able to think of me as I have thought of my father

and of my ancestors. I aim at leaving them an unblemished inheritance
and escutcheon. I did not choose that nobility should be a lie in my

person. And, after all, politically speaking, ought those emigres who
are now appealing against revolutionary confiscations, to keep the

property derived from antecedent confiscations by positive crimes?
"I found in M. Jeanrenaud and his mother the most perverse honesty; to

hear them you would suppose that they were robbing me. In spite of all
I could say, they will accept no more than the value of the lands at

the time when the King bestowed them on my family. The price was
settled between us at the sum of eleven hundred thousand francs, which

I was to pay at my convenience and without interest. To achieve this I
had to forego my income for a long time. And then, monsieur, began the

destruction of some illusions I had allowed myself as to Madame
d'Espard's character. When I proposed to her that we should leave

Paris and go into the country, where we could live respected on half
of her income, and so more rapidly complete a restitution of which I

spoke to her without going into the more serious details, Madame
d'Espard treated me as a madman. I then understood my wife's real

character. She would have approved of my grandfather's conduct without
a scruple, and have laughed at the Huguenots. Terrified by her

coldness, and her little affection for her children, whom she
abandoned to me without regret, I determined to leave her the command

of her fortune, after paying our common debts. It was no business of
hers, as she told me, to pay for my follies. As I then had not enough

to live on and pay for my sons' education, I determined to educate
them myself, to make them gentlemen and men of feeling. By investing

my money in the funds I have been enabled to pay off my obligation
sooner than I had dared to hope, for I took advantage of the

opportunities afforded by the improvement in prices. If I had kept
four thousand francs a year for my boys and myself, I could only have

paid off twenty thousand crowns a year, and it would have taken almost
eighteen years to achieve my freedom. As it is, I have lately repaid

the whole of the eleven hundred thousand francs that were due. Thus I
enjoy the happiness of having made this restitution without doing my

children the smallest wrong.
"These, monsieur, are the reasons for the payments made to Madame

Jeanrenaud and her son."
"So Madame d'Espard knew the motives of your retirement?" said the

judge, controlling the emotion he felt at this narrative.
"Yes, monsieur."

Popinot gave an expressive shrug; he rose and opened the door into the
next room.

"Noel, you can go," said he to his clerk.
"Monsieur," he went on, "though what you have told me is enough to

enlighten me thoroughly, I should like to hear what you have to say to
the other facts put forward in the petition. For instance, you are

here carrying on a business such as is not habitually undertaken by a
man of rank."

"We cannot discuss that matter here," said the Marquis, signing to the
judge to quit the room. "Nouvion," said he to the old man, "I am going

down to my rooms; the children will soon be in; dine with us."
"Then, Monsieur le Marquis," said Popinot on the stairs, "that is not

your apartment?"
"No, monsieur; I took those rooms for the office of this undertaking.

You see," and he pointed to an advertisement sheet, "the History is
being brought out by one of the most respectable firms in Paris, and

not by me."
The Marquis showed the lawyer into the ground-floor rooms, saying,

"This is my apartment."
Popinot was quite touched by the poetry, not aimed at but pervading

this dwelling. The weather was lovely, the windows were open, the air
from the garden brought in a wholesome earthy smell, the sunshine

brightened and gilded the woodwork, of a rather gloomy brown. At the
sight Popinot made up his mind that a madman would hardly be capable

of inventing the tender harmony of which he was at that moment
conscious.

"I should like just such an apartment," thought he. "You think of
leaving this part of town?" he inquired.

"I hope so," replied the Marquis. "But I shall remain till my younger
son has finished his studies, and till the children's character is

thoroughly formed, before introducing them to the world and to their
mother's circle. Indeed, after giving them the solid information they

possess, I intend to complete it by taking them to travel to the
capitals of Europe, that they may see men and things, and become

accustomed to speak the languages they have learned. And, monsieur,"
he went on, giving the judge a chair in the drawing-room, "I could not

discuss the book on China with you, in the presence of an old friend
of my family, the Comte de Nouvion, who, having emigrated, has

returned to France without any fortune whatever, and who is my partner
in this concern, less for my profit than his. Without telling him what

my motives were, I explained to him that I was as poor as he, but that
I had enough money to start a speculation in which he might be

usefully employed. My tutor was the Abbe Grozier, whom Charles X. on
my recommendation appointed Keeper of the Books at the Arsenal, which

were returned to that Prince when he was still Monsieur. The Abbe
Grozier was deeply learned with regard to China, its manners and

customs; he made me heir to this knowledge at an age when it is
difficult not to become a fanatic for the things we learn. At five-

and-twenty I knew Chinese, and I confess I have never been able to
check myself in an exclusiveadmiration for that nation, who conquered

their conquerors, whose annals extend back indisputably to a period
more remote than mythological or Bible times, who by their immutable

institutions have preserved the integrity of their empire, whose
monuments are gigantic, whose administration is perfect, among whom

revolutions are impossible, who have regarded ideal beauty as a barren
element in art, who have carried luxury and industry to such a pitch

that we cannot outdo them in anything, while they are our equals in
things where we believe ourselves superior.

"Still, monsieur, though I often make a jest of comparing China with
the present condition of European states, I am not a Chinaman, I am a

French gentleman. If you entertain any doubts as to the financial side
of this undertaking, I can prove to you that at this moment we have

two thousand five hundred subscribers to this work, which is literary,
iconographical, statistical, and religious; its importance has been

generally appreciated; our subscribers belong to every nation in
Europe, we have but twelve hundred in France. Our book will cost about

three hundred francs, and the Comte de Nouvion will derive from it
from six to seven thousand francs a year, for his comfort was the real

motive of the undertaking. For my part, I aimed only at the
possibility of affording my children some pleasures. The hundred

thousand francs I have made, quite in spite of myself, will pay for
their fencing lessons, horses, dress, and theatres, pay the masters

who teach them accomplishments, procure them canvases to spoil, the
books they may wish to buy, in short, all the little fancies which a