Benassis examined his patient, and suddenly exclaimed, "My good woman,
it is no use my coming here unless you carry out my instructions! You
have been giving him bread; you want to kill your husband, I suppose?
Botheration! If after this you give him anything besides the tisane of
couch-grass, I will never set foot in here again, and you can look
where you like for another doctor."
"But, dear M. Benassis, my old man was starving, and when he had eaten
nothing for a whole fortnight----"
"Oh, yes, yes. Now will you listen to me. If you let your husband eat
a single
mouthful of bread before I give him leave to take solid food,
you will kill him, do you hear?"
"He shall not have anything, sir. Is he any better?" she asked,
following the doctor to the door.
"Why, no. You have made him worse by feeding him. Shall I never get it
into your
stupid heads that you must not stuff people who are being
dieted?"
"The peasants are incorrigible," Benassis went on,
speaking to
Genestas. "If a patient has eaten nothing for two or three days, they
think he is at death's door, and they cram him with soup or wine or
something. Here is a
wretched woman for you that has all but killed
her husband."
"Kill my husband with a little mite of a sop in wine!"
"Certainly, my good woman. It amazes me that he is still alive after
the mess you cooked for him. Mind that you do exactly as I have told
you."
"Yes, dear sir, I would far rather die myself than lose him."
"Oh! as to that I shall soon see. I shall come again to-morrow evening
to bleed him."
"Let us walk along the side of the stream," Benassis said to Genestas;
"there is only a footpath between this
cottage and the next house
where I must pay a call. That man's little boy will hold our horses."
"You must admire this lovely
valley of ours a little," he went on; "it
is like an English garden, is it not? The
laborer who lives in the
cottage which we are going to visit has never got over the death of
one of his children. The
eldest boy, he was only a lad, would try to
do a man's work last harvest-tide; it was beyond his strength, and
before the autumn was out he died of a decline. This is the first case
of really strong fatherly love that has come under my notice. As a
rule, when their children die, the peasant's regret is for the loss of
a useful chattel, and a part of their stock-in-trade, and the older
the child, the heavier their sense of loss. A
grown-up son or daughter
is so much capital to the parents. But this poor fellow really loved
that boy of his. 'Nothing cam comfort me for my loss,' he said one day
when I came across him out in the fields. He had forgotten all about
his work, and was
standing there
motionless, leaning on his
scythe; he
had picked up his hone, it lay in his hand, and he had forgotten to
use it. He has never
spoken since of his grief to me, but he has grown
sad and silent. Just now it is one of his little girls who is ill."
Benassis and his guest reached the little house as they talked. It
stood beside a
pathway that led to a bark-mill. They saw a man about
forty years of age,
standing under a
willow tree, eating bread that
had been rubbed with a clove of garlic.
"Well, Gasnier, is the little one doing better?"
"I do not know, sir," he said dejectedly, "you will see; my wife is
sitting with her. In spite of all your care, I am very much afraid
that death will come to empty my home for me."
"Do not lose heart, Gasnier. Death is too busy to take up his abode in
any
dwelling."
Benassis went into the house, followed by the father. Half an hour
later he came out again. The mother was with him this time, and he
spoke to her, "You need have no
anxiety about her now; follow out my
instructions; she is out of danger."
"If you are growing tired of this sort of thing," the doctor said to
the officer, as he mounted his horse, "I can put you on the way to the
town, and you can return."
"No, I am not tired of it, I give you my word."
"But you will only see
cottages everywhere, and they are all alike;
nothing, to
outwardseeming, is more
monotonous than the country."
"Let us go on," said the officer.
They rode on in this way for several hours, and after going from one
side of the
canton to the other, they returned towards evening to the
precincts of the town.
"I must just go over there," the doctor said to Genestas, as he
pointed out a place where a
cluster of elm-trees grew. "Those trees
may possibly be two hundred years old," he went on, "and that is where
the woman lives, on whose
account the lad came to fetch me last night
at dinner, with a message that she had turned quite white."
"Was it anything serious?"
"No," said Benassis, "an effect of pregnancy. It is the last month
with her, a time at which some women suffer from spasms. But by way of
precaution, I must go in any case to make sure that there are no
further alarming symptoms; I shall see her through her confinement
myself. And,
moreover, I should like to show you one of our new
industries; there is a brick-field here. It is a good road; shall we
gallop?"
"Will your animal keep up with mine?" asked Genestas. "Heigh!
Neptune!" he called to his horse, and in a moment the officer had been
carried far ahead, and was lost to sight in a cloud of dust, but in
spite of the paces of his horse he still heard the doctor beside him.
At a word from Benassis his own horse left the commandant so far
behind that the latter only came up with him at the gate of the brick-
field, where the doctor was quietly
fastening the
bridle to the gate-
post.
"The devil take it!" cried Genestas, after a look at the horse, that
was neither sweated nor blown. "What kind of animal have you there?"
"Ah!" said the doctor, "you took him for a screw! The history of this
fine fellow would take up too much time just now; let it
suffice to
say that Roustan is a thoroughbred barb from the Atlas mountains, and
a Barbary horse is as good as an Arab. This one of mine will
gallop up
the mountain roads without turning a hair, and will never miss his
footing in a canter along the brink of a
precipice. He was a present
to me, and I think that I deserved it, for in this way a father sought
to repay me for his daughter's life. She is one of the wealthiest
heiresses in Europe, and she was at the brink of death when I found
her on the road to Savoy. If I were to tell you how I cured that young
lady, you would take me for a quack. Aha! that is the sound of the
bells on the horses and the rumbling of a wagon; it is coming along
this way; let us see, perhaps that is Vigneau himself; and if so, take
a good look at him!"
In another moment the officer saw a team of four huge horses, like
those which are owned by
prosperous farmers in Brie. The
harness, the
little bells, and the knots of braid in their manes, were clean and
smart. The great wagon itself was painted bright blue, and perched
aloft in it sat a stalwart, sunburned youth, who shouldered his whip
like a gun and whistled a tune.
"No," said Benassis, "that is only the wagoner. But see how the
master's
prosperity in business is reflected by all his belongings,
even by the carter's wagon! Is it not a sign of a
capacity for
business not very often met with in
remote country places?"
"Yes, yes, it all looks very smart indeed," the officer answered.
"Well, Vigneau has two more wagons and teams like that one, and he has
a small pony besides for business purposes, for he does trade over a
wide area. And only four years ago he had nothing in the world! Stay,
that is a mistake--he had some debts. But let us go in."
"Is Mme. Vigneau in the house?" Benassis asked of the young wagoner.
"She is out in the garden, sir; I saw her just now by the hedge down
yonder; I will go and tell her that you are here."
Genestas followed Benassis across a wide open space with a hedge about
it. In one corner various heaps of clay had been piled up, destined
for tiles and pantiles, and a stack of brushwood and logs (fuel for
the kiln no doubt) lay in another part of the
enclosure. Farther away
some
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workmen were pounding chalk stones and tempering the clay in a
space enclosed by hurdles. The tiles, both round and square, were made
under the great elms opposite the
gateway, in a vast green arbor
bounded by the roofs of the drying-shed, and near this last the
yawning mouth of the kiln was
visible. Some long-handled shovels lay
about the worn cider path. A second row of buildings had been erected
parallel with these. There was a
sufficientlywretcheddwelling which
housed the family, and some outbuildings--sheds and stables and a
barn. The
cleanliness that predominated throughout, and the thorough
repair in which everything was kept, spoke well for the
vigilance of
the master's eyes. Some
poultry and pigs wandered at large over the
field.
"Vigneau's predecessor," said Benassis, "was a good-for-nothing, a
lazy
rascal who cared about nothing by drink. He had been a
workmanhimself; he could keep a fire in his kiln and could put a price on his
work, and that was about all he knew; he had no
energy, and no idea of
business. If no one came to buy his wares of him, they simply stayed
on hand and were spoiled, and so he lost the value of them. So he died
of want at last. He had ill-treated his wife till she was almost
idiotic, and she lived in a state of
abjectwretchedness. It was so
painful to see this laziness and
incurablestupidity, and I so much
disliked the sight of the tile-works, that I never came this way if I
could help it. Luckily, both the man and his wife were old people. One
fine day the tile-maker had a paralytic stroke, and I had him removed
to the hospital at Grenoble at once. The owner of the tile-works
agreed to take it over without disputing about its condition, and I
looked round for new tenants who would take their part in improving
the industries of the
canton.
"Mme. Gravier's waiting-maid had married a poor
workman, who was
earning so little with the potter who employed him that he could not
support his household. He listened to my advice, and
actually had
sufficient courage to take a lease of our tile-works, when he had not
so much as a penny. He came and took up his abode here, taught his
wife, her aged mother, and his own mother how to make tiles, and made
workman的复数">
workmen of them. How they managed, I do not know, upon my honor!
Vigneau probably borrowed fuel to heat his kiln, he certainly worked
by day, and fetched in his materials in basket-loads by night; in
short, no one knew what
boundlessenergy he brought to bear upon his
enterprise; and the two old mothers, clad in rags, worked like
negroes. In this way Vigneau contrived to fire several batches, and
lived for the first year on bread that was hardly won by the toil of
his household.
"Still, he made a living. His courage,
patience, and
sterling worth
interested many people in him, and he began to be known. He was
indefatigable. He would hurry over to Grenoble in the morning, and
sell his bricks and tiles there; then he would return home about the
middle of the day, and go back again to the town at night. He seemed
to be in several places at once. Towards the end of the first year he
took two little lads to help him. Seeing how things were, I lent him
some money, and since then from year to year the fortunes of the
family have
steadily improved. After the second year was over the two
old mothers no longer moulded bricks nor pounded stones; they looked
after the little gardens, made the soup, mended the clothes, they did
spinning in the evenings, and gathered
firewood in the
daytime; while
the young wife, who can read and write, kept the
accounts. Vigneau had
a small horse, and rode on his business errands about the
neighborhood; next he
thoroughlystudied the art of brick and tile
making, discovering how to make excellent square white paving-tiles,
and sold them for less than the usual prices. In the third year he had
a cart and a pair of horses, and at the same time his wife's
appearance became almost
elegant. Everything about his household
improved with the
improvement in his business, and everywhere there
was the same neatness, method, and
thrift that had been the making of
his little fortune.
"At last he had work enough for six men, to whom he pays good wages;
he employs a wagoner, and everything about him wears an air of
prosperity. Little by little, in short, by dint of
taking pains and
extending his business, his
income has increased. He bought the tile-
works last year, and next year he will
rebuild his house. To-day all
the
worthy folk there are well clothed and in good health. His wife,