baroness was a woman of high rank, elegant in her habits and ways,

whose good taste, courteous manners, and true piety could not be
gainsaid. By receivng Birotteau as her guest she gave a formal denial

to all Mademoiselle Gamard's assertions, and indirectly censured her
conduct by maintaining the vicar's cause against his former landlady.

It is necessary for the full understanding of this history to explain
how the natural discernment and spirit of analysis which old women

bring to bear on the actions of others gave power to Mademoiselle
Gamard, and what were the resources on her side. Accompanied by the

taciturn Abbe Troubert she made a round of evening visits to five or
six houses, at each of which she met a circle of a dozen or more

persons, united by kindred tastes and the same general situation in
life. Among them were one or two men who were influenced by the gossip

and prejudices of their servants; five or six old maids who spent
their time in sifting the words and scrutinizing the actions of their

neighbours and others in the class below them; besides these, there
were several old women who busied themselves in retailing scandal,

keeping an exact account of each person's fortune, striving to control
or influence the actions of others, prognosticating marriages, and

blaming the conduct of friends as sharply as that of enemies. These
persons, spread about the town like the capillary fibres of a plant,

sucked in, with the thirst of a leaf for the dew, the news and the
secrets of each household, and transmitted them mechanically to the

Abbe Troubert, as the leaves convey to the branch the moisture they
absorb.

Accordingly, during every evening of the week, these good devotees,
excited by that need of emotion which exists in all of us, rendered an

exact account of the current condition of the town with a sagacity
worthy of the Council of Ten, and were, in fact, a species of police,

armed with the unerring gift of spying bestowed by passions. When they
had divined the secret meaning of some event their vanity led them to

appropriate to themselves the wisdom of their sanhedrim, and set the
tone to the gossip of their respectivespheres. This idle but ever

busy fraternity, invisible, yet seeing all things, dumb, but
perpetually talking, possessed an influence which its nonentity seemed

to render harmless, though it was in fact terrible in its effects when
it concerned itself with serious interests. For a long time nothing

had entered the sphere of these existences so serious and so momentous
to each one of them as the struggle of Birotteau, supported by Madame

de Listomere, against Mademoiselle Gamard and the Abbe Troubert. The
three salons of Madame de Listomere and the Demoiselles Merlin de la

Blottiere and de Villenoix being considered as enemies by all the
salons which Mademoiselle Gamard frequented, there was at the bottom

of the quarrel a class sentiment with all its jealousies. It was the
old Roman struggle of people and senate in a molehill, a tempest in a

teacup, as Montesquieu remarked when speaking of the Republic of San
Marino, whose public offices are filled by the day only,--despotic

power being easily seized by any citizen.
But this tempest, petty as it seems, did develop in the souls of these

persons as many passions as would have been called forth by the
highest social interests. It is a mistake to think that none but souls

concerned in mighty projects, which stir their lives and set them
foaming, find time too fleeting. The hours of the Abbe Troubert fled

by as eagerly, laden with thoughts as anxious, harassed by despairs
and hopes as deep as the cruellest hours of the gambler, the lover, or

the statesman. God alone is in the secret of the energy we expend upon
our occult triumphs over man, over things, over ourselves. Though we

know not always whither we are going we know well what the journey
costs us. If it be permissible for the historian to turn aside for a

moment from the drama he is narrating and ask his readers to cast a
glance upon the lives of these old maids and abbes, and seek the cause

of the evil which vitiates them at their source, we may find it
demonstrated that man must experience certain passions before he can

develop within him those virtues which give grandeur to life by
widening his sphere and checking the selfishness which is inherent in

every created being.
Madame de Listomere returned to town without being aware that for the

previous week her friends had felt obliged to refute a rumour (at
which she would have laughed had she known if it) that her affection

for her nephew had an almost criminalmotive. She took Birotteau to
her lawyer, who did not regard the case as an easy one. The vicar's

friends, inspired by the belief that justice was certain in so good a
cause, or inclined to procrastinate in a matter which did not concern

them personally, had put off bringing the suit until they returned to
Tours. Consequently the friends of Mademoiselle Gamard had taken the

initiative, and told the affair wherever they could to the injury of
Birotteau. The lawyer, whose practice was exclusively among the most

devout church people, amazed Madame de Listomere by advising her not
to embark on such a suit; he ended the consultation by saying that "he

himself would not be able to undertake it, for, according to the terms
of the deed, Mademoiselle Gamard had the law on her side, and in

equity, that is to say outside of strict legal justice, the Abbe
Birotteau would undoubtedly seem to the judges as well as to all

respectable laymen to have derogated from the peaceable, conciliatory,
and mild characterhitherto attributed to him; that Mademoiselle

Gamard, known to be a kindly woman and easy to live with, had put
Birotteau under obligations to her by lending him the money he needed

to pay the legacy duties on Chapeloud's bequest without taking from
him a receipt; that Birotteau was not of an age or character to sign a

deed without knowing what it contained or understanding the importance
of it; that in leaving Mademoiselle Gamard's house at the end of two

years, when his friend Chapeloud had lived there twelve and Troubert
fifteen, he must have had some purpose known to himself only; and that

the lawsuit, if undertaken, would strike the public as an act of
ingratitude;" and so forth. Letting Birotteau go before them to the

staircase, the lawyer detained Madame de Listomere a moment to entreat
her, if she valued her own peace of mind, not to involve herself in

the matter.
But that evening the poor vicar, suffering the torments of a man under

sentence of death who awaits in the condemned cell at Bicetre the
result of his appeal for mercy, could not refrain from telling his

assembled friends the result of his visit to the lawyer.
"I don't know a single pettifogger in Tours," said Monsieur de

Bourbonne, "except that Radical lawyer, who would be willing to take
the case,--unless for the purpose of losing it; I don't advise you to

undertake it."
"Then it is infamous!" cried the navel lieutenant. "I myself will take

the abbe to the Radical--"
"Go at night," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, interrupting him.

"Why?"
"I have just learned that the Abbe Troubert is appointed vicar-general

in place of the other man, who died yesterday."
"I don't care a fig for the Abbe Troubert."

Unfortunately the Baron de Listomere (a man thirty-six years of age)
did not see the sign Monsieur de Bourbonne made him to be cautious in

what he said, motioning as he did so to a friend of Troubert, a
councillor of the Prefecture, who was present. The lieutenant

therefore continued:--
"If the Abbe Troubert is a scoundrel--"

"Oh," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, cutting him short, "why bring
Monsieur Troubert into a matter which doesn't concern him?"

"Not concern him?" cried the baron; "isn't he enjoying the use of the
Abbe Birotteau's household property? I remember that when I called on

the Abbe Chapeloud I noticed two valuable pictures. Say that they are
worth ten thousand francs; do you suppose that Monsieur Birotteau

meant to give ten thousand francs for living two years with that
Gamard woman,--not to speak of the library and furniture, which are

worth as much more?"
The Abbe Birotteau opened his eyes at hearing he had once possessed so

enormous a fortune.
The baron, getting warmer than ever, went on to say: "By Jove! there's

that Monsieur Salmon, formerly an expert at the Museum in Paris; he is
down here on a visit to his mother-in-law. I'll go and see him this

very evening with the Abbe Birotteau and ask him to look at those
pictures and estimate their value. From there I'll take the abbe to

the lawyer."
Two days after this conversation the suit was begun. This employment

of the Liberal laywer did harm to the vicar's cause. Those who were
opposed to the government, and all who were known to dislike the

priests, or religion (two things quite distinct which many persons
confound), got hold of the affair and the whole town talked of it. The

Museum expertestimated the Virgin of Valentin and the Christ of
Lebrun, two paintings of great beauty, at eleven thousand francs. As

to the bookshelves and the gothic furniture, the taste for such things
was increasing so rapidly in Paris that their immediate value was at