of an asylum for the
aged, to be called Rougon Asylum. She had already bought the ground,
a part of the old mall outside the town, near the railway station; and
precisely on this Sunday, at five o'clock, when the heat should have
abated a little, the first stone was to be laid, a really solemn
ceremony, to be honored by the presence of all the authorities, and of
which she was to be the acknowledged queen, before a vast concourse of
people.

Clotilde felt, besides, some gratitude toward her grandmother, who
had shown perfect disinterestedness on the occasion of the opening
of Pascal's will. The latter had constituted the young woman his
sole legatee; and the mother, who had a right to a fourth part,
after declaring her intention to respect her son's wishes, had simply
renounced her right to the succession. She wished, indeed, to disinherit
all her family, bequeathing to them glory only, by employing her large
fortune in the erection of this asylum, which was to carry down to
future ages the revered and glorious name of the Rougons; and after
having, for more than half a century, so eagerly striven to acquire
money, she now disdained it, moved by a higher and purer ambition. And
Clotilde, thanks to this liberality, had no uneasiness regarding the
future--the four thousand francs income would be sufficient for her and
her child. She would bring him up to be a man. She had sunk the five
thousand francs that she had found in the desk in an annuity for him;
and she owned, besides, La Souleiade, which everybody advised her
to sell. True, it cost but little to keep it up, but what a sad and
solitary life she would lead in that great deserted house, much too
large for her, where she would be lost. Thus far, however, she had not
been able to make up her mind to leave it. Perhaps she would never be
able to do so.

Ah, this La Souleiade! all her love, all her life, all her memories were
centered in it. It seemed to her at times as if Pascal were living here
still, for she had changed nothing of their former manner of living.
The furniture remained in the same places, the hours were the same, the
habits the same. The only change she had made was to lock his room,
into which only she went, as into a sanctuary, to weep when she felt her
heart too heavy. And although indeed she felt very lonely, very lost, at
each meal in the bright dining-room downstairs, in fancy she heard there
the echoes of their laughter, she recalled the heal