ity and contempt for riches, his
determined resolve to lead a life of retirement. He was certainly not
the child who would ever gratify her vanities.

"But where do you spring from?" she would sometimes say to him. "You
are not one of us. Look at your brothers, how they keep their eyes open,
striving to profit by the education we have given them, whilst you waste
your time on follies and trifles. You make a very poor return to us, who
have ruined ourselves for your education. No, you are certainly not one
of us."

Pascal, who preferred to laugh whenever he was called upon to feel
annoyed, replied cheerfully, but not without a sting of irony: "Oh,
you need not be frightened, I shall never drive you to the verge of
bankruptcy; when any of you are ill, I will attend you for nothing."

Moreover, though he never displayed any repugnance to his relatives,
he very rarely saw them, following in this wise his natural instincts.
Before Aristide obtained a situation at the Sub-Prefecture, Pascal
had frequently come to his assistance. For his part he had remained a
bachelor. He had not the least suspicion of the grave events that were
preparing. For two or three years he had been studying the great problem
of heredity, comparing the human and animal races together, and becoming
absorbed in the strange results which he obtained. Certain observations
which he had made with respect to himself and his relatives had been, so
to say, the starting-point of his studies. The common people, with their
natural intuition, so well understood that he was quite different from
the other Rougons, that they invariably called him Monsieur Pascal,
without ever adding his family name.

Three years prior to the Revolution of 1848 Pierre and Felicite retired
from business. Old age was coming on apace; they were both past fifty
and were weary enough of the struggle. In face of their ill fortune,
they were afraid of being ultimately ruined if they obstinately
persisted in the fight. Their sons, by disappointing their expectations,
had dealt them the final blow. Now that they despaired of ever being
enriched by them, they were anxious to make some little provision for
old age. They retired with forty thousand francs at the utmost. This
sum provided an annual income of two thousand francs, just sufficient
to live in a small way in the provinces. Fortunately, they were by
themselves, having succeeded in marrying their daughters Marthe and
Sidonie, the for