Madame," said Flore, "we know how unjust your father was to you.
Monsieur, here, can tell you," she went on, looking fixedly at her
victim, "that the only quarrels we have ever had were about you. I
have always told him that he owes you part of the fortune he received
from his father, and your father, my benefactor,--for he was my
benefactor," she added in a tearful voice; "I shall ever remember him!
But your brother, madame, has listened to reason--"

"Yes," said the old man, "when I make my will you shall not be
forgotten."

"Don't talk of these things, my dear brother; you do not yet know my
nature."

After such a beginning, it is easy to imagine how the visit went on.
Rouget invited his sister to dinner on the next day but one.

We may here mention that during these three days the Knights of
Idleness captured an immense quantity of rats and mice, which were
kept half-famished until they were let loose in the grain one fine
night, to the number of four hundred and thirty-six, of which some
were breeding mothers. Not content with providing Fario's store-house
with these boarders, the Knights made holes in the roof of the old
church and put in a dozen pigeons, taken from as many different farms.
These four-footed and feathered creatures held high revels,--all the
more securely because the watchman was enticed away by a fellow who
kept him drunk from morning till night, so that he took no care of his
master's property.

Madame Bridau believed, contrary to the opinion of old Hochon, that
her brother has as yet made no will; she intended asking him what were
his intentions respecting Mademoiselle Brazier, as soon as she could
take a walk with him alone,--a hope which Flore and Maxence were
always holding out to her, and, of course, always disappointing.

Meantime the Knights were searching for a way to put the Parisians to
flight, and finding none that were not impracticable follies.

At the end of a week--half the time the Parisians were to stay in
Issoudun--the Bridaus were no farther advanced in their object than
when they came.

"Your lawyer does not understand the provinces," said old Hochon to
Madame Bridau. "What you have come to do can't be done in two weeks,
nor in two years; you ought never to leave your brother, but live here
and try to give him some ideas of religion. You cannot countermine the
fortifications of Flore and Maxence without getting a priest to sap
them. That is my advice, and it is high