-up by his brother
the notary, sharply contested every inch of ground with his female
adversary, and tried to obtain the rich heiress for his nephew the
president.

This secret warfare between the Cruchots and des Grassins, the prize
thereof being the hand in marriage of Eugenie Grandet, kept the various
social circles of Saumur in violent agitation. Would Mademoiselle
Grandet marry Monsieur le president or Monsieur Adolphe des Grassins?
To this problem some replied that Monsieur Grandet would never give
his daughter to the one or to the other. The old cooper, eaten up with
ambition, was looking, they said, for a peer of France, to whom an
income of three hundred thousand francs would make all the past,
present, and future casks of the Grandets acceptable. Others replied
that Monsieur and Madame des Grassins were nobles, and exceedingly rich;
that Adolphe was a personable young fellow; and that unless the old man
had a nephew of the pope at his beck and call, such a suitable alliance
ought to satisfy a man who came from nothing,--a man whom Saumur
remembered with an adze in his hand, and who had, moreover, worn the
_bonnet rouge_. Certain wise heads called attention to the fact that
Monsieur Cruchot de Bonfons had the right of entry to the house at all
times, whereas his rival was received only on Sundays. Others, however,
maintained that Madame des Grassins was more intimate with the women of
the house of Grandet than the Cruchots were, and could put into their
minds certain ideas which would lead, sooner or later, to success. To
this the former retorted that the Abbe Cruchot was the most insinuating
man in the world: pit a woman against a monk, and the struggle was even.
"It is diamond cut diamond," said a Saumur wit.

The oldest inhabitants, wiser than their fellows, declared that the
Grandets knew better than to let the property go out of the family, and
that Mademoiselle Eugenie Grandet of Saumur would be married to the son
of Monsieur Grandet of Paris, a wealthy wholesale wine-merchant. To this
the Cruchotines and the Grassinists replied: "In the first place, the
two brothers have seen each other only twice in thirty years; and next,
Monsieur Grandet of Paris has ambitious designs for his son. He is mayor
of an arrondissement, a deputy, colonel of the National Guard, judge in
the commercial courts; he disowns the Grandets of Saumur, and means to
ally himself with some ducal family,--ducal under favor of Napoleon.