es until carefully
examined by a cabinet-maker, brought down from Paris to search for
secret drawers. When at last Monsieur Bongrand gave orders to take the
books and the bookcases to Mademoiselle Mirouet's house the heirs were
tortured with vague fears, not dissipated until in course of time they
saw how poorly she lived.

Minoret bought up his uncle's house, the value of which his co-heirs ran
up to fifty thousand francs, imagining that the post master expected
to find a treasure in the walls; in fact the house was sold with a
reservation on this subject. Two weeks later Minoret disposed of his
post establishment, with all the coaches and horses, to the son of
a rich farmer, and went to live in his uncle's house, where he spent
considerable sums in repairing and refurnishing the rooms. By making
this move he thoughtlessly condemned himself to live within sight of
Ursula.

"I hope," he said to Dionis the day when Madame de Portenduere was
summoned to pay her debt, "that we shall soon be rid of those nobles;
after they are gone we'll drive out the rest."

"That old woman with fourteen quarterings," said Goupil, "won't want to
witness her own disaster; she'll go and die in Brittany, where she can
manage to find a wife for her son."

"No," said the notary, who had that morning drawn out a deed of sale at
Bongrand's request. "Ursula has just bought the house she is living in."

"That cursed fool does everything she can to annoy me!" cried the post
master imprudently.

"What does it signify to you whether she lives in Nemours or not?" asked
Goupil, surprised at the annoyance which the colossus betrayed.

"Don't you know," answered Minoret, turning as red as a poppy, "that my
son is fool enough to be in love with her? I'd give five hundred francs
if I could get Ursula out of this town."

CHAPTER XVI. THE TWO ADVERSARIES

Perhaps the foregoing conduct on the part of the post master will have
shown already that Ursula, poor and resigned, was destined to be a thorn
in the side of the rich Minoret. The bustle attending the settlement of
an estate, the sale of the property, the going and coming necessitated
by such unusual business, his discussions with his wife about the most
trifling details, the purchase of the doctor's house, where Zelie wished
to live in bourgeois style to advance her son's interests,--all this
hurly-burly, contrasting with his usually tranquil life hindered the
huge Minoret from thinking of