e doctor, also that of old
Monsieur Gendrin-Vatebled, the keeper of the forests and streams,--all
these houses, kept with extreme neatness by their owners, who held
firmly to the flattering surname of their native town, stand in
the neighborhood of the square and form the aristocratic quarter of
Soulanges.

The house of Madame Soudry--for the powerful individuality of
Mademoiselle Laguerre's former waiting-maid took the lead of her husband
in the community--was modern, having been built by a rich wine-merchant,
born in Soulanges, who, after making his money in Paris, returned
there in 1793 to buy wheat for his native town. He was slain as an
"accapareur," a monopolist, by the populace, instigated by a mason, the
uncle of Godain, with whom he had had some quarrel about the building of
his ambitious house. The settlement of his estate, sharply contested by
collateral heirs, dragged slowly along until, in 1798, Soudry, who had
then returned to Soulanges, was able to buy the wine-merchant's palace
for three thousand francs in specie. He then let it, in the first
instance, to the government for the headquarters of the gendarmerie. In
1811 Mademoiselle Cochet, whom Soudry consulted about all his affairs,
strongly objected to the renewal of the lease, making the house
uninhabitable, she declared, with barracks. The town of Soulanges,
assisted by the department, then erected a building for the gendarmerie
in a street running at right angles from the town-hall. Thereupon Soudry
cleaned up his house and restored its primitive lustre, not a little
dimmed by the stabling of horses and the occupancy of gendarmes.

The house, only one story high, with projecting windows in the roof, has
a view on three sides; one to the square, another to a lake, the third
to a garden. The fourth side looks on a courtyard which separates the
Soudrys from the adjoining house occupied by a grocer named Wattebled,
a man of the SECOND-CLASS society of Soulanges, father of the beautiful
Madame Plissoud, of whom we shall presently have occasion to speak.

All little towns have a renowned beauty, just as they have a Socquard
and a Cafe de la Paix.

It will be apparent to every one that the frontage of the Soudry mansion
on the lake must have a terraced garden confined by a stone balustrade
which overlooks both the lake and the main road. A flight of steps
leads down from the terrace to the road, and on it an orange-tree,
a pomegranate, a myrtle, and oth