ended
to leave Mademoiselle Gamard," he added, turning to the bewildered
priest, "no doubt Mademoiselle Gamard's intention is to turn you out.
Therefore you will have to go, whether you like it or not. Her sort of
people play a sure game, they risk nothing."

This old gentleman, Monsieur de Bourbonne, could sum up and estimate
provincial ideas as correctly as Voltaire summarized the spirit of
his times. He was thin and tall, and chose to exhibit in the matter of
clothes the quiet indifference of a landowner whose territorial value is
quoted in the department. His face, tanned by the Touraine sun, was less
intellectual than shrewd. Accustomed to weigh his words and measure
his actions, he concealed a profound vigilance behind a misleading
appearance of simplicity. A very slight observation of him sufficed to
show that, like a Norman peasant, he invariably held the upper hand
in business matters. He was an authority on wine-making, the leading
science of Touraine. He had managed to extend the meadow lands of his
domain by taking in a part of the alluvial soil of the Loire without
getting into difficulties with the State. This clever proceeding gave
him the reputation of a man of talent. If Monsieur de Bourbonne's
conversation pleased you and you were to ask who he was of a Tourainean,
"Ho! a sly old fox!" would be the answer of those who were envious
of him--and they were many. In Touraine, as in many of the provinces,
jealousy is the root of language.

Monsieur de Bourbonne's remark occasioned a momentary silence, during
which the persons who composed the little party seemed to be reflecting.
Meanwhile Mademoiselle Salomon de Villenoix was announced. She came from
Tours in the hope of being useful to the poor abbe, and the news she
brought completely changed the aspect of the affair. As she entered,
every one except Monsieur de Bourbonne was urging Birotteau to hold his
own against Troubert and Gamard, under the auspices of the aristocratic
society of the place, which would certainly stand by him.

"The vicar-general, to whom the appointments to office are entrusted, is
very ill," said Mademoiselle Salomon, "and the archbishop has delegated
his powers to the Abbe Troubert provisionally. The canonry will, of
course, depend wholly upon him. Now last evening, at Mademoiselle de la
Blottiere's the Abbe Poirel talked about the annoyances which the Abbe
Birotteau had inflicted on Mademoiselle Gamard, as though he were trying