ING RELATIVES

This advice, given with every kindness, did not tend to lessen Perrine's
anxiety. She was dreading Madame Bretoneux's visit on the morrow.

Her governess had not exaggerated the situation. The two mothers were
struggling and scheming in every possible way, each to have her son
alone inherit one day or another the great works of Maraucourt and the
fortune which it was rumored would be more than a hundred million
francs.

The one, Mme. Stanislaus Paindavoine, was the wife of M. Vulfran's
eldest brother, a big linen merchant. Her husband had not been able to
give her the position in society which she believed to be hers, and now
she hoped that, through her son inheriting his uncle's great fortune,
she would at last be able to take the place in the Parisian world which
she knew she could grace.

The other, Madame Bretoneux was M. Vulfran's married sister who had
married a Boulogne merchant, who in turn had been a cement and coal
merchant, insurance agent and maritime agent, but with all his trades
had never acquired riches. She wanted her brother's wealth as much for
love of the money as to get it away from her sister-in-law, whom she
hated.

While their brother and his only son had lived on good terms, they had
had to content themselves with borrowing all they could from him in
loans which they never intended to pay back; but the day when Edmond had
been packed off to India, ostensibly to buy jute but in reality as a
punishment for being too extravagant and getting into debt, the two
women had schemed to take advantage of the situation. On each side they
had made every preparation so that each could have her son alone, at any
moment, take the place of the exile.

In spite of all their endeavors the uncle had never consented to let the
boys live with him at the chateau. There was room enough for them all
and he was sad and lonely, but he had made a firm stand against having
them with him in his home.

"I don't want any quarrels or jealousy around me," he had always replied
to the suggestions made.

He had then given Theodore the house he had lived in before he built the
chateau and another to Casimir that had belonged to the late head of the
counting house whom Mombleux had replaced.

So their surprise and indignation had been intense when a stranger, a
poor girl, almost a child, had been installed in the chateau where they
themselves had only been admitted as guests.

What did it mean?

Who