to digest his
little comedy as he might.

Eight days passed. Twice the General made his guest the object of his
formidable advance. The first time, having put him out of countenance, he
contented himself with exclaiming:

"Well, young man!" and turned on his heel.

The next time he bore down upon Camors, he said not a word, and retired
in silence.

Evidently the General had not the slightest recollection of the
postscript. Camors tried to be contented, but would continually ask
himself why he had come to Campvallon, in the midst of his family, of
whom he was not overfond, and in the depths of the country, which he
execrated. Luckily, the castle boasted a library well stocked with works
on civil and international law, jurisprudence, and political economy. He
took advantage of it; and, resuming the thread of those serious studies
which had been broken off during his period of hopelessness, plunged into
those recondite themes that pleased his active intelligence and his
awakened ambition. Thus he waited patiently until politeness would permit
him to bring to an explanation the former friend and companion-in-arms of
his father. In the morning he rode on horseback; gave a lesson in fencing
to his cousin Sigismund, the son of Madame de la Roche-Jugan; then shut
himself up in the library until the evening, which he passed at bezique
with the General. Meantime he viewed with the eye of a philosopher the
strife of the covetous relatives who hovered around their rich prey.

Madame de la Roche-Jugan had invented an original way of making herself
agreeable to the General, which was to persuade him he had disease of the
heart. She continually felt his pulse with her plump hand, sometimes
reassuring him, and at others inspiring him with a salutary terror,
although he denied it.

"Good heavens! my dear cousin!" he would exclaim, "let me alone. I know I
am mortal like everybody else. What of that? But I see your aim-it is to
convert me! Ta-ta!"

She not only wished to convert him, but to marry him, and bury him
besides.

She based her hopes in this respect chiefly on her son Sigismund; knowing
that the General bitterly regretted having no one to inherit his name. He
had but to marry Madame de la Roche-Jugan and adopt her son to banish
this care. Without a single allusion to this fact, the Countess failed
not to turn the thoughts of the General toward it with all the tact of an
accomplished intrigante, with all the ardor of a