resh
part of the estate, pressing him even to take all that was left of it,
woods and moorland--extending over some five hundred acres. Nowadays
Seguin was often in need of money, and in order to do business he
offered Mathieu lower terms and all sorts of advantages; but the other
prudently declined the proposals, keeping steadfastly to his original
intentions, which were that he would proceed with his work of creation
step by step, in accordance with his exact means and requirements.
Moreover, a certain difficulty arose with regard to the purchase of the
remaining moors, for enclosed by this land, eastward, near the railway
line, were a few acres belonging to Lepailleur, the miller, who had
never done anything with them. And so Mathieu preferred to select what
remained of the marshy plateau, adding, however, that he would enter
into negotiations respecting the moorland later on, when the miller
should have consented to sell his enclosure. He knew that, ever since
his property had been increasing, Lepailleur had regarded him with the
greatest jealousy and hatred, and he did not think it advisable to
apply to him personally, certain as he felt that he would fail in his
endeavor. Seguin, however, pretended that if he took up the matter
he would know how to bring the miller to reason, and even secure the
enclosure for next to nothing. And indeed, thinking that he might yet
induce Mathieu to purchase all the remaining property, he determined to
see Lepailleur and negotiate with him before even signing the deed which
was to convey to Mathieu the selected marshland on the plateau.

But the outcome proved as Mathieu had foreseen. Lepailleur asked such
a monstrous price for his few acres enclosed within the estate that
nothing could be done. When he was approached on the subject by Seguin,
he made little secret of the rage he felt at Mathieu's triumph. He had
told the young man that he would never succeed in reaping an ear
of wheat from that uncultivated expanse, given over to brambles for
centuries past; and yet now it was covered with abundant crops! And this
had increased the miller's rancor against the soil; he hated it yet more
than ever for its harshness to him, a peasant's son, and its kindliness
towards that bourgeois, who seemed to have fallen from heaven expressly
to revolutionize the region. Thus, in answer to Seguin, he declared with
a sneer that since sorcerers had sprung up who were able to make wheat
sprout from