imilate all shades
of monarchical opinion. They let every one know that they fasted of a
Friday and kept Lent; they haunted the cathedral; they cultivated the
society of the clergy; and in consequence, when books of devotion were
once more in demand, Cointet Brothers were the first in this lucrative
field. They slandered David, accusing him of Liberalism, Atheism, and
what not. How, asked they, could any one employ a man whose father had
been a Septembrist, a Bonapartist, and a drunkard to boot? The old man
was sure to leave plenty of gold pieces behind him. They themselves were
poor men with families to support, while David was a bachelor and could
do as he pleased; he would have plenty one of these days; he could
afford to take things easily; whereas... and so forth and so forth.

Such tales against David, once put into circulation, produced their
effect. The monopoly of the prefectorial and diocesan work passed
gradually into the hands of Cointet Brothers; and before long David's
keen competitors, emboldened by his inaction, started a second local
sheet of advertisements and announcements. The older establishment
was left at length with the job-printing orders from the town, and the
circulation of the _Charente Chronicle_ fell off by one-half. Meanwhile
the Cointets grew richer; they had made handsome profits on their
devotional books; and now they offered to buy Sechard's paper, to have
all the trade and judicial announcements of the department in their own
hands.

The news of this proposal sent by David to his father brought the old
vinegrower from Marsac into the Place du Murier with the swiftness of
the raven that scents the corpses on a battlefield.

"Leave me to manage the Cointets," said he to his son; "don't you meddle
in this business."

The old man saw what the Cointets meant; and they took alarm at his
clearsighted sagacity. His son was making a blunder, he said, and he,
Sechard, had come to put a stop to it.

"What was to become of the connection if David gave up the paper? It
all depended upon the paper. All the attorneys and solicitors and men of
business in L'Houmeau were Liberals to a man. The Cointets had tried to
ruin the Sechards by accusing them of Liberalism, and by so doing gave
them a plank to cling to--the Sechards should keep the Liberal business.
Sell the paper indeed! Why, you might as well sell the stock-in-trade
and the license!"

Old Sechard asked the Cointets sixty thousand franc