and on a yearly wage of seventy livres had accumulated more money than any other servant in Saumur.  She was one of the family, spending her evenings in the sitting-room of her employers, where a single candle was all that was allowed for illumination.  M. Grandet also decided that no fire must be lit in the sitting-room from April 1 to October 31, and every morning he went into the kitchen and doled out the bread, sugar, and other provisions for the day to Nanon, and candles to his daughter.

As for Mme. Grandet, her gentleness and meekness could not stand up against her husband’s force of character.  She had brought more than 300,000 francs to her husband, and yet had no money save an occasional six francs for pocket-money, and the only certain source of income was four or five louis which Grandet made the Belgian merchants, who bought his wine, pay over and above the stipulated price.  Often enough he would borrow some of this money even.  Mme. Grandet was too gentle to revolt, but her pride forbade her ever asking a sou from her husband.  With her daughter she attended to the household linen, and found compensation for the unhappiness of her lot in the consolations of religion, and also in the company of Eugenie.  It never occurred to M. Grandet that his wife suffered, or had reason to suffer.  He was making money; every year his riches increased.  He paid for sittings in church, and gave his daughter five francs a month for a dress allowance.  That his wife hardly ever left the house except occasionally to go to church, that her dress was invariably the same, and that she never asked him for anything, never troubled M. Grandet.  Avarice was his consuming passion, and it was satisfactory to him that no one attempted to cross him.

Twice a year, on her birthday, and on the day of her patron saint, Eugenie received some rare gold coin from her father, and then he would take pleasure in looking at her store—­for these coins were not to be spent.  Old M. Grandet liked to think that his daughter was learning to appreciate gold, and that in giving her these precious coins he was not parting with his money, but only putting it in another box.

II.—­Eugenie’s Springtime of Love

On Eugenie’s twenty-third birthday, November, 1819, the three Cruchots—­the notary, the abbe, and the magistrate—­and the three Des Grassins—­M. des Grassins, Mme. des Grassins, and their son Adolphe—­ hastened to pay their respects to the heiress as soon as dinner was over.  Mr. Grandet, in honour of the occasion, lit a second candle in the sitting-room.  “It is Eugenie’s birthday, and we must have an illumination,” he remarked.  The Cruchots all brought handsome bouquets of flowers for Eugenie, but their gifts were eclipsed by a showy workbox fitted with trumpery gilded silver fittings, which Mme. des Grassins presented, and which filled Eugenie with delight.  “Adolphe brought it from Paris,” whispered Mme. des Grassins in the girl’s ear.  Old Grandet quite understood that both families were in pursuit of his daughter for the sake of her fortune, and made up his mind that neither of them should have her.