I said this, of course, to please my Agnes, who is the best of wives; but on thinking it over after, I could not but be struck with the extreme justice (not to speak of the beauty of the sentiment) of this thought.  The bon Dieu—­if, indeed, that great Being is as represented to us by the Church—­must naturally care as much for one-half of His creatures as for the other, though they have not the same weight in the world; and consequently the faith of the women must hold the balance straight, especially if, as is said, they exceed us in point of numbers.  This leaves a little margin for those of them who profess the same freedom of thought as is generally accorded to men—­a class, I must add, which I abominate from the bottom of my heart.

I need not dwell upon other little scenes which impressed the same idea still more upon my mind.  Semur, I need not say, is not the centre of the world, and might, therefore, be supposed likely to escape the full current of worldliness.  We amuse ourselves little, and we have not any opportunity of rising to the heights of ambition; for our town is not even the chef-lieu of the department,—­though this is a subject upon which I cannot trust myself to speak.  Figure to yourself that La Rochette—­a place of yesterday, without either the beauty or the antiquity of Semur—­has been chosen as the centre of affairs, the residence of M. le Prefet!  But I will not enter upon this question.  What I was saying was, that, notwithstanding the fact that we amuse ourselves but little, that there is no theatre to speak of, little society, few distractions, and none of those inducements to strive for gain and to indulge the senses, which exist, for instance, in Paris—­that capital of the world—­yet, nevertheless, the thirst for money and for pleasure has increased among us to an extent which I cannot but consider alarming.  Gros-Jean, our peasant, toils for money, and hoards; Jacques, who is a cooper and maker of wine casks, gains and drinks; Jean Pierre snatches at every sous that comes in his way, and spends it in yet worse dissipations.  He is one who quails when he meets my eye; he sins en cachette; but Jacques is bold, and defies opinion; and Gros-Jean is firm in the belief that to hoard money is the highest of mortal occupations.  These three are types of what the population is at Semur.  The men would all sell their souls for a grosse piece of fifty sous—­indeed, they would laugh, and express their delight that any one should believe them to love souls, if they could but have a chance of selling them; and the devil, who was once supposed to deal in that commodity, would be very welcome among us.  And as for the bon Dieu—­pouff! that was an affair of the grandmothers—­le bon Dieu c’est l’argent.  This is their creed.  I was very near the beginning of my official year as Maire when my attention was called to these matters as I have described above.  A man may go on for