it by conversations with the notary of the late doctor, Monsieur Heron.  Thus instructed, she gave excellent advice to her little Jean-Jacques.  Sure of being always mistress, she was as eager and solicitous about the old bachelor’s interests as if they had been her own.  She was not obliged to guard against the exactions of her uncle, for two months before the doctor’s death Brazier died of a fall as he was leaving a wine-shop, where, since his rise in fortune, he spent most of his time.  Flore had also lost her father; thus she served her master with all the affection which an orphan, thankful to make herself a home and a settlement in life, would naturally feel.

This period of his life was paradise to poor Jean-Jacques, who now acquired the gentle habits of an animal, trained into a sort of monastic regularity.  He slept late.  Flore, who was up at daybreak attending to her housekeeping, woke him so that he should find his breakfast ready as soon as he had finished dressing.  After breakfast, about eleven o’clock, Jean-Jacques went to walk; talked with the people he met, and came home at three in the afternoon to read the papers,—­those of the department, and a journal from Paris which he received three days after publication, well greased by the thirty hands through which it came, browned by the snuffy noses that had pored over it, and soiled by the various tables on which it had lain.  The old bachelor thus got through the day until it was time for dinner; over that meal he spent as much time as it was possible to give to it.  Flore told him the news of the town, repeating the cackle that was current, which she had carefully picked up.  Towards eight o’clock the lights were put out.  Going to bed early is a saving of fire and candles very commonly practised in the provinces, which contributes no doubt to the empty-mindedness of the inhabitants.  Too much sleep dulls and weakens the brain.

Such was the life of these two persons during a period of nine years, the great events of which were a few journeys to Bourges, Vierzon, Chateauroux, or somewhat further, if the notaries of those towns and Monsieur Heron had no investments ready for acceptance.  Rouget lent his money at five per cent on a first mortgage, with release of the wife’s rights in case the owner was married.  He never lent more than a third of the value of the property, and required notes payable to his order for an additional interest of two and a half per cent spread over the whole duration of the loan.  Such were the rules his father had told him to follow.  Usury, that clog upon the ambition of the peasantry, is the destroyer of country regions.  This levy of seven and a half per cent seemed, therefore, so reasonable to the borrowers that Jean-Jacques Rouget had his choice of investments; and the notaries of the different towns, who got a fine commission for themselves from clients for whom they obtained money on such good terms, gave due notice to the old bachelor.