CHAPTER X

At the time when Madame Bridau returned to Issoudun to save—­as Maitre Desroches expressed it—­an inheritance that was seriously threatened, Jean-Jacques Rouget had reached by degrees a condition that was semi-vegetative.  In the first place, after Max’s instalment, Flore put the table on an episcopal footing.  Rouget, thrown in the way of good living, ate more and still more, enticed by the Vedie’s excellent dishes.  He grew no fatter, however, in spite of this abundant and luxurious nourishment.  From day to day he weakened like a worn-out man,—­fatigued, perhaps, with the effort of digestion,—­and his eyes had dark circles around them.  Still, when his friends and neighbors met him in his walks and questioned him about his health, he always answered that he was never better in his life.  As he had always been thought extremely deficient in mind, people did not notice the constant lowering of his faculties.  His love for Flore was the one thing that kept him alive; in fact, he existed only for her, and his weakness in her presence was unbounded; he obeyed the creature’s mere look, and watched her movements as a dog watches every gesture of his master.  In short, as Madame Hochon remarked, at fifty-seven years of age he seemed older than Monsieur Hochon, an octogenarian.

Every one will suppose, and with reason, that Max’s appartement was worthy of so charming a fellow.  In fact, in the course of six years our captain had by degrees perfected the comfort of his abode and adorned every detail of it, as much for his own pleasure as for Flore’s.  But it was, after all, only the comfort and luxury of Issoudun,—­colored tiles, rather elegant wallpapers, mahogany furniture, mirrors in gilt frames, muslin curtains with red borders, a bed with a canopy, and draperies arranged as the provincial upholsterers arrange them for a rich bride; which in the eyes of Issoudun seemed the height of luxury, but are so common in vulgar fashion-plates that even the petty shopkeepers in Paris have discarded them at their weddings.  One very unusual thing appeared, which caused much talk in Issoudun, namely, a rush-matting on the stairs, no doubt to muffle the sound of feet.  In fact, though Max was in the habit of coming in at daybreak, he never woke any one, and Rouget was far from suspecting that his guest was an accomplice in the nocturnal performances of the Knights of Idleness.

About eight o’clock the next morning, Flore, wearing a dressing-gown of some pretty cotton stuff with narrow pink stripes, a lace cap on her head, and her feet in furred slippers, softly opened the door of Max’s chamber; seeing that he slept, she remained standing beside the bed.

“He came in so late!” she said to herself.  “It was half-past three.  He must have a good constitution to stand such amusements.  Isn’t he strong, the dear love!  I wonder what they did last night.”