“In the first place, Monsieur de Mortsauf would think he were lost if I left him.  Though he will not admit his condition he is well aware of it.  He is both sane and mad, two natures in one man, a contradiction which explains many an irrational action.  Besides this, he would have good reason for objecting.  Nothing would go right here if I were absent.  You may have seen in me the mother of a family watchful to protect her young from the hawk that is hovering over them; a weighty task, indeed, but harder still are the cares imposed upon me by Monsieur de Mortsauf, whose constant cry, as he follows me about is, ‘Where is Madame?’ I am Jacques’ tutor and Madeleine’s governess; but that is not all, I am bailiff and steward too.  You will understand what that means when you come to see, as you will, that the working of an estate in these parts is the most fatiguing of all employments.  We get small returns in money; the farms are cultivated on shares, a system which needs the closest supervision.  We are obliged ourselves to sell our own produce, our cattle and harvests of all kinds.  Our competitors in the markets are our own farmers, who meet consumers in the wine-shops and determine prices by selling first.  I should weary you if I explained the many difficulties of agriculture in this region.  No matter what care I give to it, I cannot always prevent our tenants from putting our manure upon their ground, I cannot be ever on the watch lest they take advantage of us in the division of the crops; neither can I always know the exact moment when sales should be made.  So, if you think of Monsieur de Mortsauf’s defective memory, and the difficulty you have seen me have in persuading him to attend to business, you can understand the burden that is on my shoulders, and the impossibility of my laying it down for a single day.  If I were absent we should be ruined.  No one would obey Monsieur de Mortsauf.  In the first place his orders are conflicting; then no one likes him; he finds incessant fault, and he is very domineering.  Moreover, like all men of feeble mind, he listens too readily to his inferiors.  If I left the house not a servant would be in it in a week’s time.  So you see I am attached to Clochegourde as those leaden finals are to our roof.  I have no reserves with you.  The whole country-side is still ignorant of the secrets of this house, but you know them, you have seen them.  Say nothing but what is kind and friendly, and you shall have my esteem —­my gratitude,” she added in a softer voice.  “On those terms you are welcome at Clochegourde, where you will find friends.”

“Ah!” I exclaimed, “I see that I have never really suffered, while you—­”