Monsieur Grandet, whom
Providence no doubt desired to compensate for the loss of his
municipal honors, inherited three fortunes in the course of this year,
--that of Madame de la Gaudiniere, born de la Bertelliere, the mother
of Madame Grandet; that of old Monsieur de la Bertelliere, her
grandfather; and, lastly, that of Madame Gentillet, her grandmother on
the mother's side: three inheritances, whose amount was not known to
any one. The avarice of the deceased persons was so keen that for a
long time they had hoarded their money for the pleasure of secretly
looking at it. Old Monsieur de la Bertelliere called an investment an
extravagance, and thought he got better interest from the sight of his
gold than from the profits of usury. The inhabitants of Saumur
consequently estimated his savings according to "the revenues of the
sun's wealth," as they said.
Monsieur Grandet thus obtained that modern title of nobility which our
mania for equality can never rub out. He became the most imposing
personage in the arrondissement. He worked a hundred acres of
vineyard, which in fruitful years yielded seven or eight hundred
hogsheads of wine. He owned thirteen farms, an old abbey, whose
windows and arches he had walled up for the sake of economy,--a
measure which preserved them,--also a hundred and twenty-seven acres
of meadow-land, where three thousand poplars, planted in 1793, grew
and flourished; and finally, the house in which he lived.
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