When the events of this history bring them once more into
notice, they will be found still in the position Grandet had resolved
to force them into from the first.
As soon as the Funds reached a hundred and fifteen, Pere Grandet sold
out his interests and withdrew two million four hundred thousand
francs in gold, to which he added, in his coffers, the six hundred
thousand francs compound interest which he had derived from the
capital. Des Grassins now lived in Paris. In the first place he had
been made a deputy; then he became infatuated (father of a family as
he was, though horribly bored by the provincial life of Saumur) with a
pretty actress at the Theatre de Madame, known as Florine, and he
presently relapsed into the old habits of his army life. It is useless
to speak of his conduct; Saumur considered it profoundly immoral. His
wife was fortunate in the fact of her property being settled upon
herself, and in having sufficient ability to keep up the banking-house
in Saumur, which was managed in her name and repaired the breach in
her fortune caused by the extravagance of her husband. The Cruchotines
made so much talk about the false position of the quasi-widow that she
married her daughter very badly, and was forced to give up all hope of
an alliance between Eugenie Grandet and her son. Adolphe joined his
father in Paris and became, it was said, a worthless fellow. The
Cruchots triumphed.
"Your husband hasn't common sense," said Grandet as he lent Madame des
Grassins some money on a note securely endorsed.
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