Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/102

 wealthiest households. La Bougival, who had been lectured on the subject, and who was besides much too simple in mind and character to interfere, never disturbed the work of these noble men. Ursule, who was a privileged being, was in this surrounded by three good genii, and by her beautiful disposition rendered their tasks both easy and light. This virile tenderness, this gravity tempered by smiles, this liberty without danger, and this perpetual care of soul and body, made her, at nine years of age, an accomplished and charming child. Unhappily, this paternal trinity dissolved. In the following year the old captain died, leaving his work to be continued by the doctor and the curé, after having accomplished the most difficult part. Flowers ought to grow of themselves in so well prepared a soil. For nine years the old gentleman had saved up a thousand francs a year, in order to leave ten thousand francs to his little Ursule so that she might keep some souvenir of him all through her life. In a will, the contents of which were touching, he begged his legatee to use the four or five hundred francs income returned by this little capital entirely for her dress. When the justice of the peace affixed the seals at his old friend’s house, they found in a cabinet which he had never allowed anybody to look into, a great quantity of toys, many of which were broken, and which all had used, toys of days gone by, religiously preserved, and that the poor captain requested Monsieur Bongrand himself should burn.