Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/158

 and down the terrace discussing the means of securing for Ursule what her godfather wanted to give her. The justice of the peace knew Dionis’s opinion upon the invalidity of any will made by the doctor in Ursule’s favor, for Nemours was too much occupied about the Minoret inheritance for this question not to have been discussed between the lawyers of the town. Bongrand had decided that Ursule Mirouët was a stranger with regard to Doctor Minoret, but he felt that the spirit of the law repulsed any illegitimate offshoots from the family. The authors of the Code had only foreseen the weakness of fathers and mothers for the natural children, without imagining that the uncles or the aunts might espouse the tenderness of the natural child in favor of its descendants. There was evidently something wanting in the law.

“In any other country,” he said to the doctor at the conclusion of his explanation of the state of the law that Goupil, Dionis, and Désiré had just explained to the heirs, “Ursule would have nothing to fear; she is a legitimate daughter, and her father’s incapacity ought only to operate in regard to the inheritance of Valentin-Mirouet, your father-in-law; but, in France, the magistracy is unfortunately very ingenious and consistent, it seeks the spirit of the law. The lawyers would talk morality and prove that the void in the Code arose from the simplicity of the legislators who had not foreseen the case, but who had none the less established a principle. The suit would be long and expensive. With Zélie,