Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/247

 doctor and the justice of the peace, were accomplished in the most profound secrecy under cover of the political disturbances. When peace was almost re-established, the doctor bought a little house adjoining his own, and tore it down, as well as the wall of his courtyard, so as to have a coach house and stable built on the ground. To use the capital of a thousand francs’ income to set up outhouses seemed madness to the Minoret heirs. The so-called madness began a new era in the doctor’s life, for, at a time when horses and carriages were to be procured for almost nothing, he brought back from Paris three superb horses and a barouche.

When, in the beginning of November, 1830, the old man, for the first time, drove to mass on a rainy day, and got down to give his hand to Ursule, all the inhabitants rushed into the market-place, as much to see the doctor’s carriage and question his coachman, as to find fault with his ward, to whose excessive ambition Massin, Crémière, the postmaster and their wives attributed their uncle’s follies.

“The barouche! eh! Massin!” cried Goupil, “your succession is going capitally, hein?”

“You must have good wages, Cabirolle?” said the postmaster to the son of one of his drivers, who was standing by the horses, “for it is to be hoped that you will not wear out many horseshoes with a man eighty-four years old. How much did the horses cost?”