Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/250

 he was displaying, the old man was at one time accused of having concealed his fortune and of possessing an income of sixty thousand francs, at another of spending his capital to please Ursule. He was alternately called a rich man and a libertine. This remark: “He is an old fool!” summed up the opinion of the country. This false direction of the judgment of the little town had this advantage, that it deceived the heirs, who did not at all suspect Savinien’s love for Ursule, which was the real cause of the doctor’s expenditure, as he delighted to accustom his ward to her rôle of viscountess, and who, with more than fifty thousand francs a year, gave himself the pleasure of adorning his idol.

In February, 1832, on Ursule’s seventeenth birthday, that same morning as she was getting up, she saw Savinien, at his window, in midshipman’s uniform.

“How is it that I knew nothing of it?” she said to herself.

Since the capture of Algiers in which Savinien distinguished himself by an act of courage which had gained him the cross, the corvette upon which he served having remained several months at sea, he had found it absolutely impossible to write to the doctor, and he would not leave the service without having consulted him. Anxious to keep such an illustrious name in the navy, the new government had profited by the July disturbances to confer the rank of midshipman upon Savinien. After having obtained leave for a fortnight, the new midshipman