Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/253

 son’s misalliance,” said the notary. “If this misfortune happens, it is probable that a large part of your uncle’s fortune will serve, according to Basile, as an irresistible argument.”

The irritation of the heirs at finding that their uncle preferred Ursule too much not to secure her happiness at their expense, then became as secret as it was deep. Meeting every night since the July revolution at the house of Dionis, they would there curse the two lovers, and the evening seldom drew to a close without their having searched, but vainly, for means of thwarting the old man. Zélie, who, like the doctor, had doubtless profited by the fall in stock to advantageously invest her enormous capital, was the hardest upon the orphan girl and the Portenduères. One night when Goupil, who, however, took care not to be bored at these receptions, had come to inquire the affairs of the town which were there being discussed, Zélie had a revival of hatred; in the morning she had seen the doctor, Ursule and Savinien returning in the barouche from a drive in the neighborhood, in an intimacy which betrayed all.

“I would willingly give thirty thousand francs for God to summon our uncle to Himself before the marriage of this Portenduère and that conceited little creature could take place,” she said.

Goupil accompanied Monsieur and Madame Minoret as far as the middle of their big courtyard, and said, looking all around to see that they were quite alone:

“Will you give me the means of buying up