Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/256

 had nothing more to acquire; she was perfect. She was also renowned far and wide for her beauty, grace and education. One day, the doctor had to refuse the Marquise d’Aiglemont, who thought of Ursule for her eldest son. Six months later, in spite of the profound secrecy observed by Ursule, the doctor, and Madame d’Aiglemont, Savinien accidentally heard of this circumstance. Touched by so much delicacy, he pleaded this proceeding in order to overcome his mother’s obstinacy, her reply being:

“If the D’Aiglemonts wish to make a bad match, is that any reason why we should?”

In December, 1834, the pious, good old man visibly failed. When he was seen coming out of church, with his yellow, shriveled face and faded eyes, the whole town spoke of the old man’s approaching death, he being then eighty-eight years old.

“You will know how matters stand,” they said to the heirs.

In fact, the old man’s demise possessed the attraction of a problem. But the doctor did not know he was ill, he labored under a delusion, and neither poor Ursule, nor Savinien, nor the justice of the peace, nor the curé, would through delicacy, enlighten him as to his situation; the Nemours doctor, who came to see him every night, was afraid to prescribe any further. Old Minoret felt no pain, he was gently dying. With him, the mind remained strong, clear and powerful. With old men thus constituted, the mind governs the body and gives it strength to die standing. The curé, for