Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/27

 Considering that this species of trunkless and unintelligent elephant was named Minoret-Levrault, must one not admit with Sterne the occult power of names that sometimes mock and sometimes foretell character? In spite of his obvious incapacity, in thirty-six years he had with the help of the Revolution, acquired an income of thirty thousand francs, in fields, arable land, and forest. If Minoret, with an interest in the Nemours stage, and those running between Gâtinais and Paris, still worked, he was in this acting less through habit than for the sake of an only son for whom he wished to prepare a fine future. This son, who had become a gentleman—as the peasants termed it—had just finished reading for the bar, and when the courts re-opened, was to take the oath as lawyer’s licentiate. Monsieur and Madame Minoret-Levrault,—for, through this giant everyone discovered a wife without whom such a handsome fortune was impossible,—left their son free to choose a profession for himself: notary in Paris, attorney for the crown somewhere, receiver-general no matter where, exchange agent or postmaster. What whim could be denied, what calling above the aspirations of the son of a man of whom it was said from Montargis to Essonne that “Father Minoret cannot count his income.” This saying, four years before, had acquired further authority when, after having sold his inn, Minoret had built himself a magnificent house and stables by transferring the stage from the Grand’Rue to the harbor. This new establishment had cost two hundred