Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/295

 Zélie being a little late in discovering the loss of the last year paid in advance. Toward the end of June, Bongrand brought the adjusted balance of her fortune to Madame de Portenduère, one hundred and twenty-nine thousand francs, whilst urging her to invest it in the Funds, which with Savinien’s ten thousand francs would give her an income of six thousand francs in the five per cents. Thus, far from losing on her income, the old lady gained two thousand francs a year by the settlement. And so the Portenduère family remained in Nemours.

Minoret believed he had been tricked, as if the justice of the peace could have known that Ursule’s presence was unbearable to him, and he consequently entertained a keen resentment which increased his hatred of his victim. Then began the drama—secret, but terrible in its results—of the struggle between two feelings, the one urging Minoret to drive Ursule out of Nemours, and the one giving Ursule strength to bear the persecutions, the reason for which was for some time unfathomable; a strange situation, to which all the preceding events had led, for which they had paved the way, and to which they had served as a preface.

Madame Minoret, to whom her husband had given silverware and a complete dinner-service worth about twenty thousand francs, gave a gorgeous dinner every Sunday, upon which day her son the deputy used to bring a few friends from Fontainebleau. For these sumptuous dinners, Zélie would send to Paris for rarities, thus obliging the