Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/48

 four families already produced the Massin-Crémière, the Levrault-Massin, the Massin-Minoret, the Minoret-Minoret, the Crémière-Levrault, the Levrault-Minoret-Massin, the Massin-Levrault, the Minoret-Massin, the Massin-Massin, the Crémière-Massin, all this varied with junior, senior, Crémière-François, Levrault-Jacques, Jean-Minoret, enough to distract the father Anselm of the people, if the people had ever wanted a genealogist. The variations in the four elements of this domestic kaleidoscope became so complicated by births and marriages, that the genealogical tree of the citizens of Nemours would have puzzled even the benedictines of the Gotha almanac, in spite of the atomical science with which they arrange the zigzags of the German alliances. For a long time, the Minorets occupied the tanneries, the Crémières held the mills, the Massins applied themselves to trade, and the Levraults remained farmers. Happily for the country, these four stems spread instead of pivoting, or had thrust out fresh shoots by exiling children who sought their fortunes abroad; there are Minoret cutlers in Melun, some Levraults in Montargis, Massins in Orléans and Crémières of importance in Paris. The destinies of these bees from the mother hive are very varied. Rich Massins necessarily employ Massin workmen, in the same way as there are German princes in the service of Austria or Prussia. The same province sees a Minoret millionaire guarded by a Minoret soldier. Filled with the same blood and called by the same name to all similarity,