Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/54

 The doctor had then lost several of his old friends. The sectary of the Encyclopedia had witnessed the conversion of La Harpe, he had buried Lebrun-Pindare, and Marie-Joseph de Chénier, and Morellet, and Madame Helvétius. He assisted at the semi-downfall of Voltaire, attacked by Geoffroy, the continuer of Fréron. He was then thinking of retiring. And so, when his post chaise stopped at the top of the Grand’Rue of Nemours, he was prompted to inquire for his family. Minoret-Levrault came himself to see the doctor, who recognized his eldest brother’s son in the postmaster. This nephew presented his wife as the only daughter of father Levrault-Crémière, who, twelve years ago, had left him the post-house and the finest inn in Nemours.

“Well, nephew,” said the doctor, “have I any other heirs?”

“My aunt Minoret, your sister, married a Massin-Massin.”

“Yes, the surveyor of Saint-Lange.”

“She died a widow, leaving one daughter, who has just married a Crémière, a charming fellow, who has no employment as yet.”

“Well! she is my direct niece. Now, as my sailor brother died a bachelor, as Captain Minoret was killed at Monte-Legino, and as I am here, the paternal line is exhausted. Have I any relations on the maternal side? My mother was a Jean Massin-Levrault.”

“Of the Jean Massin-Levraults,” replied Minoret-Levrault, “there only remains one Jean Massin, who