บทที่ บทที่ 43 · SUMS DEPOSITED WITH LAFFITTE

On the other hand, he remained as simple as on the first day. He had

gray hair, a serious eye, the sunburned complexion of a laborer, the

thoughtful visage of a philosopher. He habitually wore a hat with a

wide brim, and a long coat of coarse cloth, buttoned to the chin. He

fulfilled his duties as mayor; but, with that exception, he lived in

solitude. He spoke to but few people. He avoided polite attentions; he

escaped quickly; he smiled to relieve himself of the necessity of

talking; he gave, in order to get rid of the necessity for smiling. The

women said of him, “What a good-natured bear!” His pleasure consisted

in strolling in the fields.

He always took his meals alone, with an open book before him, which he

read. He had a well-selected little library. He loved books; books are

cold but safe friends. In proportion as leisure came to him with

fortune, he seemed to take advantage of it to cultivate his mind. It

had been observed that, ever since his arrival at M. sur M., his

language had grown more polished, more choice, and more gentle with

every passing year. He liked to carry a gun with him on his strolls,

but he rarely made use of it. When he did happen to do so, his shooting

was something so infallible as to inspire terror. He never killed an

inoffensive animal. He never shot at a little bird.

Although he was no longer young, it was thought that he was still

prodigiously strong. He offered his assistance to any one who was in

need of it, lifted a horse, released a wheel clogged in the mud, or

stopped a runaway bull by the horns. He always had his pockets full of

money when he went out; but they were empty on his return. When he

passed through a village, the ragged brats ran joyously after him, and

surrounded him like a swarm of gnats.

It was thought that he must, in the past, have lived a country life,

since he knew all sorts of useful secrets, which he taught to the

peasants. He taught them how to destroy scurf on wheat, by sprinkling

it and the granary and inundating the cracks in the floor with a

solution of common salt; and how to chase away weevils by hanging up

orviot in bloom everywhere, on the walls and the ceilings, among the

grass and in the houses.

He had “recipes” for exterminating from a field, blight, tares,

foxtail, and all parasitic growths which destroy the wheat. He defended

a rabbit warren against rats, simply by the odor of a guinea-pig which

he placed in it.

One day he saw some country people busily engaged in pulling up

nettles; he examined the plants, which were uprooted and already dried,

and said: “They are dead. Nevertheless, it would be a good thing to

know how to make use of them. When the nettle is young, the leaf makes

an excellent vegetable; when it is older, it has filaments and fibres

like hemp and flax. Nettle cloth is as good as linen cloth. Chopped up,

nettles are good for poultry; pounded, they are good for horned cattle.

The seed of the nettle, mixed with fodder, gives gloss to the hair of

animals; the root, mixed with salt, produces a beautiful yellow

coloring-matter. Moreover, it is an excellent hay, which can be cut

twice. And what is required for the nettle? A little soil, no care, no

culture. Only the seed falls as it is ripe, and it is difficult to

collect it. That is all. With the exercise of a little care, the nettle

could be made useful; it is neglected and it becomes hurtful. It is

exterminated. How many men resemble the nettle!” He added, after a

pause: “Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad

plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators.”

The children loved him because he knew how to make charming little

trifles of straw and cocoanuts.

When he saw the door of a church hung in black, he entered: he sought

out funerals as other men seek christenings. Widowhood and the grief of

others attracted him, because of his great gentleness; he mingled with

the friends clad in mourning, with families dressed in black, with the

priests groaning around a coffin. He seemed to like to give to his

thoughts for text these funereal psalmodies filled with the vision of

the other world. With his eyes fixed on heaven, he listened with a sort

of aspiration towards all the mysteries of the infinite, those sad

voices which sing on the verge of the obscure abyss of death.

He performed a multitude of good actions, concealing his agency in them

as a man conceals himself because of evil actions. He penetrated houses

privately, at night; he ascended staircases furtively. A poor wretch on

returning to his attic would find that his door had been opened,

sometimes even forced, during his absence. The poor man made a clamor

over it: some malefactor had been there! He entered, and the first

thing he beheld was a piece of gold lying forgotten on some piece of

furniture. The “malefactor” who had been there was Father Madeleine.

He was affable and sad. The people said: “There is a rich man who has

not a haughty air. There is a happy man who has not a contented air.”

Some people maintained that he was a mysterious person, and that no one

ever entered his chamber, which was a regular anchorite’s cell,

furnished with winged hour-glasses and enlivened by cross-bones and

skulls of dead men! This was much talked of, so that one of the elegant

and malicious young women of M. sur M. came to him one day, and asked:

“Monsieur le Maire, pray show us your chamber. It is said to be a

grotto.” He smiled, and introduced them instantly into this “grotto.”

They were well punished for their curiosity. The room was very simply

furnished in mahogany, which was rather ugly, like all furniture of

that sort, and hung with paper worth twelve sous. They could see

nothing remarkable about it, except two candlesticks of antique pattern

which stood on the chimney-piece and appeared to be silver, “for they

were hall-marked,” an observation full of the type of wit of petty

towns.

Nevertheless, people continued to say that no one ever got into the

room, and that it was a hermit’s cave, a mysterious retreat, a hole, a

tomb.

It was also whispered about that he had “immense” sums deposited with

Laffitte, with this peculiar feature, that they were always at his

immediate disposal, so that, it was added, M. Madeleine could make his

appearance at Laffitte’s any morning, sign a receipt, and carry off his

two or three millions in ten minutes. In reality, “these two or three

millions” were reducible, as we have said, to six hundred and thirty or

forty thousand francs.