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After mature deliberation all present promised their assistance to the Abbe Birotteau in the struggle which was now inevitable between the poor priest and his antagonists and all their adherents. A true presentiment, an infallible provincial instinct, led them to couple the names of Gamard and Troubert.
"Was it not agreed that if you left my house your furniture should belong to me, to indemnify me for the difference in the price of board paid by you and that paid by the late venerable Abbe Chapeloud? Now, as the Abbe Poirel has just been appointed canon " Hearing the last words Birotteau made a feeble bow as if to take leave of the old maid, and left the house precipitately.
The interior arrangements of the house did not allow Mademoiselle Gamard to take more than two lodgers. Now, for about twelve years before the day when Birotteau went to live with her she had undertaken to keep in health and contentment two priests; namely, Monsieur l'Abbe Troubert and Monsieur l'Abbe Chapeloud. The Abbe Troubert still lived.
In spite of the royalist sentiments of Birotteau, public opinion was in his favor; he was considered very rich, though in fact he possessed only a hundred thousand francs over and above his business.
I wish you, one and all, patience and courage under your afflictions. Francois Birotteau, Priest, Vicar of the Cathedral and Parochial Church of Saint-Gatien de Tours. "A thousand francs!" cried Madame Birotteau. "Put them away," said Cesar gravely; "they are all he had. Besides, they belong to our daughter, and will enable us to live; so that we need ask nothing of our creditors."
So you are doing business with du Tillet, a monster, who wished to seduce me," she whispered in his ear. "Folly of youth," said Birotteau, assuming for the nonce the tone of a free-thinker. "Listen to me, Birotteau! You are all upset; you don't go to the manufactory any more; there is something the matter, I feel it! You must tell me; I must know what it is."
But those whom we offend by such unconscious selfishness pay little heed to our real innocence; what they want is vengeance, and they take it. Thus it happened that Birotteau, weak brother that he was, was made to undergo the decrees of that great distributive Justice which goes about compelling the world to execute its judgments, called by ninnies "the misfortunes of life."
Monsieur Birotteau, to avoid a police-court which might have destroyed the man for life, no doubt placed in the desk three thousand francs, the price of that cashmere shawl which I did not receive till three years later. All this explains the scene.
"Monsieur," he said, "the press will be ready to work to-morrow." "Why, what's the matter, Popinot?" asked Cesar, as he saw Anselme blush. "Monsieur, it is the joy of having found a shop, a back-shop, kitchen, chambers above them, and store-rooms, all for twelve hundred francs a year, in the Rue des Cinq-Diamants." "We must take a lease of eighteen years," said Birotteau.
The Abbe Chapeloud was dead; and Birotteau had stepped into his place. The late Abbe Chapeloud, in life a canon of Saint-Gatien, had been an intimate friend of the Abbe Birotteau. Every time that the latter paid a visit to the canon he had constantly admired the apartment, the furniture and the library. Out of this admiration grew the desire to possess these beautiful things.
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