“When a man is down, Mathias, when his property is covered with mortgages, when his wife’s claims take precedence of his creditors’, and when that man has notes out for a hundred thousand francs which he must pay (and I hope I can do so out of the increased value of my property here), what you propose is not possible.” “This is dreadful!” cried Mathias; “would you sell Belle-Rose with the vintage of 1825 still in the cellars?” “I cannot help myself.” “Belle-Rose is worth six hundred thousand francs.” “Natalie will buy it in; I have advised her to do so.” “I might push the price to seven hundred thousand, and the farms are worth a hundred thousand each.” “Then if the house in Bordeaux can be sold for two hundred thousand--” “Solonet will give more than that; he wants it. He is retiring with a handsome property made by gambling on the Funds. He has sold his practice for three hundred thousand francs, and marries a mulatto woman. God knows how she got her money, but they say it amounts to millions. A notary gambling in stocks! a notary marrying a black woman! What an age! It is said that he speculates for your mother-in-law with her funds.” “She has greatly improved Lanstrac and taken great pains with its cultivation. She has amply repaid me for the use of it.” “I shouldn’t have thought her capable of that.” “She is so kind and so devoted; she has always paid Natalie’s debts during the three months she spent with us every year in Paris.” “She could well afford to do so, for she gets her living out of Lanstrac,” said Mathias. “She! grown economical! what a miracle! I am told she has just bought the domain of Grainrouge between Lanstrac and Grassol; so that if the Lanstrac avenue were extended to the high-road, you would drive four and a half miles through your own property to reach the house. She paid one hundred thousand francs down for Grainrouge.” “She is as handsome as ever,” said Paul; “country life preserves her freshness; I don’t mean to go to Lanstrac and bid her good-bye; her heart would bleed for me too much.” “You would go in vain; she is now in Paris. She probably arrived there as you left.”