"All that doesn't show hard study," said Monsieur Antoine, laughing at this panegyric. "When you were old enough to leave school, it was the time of the war with the Austrians and Prussians and Russians. You fought well, for you received several wounds." "Trifling ones," said Monsieur Antoine. "Thank God!" rejoined Janille. "Would you have liked to be crippled and go on crutches! You gathered the laurel, and you returned covered with glory and with not too many bruises." "No, no, Janille, very little glory, I assure you. I did my best; but say what you will, I was born several years too late; my parents fought too long against my desire to serve my country under the usurper, as they called him. I had hardly made a start in the army when I had to return home, _trailing my wing and dragging my foot_, in utter consternation and despair at the disaster of Waterloo." "I agree, monsieur, that the fall of the Emperor was not a good thing for you, and that you were generous enough to regret it, although that man never behaved very well toward you. With the name you bore, he ought to have made you a general at once, instead of paying no attention whatever to you." "I presume," laughed Monsieur de Châteaubrun, "that his mind was directed from that duty by other and more pressing affairs. However, you agree, Janille, that my military career was nipped in the bud, and that, thanks to my fine education, I was not very well fitted to start on any other?" "You might very well have served under the Bourbons, but you wouldn't do it." "I had the ideas of my generation. Perhaps I should still have them, if it were all to be done again." "Well, monsieur, who could blame you for it? It was very honorable, according to what people said in the province then, and no one but your relations condemned you." "My relations were proud and inflexible in their legitimist opinions. You cannot deny that they abandoned me to the disaster that threatened me, and that they worried very little over the loss of my fortune." "You were even prouder than they, for you would never go on your knees to them." "No, whether from recklessness or dignity, I never asked them for assistance." "And you lost your fortune in a great lawsuit against your father's estate; everybody knows that. But you only lost the case because you chose to." "And it was the noblest and most honorable thing my father ever did in his life," interposed Gilberte, with much warmth. "My children," said Monsieur Antoine, "you mustn't say that I lost the case; I didn't allow it to come to trial." "To be sure, to be sure," said Janille; "for if you had, you would have won it. There was only one opinion on that point."