"According to Monsieur Antoine," said Janille, "we were entirely without means; but if that was the case, it didn't last long. After a few years, when the Châteaubrun estate had been sold in small lots, the debts paid, and all that rubbish cleared away, we found that monsieur still had a little capital left, which, if well invested, would bring him in about twelve hundred francs a year. Oh! that wasn't to be despised. But, with monsieur's kindness of heart and generosity, it would probably have disappeared a little fast. Then it was that my dear Janille, who is talking to you now, saw that she must take the reins into her hands. It was she who looked after the investment of the funds, and she didn't manage so very badly. Then what did she say to monsieur? Do you remember, monsieur, what I said to you at that time?" "I remember very well, Janille, for you talked very wisely. Repeat it yourself." "I said to you: 'Well, Monsieur Antoine, there's enough for you to live on with your arms folded. But that would be a burden to you, you've taken a liking to work. You are still young and well, so you can work for some years to come. You have a daughter, a real treasure, who bids fair to be as bright as she is pretty; you must think about giving her an education. We will take her to Paris, put her at boarding-school, and you will be a carpenter a few years longer.' Monsieur Antoine asked nothing better. Oh! I must do him the justice to say that he didn't complain of his work; but, by associating with these peasants, his ideas had become a little too countrified to suit me. He said that as he was destined to become a workingman in the country, it would be wiser to bring up his daughter in accordance with his position in life, to make an honest village lass of her, to teach her to read, sew, spin and keep house; but deuce take me if I looked at it in that light! Could I allow Mademoiselle de Châteaubrun to fall below her rank and not be brought up like the nobly-born maid she is? Monsieur yielded, and our Gilberte was educated at Paris, and nothing was spared to give her wit and talents. She made the most of it like a little angel, and when she was about seventeen years old I says one day to monsieur: 'I say, Monsieur Antoine, don't you want to come and take a little walk with me over Châteaubrun way?' Monsieur, let me bring him here, but, when we were in the middle of the ruins, he got very depressed.