To put this project into execution she needs a man of your scientific knowledge and ardor, and one who has also your disinterested devotion and your ideas of practical utility.  It will be little money and much work! a great result from small means! a whole region to be changed fundamentally! barren places to be made to gush with plenty!  Isn’t that precisely what you want,—­you who are dreaming of constructing a poem?  From the tone of sincerity which pervades your letter, I do not hesitate to bid you come and see me at Limoges.  But, my good friend, don’t send in your resignation yet; get leave of absence only, and tell your administration that you are going to study questions connected with your profession outside of the government works.  In this way, you will not lose your rights, and you will have time to judge for yourself whether the project conceived by the rector of Montegnac and approved by Madame Graslin is feasible.

I will explain to you by word of mouth the advantages you will
find in case this great scheme can be carried out.  Rely on the
friendship of

Yours, etc, T. Grossetete.

Madame Graslin replied to Grossetete in few words:  “Thank you, my friend; I shall expect your protege.”  She showed the letter to the rector, saying,—­

“One more wounded man for the hospital.”

The rector read the letter, reread it, made two or three turns on the terrace silently; then he gave it back to Madame Graslin, saying,—­

“A fine soul, and a superior man.  He says the schools invented by the genius of the Revolution manufacture incapacities.  For my part, I say they manufacture unbelievers; for if Monsieur Gerard is not an atheist, he is a protestant.”

“We will ask him,” she said, struck by an answer.

XVII

THE REVOLUTION OF JULY JUDGED AT MONTEGNAC

A fortnight later, in December, and in spite of the cold, Monsieur Grossetete came to the chateau de Montegnac, to “present his protege,” whom Veronique and Monsieur Bonnet were impatiently awaiting.

“I must love you very much, my dear child,” said the old man, taking Veronique’s two hands in his, and kissing them with that gallantry of old men which never displeases women, “yes, I must love you well, to come from Limoges in such weather.  But I wanted to present to you myself the gift of Monsieur Gregoire Gerard here present.  You’ll find him a man after your own heart, Monsieur Bonnet,” added the banker, bowing affectionately to the rector.

Gerard’s external appearance was not prepossessing.  He was of middle height, stocky in shape, the neck sunk in the shoulders, as they say vulgarly; he had yellow hair, and the pink eyes of an albino, with lashes and eyebrows almost white.  Though his skin, like that of all persons of that description, was amazingly white, marks of the small-box and other very visible scars had destroyed its original brilliancy.  Study had probably injured his sight, for he wore glasses.