The Muse of the Department | Page 8

then resign, and Monsieur
Gravier will give twenty thousand francs for it. In addition, the Order
of the Legion of Honor will be conferred on you."
"Well, that is something," said the wine-grower, tempted by the money
rather than by the red ribbon.
"But then," said des Lupeaulx, "you must show your gratitude to His
Excellency by restoring to Monseigneur the Duc de Navarreins all your
claims on him."
La Baudraye returned to Sancerre as Collector of Taxes. Six months
later he was superseded by Monsieur Gravier, regarded as one of the
most agreeable financiers who had served under the Empire, and who
was of course presented by Monsieur de la Baudraye to his wife.
As soon as he was released from his functions, Monsieur de la
Baudraye returned to Paris to come to an understanding with some
other debtors. This time he was made a Referendary under the Great
Seal, Baron, and Officer of the Legion of Honor. He sold the
appointment as Referendary; and then the Baron de la Baudraye called
on his last remaining debtors, and reappeared at Sancerre as Master of
Appeals, with an appointment as Royal Commissioner to a commercial

association established in the Nivernais, at a salary of six thousand
francs, an absolute sinecure. So the worthy La Baudraye, who was
supposed to have committed a financial blunder, had, in fact, done very
good business in the choice of a wife.
Thanks to sordid economy and an indemnity paid him for the estate
belonging to his father, nationalized and sold in 1793, by the year 1827
the little man could realize the dream of his whole life. By paying four
hundred thousand francs down, and binding himself to further
instalments, which compelled him to live for six years on the air as it
came, to use his own expression, he was able to purchase the estate of
Anzy on the banks of the Loire, about two leagues above Sancerre, and
its magnificent castle built by Philibert de l'Orme, the admiration of
every connoisseur, and for five centuries the property of the Uxelles
family. At last he was one of the great landowners of the province! It is
not absolutely certain that the satisfaction of knowing that an entail had
been created, by letters patent dated back to December 1820, including
the estates of Anzy, of La Baudraye, and of La Hautoy, was any
compensation to Dinah on finding herself reduced to unconfessed
penuriousness till 1835.
This sketch of the financial policy of the first Baron de la Baudraye
explains the man completely. Those who are familiar with the manias
of country folks will recognize in him the /land-hunger/ which becomes
such a consuming passion to the exclusion of every other; a sort of
avarice displayed in the sight of the sun, which often leads to ruin by a
want of balance between the interest on mortgages and the products of
the soil. Those who, from 1802 till 1827, had merely laughed at the
little man as they saw him trotting to Saint-Thibault and attending to
his business, like a merchant living on his vineyards, found the answer
to the riddle when the ant-lion seized his prey, after waiting for the day
when the extravagance of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse culminated in
the sale of that splendid property.
Madame Piedefer came to live with her daughter. The combined
fortunes of Monsieur de la Baudraye and his mother-in-law, who had
been content to accept an annuity of twelve hundred francs on the lands
of La Hautoy which she handed over to him, amounted to an
acknowledged income of about fifteen thousand francs.
During the early days of her married life, Dinah had effected some

alterations which had made the house at La Baudraye a very pleasant
residence. She turned a spacious forecourt into a formal garden, pulling
down wine-stores, presses, and shabby outhouses. Behind the
manor-house, which, though small, did not lack style with its turrets
and gables, she laid out a second garden with shrubs, flower-beds, and
lawns, and divided it from the vineyards by a wall hidden under
creepers. She also made everything within doors as comfortable as their
narrow circumstances allowed.
In order not to be ruined by a young lady so very superior as Dinah
seemed to be, Monsieur de la Baudraye was shrewd enough to say
nothing as to the recovery of debts in Paris. This dead secrecy as to his
money matters gave a touch of mystery to his character, and lent him
dignity in his wife's eyes during the first years of their married life--so
majestic is silence!
The alterations effected at La Baudraye made everybody eager to see
the young mistress, all the more so because Dinah would never show
herself, nor receive any company, before she felt quite settled