The Two Brothers | Page 6

correctly, the doctor, inherited all
the property, landed and personal, of Monsieur and Madame Descoings
the elder, who died within two years of each other; and soon after that,
Rouget got the better, as we may say, of his wife, for she died at the
beginning of the year 1799. So he had vineyards and he bought farms,
he owned iron-works and he sold fleeces. His well-beloved son was
stupidly incapable of doing anything; but the father destined him for

the state in life of a land proprietor and allowed him to grow up in
wealth and silliness, certain that the lad would know as much as the
wisest if he simply let himself live and die. After 1799, the cipherers of
Issoudun put, at the very least, thirty thousand francs' income to the
doctor's credit. From the time of his wife's death he led a debauched life,
though he regulated it, so to speak, and kept it within the closed doors
of his own house. This man, endowed with "strength of character," died
in 1805, and God only knows what the townspeople of Issoudun said
about him then, and how many anecdotes they related of his horrible
private life. Jean-Jacques Rouget, whom his father, recognizing his
stupidity, had latterly treated with severity, remained a bachelor for
certain reasons, the explanation of which will form an important part of
this history. His celibacy was partly his father's fault, as we shall see
later.
Meantime, it is well to inquire into the results of the secret vengeance
the doctor took on a daughter whom he did not recognize as his own,
but who, you must understand at once, was legitimately his. Not a
person in Issoudun had noticed one of those capricious facts that make
the whole subject of generation a vast abyss in which science flounders.
Agathe bore a strong likeness to the mother of Doctor Rouget. Just as
gout is said to skip a generation and pass from grandfather to grandson,
resemblances not uncommonly follow the same course.
In like manner, the eldest of Agathe's children, who physically
resembled his mother, had the moral qualities of his grandfather,
Doctor Rouget. We will leave the solution of this problem to the
twentieth century, with a fine collection of microscopic animalculae;
our descendants may perhaps write as much nonsense as the scientific
schools of the nineteenth century have uttered on this mysterious and
perplexing question.
Agathe Rouget attracted the admiration of everyone by a face destined,
like that of Mary, the mother of our Lord, to continue ever virgin, even
after marriage. Her portrait, still to be seen in the atelier of Bridau,
shows a perfect oval and a clear whiteness of complexion, without the
faintest tinge of color, in spite of her golden hair. More than one artist,

looking at the pure brow, the discreet, composed mouth, the delicate
nose, the small ears, the long lashes, and the dark-blue eyes filled with
tenderness,--in short, at the whole countenance expressive of
placidity,--has asked the great artist, "Is that a copy of a Raphael?" No
man ever acted under a truer inspiration than the minister's secretary
when he married this young girl. Agathe was an embodiment of the
ideal housekeeper brought up in the provinces and never parted from
her mother. Pious, though far from sanctimonious, she had no other
education than that given to women by the Church. Judged, by ordinary
standards, she was an accomplished wife, yet her ignorance of life
paved the way for great misfortunes. The epitaph on the Roman matron,
"She did needlework and kept the house," gives a faithful picture of her
simple, pure, and tranquil existence.
Under the Consulate, Bridau attached himself fanatically to Napoleon,
who placed him at the head of a department in the ministry of the
interior in 1804, a year before the death of Doctor Rouget. With a
salary of twelve thousand francs and very handsome emoluments,
Bridau was quite indifferent to the scandalous settlement of the
property at Issoudun, by which Agathe was deprived of her rightful
inheritance. Six months before Doctor Rouget's death he had sold
one-half of his property to his son, to whom the other half was
bequeathed as a gift, and also in accordance with his rights as heir. An
advance of fifty thousand francs on her inheritance, made to Agathe at
the time of her marriage, represented her share of the property of her
father and mother.
Bridau idolized the Emperor, and served him with the devotion of a
Mohammedan for his prophet; striving to carry out the vast conceptions
of the modern demi-god, who, finding the whole fabric of France
destroyed, went to work to reconstruct everything. The new official
never showed fatigue, never cried "Enough." Projects, reports, notes,
studies, he accepted all, even the hardest