His large income he consecrated almost entirely to the improvement of his estate or to the purchase of more land.

And yet, he was not avaricious.
In all that concerned his wife or children, he did not count the cost.
His son, Jean, had been educated in Paris; he wished him to be fitted for any position.

Unwilling to consent to a separation from his daughter, he had procured a governess to take charge of her education.
Sometimes his friends accused him of an inordinate ambition for his children; but he always shook his head sadly, as he replied: "If _I_ can only insure them a modest and comfortable future! But what folly it is to count upon the future.

Thirty years ago, who could have foreseen that the Sairmeuse family would be deprived of their estates ?" With such opinions he should have been a good master; he was, but no one thought the better of him on that account.

His former comrades could not forgive him for his sudden elevation.
They seldom spoke of him without wishing his ruin in ambiguous words.
Alas! the evil days came.