But when the architect and painter and upholsterer had arranged everything in the most comfortable manner, the doctor did not come.

Madame Minoret-Levrault, who kept an eye on the upholsterer and architect as if her own property was concerned, found out, through the indiscretion of a young man sent to arrange the books, that the doctor was taking care of a little orphan named Ursula.

The news flew like wild-fire through the town.

At last, however, towards the middle of the month of January, 1815, the old man actually arrived, installing himself quietly, almost slyly, with a little girl about ten months old, and a nurse.
"The child can't be his daughter," said the terrified heirs; "he is seventy-one years old." "Whoever she is," remarked Madame Massin, "she'll give us plenty of tintouin" (a word peculiar to Nemours, meaning uneasiness, anxiety, or more literally, tingling in the ears).
The doctor received his great-niece on the mother's side somewhat coldly; her husband had just bought the place of clerk of the court, and the pair began at once to tell him of their difficulties.

Neither Massin nor his wife were rich.