The post master had forgotten about his son in his hurry to reach the square; for if the doctor were really in the church hearing mass it was a question of losing two hundred and fifty thousand francs.

It must be admitted that the fears of these relations came from the strongest and most legitimate of social feelings, family interests.
"Well, Monsieur Minoret," said the mayor (formerly a miller who had now become royalist, named Levrault-Cremiere), "when the devil gets old the devil a monk would be.

Your uncle, they say, is one of us." "Better late than never, cousin," responded the post master, trying to conceal his annoyance.
"How that fellow will grin if we are defrauded! He is capable of marrying his son to that damned girl--may the devil get her!" cried Cremiere, shaking his fists at the mayor as he entered the porch.
"What's Cremiere grumbling about ?" said the butcher of the town, a Levrault-Levrault the elder.

"Isn't he pleased to see his uncle on the road to paradise ?" "Who would ever have believed it!" ejaculated Massin.
"Ha! one should never say, 'Fountain, I'll not drink of your water,'" remarked the notary, who, seeing the group from afar, had left his wife to go to church without him.
"Come, Monsieur Dionis," said Cremiere, taking the notary by the arm, "what do you advise me to do under the circumstances ?" "I advise you," said the notary, addressing the heirs collectively, "to go to bed and get up at your usual hour; to eat your soup before it gets cold; to put your feet in your shoes and your hats on your heads; in short, to continue your ways of life precisely as if nothing had happened." "You are not consoling," said Massin.
In spite of his squat, dumpy figure and heavy face, Cremiere-Dionis was really as keen as a blade.

In pursuit of usurious fortune he did business secretly with Massin, to whom he no doubt pointed out such peasants as were hampered in means, and such pieces of land as could be bought for a song.