In fact, the Saillards did not know how better to manage their savings than to carry them, five thousand francs at a time, to their notary, Monsieur Sorbier, Cardot's predecessor, and let him invest them at five per cent in first mortgages, with the wife's rights reserved in case the borrower was married! In 1804 Madame Saillard obtained a government office for the sale of stamped papers, a circumstance which brought a servant into the household for the first time.

At the time of which we write, the house, which was worth a hundred thousand francs, brought in a rental of eight thousand.

Falleix paid seven per cent for the sixty thousand invested in the foundry, besides an equal division of profits.

The Saillards were therefore enjoying an income of not less than seventeen thousand francs a year.

The whole ambition of the good man now centred on obtaining the cross of the Legion and his retiring pension.
Elisabeth, the only child, had toiled steadily from infancy in a home where the customs of life were rigid and the ideas simple.