It was a saying of the country-side for a circuit of thirty miles:-- "Monsieur de Serizy has a second self in Moreau." Being a prudent man, Moreau invested yearly, after 1817, both his profits and his salary on the Grand Livre, piling up his heap with the utmost secrecy.

He often refused proposals on the plea of want of money; and he played the poor man so successfully with the count that the latter gave him the means to send both his sons to the school Henri IV.
At the present moment Moreau was worth one hundred and twenty thousand francs of capital invested in the Consolidated thirds, now paying five per cent, and quoted at eighty francs.

These carefully hidden one hundred and twenty thousand francs, and his farm at Champagne, enlarged by subsequent purchases, amounted to a fortune of about two hundred and eighty thousand francs, giving him an income of some sixteen thousand.
Such was the position of the steward at the time when the Comte de Serizy desired to purchase the farm of Moulineaux,--the ownership of which was indispensable to his comfort.

This farm consisted of ninety-six parcels of land bordering the estate of Presles, and frequently running into it, producing the most annoying discussions as to the trimming of hedges and ditches and the cutting of trees.

Any other than a cabinet minister would probably have had scores of lawsuits on his hands.