In order not to involve Moreau, he is himself to propose me as tenant and farmer; it gives him a look of acting for his master's interests by finding him nearly three per cent for his money, and a tenant who will pay well." "How much will Moreau make, in all ?" "Well, if the count gives him ten thousand francs for the transaction the matter will bring him fifty thousand,--and well-earned, too." "After all, the count, so they tell me, doesn't like Presles.

And then he is so rich, what does it matter what it costs him ?" said the inn-keeper.

"I have never seen him, myself." "Nor I," said Pere Leger.

"But he must be intending to live there, or why should he spend two hundred thousand francs in restoring the chateau?
It is as fine now as the King's own palace." "Well, well," said the inn-keeper, "it was high time for Moreau to feather his nest." "Yes, for if the masters come there," replied Leger, "they won't keep their eyes in their pockets." The count lost not a word of this conversation, which was held in a low voice, but not in a whisper.
"Here I have actually found the proofs I was going down there to seek," he thought, looking at the fat farmer as he entered the kitchen.

"But perhaps," he added, "it is only a scheme; Moreau may not have listened to it." So unwilling was he to believe that his steward could lend himself to such a conspiracy.
Pierrotin here came out to water his horses.