The steward determined to study the general, in order to find out if he could disgust him with the place,--hoping still to be able to carry out his defeated plan in his own interests.
With the peculiar instinct which characterizes those who make their fortunes by craft, Gaubertin believed in a resemblance of nature (which was not improbable) between an old soldier and an Opera-singer.

An actress, and a general of the Empire,--surely they would have the same extravagant habits, the same careless prodigality?
To the one as to the other, riches came capriciously and by lucky chances.

If some soldiers are wily and astute and clever politicians, they are exceptions; a soldier is, usually, especially an accomplished cavalry officer like Montcornet, guileless, confident, a novice in business, and little fitted to understand details in the management of an estate.

Gaubertin flattered himself that he could catch and hold the general with the same net in which Mademoiselle Laguerre had finished her days.

But it so happened that the Emperor had once, intentionally, allowed Montcornet to play the same game in Pomerania that Gaubertin was playing at Les Aigues; consequently, the general fully understood a system of plundering.
In planting cabbages, to use the expression of the first Duc de Biron, the old cuirassier sought to divert his mind, by occupation, from dwelling on his fall.