have placed him on his feet again, for not only had he received his
pardon, but he was once more in a position to undertake affairs of
considerable importance, launched into journalism, having his share
again of all the good things going. And the recollection came to her
of the quarrels of other days between him and his brother Eugene
Rougon, whom he had so often compromised, and whom, by an ironical
turn of events, he was perhaps going to protect, now that the former
minister of the Empire was only a simple deputy, resigned to the
single role of standing by his fallen master with the obstinacy with
which his mother stood by her family. She still obeyed docilely the
orders of her eldest son, the genius, fallen though he was; but
Saccard, whatever he might do, had also a part in her heart, from his
indomitable determination to succeed, and she was also proud of
Maxime, Clotilde's brother, who had taken up his quarters again, after
the war, in his mansion in the Avenue of the Bois de Boulogne, where
he was consuming the fortune left him by his wife, Louise de Mareuil,
become prudent, with the wisdom of a man struck in a vital part, and
trying to cheat the paralysis which threatened him.

"Editor of the _Epoque_," she repeated; "it is really the position of
a minister which your father has won. And I forgot to tell you, I have
written again to your brother, to persuade him to come and see us.
That would divert him, it would do him good. Then, there is that
child, that poor Charles--"

She did not continue. This was another of the wounds from which her
pride bled; a son whom Maxime had had when seventeen by a servant, and
who now, at the age of fifteen, weak of intellect, a half-idiot, lived
at Plassans, going from the house of one to that of another, a burden
to all.