serious cases, especially if the patients were indigent, would not
serve as a physician in the little hospital of Nemours, and declared
that he no longer practiced his profession.

"I've killed enough people," he said, laughing, to the Abbe Chaperon,
who, knowing his benevolence, would often get him to attend the poor.

"He's an original!" These words, said of Doctor Minoret, were the
harmless revenge of various wounded vanities; for a doctor collects
about him a society of persons who have many of the characteristics of
a set of heirs. Those of the bourgeoisie who thought themselves
entitled to visit this distinguished physician kept up a ferment of
jealousy against the few privileged friends whom he did admit to his
intimacy, which had in the long run some unfortunate results.



CHAPTER III

THE DOCTOR'S FRIENDS

Curiously enough, though it explains the old proverb that "extremes
meet," the materialistic doctor and the cure of Nemours were soon
friends. The old man loved backgammon, a favorite game of the
priesthood, and the Abbe Chaperon played it with about as much skill
as he himself. The game was the first tie between them. Then Minoret
was charitable, and the abbe was the Fenelon of the Gatinais. Both had
had a wide and varied education; the man of God was the only person in
all Nemours who was fully capable of understanding the atheist. To be
able to argue, men must first understand each other. What pleasure is