"The man is mad!" exclaimed Bianchon.

"You think so, do you?" said his uncle. "If you listen to only one
bell, you hear only one sound."

"But it seems to me----" said Bianchon.

"But it seems to me," said Popinot, "that if any relation of mine
wanted to get hold of the management of my affairs, and if, instead of
being a humble lawyer, whose colleagues can, any day, verify what his
condition is, I were a duke of the realm, an attorney with a little
cunning, like Desroches, might bring just such a petition against me.

"'That his children's education has been neglected for this
monomania; and that he has taught them, against all the rules of
education, the facts of Chinese history, which contradict the tenets
of the Catholic Church. He also has them taught the Chinese
dialects.'"

"Here Desroches strikes me as funny," said Bianchon.

"The petition is drawn up by his head-clerk Godeschal, who, as you
know, is not strong in Chinese," said the lawyer.

"'That he often leaves his children destitute of the most necessary
things; that the petitioner, notwithstanding her entreaties, can never
see them; that the said Marquis d'Espard brings them to her only once
a year; that, knowing the privations to which they are exposed, she
makes vain efforts to give them the things most necessary for their