without that cry of protest which they always seemed to make when placed
in contact with the glaring white walls of modern habitations. The
historic residence required an endless outlay; on that account it had
changed owners so many times.

But he and the land understood each other beautifully. . . . So at the
same time that he was filling the salons, he was going to begin farming
and stock-raising in the extensive parks--a reproduction in miniature
of his enterprises in South America. The property ought to be made
self-supporting. Not that he had any fear of the expenses, but he did
not intend to lose money on the proposition.

The acquisition of the castle brought Desnoyers a true friendship--the
chief advantage in the transaction. He became acquainted with a
neighbor, Senator Lacour, who twice had been Minister of State, and was
now vegetating in the senate, silent during its sessions, but restless
and voluble in the corridors in order to maintain his influence. He was
a prominent figure of the republican nobility, an aristocrat of the new
regime that had sprung from the agitations of the Revolution, just
as the titled nobility had won their spurs in the Crusades. His
great-grandfather had belonged to the Convention. His father had figured
in the Republic of 1848. He, as the son of an exile who had died in
banishment, had when very young marched behind the grandiloquent figure
of Gambetta, and always spoke in glowing terms of the Master, in the
hope that some of his rays might be reflected on his disciple. His son
Rene, a pupil of the Ecole Centrale regarded his father as "a rare
old sport," laughing a little at his romantic and humanitarian
republicanism. He, nevertheless, was counting much on that same official
protection treasured by four generations of Lacours dedicated to the
service of the Republic, to assist him when he became an engineer.