never give his daughter to the one or to the other. The old cooper,
eaten up with ambition, was looking, they said, for a peer of France,
to whom an income of three hundred thousand francs would make all the
past, present, and future casks of the Grandets acceptable. Others
replied that Monsieur and Madame des Grassins were nobles, and
exceedingly rich; that Adolphe was a personable young fellow; and that
unless the old man had a nephew of the pope at his beck and call, such
a suitable alliance ought to satisfy a man who came from nothing,--a
man whom Saumur remembered with an adze in his hand, and who had,
moreover, worn the _bonnet rouge_. Certain wise heads called attention
to the fact that Monsieur Cruchot de Bonfons had the right of entry to
the house at all times, whereas his rival was received only on
Sundays. Others, however, maintained that Madame des Grassins was more
intimate with the women of the house of Grandet than the Cruchots
were, and could put into their minds certain ideas which would lead,
sooner or later, to success. To this the former retorted that the Abbe
Cruchot was the most insinuating man in the world: pit a woman against
a monk, and the struggle was even. "It is diamond cut diamond," said a
Saumur wit.

The oldest inhabitants, wiser than their fellows, declared that the
Grandets knew better than to let the property go out of the family,
and that Mademoiselle Eugenie Grandet of Saumur would be married to
the son of Monsieur Grandet of Paris, a wealthy wholesale
wine-merchant. To this the Cruchotines and the Grassinists replied:
"In the first place, the two brothers have seen each other only twice
in thirty years; and next, Monsieur Grandet of Paris has ambitious
designs for his son. He is mayor of an arrondissement, a deputy,
colonel of the National Guard, judge in the commercial courts; he
disowns the Grandets of Saumur, and means to ally himself with some