enriched by the purchase of the confiscated property of _emigres_ was,
like Simon Giguet, a son of Arcis. Old Goulard, his father, left the
abbey of Valpreux (corruption of Val-des-Preux) to live in Arcis after
the death of his wife, and he sent his son to the imperial lyceum,
where Colonel Giguet had already placed his son Simon. The two
schoolmates subsequently went through their legal studies in Paris
together, and their intimacy was continued in the amusements of youth.
They promised to help each other to success in life whenever they
entered upon their different careers. But fate willed that they should
end by being rivals.

In spite of Goulard's manifest advantages, in spite of the cross of
the Legion of honor which the Comte de Gondreville had obtained for
him in default of promotion, the offer of his heart and position had
been frankly declined when, about six months before this history
begins, he had privately presented himself to Madame Beauvisage as a
suitor for her daughter's hand. No step of that nature is ever taken
secretly in the provinces. The _procureur-du-roi_, Frederic Marest,
whose fortune, buttonhole, and position were about on a par with those
of Antonin Goulard, had received a like refusal, three years earlier,
based on the difference of ages. Consequently, the two officials were
on terms of strict politeness with the Beauvisage family, and laughed
at them severally in private. Both had divined and communicated to
each other the real motive of the candidacy of Simon Giguet, for they
fully understood the hopes of Madame Marion; and they were bent on
preventing her nephew from marrying the heiress whose hand had been
refused to them.

"God grant that I may be master of this election," said Goulard, "and
that the Comte de Gondreville may get me made a prefect, for I have no