lawsuits, he looked on the chapter's loss of this one, of which he had in
some sort guaranteed the success, as a personal humiliation, so that when
Urbain gave himself airs of triumph and exacted the last letter of his
bond, as in the case of Meunier, he turned Mignon into an enemy who was
not only more relentless but more dangerous than the former.

In the meantime, and in consequence of this lawsuit, a certain Barot, an
uncle of Mignon and his partner as well, got up a dispute with Urbain,
but as he was a man below mediocrity, Urbain required in order to crush
him only to let fall from the height of his superiority a few of those
disdainful words which brand as deeply as a red-hot iron. This man,
though totally wanting in parts, was very rich, and having no children
was always surrounded by a horde of relatives, every one of whom was
absorbed in the attempt to make himself so agreeable that his name would
appear in Barot's will. This being so, the mocking words which were
rained down on Barot spattered not only himself but also all those who
had sided with him in the quarrel, and thus added considerably to the
tale of Urbain's enemies.

About this epoch a still graver event took place. Amongst the most
assiduous frequenters of the confessional in his church was a young and
pretty girl, Julie by name, the daughter of the king's attorney,
Trinquant--Trinquant being, as well as Barot, an uncle of Mignon. Now it
happened that this young girl fell into such a state of debility that she
was obliged to keep her room. One of her friends, named Marthe
Pelletier, giving up society, of which she was very fond, undertook to
nurse the patient, and carried her devotion so far as to shut herself up
in the same room with her. When Julie Trinquant had recovered and was
able again to take her place in the world, it came out that Marthe
Pelletier, during her weeks of retirement, had given birth to a child,