"In such a case the money is left equally to the two brothers, and I
tell you, it will not look well."

And the doctor, out of all patience, went away, returned to his father's
house, and went to bed. For some time afterward he heard Jean moving
softly about the adjoining room, and then, after drinking two glasses of
water, he fell asleep.



CHAPTER III

The doctor awoke next morning firmly resolved to make his fortune.
Several times already he had come to the same determination without
following up the reality. At the outset of all his trials of some new
career the hopes of rapidly acquired riches kept up his efforts and
confidence, till the first obstacle, the first check, threw him into a
fresh path. Snug in bed between the warm sheets, he lay meditating. How
many medical men had become wealthy in quite a short time! All that was
needed was a little knowledge of the world; for in the course of his
studies he had learned to estimate the most famous physicians, and he
judged them all to be asses. He was certainly as good as they, if not
better. If by any means he could secure a practice among the wealth and
fashion of Havre, he could easily make a hundred thousand francs a year.
And he calculated with great exactitude what his certain profits must
be. He would go out in the morning to visit his patients; at the very
moderate average of ten a day, at twenty francs each, that would mount
up to seventy-two thousand francs a year at least, or even seventy-five
thousand; for ten patients was certainly below the mark. In the
afternoon he would be at home to, say, another ten patients, at ten