savings. Pierre, in selecting Angele for his son had considered that
he had made an unexpected bargain, so lightly did he esteem Aristide.
However, that dowry of ten thousand francs, which determined his choice,
ultimately became a millstone round his neck. His son, who was already
a cunning rogue, deposited the ten thousand francs with his father,
with whom he entered into partnership, declining, with the most sincere
professions of devotion, to keep a single copper.

"We have no need of anything," he said; "you will keep my wife and
myself, and we will reckon up later on."

Pierre was short of money at the time, and accepted, not, however,
without some uneasiness at Aristide's disinterestedness. The latter
calculated that it would be years before his father would have ten
thousand francs in ready money to repay him, so that he and his wife
would live at the paternal expense so long as the partnership could not
be dissolved. It was an admirable investment for his few bank-notes.
When the oil-dealer understood what a foolish bargain he had made he
was not in a position to rid himself of Aristide; Angele's dowry was
involved in speculations which were turning out unfavourably. He
was exasperated, stung to the heart, at having to provide for his
daughter-in-law's voracious appetite and keep his son in idleness. Had
he been able to buy them out of the business he would twenty times have
shut his doors on those bloodsuckers, as he emphatically expressed it.
Felicite secretly defended them; the young man, who had divined her
dreams of ambition, would every evening describe to her the elaborate
plans by which he would shortly make a fortune. By a rare chance she
had remained on excellent terms with her daughter-in-law. It must be
confessed that Angele had no will of her own--she could be moved and
disposed of like a piece of furniture.