attack of fever, which confined him to his room for a week, made such a
hole in his purse, and caused him so much alarm, that he abandoned all
idea of completing his studies. The boy was now getting a big
fellow, and Florent took a post as teacher in a school in the Rue de
l'Estrapade, at a salary of eighteen hundred francs per annum. This
seemed like a fortune to him. By dint of economy he hoped to be able to
amass a sum of money which would set Quenu going in the world. When the
lad reached his eighteenth year Florent still treated him as though he
were a daughter for whom a dowry must be provided.

However, during his brother's brief illness Quenu himself had made
certain reflections. One morning he proclaimed his desire to work,
saying that he was now old enough to earn his own living. Florent was
deeply touched at this. Just opposite, on the other side of the street,
lived a working watchmaker whom Quenu, through the curtainless window,
could see leaning over a little table, manipulating all sorts of
delicate things, and patiently gazing at them through a magnifying glass
all day long. The lad was much attracted by the sight, and declared that
he had a taste for watchmaking. At the end of a fortnight, however, he
became restless, and began to cry like a child of ten, complaining
that the work was too complicated, and that he would never be able to
understand all the silly little things that enter into the construction
of a watch.

His next whim was to be a locksmith; but this calling he found too
fatiguing. In a couple of years he tried more than ten different trades.
Florent opined that he acted rightly, that it was wrong to take up a
calling one did not like. However, Quenu's fine eagerness to work for
his living strained the resources of the little establishment very
seriously. Since he had begun flitting from one workshop to another