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dishes, locked up the remains of the dinner, and put out her fire, she
left the kitchen, which was separated by a passage from the
living-room, and went to spin hemp beside her masters. One tallow
candle sufficed the family for the evening. The servant slept at the
end of the passage in a species of closet lighted only by a fan-light.
Her robust health enabled her to live in this hole with impunity;
there she could hear the slightest noise through the deep silence
which reigned night and day in that dreary house. Like a watch-dog,
she slept with one ear open, and took her rest with a mind alert.
A description of the other parts of the dwelling will be found
connected with the events of this history, though the foregoing sketch
of the hall, where the whole luxury of the household appears, may
enable the reader to surmise the nakedness of the upper floors.
In 1819, at the beginning of an evening in the middle of November, la
Grande Nanon lighted the fire for the first time. The autumn had been
very fine. This particular day was a fete-day well known to the
Cruchotines and the Grassinists. The six antagonists, armed at all
points, were making ready to meet at the Grandets and surpass each
other in testimonials of friendship. That morning all Saumur had seen
Madame and Mademoiselle Grandet, accompanied by Nanon, on their way to
hear Mass at the parish church, and every one remembered that the day
was the anniversary of Mademoiselle Eugenie's birth. Calculating the
hour at which the family dinner would be over, Maitre Cruchot, the
Abbe Cruchot, and Monsieur C. de Bonfons hastened to arrive before the
des Grassins, and be the first to pay their compliments to
Mademoiselle Eugenie. All three brought enormous bouquets, gathered in
their little green-houses. The stalks of the flowers which the
president intended to present were ingeniously wound round with a
white satin ribbon adorned with gold fringe. In the morning Monsieur
Grandet, following his usual custom on the days that commemorated the
birth and the fete of Eugenie, went to her bedside and solemnly
presented her with his paternal gift,--which for the last thirteen
years had consisted regularly of a curious gold-piece. Madame Grandet
gave her daughter a winter dress or a summer dress, as the case might
be. These two dresses and the gold-pieces, of which she received two
others on New Year's day and on her father's fete-day, gave Eugenie a
little revenue of a hundred crowns or thereabouts, which Grandet loved
to see her amass. Was it not putting his money from one strong-box to
another, and, as it were, training the parsimony of his heiress? from
whom he sometimes demanded an account of her treasure (formerly
increased by the gifts of the Bertellieres), saying: "It is to be your
marriage dozen."
The "marriage dozen" is an old custom sacredly preserved and still in
force in many parts of central France.
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