Old Rollet, having been too
busy with the affairs of the nation to attend to his business, had died
insolvent, leaving his son with nothing but his own wits to help him
out of future difficulties; and it was not long before their exercise
was called for.
Claudine Rollet, his sister, who was a very pretty girl, had attracted
the attention of Mademoiselle de Bellefonds's brother, Alphonse; and
as he paid her more attention than from such a quarter was agreeable
to Jacques, the young men had had more than one quarrel on the subject,
on which occasion they had each, characteristically, given vent to
their enmity, the one in contemptuous monosyllables, and the other in
a volley of insulting words. But Claudine had another lover, more
nearly of her own condition of life; this was Claperon, the
deputy-governor of the Rouen jail, with whom she had made acquaintance
during one or two compulsory visits paid by her brother to that
functionary. Claudine, who was a bit of a coquette, though she did not
altogether reject his suit, gave him little encouragement, so that,
betwixt hopes and fears and doubts and jealousies, poor Claperon led
a very uneasy kind of life.
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