Madame
Minoret-Levrault, who kept an eye on the upholsterer and architect as
if her own property was concerned, found out, through the indiscretion
of a young man sent to arrange the books, that the doctor was taking
care of a little orphan named Ursula. The news flew like wild-fire
through the town. At last, however, towards the middle of the month of
January, 1815, the old man actually arrived, installing himself
quietly, almost slyly, with a little girl about ten months old, and a
nurse.
"The child can't be his daughter," said the terrified heirs; "he is
seventy-one years old."
"Whoever she is," remarked Madame Massin, "she'll give us plenty of
tintouin" (a word peculiar to Nemours, meaning uneasiness, anxiety, or
more literally, tingling in the ears).
The doctor received his great-niece on the mother's side somewhat
coldly; her husband had just bought the place of clerk of the court,
and the pair began at once to tell him of their difficulties. Neither
Massin nor his wife were rich. Massin's father, a locksmith at
Montargis, had been obliged to compromise with his creditors, and was
now, at sixty-seven years of age, working like a young man, and had
nothing to leave behind him.
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