"But that doesn't disturb monsieur your father," he added; "you pay your workmen as you feed a horse, according to the amount of work you require of him. When you double his work you double his pay, as you double the quantity of oats; then, when you're no longer in such a hurry, you cut down the pay or the rations proportionately."
"My father won't do that," said Emile; "he might with horses, but not with men."
"Don't say that, monsieur," rejoined Galuchet; "monsieur your father knows what he's about, he won't do anything foolish, never fear."
And he carried off his gudgeons, delighted to have had an opportunity to set the son's mind at rest concerning the father's apparent imprudence.
"Oh! if that should be true!" thought Emile, as he walked excitedly along the bank of the stream; "if it should prove that this temporary generosity conceals inhuman cunning! Suppose that Jean's suspicions were well-founded! that my father, while following the blind doctrines of society, has no greater store of virtue or intelligence than other speculators have, to diminish the disastrous results of his ambition! But no, it is impossible; my father is kind-hearted, he loves his fellow-men."
But Emile had death in his heart; the thought of all this waste of energy and of life for the benefit of his future made him recoil in horror and disgust. He wondered how it was that all these men who were working to build his fortune did not hate him, and he was ready to hate himself in order to balance the scales of justice.
On the following day, he was still profoundly distressed, but he hailed with something like delight the day which he was to devote in part to Monsieur de Boisguilbault, because he had made up his mind to go and pass the day at Châteaubrun without saying a word to anybody. As he mounted his horse, Monsieur Cardonnet made divers satirical remarks:
"You are starting early to go to Boisguilbault! it would seem that the amiable marquis's society has charms for you; I should never have suspected it, and I can't imagine what secret method you have of keeping awake after each of his remarks."
"If this is your way of informing me that you do not like what I am doing," said Emile, impatiently preparing to dismount, "I am ready to give it up, although I accepted an invitation for to-day."
"I not like it!" rejoined the manufacturer; "why it is a matter of perfect indifference to me whether you are bored there or somewhere else. As your father's house is the place where you find least pleasure, I am anxious that you should derive some recompense from the society of the noble personages with whom you associate."