"'To Monsieur Paul; the purchaser has given no other name, but he pays cash for the property, and is at liberty to take possession whenever he chooses.'
"'Paul is it!' said the country folk; 'after all, a man may have no other name than Paul and be a perfectly honorable man; we have had merchants and manufacturers who were called simply Jean or Pierre. If this Paul is an agreeable man, a jovial companion, he'll be a welcome addition to the neighborhood. And then, it's probable that he has a wife and children; as he has bought that big house, he must have people to put in it. Perhaps he will give a party, a ball to his new neighbors, to become acquainted with them; then we shall find out what sort of man he is.'
"That, madame, was what the people said here in Chelles and in the neighborhood. But time passed and no one arrived; the estate of the Tower showed no sign of life, assumed no festal air.
"'For heaven's sake, isn't the new owner going to occupy his house?' people began to say. 'In that case, why did he buy it?'
"But one morning Jeannette the poulterer informed her neighbors:
"'Well, the gentleman who's bought the Tower has arrived; he's been in the house a fortnight. What do you suppose his household consists of?—a dog! nothing but a great dog that's always at his master's heels. But I suppose he found out that his dog couldn't get his dinner and do his housework, so he's hired old Mère Lucas, from the village of Couberon, who's almost blind and a little deaf, and she takes care of his house.'
"You can understand, mesdames, that everybody was amazed to learn that the only occupants of that enormous house were a man, a dog and a half-blind and deaf old woman.
"'The gentleman has come on ahead,' people thought; 'his family is probably going to join him here.' But no one came. And then, the new owner, instead of showing himself to his neighbors and trying to become acquainted with them, never went out to walk, or at all events not in any frequented part of the country; and people said: 'Have you seen the owner of the Tower?'—'No.'—'Nor I; where in the devil does the man keep himself?'—'Doesn't he ever leave his house or his grounds? he must live like a hermit, then?'
"One day, however, one of the townspeople met him and lost no time in letting everybody know that this Monsieur Paul was a tall, well-built man, neither young nor old, that is to say, with a full beard which covered a large part of his face and made it impossible to guess his age; but that he had a savage, repellent, disagreeable manner; that he was dressed very simply, in hunting costume: jacket, long leather gaiters and a cap with a broad vizor which concealed all the upper part of his face. He had a gun in his hand and a large dog at his heels.
"People said: 'He is probably very fond of hunting and passes all his time at it; hunters aren't very good-natured, so we must overlook his peculiarities. But the hunting season doesn't last forever, and no doubt the man with the big dog will become more sociable; let us wait.'