“Hold your tongue, you drunkard; it isn’t any of your business; if the girl’s mother doesn’t come to see her, it must be because she is dead, or else because she is a bad mother; if she is dead, then I must take her place with the child; if she is a bad mother, Louise would be unhappy with her, and I prefer to keep her with me.”
While Chérubin grew up beside his little friend, Jasmin continued to govern the Marquis de Grandvilain’s household; he was careful in his expenditure; the servants were not permitted to indulge in any excesses, and he himself got tipsy only once a week, which was very modest in one who had the keys to the cellar. But Jasmin thought constantly of his young master; he went to see him often, and sometimes passed whole days at Gagny; and he always asked Chérubin if he wished to go back to Paris with him, to his own house. The little fellow always refused, and Jasmin always returned to Paris alone, consoling himself with the thought that the young marquis was in excellent health, and that that was the main point.
When Jasmin went to the notary to ask for money, which he never did without presenting an exact statement of what he had to pay out, the notary, after praising the faithful valet for the honesty and economy with which he regulated the household expenditure, never failed to ask him:
“And our young marquis, how does he come on?”
“He is in superb health,” Jasmin would reply.
“He ought to be a big fellow now, he is nearly eleven years old.”
“He has a very pretty figure and a charming face; he will be a little jewel, whom all the women will dote on, I am sure, as they doted on his late father; but I presume that they won’t be the same women.”
“That is all very well; but how is he getting on with his studies; have you placed the little marquis at a good institution?”
“Excellent, monsieur; oh, yes! he is in a very good house indeed; he eats as much as he wants.”
“I have no doubt that he is well fed, but that is not enough; at his age, what he wants above all is food for the mind. Does he give satisfaction?”