He ate and drank much, and slept
twelve round hours. The rest of the time, when he did not talk
with Bertha, he wandered in the park, lounged in a rocking-chair,
or took a jaunt in the saddle. He even went fishing under the
willows at the foot of the garden; and grew fat. His best days
were those which he spent at Corbeil with Jenny. He found in her
something of his past, and she always quarrelled with him, which
woke him up. Besides, she brought him the gossip of Paris and the
small talk of the boulevards. She came regularly every week, and
her love for Hector, far from diminishing, seemed to grow with each
interview. The poor girl's affairs were in a troubled condition.
She had bought her establishment at too high a price, and her
partner at the end of the first month decamped, carrying off three
thousand francs. She knew nothing about the trade which she had
undertaken, and she was robbed without mercy on all sides. She
said nothing of these troubles to Hector, but she intended to ask
him to come to her assistance. It was the least that he could do.
At first, the visitors to Valfeuillu were somewhat astonished at
the constant presence there of a young man of leisure; but they got
accustomed to him.
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