cellular tissue no doubt reassured Lupin on the subject of the
platonic passion of his fat wife, whom he boldly called Bebelle
without raising a laugh.

"Your wife, what is she?" said Sarcus the rich, one day, when unable
to digest the fatal word "superannuated," applied to a piece of
furniture he had just bought at a bargain.

"My wife is not like yours," replied Lupin; "she is not defined as
yet."

Beneath his rosy exterior the notary possessed a subtle mind, and he
had the sense to say nothing about his property, which was fully as
large as that of Rigou.

Monsieur Lupin's son, Amaury, was a great trouble to his father. An
only son, and one of the Don Juans of the valley, he utterly refused
to follow the paternal profession. He took advantage of his position
as only son to bleed the strong-box cruelly, without, however,
exhausting the patience of his father, who would say after every
escapade, "Well, I was like that in my young days." Amaury never came
to Madame Soudry's; he said she bored him; for, with a recollection of
her early days, she attempted to "educate" him, as she called it,
whereas he much preferred the pleasures and billiards of the Cafe de
la Paix. He frequented the worst company of Soulanges, even down to
Bonnebault. He continued sowing his wild oats, as Madame Soudry
remarked, and replied to all his father's remonstrances with one
perpetual request: "Send me back to Paris, for I am bored to death
here."