CHAPTER II--MADELEINE

  He was a man about fifty years of age, who had a preoccupied air, andwho was good. That was all that could be said about him.

  Thanks to the rapid progress of the industry which he had so admirablyre-constructed, M. sur M. had become a rather important centre of trade.Spain, which consumes a good deal of black jet, made enormous purchasesthere each year. M. sur M. almost rivalled London and Berlin in thisbranch of commerce. Father Madeleine's profits were such, that at theend of the second year he was able to erect a large factory, in whichthere were two vast workrooms, one for the men, and the other for women.Any one who was hungry could present himself there, and was sure offinding employment and bread. Father Madeleine required of the men goodwill, of the women pure morals, and of all, probity. He had separatedthe work-rooms in order to separate the sexes, and so that the women andgirls might remain discreet. On this point he was inflexible. It was theonly thing in which he was in a manner intolerant. He was all the morefirmly set on this severity, since M. sur M., being a garrison town,opportunities for corruption abounded. However, his coming had been aboon, and his presence was a godsend. Before Father Madeleine's arrival,everything had languished in the country; now everything lived witha healthy life of toil. A strong circulation warmed everything andpenetrated everywhere. Slack seasons and wretchedness were unknown.There was no pocket so obscure that it had not a little money in it; nodwelling so lowly that there was not some little joy within it.

  Father Madeleine gave employment to every one. He exacted but one thing:Be an honest man. Be an honest woman.

  As we have said, in the midst of this activity of which he was the causeand the pivot, Father Madeleine made his fortune; but a singular thingin a simple man of business, it did not seem as though that were hischief care. He appeared to be thinking much of others, and little ofhimself. In 1820 he was known to have a sum of six hundred and thirtythousand francs lodged in his name with Laffitte; but before reservingthese six hundred and thirty thousand francs, he had spent more than amillion for the town and its poor.

  The hospital was badly endowed; he founded six beds there. M. sur M. isdivided into the upper and the lower town. The lower town, in which helived, had but one school, a miserable hovel, which was falling to ruin:he constructed two, one for girls, the other for boys. He allotted asalary from his own funds to the two instructors, a salary twice aslarge as their meagre official salary, and one day he said to some onewho expressed surprise, "The two prime functionaries of the state arethe nurse and the schoolmaster." He created at his own expense an infantschool, a thing then almost unknown in France, and a fund for aiding oldand infirm workmen. As his factory was a centre, a new quarter, in whichthere were a good many indigent families, rose rapidly around him; heestablished there a free dispensary.

  At first, when they watched his beginnings, the good souls said, "He'sa jolly fellow who means to get rich." When they saw him enrichingthe country before he enriched himself, the good souls said, "He isan ambitious man." This seemed all the more probable since the man wasreligious, and even practised his religion to a certain degree, a thingwhich was very favorably viewed at that epoch. He went regularly tolow mass every Sunday. The local deputy, who nosed out all rivalryeverywhere, soon began to grow uneasy over this religion. This deputyhad been a member of the legislative body of the Empire, and shared thereligious ideas of a father of the Oratoire, known under the nameof Fouché, Duc d'Otrante, whose creature and friend he had been. Heindulged in gentle raillery at God with closed doors. But when he beheldthe wealthy manufacturer Madeleine going to low mass at seven o'clock,he perceived in him a possible candidate, and resolved to outdo him; hetook a Jesuit confessor, and went to high mass and to vespers. Ambitionwas at that time, in the direct acceptation of the word, a race to thesteeple. The poor profited by this terror as well as the good God, forthe honorable deputy also founded two beds in the hospital, which madetwelve.

  Nevertheless, in 1819 a rumor one morning circulated through the townto the effect that, on the representations of the prefect and inconsideration of the services rendered by him to the country, FatherMadeleine was to be appointed by the King, mayor of M. sur M. Those whohad pronounced this new-comer to be "an ambitious fellow," seized withdelight on this opportunity which all men desire, to exclaim, "There!what did we say!" All M. sur M. was in an uproar. The rumor was wellfounded. Several days later the appointment appeared in the _Moniteur_.On the following day Father Madeleine refused.

  In this same year of 1819 the products of the new process invented byMadeleine figured in the industrial exhibition; when the jury made theirreport, the King appointed the inventor a chevalier of the Legion ofHonor. A fresh excitement in the little town. Well, so it was the crossthat he wanted! Father Madeleine refused the cross.

  Decidedly this man was an enigma. The good souls got out of theirpredicament by saying, "After all, he is some sort of an adventurer."

  We have seen that the country owed much to him; the poor owed himeverything; he was so useful and he was so gentle that people had beenobliged to honor and respect him. His workmen, in particular, adoredhim, and he endured this adoration with a sort of melancholy gravity.When he was known to be rich, "people in society" bowed to him, andhe received invitations in the town; he was called, in town, MonsieurMadeleine; his workmen and the children continued to call him FatherMadeleine, and that was what was most adapted to make him smile. Inproportion as he mounted, throve, invitations rained down upon him."Society" claimed him for its own. The prim little drawing-rooms onM. sur M., which, of course, had at first been closed to the artisan,opened both leaves of their folding-doors to the millionnaire. They madea thousand advances to him. He refused.

  This time the good gossips had no trouble. "He is an ignorant man, ofno education. No one knows where he came from. He would not know how tobehave in society. It has not been absolutely proved that he knows howto read."

  When they saw him making money, they said, "He is a man of business."When they saw him scattering his money about, they said, "He is anambitious man." When he was seen to decline honors, they said, "He isan adventurer." When they saw him repulse society, they said, "He is abrute."

  In 1820, five years after his arrival in M. sur M., the services whichhe had rendered to the district were so dazzling, the opinion ofthe whole country round about was so unanimous, that the King againappointed him mayor of the town. He again declined; but the prefectresisted his refusal, all the notabilities of the place came to implorehim, the people in the street besought him; the urging was so vigorousthat he ended by accepting. It was noticed that the thing which seemedchiefly to bring him to a decision was the almost irritated apostropheaddressed to him by an old woman of the people, who called to him fromher threshold, in an angry way: _"A good mayor is a useful thing. Is hedrawing back before the good which he can do?"_

  This was the third phase of his ascent. Father Madeleine had becomeMonsieur Madeleine. Monsieur Madeleine became Monsieur le Maire.