CHAPTER II.
MADELEINE.
He was a man of about fifty, with a preoccupied air, and he wasgood-hearted. That was all that could be said of him.
Thanks to the rapid progress of this trade which he had so admirablyremodelled, M. sur M. had become a place of considerable trade.Spain, which consumes an immense amount of jet, gave large ordersfor it annually, and in this trade M. sur M. almost rivalled Londonand Berlin. Father Madeleine's profits were so great, that after thesecond year he was able to build a large factory, in which were twospacious workshops, one for men, the other for women. Any one whowas hungry need only to come, and was sure to find there employmentand bread. Father Madeleine expected from the men good-will, fromthe women purity, and from all probity. He had divided the workshopsin order to separate the sexes, and enable the women and girls toremain virtuous. On this point he was inflexible, and it was the onlyone in which he was at all intolerant. This sternness was the morejustifiable because M. sur M. was a garrison town, and opportunitiesfor corruption abounded. Altogether his arrival had been a benefit,and his presence was a providence. Before Father Madeleine cameeverything was languishing, and now all led the healthy life of work. Apowerful circulation warmed and penetrated everything; stagnation andwretchedness were unknown. There was not a pocket, however obscure,in which there was not a little money, nor a lodging so poor in whichthere was not a little joy.
Father Madeleine employed every one. He only insisted on one thing,--bean honest man, a good girl!
As we have said, in the midst of this activity, of which he was thecause and the pivot, Father Madeleine made his fortune, but, singularlyenough in a plain man of business, this did not appear to be hischief care; he seemed to think a great deal of others and but littleof himself. In 1820, he was known to have a sum of 630,000 francsin Lafitte's bank; but before he put that amount on one side he hadspent more than a million for the town and the poor. The hospital wasbadly endowed, and he added ten beds. M. sur M. is divided into anupper and a lower town; the latter, in which he lived, had only oneschool, a poor tenement falling in ruins, and he built two, one forboys and one for girls. He paid the two teachers double the amount oftheir poor official salary, and to some one who expressed surprise, hesaid, "The first two functionaries of the State are the nurse and theschoolmaster." He had established at his own charges an infant-school,a thing at that time almost unknown in France, and a charitablefund for old and infirm workmen. As his factory was a centre, a newdistrict, in which there was a large number of indigent families,rapidly sprang up around it, and he opened there a free dispensary.
At the beginning, kind souls said, "He is a man who wants to growrich:" when it was seen that he enriched the town before enrichinghimself, the same charitable souls said, "He is ambitious." Thisseemed the more likely because he was religious, and even practisedto a certain extent a course which was admired in those days. He wentregularly to hear Low Mass on Sundays, and the local deputy, whoscented rivalry everywhere, soon became alarmed about this religion.This deputy, who had been a member of the legislative council of theEmpire, shared the religious ideas of a Father of the Oratory, knownby the name of Fouch?, Duc d'Otranto, whose creature and friend hehad been. But when he saw the rich manufacturer Madeleine go to seveno'clock Low Mass, he scented a possible candidate, and resolved to gobeyond him; he chose a Jesuit confessor, and went to High Mass andvespers. Ambition at that time was, in the true sense of the term, asteeple-chase. The poor profited by the alarm, for the honorable deputyfounded two beds at the hospital, which made twelve.
In 1819, the report spread one morning through the town that, onthe recommendation of the Prefect, and in consideration of servicesrendered the town, Father Madeleine was about to be nominated by theking, Mayor of M----. Those who had declared the new-comer an ambitiousman, eagerly seized this opportunity to exclaim: "Did we not say so?"All M---- was in an uproar; for the rumor was well founded. A fewdays after, the appointment appeared in the _Moniteur_, and the nextday Father Madeleine declined the honor. In the same year, the newprocesses worked by him were shown at the Industrial Exhibition; and onthe report of the jury, the King made the inventor a Chevalier of theLegion of Honor. There was a fresh commotion in the little town; "Well,it was the cross he wanted," but Father Madeleine declined the cross.Decidedly the man was an enigma, but charitable souls got out of thedifficulty by saying, "After all, he is a sort of adventurer."
As we have seen, the country owed him much, and the poor owed himeverything; he was so useful that he could not help being honored,and so gentle that people could not help loving him; his work-peopleespecially adored him, and he bore this adoration with a sort ofmelancholy gravity. When he was known to be rich, "people in society"bowed to him, and he was called in the town Monsieur Madeleine; buthis workmen and the children continued to call him Father Madeleine,and this caused him his happiest smile. In proportion as he ascended,invitations showered upon him; and society claimed him as its own. Thelittle formal drawing-rooms, which had of course been at first closedto the artisan, opened their doors wide to the millionnaire. A thousandadvances were made to him, but he refused them. This time againcharitable souls were not thrown out: "He is an ignorant man of pooreducation. No one knows where he comes from. He could not pass musterin society, and it is doubtful whether he can read." When he was seento be earning money, they said, "He is a tradesman;" when he scatteredhis money, they said, "He is ambitious;" when he rejected honor, theysaid, "He is an adventurer;" and when he repulsed society, they said,"He is a brute."
In 1820, five years after his arrival at M., the services he hadrendered the town were so brilliant, the will of the whole country wasso unanimous, that the King again nominated him Mayor of the Town. Herefused again, but the Prefect would not accept his refusal; all thenotables came to beg, the people supplicated him in the open streets,and the pressure was so great, that he eventually assented. It wasnoticed that what appeared specially to determine him was the almostangry remark of an old woman, who cried to him from her door: "A goodMayor is useful; a man should not recoil before the good he may be ableto do." This was the third phase of his ascent; Father Madeleine hadbecome Monsieur Madeleine, and Monsieur Madeleine became Monsieur leMaire.