One day, Mrs. Dorant, whom he had engaged to look after the house, found him meditatively examining a piece of rope, which he held in his hand. She was alarmed and beckoned to her husband, who was near.
He went up to his employer, who, directly he saw that he was being observed, threw the rope away from him excitedly.
"You look ill, Mr. Rougeant," said Jacques, as he scrutinized the pale face and haggard look of the farmer.
"Go about your work," angrily commanded Mr. Rougeant.
Jacques did as he was bid. He, however, watched the farmer. Every morning, he expected to find him hanging from a beam. But as time passed on, Mr. Rougeant seemed to improve.
He had, in fact, abandoned the horrible thought of putting an end to his existence.
He continued thus to live for more than four years; when his health once more gave way.
At the thought of death, he shuddered. To die alone, with no friend to close his eyelids, to die like a dog, ay worse, to leave behind him the reward of his labours and thrift to persons who had defied him, was intolerable.
For they had had the impudence to tell him at the solicitor's office that he could not make a will giving his property to others; he could not disinherit his daughter.
All this vexed him. He sank on the _jonquière_ exclaiming "Alas!"
Mr. Rougeant's condition continued to aggravate. The thought of death struck his heart with terror. Behind him, he left a life of selfishness and bigotry. No good deed, no act of self-denial to soften the pangs of a stricken conscience.
Before him, everything seemed dark, mysterious, awe-inspiring, despairing; for aught he knew, a just chastisement awaited him.
He had toiled for gold; he had obtained it. What a man soweth that shall he also reap.
In spite of his avarice and the knowledge that a consultation to the doctor would cost him something, Mr. Rougeant's terror overcoming all these; he resolved to see a physician.
He did not send Jacques to fetch one, the visit of the medical man would have cost him too much; he drove thither in his phaeton.
The doctor who was consulted said the disease was of long standing.
He gave Mr. Rougeant a bottle of medicine for which the latter grudgingly paid three francs, and told the farmer to come and see him again in a few days.