One part of Seguin's fortune consisted of an estate of some twelve
hundred acres--woods and heaths--above Janville, which his father had
purchased with some of his large gains after retiring from business. The
old man's long-caressed dream had been to return in triumph to his native
village, whence he had started quite poor, and he was on the point of
there building himself a princely residence in the midst of a vast park
when death snatched him away. Almost the whole of this estate had come to
Seguin in his share of the paternal inheritance, and he had turned the
shooting rights to some account by dividing them into shares of five
hundred francs value, which his friends eagerly purchased. The income
derived from this source was, however, but a meagre one. Apart from the
woods there was only uncultivated land on the estate, marshes, patches of
sand, and fields of stones; and for centuries past the opinion of the
district had been that no agriculturist could ever turn the expanse to
good account. The defunct army contractor alone had been able to picture
there a romantic park, such as he had dreamt of creating around his regal
abode.
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