He
was told that the master's son, Monsieur Maurice, had gone out on
business, and that nobody could give him an answer, particularly as the
master himself had not put in an appearance at the works that week. He
learnt, however, that Beauchene had returned from a journey that very
day, and must be indoors with his wife. Accordingly, he resolved to call
at the house, less on account of the threshing-machine than to decide a
matter of great interest to him, that of the entry of one of his twin
sons, Blaise, into the establishment.
This big fellow had lately left college, and although he had only
completed his nineteenth year, he was on the point of marrying a
portionless young girl, Charlotte Desvignes, for whom he had conceived a
romantic attachment ever since childhood. His parents, seeing in this
match a renewal of their own former loving improvidence, had felt moved,
and unwilling to drive the lad to despair. But, if he was to marry, some
employment must first be found for him. Fortunately this could be
managed. While Denis, the other of the twins, entered a technical school,
Beauchene, by way of showing his esteem for the increasing fortune of his
good cousins, as he now called the Froments, cordially offered to give
Blaise a situation at his establishment.
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