To him
the conquest of Paris meant greedy indulgence in the coarsest pleasures
such as he had dreamt of in his village. It consumed all his money, all
the supplies which he extracted from his mother by continual promises of
victory, in which she implicitly believed, so great was her faith in him.
But he ended by grievously suffering in health, turned thin and yellow,
and actually began to lose his hair at three-and-twenty, so that his
mother, full of alarm, brought him home one day, declaring that he worked
too hard, and that she would not allow him to kill himself in that
fashion. It leaked out, however, later on, that Maitre Rousselet had
summarily dismissed him. Even before this was known his return home did
not fail to make his father growl. The miller partially guessed the
truth, and if he did not openly vent his anger, it was solely from pride,
in order that he might not have to confess his mistake with respect to
the brilliant career which he had predicted for Antonin. At home, when
the doors were closed, Lepailleur revenged himself on his wife, picking
the most frightful quarrels with her since he had discovered her frequent
remittances of money to their son.
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