When his father-in-law told him that the farm had
impudently cleared some seven acres of his moorland, with the intention
no doubt of carrying this fine robbery even further, if it were not
promptly stopped, Gregoire at once decided to inquire into the matter,
declaring that he would not tolerate any invasion of that sort. The
misfortune then was that no boundary stones could be found. Thus, the
people of the farm might assert that they had made a mistake in all good
faith, or even that they had remained within their limits. But Lepailleur
ragefully maintained the contrary, entered into particulars, and traced
what he declared to be the proper frontier line with his stick, swearing
that within a few inches it was absolutely correct. However, matters went
altogether from bad to worse after an interview between the brothers,
Gervais and Gregoire, in the course of which the latter lost his temper
and indulged in unpardonable language. On the morrow, too, he began an
action-at-law, to which Gervais replied by threatening that he would not
send another grain of corn to be ground at the mill. And this rupture of
business relations meant serious consequences for the mill, which really
owed its prosperity to the custom of Chantebled.
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