ABSTRACT
There was some little truth, and a great deal of imagination, in the Frenchman's complainings. His sentimental raving about his wife and child was mere bombast, but the lost fortune he wailed over was as true as arithmetic. Bitterly did he regret it. Nathaniel Crosier had married a Miss Merton, and father-in-law, not liking son-in-law, had insisted that the bride's fortune-a pretty little income of about four hundred pounds-should be settled on her as tight as lawyers' pens and red tape could bind it. After the mother's death, the children-if any-were to inherit this jointure. If the children died, leaving husbands or (legitimate) issue, these were again to become possessed. So it stands to reason that Vautrin had a distinct and perfect claim to one-third of these yearly four hundred pounds. Boldly and with much noise would he have demanded justice in the English law courts, but that the little affair of impersonating the Colonel of the 11 e Léger rendered such an experiment hazardous and unprofitable. He had peculiar notions about the value of liberty. Besides, gruel was his aversion.
