Gasselin's greatest happiness was to cultivate the garden and produce
fine fruits and vegetables. He had so little work to do that without
this occupation he would certainly have felt lost. After he had
groomed his horses in the morning, he polished the floors and cleaned
the rooms on the ground-floor, then he went to his garden, where weed
or damaging insect was never seen. Sometimes Gasselin was observed
motionless, bare-headed, under a burning sun, watching for a
field-mouse or the terrible grub of the cockchafer; then, as soon as it
was caught, he would rush with the joy of a child to show his masters
the noxious beast that had occupied his mind for a week. He took
pleasure in going to Croisic on fast-days, to purchase a fish to be had
for less money there than at Guerande.
Thus no household was ever more truly one, more united in interests,
more bound together than this noble family sacredly devoted to its
duty. Masters and servants seemed made for one another. For
twenty-five years there had been neither trouble nor discord. The only
griefs were the petty ailments of the little boy, the only terrors were
caused by the events of 1814 and those of 1830.
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