Les Misérables, page 173
CHAPTER V--BASQUE AND NICOLETTE
He had theories. Here is one of them: "When a man is passionately fondof women, and when he has himself a wife for whom he cares but little,who is homely, cross, legitimate, with plenty of rights, perched on thecode, and jealous at need, there is but one way of extricating himselffrom the quandry and of procuring peace, and that is to let his wifecontrol the purse-strings. This abdication sets him free. Then hiswife busies herself, grows passionately fond of handling coin, gets herfingers covered with verdigris in the process, undertakes the educationof half-share tenants and the training of farmers, convokes lawyers,presides over notaries, harangues scriveners, visits limbs of the law,follows lawsuits, draws up leases, dictates contracts, feels herself thesovereign, sells, buys, regulates, promises and compromises, binds fastand annuls, yields, concedes and retrocedes, arranges, disarranges,hoards, lavishes; she commits follies, a supreme and personal delight,and that consoles her. While her husband disdains her, she has thesatisfaction of ruining her husband." This theory M. Gillenormand hadhimself applied, and it had become his history. His wife--the secondone--had administered his fortune in such a manner that, one fine day,when M. Gillenormand found himself a widower, there remained to him justsufficient to live on, by sinking nearly the whole of it in an annuityof fifteen thousand francs, three-quarters of which would expire withhim. He had not hesitated on this point, not being anxious to leavea property behind him. Besides, he had noticed that patrimonies aresubject to adventures, and, for instance, become _national property_; hehad been present at the avatars of consolidated three per cents, and hehad no great faith in the Great Book of the Public Debt. "All that'sthe Rue Quincampois!" he said. His house in the Rue Filles-du-Clavairebelonged to him, as we have already stated. He had two servants, "a maleand a female." When a servant entered his establishment, M. Gillenormandre-baptized him. He bestowed on the men the name of their province:Nîmois, Comtois, Poitevin, Picard. His last valet was a big, foundered,short-winded fellow of fifty-five, who was incapable of running twentypaces; but, as he had been born at Bayonne, M. Gillenormand called him_Basque_. All the female servants in his house were called Nicolette(even the Magnon, of whom we shall hear more farther on). One day, ahaughty cook, a cordon bleu, of the lofty race of porters, presentedherself. "How much wages do you want a month?" asked M. Gillenormand."Thirty francs." "What is your name?" "Olympie." "You shall have fiftyfrancs, and you shall be called Nicolette."
