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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: really coming to live in Nemours, they were seized (in spite of the
political events which were just then weighing so heavily on Brie and
on the Gatinais) with a devouring curiosity, which was not surprising.
Was he rich? Economical or spendthrift? Would he leave a fine fortune
or nothing? Was his property in annuities? In the end they found out
what follows, but only by taking infinite pains and employing much
subterraneous spying.
After the death of his wife, Ursula Mirouet, and between the years
1789 and 1813, the doctor (who had been appointed consulting physician
to the Emperor in 1805) must have made a good deal of money; but no
one knew how much. He lived simply, without other extravagancies than
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