When the Montsou treaty was made, Honore, who had laid up
savings to the amount of some fifty thousand francs, yielded tremblingly
to his master's unshakable faith. He gave up ten thousand francs, and
took a share in the Montsou Company, though with the fear of robbing his
children of that sum. When he died his share passed to his son Eugene.
Germinal.
GREGOIRE (LEON), great-grandson of Honore Gregoire. It was he who
profited at a stupefying rate of progress by the timid investment of his
ancestor. Those poor ten thousand francs grew and multiplied with the
company's prosperity. Since 1820 they had brought in cent for cent ten
thousand francs. In 1844 they had produced twenty thousand; in 1850,
forty. During two years the dividend had reached the prodigious figure
of fifty thousand francs; the value of the share, quoted at the Lille
Bourse at a million, had centrupled in a century. Six months later an
industrial crisis broke out; the share fell to six hundred thousand
francs. But Leon refused to be alarmed, for he maintained an obstinate
faith in the mine. When the great strike broke out he would not be
persuaded of its seriousness, and refused to admit any danger, until he
saw his daughter struck by a stone and savagely assaulted by the crowd.
Pages:
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247