he dies.  He had health, rank, a good income, a fair domain, a
goodly house, a loving wife, and two lovely young daughters, all
veneration and affection.  Two months every year he visited the
Faubourg St.  Germain and the Court.  At both every gentleman and
every lacquey knew his name, and his face: his return to Brittany
after this short absence was celebrated by a rustic fete. 

Above all, Monsieur de Beaurepaire possessed that treasure of
treasures, content.  He hunted no heart-burns.  Ambition did not
tempt him; why should he listen to long speeches, and court the
unworthy, and descend to intrigue, for so precarious and equivocal a
prize as a place in the Government, when he could be De Beaurepaire
without trouble or loss of self-respect? Social ambition could get
little hold of him; let parvenus give balls half in doors, half out,
and light two thousand lamps, and waste their substance battling and
manoeuvring for fashionable distinction; he had nothing to gain by
such foolery, nothing to lose by modest living; he was the twenty-
ninth Baron of Beaurepaire.  So wise, so proud, so little vain, so
strong in health and wealth and honor, one would have said nothing
less than an earthquake could shake this gentleman and his house.