M. Fille could hardly bear to
see him in this mood, and the New Cure hovered round him with a mournful
and harmlessly deceptive kindness. But the end had to come, and
practically all the parish was present when it came. That was on the
day when the contents of the Manor were sold at auction by order of the
Court. One thing Jean Jacques refused absolutely and irrevocably to do
from the first--refused it at last in anger and even with an oath: he
would not go through the Bankruptcy Court. No persuasion had any effect.
The very suggestion seemed to smirch his honour. His lawyer pleaded with
him, said he would be able to save something out of the wreck, and that
his creditors would be willing that he should take advantage of the
privileges of that court; but he only said in reply:
"Thank you, thank you altogether, monsieur, but it is impossible--'non
possumus, non possumus, my son,' as the Pope said to Bonaparte. I owe
and I will pay what I can; and what I can't pay now I will try to pay in
the future, by the cent, by the dollar, till all is paid to the last
copper. It is the way with the Barbilles. They have paid their way and
their debts in honour, and it is in the bond with all the Barbilles of
the past that I do as they do.
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