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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: for, and I am incredulous. The Baron Jeanrenaud and his mother must
have fleeced M. d'Espard most preposterously, if what you say is
correct. There is a stable establishment which, by your account, costs
sixteen thousand francs a year. Housekeeping, servants' wages, and the
gross expenses of the house itself must run to twice as much; that
makes a total of from fifty to sixty thousand francs a year. Do you
suppose that these people, formerly so extremely poor, can have so
large a fortune? A million yields scarcely forty thousand a year."
"Monsieur, the mother and son invested the money given them by M.
d'Espard in the funds when they were at 60 to 80. I should think their
income must be more than sixty thousand francs. And then the son has
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