Jules Sandeau

This is the story of a wealthy bourgeois who marries his only child, a daughter, to a penniless nobleman because he hopes to use his son-in-law to get a title. The son-in-law is a lazy, affected stereotype; but M. Poirier is also a stereotype, of the obnoxious big businessman. The poor daughter, who falls in love with her husband, lets him walk all over her.

The Marquis de la Seiglière returns to France once the Revolution is over. His possessions, which had been sold as material properties, had been purchased by Stamply, a farmer. The latter restores them to the Marquis, who decides to allocate old Stamply with the use of a corner of his manor. Hélène de la Seiglière, the Marquis's daughter, takes care of the old man. But this one, devastated by death of his son, buried under the ice of the Berezina, dies. Some time later, three persons come to live in the manor: M. de Paubert, his son Raoul, and Destournelles, a crafty, ruthlessly ambitious lawyer. De Paubert hopes to marry his son to Hélène de la Seiglière and might well achieve his aim but for the unexpected return of Bernard Stamply, who has escaped death miraculously. He gets to know Helène and the two young people fall in love with each other.

After losing his fortune, the Marquis de Monfort lives in the back cabin of his old castle, thanks to the charity of the current owner, Camillo, a former servant of his. After the death of his son Pierre in the war, Camillo returns the goods to de Marquis, due to the paternal love he feels for his daughter, Pervanche. Years later, Pierre turns out to be alive and appears at the castle demanding his inheritance from the young woman. The discussion is settled when they get married.