Chapter summary
Rênal immortalizes his own administration with a retaining wall for the public promenade, the Alley of Fidelity, a work that cost him three trips to Paris, and orders the plane trees of the commune pruned twice a year. To the old chief surgeon, who complains about the pruning, he replies that he likes shade, orders the trees cut so that they give shade, and cannot conceive that a tree might serve any other purpose when, unlike the useful walnut, it yields no profit. One autumn day he walks on the promenade with his wife and three children and complains of the "fellow from Paris," Mr. Appert, who two days earlier had gone into the prison, the poorhouse, and the hospital of Verrières. A Madame de Rênal asks what harm this gentleman can do to someone who administers the welfare of the poor with probity, and her husband replies that he came only to make accusations that the liberal press will publish, and that he will never forgive the curé.
Analysis
Rênal is irritated by Appert because he fears the liberal press, which would repeat what Appert saw, and, even more, the curé who let him in. His wife asks what harm he can do to someone who administers the welfare of the poor with probity, and his answer, that he will never forgive the curé, shows that he is defending his reputation and the town's control, not the inmates.
The narrator gives the key to the town in a single capitalized sentence, which works as an inner epigraph to chapter II: Here is the great word that decides everything in Verrières: YIELD A PROFIT. By itself it represents the habitual thought of more than three-quarters of the inhabitants.
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