Chapter summary
The curé Abbé Chélan, an eighty-year-old who has the right to visit the prison, the hospital, and the poorhouse at any hour, takes Mr. Appert, recommended by the Marquis de La Mole, through the three establishments and asks him not to express any opinion in front of the jailer and the inspectors. The jailer, who had been ordered to block Appert, yields to the curé's right but reminds him that his job depends on it. Rênal and Valenod go to the presbytery to express their displeasure, and Chélan, who says he is ready to be the third eighty-year-old curé dismissed in the region, answers with the fifty-six years he has spent in the town: he is the only figure in Verrières who does not measure things in money, and he is threatened with losing his post for having opened the prison to a visitor who displeases the notables. The dismissal is only carried out in chapter 14. Back on the promenade, the mischief of the second son, who climbs onto the parapet of the wall, changes the course of the conversation, and Rênal decides to hire Sorel, the sawmiller's son who has been studying theology for three years, as tutor: three hundred francs and meals. The argument is one of prestige, not affection: Valenod has just bought two Norman horses and has no tutor for his children.
Analysis
Chélan takes Appert to the three establishments because the right of visit is his, and asks him not to give an opinion in front of the jailer and the inspectors, knowing how much the visit could cost. When Rênal and Valenod come to collect, he does not negotiate: he says he is ready to be the third curé dismissed. He is the only one who does not measure the situation in money, and that is why he is the only one with nothing to lose.
Ch. III. Monsieur de Rênal, followed by Valenod, goes to the curé's house to express his displeasure, and the curé answers with the only measure he has, that of the time he has spent in the town:
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