This was too much for Ferdinand, whose face was twisting into a frightful rictus as he listened to his brother’s enthusiastic explanations.

‘Create the possible . . . but my poor Auguste, there’s simply no understanding a word you’re talking about! Your problem is that you spend too long dreaming and you do nothing. Why don’t you accompany me on one of our site visits? . . . Do you have any notion what the most dreadful thing on a building site is? No? Well, allow me to tell you: it’s a labourer who knows how to read! He gleans bits and pieces of knowledge that go to his head and lead him to believe he’s entitled to all manner of things. And what’s more, he infects the others. Aspirational types, vindictive and bitter sorts, dangerous people, that’s what you get when you educate the masses. Thiers was right when he said: An educated population is an ungovernable population.’

After a brief moment of respite, old Casimir was once again overwhelmed by his old fears. ‘How was it possible for a de Rigny to become a Red?’ he wondered.

His youngest son, as well as having a weak constitution, must be suffering from some innate emotional disturbance. That had to be it. Some sort of organic stroke of misfortune suffered in his mother’s womb. One more affliction to add to those he had caught as a child.

So, in a weary voice that betrayed his consternation, he said, ‘But Auguste, the true grandeur of the people is to be found in their faith in God and in their ignorance.In the spontaneous sacrifice of their existence for our well-being. To wish to put an end to that, to teach them how to read and how to think, would amount to sawing off the branch on which you are sitting. Why would you wish to devote your life to such a thing?’

Chapter 7

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