Read The Keeper of the Walls for Free Online Page B

fortune. His father wasn’t exactly happy with this, but left him alone. First of all, it was his own money, not even money received through gift or inheritance, but money earned through his own work. Misha had the right to do what he pleased with his money. Furthermore, he furnished the business with an enormous load of work. Sometimes he didn’t arrive home until seven in the morning, just in time to bathe, change, and read the newspaper in an armchair to freshen his mind. But never did his nights of sleeplessness prevent him from arriving at the office at nine on the dot, the first one there, his mind lucid, ready to make complicated calculations and solve difficult problems.
    Then came the Bolshevik Revolution. Being so phenomenally rich, the Brasilovs started in Kiev, then went to Odessa, and finally ended up in the Crimea, once the summer paradise of many aristocratic families. From there, father and son were able to leave for Constantinople.
    But, like many emigrants, they weren’t able to take their fortune with them. Prince Ivan took only what he judged to be most important: four sacks of sugar beets. Arriving in France in 1921, he bought sugar plantations in the departments of the North and the Oise, and sold seeds to be planted. The sugar that resulted was far superior to the French sugar, and in 1923, Prince Ivan was awarded the French Legion of Honor for having bettered the French sugar beet by breeding it with the Russian. Then he and his son began to expand their business. They founded a Metallurgy Works that built large garages, storage areas, and factory hangars. Then they bought a sardine cannery in Brittany, a duck-liver factory near Bordeaux, a factory of silk stockings in Troyes, and a paper factory. Now they were solidly established, and, once more, money flowed through their pockets.
    Like many entrepreneurs, the Brasilovs had benefited from the government policy of repaying for the war damages in the north and east of France. The business of buying and selling war-damaged properties had become a most complex affair. At each moment rules were modified, others withdrawn. Articles of law mounted up in the large register of the Ministry of Finance. Those who were interested consulted this ledger, and having reached the article they were looking for, stopped there. In the middle of building they suddenly found themselves in trouble with the government, for they hadn’t known about modifications added after the article they’d supposed would be the last change.
    Misha Brasilov was a thorough researcher. He read the ledger from A to Z, and studied it. If he needed Article 59, he continued beyond it. Often, at Article 123, he saw that the latter contradicted number 59 and erased it without even referring to it. With his prodigious memory, Misha kept all the articles on the tips of his fingers and never experienced difficulties. He and his father rebuilt two sugar refineries in the North and the Pas-de-Calais, and one in the Oise. He bought land to replant sugar beets. And this was how Prince Ivan came to receive the Legion of Honor. It gave the two men much cause for laughter, but nevertheless the head of the Brasilov Enterprises never failed to pin the distinguished red ribbon on his lapel when he was in full dress.
    Now, Mikhail Brasilov was examining a paper containing the facts surrounding a newly purchased building damaged by war. They would have to reconstruct a sugar refinery in Ribécourt, in the Department of Oise. Because of some intricate specifications, they would have to use German material. In view of the huge war debt that Germany owed France according to the Treaty of Versailles, the French government had agreed to help put back in motion some of Germany’s industry. But, Misha knew, there were few French contractors willing to go to Germany to bring back the raw materials. He pressed a button on a panel on his desk, and soon the door to the office opened and a