Contents:

Page No 1

Page No 2

Page No 3

Page No 4

A Man of Business ...............................................................................................................................................1

The word lorette is a euphemism invented to describe the status of a personage, or a personage of a status, of

which it is awkward to speak; the French Academie, in its modesty, having omitted to supply a definition out

of regard for the age of its forty members. Whenever a new word comes to supply the place of an unwieldy

circumlocution, its fortune is assured; the word lorette has passed into the language of every class of society,

even where the lorette herself will never gain an entrance. It was only invented in 1840, and derived beyond a

doubt from the agglomeration of such swallows' nests about the Church of Our Lady of Loretto. This

information is for etymoligists only. Those gentlemen would not be so often in a quandary if mediaeval

writers had only taken such pains with details of contemporary manners as we take in these days of analysis

Mlle. Turquet, or Malaga, for she is better known by her pseudonym (See La fausse Maitresse.), was one of

the earliest parishioners of that charming church. At the time to which this story belongs, that lighthearted

and lively damsel gladdened the existence of a notary with a wife somewhat too bigoted, rigid, and frigid for

Now, it so fell out that one Carnival evening Maitre Cardot was entertaining guests at Mlle. Turquet's

houseDesroches the attorney, Bixiou of the caricatures, Lousteau the journalist, Nathan, and others; it is

quite unnecessary to give any further description of these personages, all bearers of illustrious names in the

Comedie Humaine. Young La Palferine, in spite of his title of Count and his great descent, which, alas!

means a great descent in fortune likewise, had honored the notary's little establishment with his presence.

At dinner, in such a house, one does not expect to meet the patriarchal beef, the skinny fowl and salad of

domestic and family life, nor is there any attempt at the hypocritical conversation of drawingrooms

furnished with highly respectable matrons. When, alas! will respectability be charming? When will the

women in good society vouchsafe to show rather less of their shoulders and rather more wit or geniality?

Marguerite Turquet, the Aspasia of the CirqueOlympique, is one of those frank, very living personalities to

whom all is forgiven, such unconscious sinners are they, such intelligent penitents; of such as Malaga one

might ask, like Cardota witty man enough, albeit a notaryto be well "deceived." And yet you must not

think that any enormities were committed. Desroches and Cardot were good fellows grown too gray in the

profession not to feel at ease with Bixiou, Lousteau, Nathan, and young La Palferine. And they on their side

had too often had recourse to their legal advisers, and knew them too well to try to "draw them out," in lorette

Conversation, perfumed with seven cigars, at first was as fantastic as a kid let loose, but finally it settled

down upon the strategy of the constant war waged in Paris between creditors and debtors.

Now, if you will be so good as to recall the history and antecedents of the guests, you will know that in all

Paris, you could scarcely find a group of men with more experience in this matter; the professional men on

one hand, and the artists on the other, were something in the position of magistrates and criminals

hobnobbing together. A set of Bixiou's drawings to illustrate life in the debtors' prison, led the conversation to

It was midnight. They had broken up into little knots round the table and before the fire, and gave themselves

up to the burlesque fun which is only possible or comprehensible in Paris and in that particular region which

is bounded by the Faubourg Montmartre, the Rue Chaussee d'Antin, the upper end of the Rue de Navarin and

In ten minutes' time they had come to an end of all the deep reflections, all the moralizings, small and great,

all the bad puns made on a subject already exhausted by Rabelais three hundred and fifty years ago. It was

not a little to their credit that the pyrotechnic display was cut short with a final squib from Malaga.

"It all goes to the shoemakers," she said. "I left a milliner because she failed twice with my hats. The vixen

has been here twentyseven times to ask for twenty francs. She did not know that we never have twenty

francs. One has a thousand francs, or one sends to one's notary for five hundred; but twenty francs I have

never had in my life. My cook and my maid may, perhaps, have so much between them; but for my own part,

I have nothing but credit, and I should lose that if I took to borrowing small sums. If I were to ask for twenty

francs, I should have nothing to distinguish me from my colleagues that walk the boulevard."

"Oh, come now, are you turning stupid?" said she, with a wink. "She came this morning for the

"I took pity upon her, andordered a little hat that I have just invented, a quite new shape. If Mlle. Amanda

"In my opinion," put in Desroches, "the finest things that I have seen in a duel of this kind give those who

know Paris a far better picture of the city than all the fancy portraits that they paint. Some of you think that

you know a thing or two," he continued, glancing round at Nathan, Bixiou, La Palferine, and Lousteau, "but

the king of the ground is a certain Count, now busy ranging himself. In his time, he was supposed to be the

cleverest, adroitest, canniest, boldest, stoutest, most subtle and experienced of all the pirates, who, equipped

with fine manners, yellow kid gloves, and cabs, have ever sailed or ever will sail upon the stormy seas of

Paris. He fears neither God nor man. He applies in private life the principles that guide the English Cabinet.

Up to the time of his marriage, his life was one continual war, likeLousteau's, for instance. I was, and am

"For that matter, he has paid every one, and injured no one," continued Desroches. "But as your friend Bixiou

was saying just now, it is a violation of the liberty of the subject to be made to pay in March when you have

no mind to pay till October. By virtue of this article of his particular code, Maxime regarded a creditor's

scheme for making him pay at once as a swindler's trick. It was a long time since he had grasped the

significance of the bill of exchange in all its bearings, direct and remote. A young man once, in my place,

called a bill of exchange the 'asses' bridge' in his hearing. 'No,' said he, 'it is the Bridge of Sighs; it is the

shortest way to an execution.' Indeed, his knowledge of commercial law was so complete, that a professional

could not have taught him anything. At that time he had nothing, as you know. His carriage and horses were

jobbed; he lived in his valet's house; and, by the way, he will be a hero to his valet to the end of the chapter,

even after the marriage that he proposes to make. He belonged to three clubs, and dined at one of them

whenever he did not dine out. As a rule, he was to be found very seldom at his own address"

"He once said to me," interrupted La Palferine, " 'My one affectation is the pretence that I make of living in

"Well," resumed Desroches, "he was one of the combatants; and now for the other. You have heard more or

"Had hair like this!" cried Bixiou, ruffling his locks till they stood on end. Gifted with the same talent for

mimicking absurdities which Chopin the pianist possesses to so high a degree, he proceeded forthwith to

"He rolls his head like this when he speaks; he was once a commercial traveler; he has been all sorts of

"Well, he was born to travel, for at this minute, as I speak, he is on the sea on his way to America," said

Desroches. "It is his only chance, for in all probability he will be condemned by default as a fraudulent

"For six or seven years this Claparon acted as man of straw, cat's paw, and scapegoat to two friends of ours,

"They left him to his fate at last, and he wallowed in the mire," continued Desroches. "In 1833 he went into

"What! he that promoted a jointstock company so nicely that the Sixth Chamber cut short his career with a

"The same. Under the Restoration, between 1823 and 1827, Cerizet's occupation consisted in first putting his

name intrepidly to various paragraphs, on which the public prosecutor fastened with avidity, and

subsequently marching off to prison. A man could make a name for himself with small expense in those days.

The Liberal party called their provincial champion 'the courageous Cerizet,' and towards 1828 so much zeal

" 'General interest' is a kind of civic crown bestowed on the deserving by the daily press. Cerizet tried to

discount the 'general interest' taken in him. He came to Paris, and, with some help from capitalists in the

Opposition, started as a broker, and conducted financial operations to some extent, the capital being found by

a man in hiding, a skilful gambler who overreached himself, and in consequence, in July 1830, his capital

"Say no harm of him, poor fellow," protested Malaga. "D'Estourny was a good sort."

"You can imagine the part that a ruined man was sure to play in 1830 when his name in politics was 'the

courageous Cerizet." He was sent off into a very snug little subprefecture. Unluckily for him, it is one thing

to be in oppositionany missile is good enough to throw, so long as the flight lasts; but quite another to be

in office. Three months later, he was obliged to send in his resignation. Had he not taken it into his head to

attempt to win popularity? Still, as he had done nothing as yet to imperil his title of 'courageous Cerizet,' the

Government proposed by way of compensation that he should manage a newspaper; nominally an Opposition

newspaper, but Ministerialist in petto. So the fall of this noble nature was really due to the Government. To

Cerizet, as manager of the paper, it was rather too evident that he was as a bird perched on a rotten bough;

and then it was that he promoted that nice little jointstock company, and thereby secured a couple of years

in prison; he was caught, while more ingenious swindlers succeeded in catching the public."

"We are acquainted with the more ingenious," said Bixiou; "let us say no ill of the poor fellow; he was

nabbed; Couture allowed them to squeeze his cashbox; who would ever have thought it of him?"

"At all events, Cerizet was a low sort of fellow, a good deal damaged by low debauchery. Now for the duel I

spoke about. Never did two tradesmen of the worst type, with the worst manners, the lowest pair of villains

imaginable, go into partnership in a dirtier business. Their stockintrade consisted of the peculiar idiom of

the man about town, the audacity of poverty, the cunning that comes of experience, and a special knowledge

of Parisian capitalists, their origin, connections, acquaintances, and intrinsic value. This partnership of two

'dabblers' (let the Stock Exchange term pass, for it is the only word which describes them), this partnership of

dabblers did not last very long. They fought like famished curs over every bit of garbage.

"The earlier speculations of the firm of Cerizet and Claparon were, however, well planned. The two scamps

joined forces with Barbet, Chaboisseau, Samanon, and usurers of that stamp, and bought up hopelessly bad

"Claparon's place of business at that time was a cramped entresol in the Rue Chabannaisfive rooms at a

rent of seven hundred francs at most. Each partner slept in a little closet, so carefully closed from prudence,

that my headclerk could never get inside. The furniture of the other three roomsan antechamber, a

waitingroom, and a private officewould not have fetched three hundred francs altogether at a

distresswarrant sale. You know enough of Paris to know the look of it; the stuffed horsehaircovered chairs,

a table covered with a green cloth, a trumpery clock between a couple of candle sconces, growing tarnished

under glass shades, the small giltframed mirror over the chimneypiece, and in the grate a charred stick or

two of firewood which had lasted them for two winters, as my headclerk put it. As for the office, you can

guess what it was likemore letterfiles than business letters, a set of common pigeonholes for either

partner, a cylinder desk, empty as the cashbox, in the middle of the room, and a couple of armchairs on

either side of a coal fire. The carpet on the floor was bought cheap at secondhand (like the bills and bad

debts). In short, it was the mahogany furniture of furnished apartments which usually descends from one

occupant of chambers to another during fifty years of service. Now you know the pair of antagonists.

"During the first three months of a partnership dissolved four months later in a bout of fisticuffs, Cerizet and

Claparon bought up two thousand francs' worth of bills bearing Maxime's signature (since Maxime was his

name), and filled a couple of letters to bursting with judgments, appeals, orders of the court,

distresswarrants, application for stay of proceedings, and all the rest of it; to put it briefly, they had bills for

three thousand two hundred francs odd centimes, for which they had given five hundred francs; the transfer

being made under private seal, with special power of attorney, to save the expense of registration. Now it so

happened at this juncture, Maxime, being of ripe age, was seized with one of the fancies peculiar to the man

"Antonia!" exclaimed La Palferine. "That Antonia whose fortune I made by writing to ask for a toothbrush!"

"Her real name is Chocardelle," said Malaga, not over well pleased by the finesounding pseudonym.

"It was the only mistake Maxime ever made in his life. But what would you have, no vice is absolutely

"Maxime had still to learn what sort of a life a man may be led into by a girl of eighteen when she is minded

to take a header from her honest garret into a sumptuous carriage; it is a lesson that all statesmen should take

to heart. At this time, de Marsay had just been employing his friend, our friend de Trailles, in the high

comedy of politics. Maxime had looked high for his conquests; he had no experience of untitled women; and

at fifty years he felt that he had a right to take a bite of the socalled wild fruit, much as a sportsman will halt

under a peasant's appletree. So the Count found a reading room for Mlle. Chocardelle, a rather smart little

"Pooh!" said Nathan. "She did not stay in it six months. She was too handsome to keep a readingroom."

"Since the firm bought up Maxime's debts, Cerizet's likeness to a bailiff's officer grew more and more

striking, and one morning after seven fruitless attempts he succeeded in penetrating into the Count's presence.

Suzon, the old manservant, albeit he was by no means in his novitiate, at last mistook the visitor for a

petitioner, come to propose a thousand crowns if Maxime would obtain a license to sell postage stamps for a

young lady. Suzon, without the slightest suspicion of the little scamp, a thoroughbred Paris streetboy into

whom prudence had been rubbed by repeated personal experience of the policecourts, induced his master to

receive him. Can you see the man of business, with an uneasy eye, a bald forehead, and scarcely any hair on

"standing before the Count, that image of flaunting Debt, in his blue flannel dressinggown, slippers

worked by some Marquise or other, trousers of white woolen stuff, and a dazzling shirt? There he stood, with

" 'Tis a bit of genre for anybody who knows what the pretty little morning room, hung with silk and full of

valuable paintings, where Maxime breakfasts," said Nathan. "You tread on a Smyrna carpet, you admire the

sideboards filled with curiosities and rarities fit to make a King of Saxony envious"

" 'Monsieur le Comte,' began Cerizet, 'I have come from a M. Charles Claparon, who used to be a banker'

" 'Well, he is at present your creditor for a matter of three thousand two hundred francs, seventyfive

" 'Coutelier's business?' put in Maxime, who knew his affairs as a pilot knows his coast.

" 'Yes, Monsieur le Comte,' said Cerizet with a bow. 'I have come to ask your intentions.'

" 'I shall only pay when the fancy takes me,' returned Maxime, and he rang for Suzon. 'It was very rash of

Claparon to buy up bills of mine without speaking to me beforehand. I am sorry for him, for he did so very

well for such a long time as a man of straw for friends of mine. I always said that a man must really be weak

in his intellect to work for men that stuff themselves with millions, and to serve them so faithfully for such

low wages. And now here he gives me another proof of his stupidity! Yes, men deserve what they get. It is

your own doing whether you get a crown on your forehead or a bullet through your head; whether you are a

millionaire or a porter, justice is always done you. I cannot help it, my dear fellow; I myself am not a king, I

stick to my principles. I have no pity for those that put me to expense or do not know their business as

creditors.Suzon! my tea! Do you see this gentleman?' he continued when the man came in. 'Well, you have

allowed yourself to be taken in, poor old boy. This gentleman is a creditor; you ought to have known him by

his boots. No friend nor foe of mine, nor those that are neither and want something of me, come to see me on

foot.My dear M. Cerizet, do you understand? You will not wipe your boots on my carpet again' (looking as

he spoke at the mud that whitened the enemy's soles). 'Convey my compliments and sympathy to Claparon,

" 'You are wrong, Monsieur le Comte,' retorted Cerizet, in a slightly peremptory tone. 'We will be paid in full,

and that in a way which you may not like. That is why I came to you first in a friendly spirit, as is right and fit

" 'Oh! so that is how you understand it?' began Maxime, enraged by this last piece of presumption. There was

something of Talleyrand's wit in the insolent retort, if you have quite grasped the contrast between the two

men and their costumes. Maxime scowled and looked full at the intruder; Cerizet not merely endured the

glare of cold fury, but even returned it, with an icy, catlike malignance and fixity of gaze.

" 'Very well, goodday, Monsieur le Comte. We shall be quits before six months are out.'

" 'If you can steal the amount of your bill, which is legally due I own, I shall be indebted to you, sir,' replied

Maxime. 'You will have taught me a new precaution to take. I am very much your servant.'

"Here was an explicit, forcible, confident declaration on either side. A couple of tigers confabulating, with the

prey before them, and a fight impending, would have been no finer and no shrewder than this pair; the

insolent fine gentleman as great a blackguard as the other in his soiled and mudstained clothes.

"Which will you lay your money on?" asked Desroches, looking round at an audience, surprised to find how

"A pretty story!" cried Malaga. "My dear boy, go on, I beg of you. This goes to one's heart."

"Nothing commonplace could happen between two fightingcocks of that calibre," added La Palferine.

"Pooh!" cried Malaga. "I will wager my cabinetmaker's invoice (the fellow is dunning me) that the little

"Mlle. Chocardelle's readingroom," he continued, after a pause, "was in the Rue Coquenard, just a step or

two from the Rue Pigalle where Maxime was living. The said Mlle. Chocardelle lived at the back on the

garden side of the house, beyond a big dark place where the books were kept. Antonia left her aunt to look

"Had she an aunt even then?" exclaimed Malaga. "Hang it all, Maxime did things handsomely."

"So as Antonia's aunt took a good deal of the work off her hands, she went to bed late and lay late of a

morning, never showing her face at the desk until the afternoon, some time between two and four. From the

very first her appearance was enough to draw custom. Several elderly men in the quarter used to come,

among them a retired coachbuilder, one Croizeau. Beholding this miracle of female loveliness through the

windowpanes, he took it into his head to read the newspapers in the beauty's readingroom; and a sometime

customhouse officer, named Denisart, with a ribbon in his buttonhole, followed the example. Croizeau

chose to look upon Denisart as a rival. 'Monsieur,' he said afterwards, 'I did not know what to buy for you!'

"That speech should give you an idea of the man. The Sieur Croizeau happens to belong to a particular class

of old man which should be known as 'Coquerels' since Henri Monnier's time; so well did Monnier render the

piping voice, the little mannerisms, little queue, little sprinkling of powder, little movements of the head,

prim little manner, and tripping gait in the part of Coquerel in La Famille Improvisee. This Croizeau used to

"Mme. Ida Bonamy the aunt was not long in finding out through a servant that Croizeau, by popular report of

the neighborhood of the Rue de Buffault, where he lived, was a man of exceeding stinginess, possessed of

forty thousand francs per annum. A week after the instalment of the charming librarian he was delivered of a

" 'You lend me books (livres), but I give you plenty of francs in return,' said he.

"A few days later he put on a knowing little air, as much as to say, 'I know you are engaged, but my turn will

"He always came arrayed in fine linen, a cornflower blue coat, a paduasoy waistcoat, black trousers, and

black ribbon bows on the double soled shoes that creaked like an abbe's; he always held a fourteen franc silk

" 'I am old and I have no children,' he took occasion to confide to the young lady some few days after

Cerizet's visit to Maxime. 'I hold my relations in horror. They are peasants born to work in the fields. Just

imagine it, I came up from the country with six francs in my pocket, and made my fortune here. I am not

proud. A pretty woman is my equal. Now would it not be nicer to be Mme. Croizeau for some years to come

than to do a Count's pleasure for a twelvemonth? He will go off and leave you some time or other; and when

"All this was simmering below the surface. The slightest approach at lovemaking was made quite on the sly.

Not a soul suspected that the trim little old fogy was smitten with Antonia; and so prudent was the elderly

lover, that no rival could have guessed anything from his behavior in the readingroom. For a couple of

months Croizeau watched the retired customhouse official; but before the third month was out he had good

reason to believe that his suspicions were groundless. He exerted his ingenuity to scrape an acquaintance with

Denisart, came up with him in the street, and at length seized his opportunity to remark, 'It is a fine day, sir!'

"Whereupon the retired official responded with, 'Austerlitz weather, sir. I was there myselfI was wounded

"And so from one thing to another the two drifted wrecks of the Empire struck up an acquaintance. Little

Croizeau was attached to the Empire through his connection with Napoleon's sisters. He had been their

coachbuilder, and had frequently dunned them for money; so he gave out that he 'had had relations with the

Imperial family.' Maxime, duly informed by Antonia of the 'nice old man's' proposals (for so the aunt called

Croizeau), wished to see him. Cerizet's declaration of war had so far taken effect that he of the yellow kid

gloves was studying the position of every piece, however insignificant, upon the board; and it so happened

that at the mention of that 'nice old man,' an ominous tinkling sounded in his ears. One evening, therefore,

Maxime seated himself among the bookshelves in the dimly lighted back room, reconnoitred the seven or

eight customers through the chink between the green curtains, and took the little coachbuilder's measure. He

gauged the man's infatuation, and was very well satisfied to find that the varnished doors of a tolerably

sumptuous future were ready to turn at a word from Antonia so soon as his own fancy had passed off.

" 'And that other one yonder?' asked he, pointing out the stout fine looking elderly man with the Cross of the

" 'The cut of his countenance is not reassuring,' said Maxime, beholding the Sieur Denisart.

"And indeed the old soldier held himself upright as a steeple. His head was remarkable for the amount of

powder and pomatum bestowed upon it; he looked almost like a postilion at a fancy ball. Underneath that

felted covering, moulded to the top of the wearer's cranium, appeared an elderly profile, halfofficial,

halfsoldierly, with a comical admixture of arrogance,altogether something like caricatures of the

Constitutionnel. The sometime official finding that age, and hair powder, and the conformation of his spine

made it impossible to read a word without spectacles, sat displaying a very creditable expanse of chest with

all the pride of an old man with a mistress. Like old General Montcornet, that pillar of the Vaudeville, he

wore earrings. Denisart was partial to blue; his roomy trousers and wellworn greatcoat were both of blue

" 'How long is it since that old fogy came here?' inquired Maxime, thinking that he saw danger in the

" 'Oh, from the beginning,' returned Antonia, 'pretty nearly two months ago now.'

" 'Good," said Maxime to himself, 'Cerizet only came to me a month ago.Just get him to talk,' he added in

" 'For a queer reason,' returned the fair Antonia. 'In the first place, although he is sixtynine, he has a fancy;

and because he is sixtynine, he is as methodical as a clock face. Every day at five o'clock the old gentleman

goes to dine with her in the Rue de la Victoire. (I am sorry for her.) Then at six o'clock, he comes here, reads

steadily at the papers for four hours, and goes back at ten o'clock. Daddy Croizeau says that he knows M.

Denisart's motives, and approves his conduct; and in his place, he would do the same. So I know exactly what

to expect. If ever I am Mme. Croizeau, I shall have four hours to myself between six and ten o'clock.'

"Gradually the Sieur Denisart and the Sieur Croizeau began to exchange confidences. Nothing so binds two

men together as a similarity of views in the matter of womankind. Daddy Croizeau went to dine with 'M.

Denisart's fair lady,' as he called her. And here I must make a somewhat important observation.

"The readingroom had been paid for half in cash, half in bills signed by the said Mlle. Chocardelle. The

quart d'heure de Rabelais arrived; the Count had no money. So the first bill of three thousand francs was met

by the amiable coachbuilder; that old scoundrel Denisart having recommended him to secure himself with a

" 'For my own part,' said Denisart, 'I have seen pretty doings from pretty women. So in all cases, even when I

have lost my head, I am always on my guard with a woman. There is this creature, for instance; I am madly in

love with her; but this is not her furniture; no, it belongs to me. The lease is taken out in my name.'

"You know Maxime! He thought the coachbuilder uncommonly green. Croizeau might pay all three bills,

and get nothing for a long while; for Maxime felt more infatuated with Antonia than ever."

"I can well believe it," said La Palferine. "She is the bella Imperia of our day."

"With her rough skin!" exclaimed Malaga; "so rough, that she ruins herself in bran baths!"

"Croizeau spoke with a coachbuilder's admiration of the sumptuous furniture provided by the amorous

Denisart as a setting for his fair one, describing it all in detail with diabolical complacency for Antonia's

benefit," continued Desroches. "The ebony chests inlaid with motherofpearl and gold wire, the Brussels

carpets, a mediaeval bedstead worth three thousand francs, a Boule clock, candelabra in the four corners of

the diningroom, silk curtains, on which Chinese patience had wrought pictures of birds, and hangings over

" 'And that is what you ought to have, my pretty lady.And that is what I should like to offer you,' he would

conclude. 'I am quite aware that you scarcely care a bit about me; but, at my age, we cannot expect too much.

Judge how much I love you; I have lent you a thousand francs. I must confess that, in all my born days, I

"He held out his penny as he spoke, with the important air of a man that gives a learned demonstration.

" 'A readingroom is very dull, all the same,' said she; 'I feel that I have no sort of taste for that kind of life,

and I see no future in it. It is only fit for a widow that wishes to keep body and soul together, or for some

hideously ugly thing that fancies she can catch a husband with a little finery.'

" 'It was your own choice,' returned the Count. Just at that moment, in came Nucingen, of whom Maxime,

king of lions (the 'yellow kid gloves' were the lions of that day) had won three thousand francs the evening

" 'Ein writ of attachment haf shoost peen served on me by der order of dot teufel Glabaron,' he said, seeing

" 'Oh, so that is how they are going to work, is it?' cried Maxime. 'They are not up to much, that pair'

" 'It makes not,' said the banker, 'bay dem, for dey may apply demselfs to oders pesides, und do you harm. I

dake dees bretty voman to vitness dot I haf baid you dees morning, long pefore dat writ vas serfed.' "

"Queen of the boards," smiled La Palferine, looking at Malaga, "thou art about to lose thy bet."

"Once, a long time ago, in a similar case," resumed Desroches, "a too honest debtor took fright at the idea of

a solemn declaration in a court of law, and declined to pay Maxime after notice was given. That time we

made it hot for the creditor by piling on writs of attachment, so as to absorb the whole amount in costs"

"Oh, what is that?" cried Malaga; "it all sounds like gibberish to me. As you thought the sturgeon so excellent

"Very well," said Desroches. "Suppose that a man owes you money, and your creditors serve a writ of

attachment upon him; there is nothing to prevent all your other creditors from doing the same thing. And now

what does the court do when all the creditors make application for orders to pay? The court divides the whole

sum attached, proportionately among them all. That division, made under the eye of a magistrate, is what we

call a contribution. If you owe ten thousand francs, and your creditors issue writs of attachment on a debt due

to you of a thousand francs, each one of them gets so much per cent, 'so much in the pound,' in legal phrase;

so much (that means) in proportion to the amounts severally claimed by the creditors. Butthe creditors

cannot touch the money without a special order from the clerk of the court. Do you guess what all this work

drawn up by a judge and prepared by attorneys must mean? It means a quantity of stamped paper full of

diffuse lines and blanks, the figures almost lost in vast spaces of completely empty ruled columns. The first

proceeding is to deduct the costs. Now, as the costs are precisely the same whether the amount attached is one

thousand or one million francs, it is not difficult to eat up three thousand francs (for instance) in costs,

"And an attorney always manages to do it," said Cardot. "How many a time one of you has come to me with,

"It is particularly easy to manage it if the debtor eggs you on to run up costs till they eat up the amount. And,

as a rule, the Count's creditors took nothing by that move, and were out of pocket in law and personal

expenses. To get money out of so experienced a debtor as the Count, a creditor should really be in a position

uncommonly difficult to reach; it is a question of being creditor and debtor both, for then you are legally

"To the confusion of the debtor?" asked Malaga, lending an attentive ear to this discourse.

"No, the confusion of rights of debtor and creditor, and pay yourself through your own hands. So Claparon's

innocence in merely issuing writs of attachment eased the Count's mind. As he came back from the Varietes

with Antonia, he was so much the more taken with the idea of selling the readingroom to pay off the last

two thousand francs of the purchasemoney, because he did not care to have his name made public as a

partner in such a concern. So he adopted Antonia's plan. Antonia wished to reach the higher ranks of her

calling, with splendid rooms, a maid, and a carriage; in short, she wanted to rival our charming hostess, for

"She was not woman enough for that," cried the famous beauty of the Circus; "still, she ruined young

"Ten days afterwards, little Croizeau, perched on his dignity, said almost exactly the same thing, for the fair

" 'Child,' said he, 'your readingroom is a hole of a place. You will lose your complexion; the gas will ruin

your eyesight. You ought to come out of it; and, look here, let us take advantage of an opportunity. I have

found a young lady for you that asks no better than to buy your readingroom. She is a ruined woman with

nothing before her but a plunge into the river; but she had four thousand francs in cash, and the best thing to

" 'Oh, I shall be much kinder before I have done. Just imagine it, poor M. Denisart has been worried into the

jaundice! Yes, it has gone to the liver, as it usually does with susceptible old men. It is a pity he feels things

so. I told him so myself; I said, "Be passionate, there is no harm in that, but as for taking things to

heartdraw the line at that! It is the way to kill yourself."Really, I would not have expected him to take

on so about it; a man that has sense enough and experience enough to keep away as he does while he digests

" 'That little baggage with whom I dined has cleared out and left him! . . . Yes. Gave him the slip without any

" 'It is indeed a lesson, my pretty lady,' said the guileful Croizeau. 'Meanwhile, I have never seen a man in

such a state. Our friend Denisart cannot tell his left hand from his right; he will not go back to look at the

"scene of his happiness," as he calls it. He has so thoroughly lost his wits, that he proposes that I should buy

" Yes. Napoleon's stepdaughter was called Hortense. I built carriages for her, as you know.'

" 'Very well, I will see,' said cunning Antonia; 'begin by sending this young woman to me.'

"Antonia hurried off to see the furniture, and came back fascinated. She brought Maxime under the spell of

antiquarian enthusiasm. That very evening the Count agreed to the sale of the readingroom. The

establishment, you see, nominally belonged to Mlle. Chocardelle. Maxime burst out laughing at the idea of

little Croizeau's finding him a buyer. The firm of Maxime and Chocardelle was losing two thousand francs, it

is true, but what was the loss compared with four glorious thousandfranc notes in hand? 'Four thousand

francs of live coin! there are moments in one's life when one would sign bills for eight thousand to get

"Two days later the Count must see the furniture himself, and took the four thousand francs upon him. The

sale had been arranged; thanks to little Croizeau's diligence, he pushed matters on; he had 'come round' the

widow, as he expressed it. It was Maxime's intention to have all the furniture removed at once to a lodging in

a new house in the Rue Tronchet, taken in the name of Mme. Ida Bonamy; he did not trouble himself much

about the nice old man that was about to lose his thousand francs. But he had sent beforehand for several big

"Once again he was fascinated by the beautiful furniture which a wholesale dealer would have valued at six

thousand francs. By the fireside sat the wretched owner, yellow with jaundice, his head tied up in a couple of

printed handkerchiefs, and a cotton nightcap on top of them; he was huddled up in wrappings like a

chandelier, exhausted, unable to speak, and altogether so knocked to pieces that the Count was obliged to

transact his business with the manservant. When he had paid down the four thousand francs, and the servant

had taken the money to his master for a receipt, Maxime turned to tell the man to call up the vans to the door;

" 'It is not worth while, Monsieur le Comte. You and I are quits; I have six hundred and thirty francs fifteen

"To his utter consternation, he saw Cerizet, emerged from his wrappings like a butterfly from the chrysalis,

" 'When I was down on my luck, I learned to act on the stage,' added Cerizet. 'I am as good as Bouffe at old

" 'No, Monsieur le Comte, you are in Mlle. Hortense's house. She is a friend of old Lord Dudley's; he keeps

" 'If ever I longed to kill a man,' so the Count told me afterwards, 'it was at that moment; but what could one

do? Hortense showed her pretty face, one had to laugh. To keep my dignity, I flung her the six hundred

"Maxime scored a triumph," continued Desroches, "for Hortense exclaimed, 'Oh, if I had only known that it

"A pretty 'confusion' indeed!" put in Malaga. "You have lost, milord," she added turning to the notary.

And in this way the cabinetmaker, to whom Malaga owed a hundred crowns, was paid.

Barbet A Distinguished Provincial at Paris The Seamy Side of History The Middle Classes

Bixiou, JeanJacques The Purse A Bachelor's Establishment The Government Clerks Modeste Mignon

Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Firm of Nucingen The Muse of the Department Cousin Betty The

Cardot (Parisian notary) The Muse of the Department Jealousies of a Country Town Pierre Grassou The

Chocardelle, Mademoiselle Beatrix A Prince of Bohemia Cousin Betty The Member for Arcis

Claparon, Charles A Bachelor's Establishment Cesar Birotteau Melmoth Reconciled The Firm of Nucingen

Desroches (son) A Bachelor's Establishment Colonel Chabert A Start in Life A Woman of Thirty The

Commission in Lunacy The Government Clerks A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a

Dudley, Lord The Lily of the Valley The Thirteen Another Study of Woman A Daughter of Eve

Esgrignon, Victurnien, Comte (then Marquis d') Jealousies of a Country Town Letters of Two Brides The

La Palferine, Comte de A Prince of Bohemia Cousin Betty Beatrix The Imaginary Mistress

Lousteau, Etienne A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Bachelor's Establishment Scenes from a Courtesan's

Life A Daughter of Eve Beatrix The Muse of the Department Cousin Betty A Prince of Bohemia The Middle

Montcornet, Marechal, Comte de Domestic Peace Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes

Nathan, Raoul Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life The Secrets

of a Princess A Daughter of Eve Letters of Two Brides The Seamy Side of History The Muse of the

Nucingen, Baron Frederic de The Firm of Nucingen Father Goriot Pierrette Cesar Birotteau Lost Illusions A

Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Another Study of Woman The Secrets of a

Trailles, Comte Maxime de Cesar Birotteau Father Goriot Gobseck Ursule Mirouet The Member for Arcis

Turquet, Marguerite The Imaginary Mistress The Muse of the Department Cousin Betty