“In view of all the circumstances, therefore, I make a proposition to you,” said Vautrin to Eugene, “which I think no man in your position should refuse.  I wish to become a great planter in the Southern States of America, and need two hundred thousand francs.  If I get you a dot of a million, will you give me two hundred thousand francs?  Is twenty per cent, commission on such a transaction too much?  You will secure the affection of a little wife.  A few weeks after marriage you will seem distracted.  Some night, between kisses, you can own a debt of two hundred thousand francs, and ask your darling to pay it.  The farce is acted every day by young men of good family, and no amorous young wife will refuse the money to the man she adores.  Moreover, you will not lose the money; you will easily get it back by judicious speculation!”

“But where can I find such a girl?” said Eugene.

“She is here, close at hand.”

“Mademoiselle Victorine?”

“Precisely!”

“But how can that be?”

“She loves you; already she thinks herself the little Baroness de Rastignac.”

“She has not a penny!” cried Eugene in amazement.

“Ah, now we are coming to the point,” said Vautrin.

Thereupon, Vautrin insinuated that if papa Taillefer lost his son through the interposition of a wise Providence, he would take back his pretty and amiable daughter, who would inherit his millions.  To this end he, Vautrin, frankly volunteered to play the part of destiny.  He had a friend, a colonel in the army of the Loire, who would pick a quarrel with Frederic, the young blackguard son who had never sent a five-franc piece to his poor sister, and then “to the shades”—­making a pass as if with a sword.

“Silence, monsieur!  I will hear no more.”

“As you please, my beautiful boy!  I thought you were stronger.”

A few days after this scene, Mademoiselle Michonneau and Poiret were sitting on a bench in the Jardin des Plantes, when they were accosted by the chief of the detective force.  He told them that the minister of police believed that a man calling himself Vautrin, who lived with them in the Maison Vauquer, was an escaped convict from Toulon galleys, Jacques Collin, but known by the nickname of Trompe-la-Mort, and one of the most dangerous criminals in all France.  In order to obtain certainty as to the identity of Vautrin with Collin he offered a bribe of three thousand francs if mademoiselle would administer a potion in his coffee or wine, which would affect him as if he were stricken with apoplexy.  During his insensibility they could easily discover whether Vautrin had the convict’s brand on his shoulder.  The pair accepted the bribe, and the plot succeeded.  Vautrin was identified as Collin and arrested, just as a messenger came to announce that Frederic Taillefer had been killed in a duel, and Victorine was carried off with Madame Couture to her father’s home, the sole heir