But toward the end of December, when the second notes fell due, du Tillet demanded payment.  The rich banker, who said he was embarrassed, advised Raoul to borrow the money for a short time from a usurer, from Gigonnet, the providence of all young men who were pressed for money.  In January, he remarked, the renewal of subscriptions to the paper would be coming in, there would be plenty of money in hand, and they could then see what had best be done.  Besides, couldn’t Nathan write a play?  As a matter of pride Raoul determined to pay off the notes at once.  Du Tillet gave Raoul a letter to Gigonnet, who counted out the money on a note of Nathan’s at twenty days’ sight.  Instead of asking himself the reason of such unusual facility, Raoul felt vexed at his folly in not having asked for more.  That is how men who are truly remarkable for the power of thought are apt to behave in practical business; they seem to reserve the power of their mind for their writings, and are fearful of lessening it by putting it to use in the daily affairs of life.

Raoul related his morning to Florine and Blondet.  He gave them an inimitable sketch of Gigonnet, his fireplace without fire, his shabby wall-paper, his stairway, his asthmatic bell, his aged straw mattress, his den without warmth, like his eye.  He made them laugh about this new uncle; they neither troubled themselves about du Tillet and his pretended want of money, nor about an old usurer so ready to disburse.  What was there to worry about in that?

“He has only asked you fifteen per cent,” said Blondet; “you ought to be grateful to him.  At twenty-five per cent you don’t bow to those old fellows.  This is money-lending; usury doesn’t begin till fifty per cent; and then you despise the usurer.”

“Despise him!” cried Florine; “if any of your friends lent you money at that price they’d pose as your benefactors.”

“She is right; and I am glad I don’t owe anything now to du Tillet,” said Raoul.

Why this lack of penetration as to their personal affairs in men whose business it is to penetrate all things?  Perhaps the mind cannot be complete at all points; perhaps artists of every kind live too much in the present moment to study the future; perhaps they are too observant of the ridiculous to notice snares, or they may believe that none would dare to lay a snare for such as they.  However this may be, the future arrived in due time.  Twenty days later Raoul’s notes were protested, but Florine obtained from the Court of commerce an extension of twenty-five days in which to meet them.  Thus pressed, Raoul looked into his affairs and asked for the accounts, and it then appeared that the receipts of the newspaper covered only two-thirds of the expenses, while the subscriptions were rapidly dwindling.  The great man now grew anxious and gloomy, but to Florine only, in whom he confided.  She advised him to borrow money on unwritten plays, and write than at once, giving a lien on his work.  Nathan followed this advice and obtained thereby twenty thousand francs, which reduced his debt to forty thousand.