“Ah ca! do you mean they are pulling caps for this Theodose?  Who is the new match?  Has she money?”

“The ‘dot’ is pretty good; quite as much as Mademoiselle Colleville’s.”

“Then I wouldn’t give a fig for it.  La Peyrade has signed those notes and he will pay them.”

“Will he pay them? that’s the question.  You are not a business man, neither is Theodose; it may come into his head to dispute the validity of those notes.  What security have we that if the facts about their origin should come out, and the Thuillier marriage shouldn’t come off, the court of commerce mightn’t annul them as ’obligations without cause.’  For my part, I should laugh at such a decision; I can stand it; and, moreover, my precautions are taken; but you, as clerk to a justice-of-peace, don’t you see that such an affair would give the chancellor a bone to pick with you?”

“But, my good fellow,” said Dutocq, with the ill-humor of a man who sees himself face to face with an argument he can’t refute, “you seem to have a mania for stirring up matters and meddling with—­”

“I tell you again,” said Cerizet, “this came to me; I didn’t seek it; but I saw at once that there was no use struggling against the influence that is opposing us; so I chose the course of saving ourselves by a sacrifice.”

“A sacrifice! what sort of sacrifice?”

“Parbleu!  I’ve sold my share of those notes, leaving those who bought them to fight it out with Master barrister.”

“Who is the purchaser?”

“Who do you suppose would step into my shoes unless it were the persons who have an interest in this other marriage, and who want to hold a power over Theodose, and control him by force if necessary.”

“Then my share of the notes is equally important to them?”

“No doubt; but I couldn’t speak for you until I had consulted you.”

“What do they offer?”

“Hang it! my dear fellow, the same that I accepted.  Knowing better than you the danger of their competition I sold out to them on very bad terms.”

“Well, but what are they, those terms?”

“I gave up my shares for fifteen thousand francs.”

“Come, come!” said Dutocq, shrugging his shoulders, “what you are after is to recover a loss (if you made it) by a commission on my share—­and perhaps, after all, the whole thing is only a plot between you and la Peyrade—­”

“At any rate, my good friend, you don’t mince your words; an infamous thought comes into your head and you state it with charming frankness.  Luckily you shall presently hear me make the proposal to Theodose, and you are clever enough to know by his manner if there has been any connivance between us.”

“So be it!” said Dutocq.  “I withdraw the insinuation; but I must say your employers are pirates; I call their proposal throttling people.  I have not, like you, something to fall back upon.”

“Well, you poor fellow, this is how I reasoned:  I said to myself, That good Dutocq is terribly pressed for the last payment on his practice; this will give him enough to pay it off at one stroke; events have proved that there are great uncertainties about our Theodose-and-Thuillier scheme; here’s money down, live money, and therefore it won’t be so bad a bargain after all.”