“Yes,” replied the usurer, “I even managed one with la Peyrade,—­an evening paper; and a pretty piece of work we did, for which we were finely recompensed.”

“Well,” said du Portail, “why don’t you do it again,—­journalism, I mean,—­with la Peyrade.”

Cerizet looked at du Portail in amazement.

“Ah ca!” he cried, “are you the devil, monsieur?  Can nothing ever be hidden from you?”

“Yes,” said du Portail, “I know a good many things.  But what has been settled between you and la Peyrade?”

“Well, remembering my experience in the business, and not knowing whom else to get, he offered to make me manager of the paper.”

“I did not know that,” said du Portail, “but it was quite probable.  Did you accept?”

“Conditionally; I asked time for reflection.  I wanted to know what you thought of the offer.”

“Parbleu!  I think that out of an evil that can’t be remedied we should get, as the proverb says, wing or foot.  I had rather see you inside than outside of that enterprise.”

“Very good; but in order to get into it there’s a difficulty.  La Peyrade knows I have debts, and he won’t help me with the thirty-three-thousand francs’ security which must be paid down in my name.  I haven’t got them, and if I had, I wouldn’t show them and expose myself to the insults of creditors.”

“You must have a good deal left of that twenty-five thousand francs la Peyrade paid you not more than two months ago,” remarked du Portail.

“Only two thousand two hundred francs and fifty centimes,” replied Cerizet.  “I was adding it up last night; the rest has all gone to pay off pressing debts.”

“But if you have paid your debts you haven’t any creditors.”

“Yes, those I’ve paid, but those I haven’t paid I still owe.”

“Do you mean to tell me that your liabilities were more than twenty-five thousand francs?” said du Portail, in a tone of incredulity.

“Does a man go into bankruptcy for less?” replied Cerizet, as though he were enunciating a maxim.

“Well, I see I am expected to pay that sum myself,” said du Portail, crossly; “but the question is whether the utility of your presence in this enterprise is worth to me the interest on one hundred and thirty-three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three francs, thirty-three centimes.”

“Hang it!” said Cerizet, “if I were once installed near Thuillier, I shouldn’t despair of soon putting him and la Peyrade at loggerheads.  In the management of a newspaper there are lots of inevitable disagreements, and by always taking the side of the fool against the clever man, I can increase the conceit of one and wound the conceit of the other until life together becomes impossible.  Besides, you spoke just now of political danger; now the manager of a newspaper, as you ought to know, when he has the intellect to be something better than a man of straw, can quietly give his sheet a push in the direction wanted.