The winter of the year 1839 was, it may be said, the period when the Thuillier salon was in its greatest glory.  The Minards came nearly every Sunday, and began their evening by spending an hour there, if they had other engagements elsewhere.  Often Minard would leave his wife at the Thuilliers and take his son and daughter to other houses.  This assiduity on the part of the Minards was brought about by a somewhat tardy meeting between Messieurs Metivier, Barbet, and Minard on an evening when the two former, being tenants of Mademoiselle Thuillier, remained rather longer than usual in discussing business with her.  From Barbet, Minard learned that the old maid had money transactions with himself and Metivier to the amount of sixty thousand francs, besides having a large deposit in the Bank.

“Has she an account at the Bank?” asked Minard.

“I believe so,” replied Barbet.  “I give her at least eighty thousand francs there.”

Being on intimate terms with a governor of the Bank, Minard ascertained that Mademoiselle Thuillier had, in point of fact, an account of over two hundred thousand francs, the result of her quarterly deposits for many years.  Besides this, she owned the house they lived in, which was not mortgaged, and was worth at least one hundred thousand francs, if not more.

“Why should Mademoiselle Thuillier work in this way?” said Minard to Metivier.  “She’d be a good match for you,” he added.

“I? oh, no,” replied Metivier.  “I shall do better by marrying a cousin; my uncle Metivier has given me the succession to his business; he has a hundred thousand francs a year and only two daughters.”

However secretive Mademoiselle Thuillier might be,—­and she said nothing of her investments to any one, not even to her brother, although a large amount of Madame Thuillier’s fortune went to swell the amount of her own savings,—­it was difficult to prevent some ray of light from gliding under the bushel which covered her treasure.

Dutocq, who frequented Barbet, with whom he had some resemblance in character and countenance, had appraised, even more correctly than Minard, the Thuillier finances.  He knew that their savings amounted, in 1838, to one hundred and fifty thousand francs, and he followed their progress secretly, calculating profits by the help of that all-wise money-lender, Barbet.

“Celeste will have from my brother and myself two hundred thousand francs in ready money,” the old maid had said to Barbet in confidence, “and Madame Thuillier wishes to secure to her by the marriage contract the ultimate possession of her own fortune.  As for me, my will is made.  My brother will have everything during his lifetime, and Celeste will be my heiress with that reservation.  Monsieur Cardot, the notary, is my executor.”