the property by bidding it in.  Mademoiselle Thuillier, notified by Theodose, agreed entirely to this secret clause, understanding perfectly the necessity of paying the culprits guilty of the treachery.  The money was to pass through la Peyrade’s hands.  Claparon met his accomplice, the notary, on the Place de l’Observatoire by midnight.  This young man, the successor of Leopold Hannequin, was one of those who run after fortune instead of following it leisurely.  He now saw another future before him, and he managed his present affairs in order to be free to take hold of it.  In this midnight interview, he offered Claparon ten thousand francs to secure himself in this dirty business,—­a sum which was only to be paid on receipt, through Claparon, of a counter-deed from the nominal purchaser of the property.  The notary was aware that that sum was all-important to Claparon to extricate him from present difficulties, and he felt secure of him.

“Who but you, in all Paris, would give me such a fee for such an affair?” Claparon said to him, with a false show of naivete.  “You can sleep in peace; my ostensible purchaser is one of those men of honor who are too stupid to have ideas of your kind; he is a retired government employee; give him the money to make the purchase and he’ll sign the counter-deed at once.”

When the notary had made Claparon clearly understand that he could not get more than the ten thousand francs from him, Cerizet offered the latter twelve thousand down, and asked Theodose for fifteen thousand, intending to keep the balance for himself.  All these scenes between the four men were seasoned with the finest speeches about feelings, integrity, and the honor that men owed to one another in doing business.  While these submarine performances were going on, apparently in the interests of Thuillier, to whom Theodose related them with the deepest manifestations of disgust at being implicated therein, the pair were meditating the great political work which “my dear good friend” was to publish.  Thus the new municipal councillor naturally acquired a conviction that he could never do or be anything without the help of this man of genius; whose mind so amazed him, and whose ability was now so important to him, that every day he became more and more convinced of the necessity of marrying him to Celeste, and of taking the young couple to live with him.  In fact, after May the 1st, Theodose had already dined four times a week with “my dear, good friend.”

This was the period when Theodose reigned without a dissenting voice in the bosom of that household, and all the friends of the family approved of him—­for the following reason:  The Phellions, hearing his praises sung by Brigitte and Thuillier, feared to displease the two powers and chorussed their words, even when such perpetual laudation seemed to them exaggerated.  The same may be said of the Minards.  Moreover la Peyrade’s behavior, as “friend of the family” was perfect.  He disarmed distrust by the manner in which he effaced himself; he was there like a new piece of furniture; and he contrived to make both the Phellions and Minards believe that Brigitte and Thuillier had weighed him, and found him too light in the scales to be anything more in the family than a young man whose services were useful to them.