“But we shall still need them for Thuillier’s election to the Chamber,” said Theodose.  “Follow my advice; you have found it good so far, haven’t you?  When the house is actually yours, you will have got it for almost nothing; for you can now buy into the Three-per-cents at sixty in Madame Thuillier’s name, and thus replace nearly the whole of her fortune.  Wait only for the expiration of the time allowed to the nominal creditor to buy it in, and have the fifteen thousand francs ready for our scoundrels.”

Brigitte did not wait; she took her whole capital with the exception of a sum of one hundred and twenty thousand francs, and bought into the Three-per-cents in Madame Thuillier’s name to the amount of twelve thousand francs a year, and in her own for ten thousand a year, resolving in her own mind to choose no other kind of investment in future.  She saw her brother secure of forty thousand francs a year besides his pension, twelve thousand a year for Madame Thuillier and eighteen thousand a year for herself, besides the house they lived in, the rental of which she valued at eight thousand.

“We are worth quite as much as the Minards,” she remarked.

“Don’t chant victory before you win it,” said Theodose.  “The right of redemption doesn’t expire for another week.  I have attended to your affairs, but mine have gone terribly to pieces.”

“My dear child, you have friends,” cried Brigitte; “if you should happen to want five hundred francs or so, you will always find them here.”

Theodose exchanged a smile with Thuillier, who hastened to carry him off, saying:—­

“Excuse my poor sister; she sees the world through a small hole.  But if you should want twenty-five thousand francs I’ll lend them to you —­out of my first rents,” he added.

“Thuillier,” exclaimed Theodose, “the rope is round my neck.  Ever since I have been a barrister I have had notes of hand running.  But say nothing about it,” added Theodose, frightened himself at having let out the secret of his situation.  “I’m in the claws of scoundrels, but I hope to crush them yet.”

In telling this secret Theodose, though alarmed as he did so, had a two-fold purpose:  first, to test Thuillier; and next, to avert the consequences of a fatal blow which might be dealt to him any day in a secret and sinister struggle he had long foreseen.  Two words will explain his horrible position.

CHAPTER XII

DEVILS AGAINST DEVILS

During the extreme poverty of la Peyrade’s first years in Paris, none but Cerizet had ever gone to see him in the wretched garret where, in severely cold weather, he stayed in bed for want of clothes.  Only one shirt remained to him.  For three days he lived on one loaf of bread, cutting it into measured morsels, and asking himself, “What am I to do?” At this moment it was that his former partner came to him, having just left prison, pardoned.  The