“Yes, for one-fourth, by verbal agreement only.  After being such a fool as to let him run off with my money, I sha’n’t be such a fool as to throw any more after it.  If he sends me my hundred thousand francs, and two hundred thousand more for his half of our share, I shall then see about it.  But he will take good care not to send them for an affair which needs five years’ pot-boiling before you get any broth.  If he has only carried off, as they say, three hundred thousand francs, he will want the income of all of that to live suitably in foreign countries.”

“The villain!”

“Eh! the devil take him!  It was a woman who got him where he is,” said Claparon.  “Where’s the old man who can answer for himself that he won’t be the slave of his last fancy?  None of us, who think ourselves so virtuous, know how we shall end.  A last passion,—­eh! it is the most violent of all!  Look at Cardot, Camusot, Matifat; they all have their mistresses!  If we have been gobbled up to satisfy Roguin’s, isn’t it our own fault?  Why didn’t we distrust a notary who meddles with speculations?  Every notary, every broker, every trustee who speculates is an object of suspicion.  Failure for them is fraudulent bankruptcy; they are sure to go before the criminal courts, and therefore they prefer to run out of the country.  I sha’n’t commit such a stupid blunder again.  Well, well! we are too shaky ourselves in the matter not to let judgment go by default against the men we have dined with, who have given us fine balls,—­men of the world, in short.  Nobody complains; we are all to blame.”

“Very much to blame,” said Birotteau.  “The laws about failures and insolvency should be looked into.”

“If you have any need of me,” said Lebas to Cesar, “I am at your service.”

“Monsieur does not need any one,” said the irrepressible chatterbox, whose floodgates du Tillet had set wide open when he turned on the water,—­for Claparon was now repeating a lesson du Tillet had cleverly taught him.  “His course is quite clear.  Roguin’s assets will give fifty per cent to the creditors, so little Crottat tells me.  Besides this, Monsieur Birotteau gets back the forty thousand on his note to Roguin’s client, which the lender never paid over; then, of course, he can borrow on that property.  We have four months ahead before we are obliged to make a payment of two hundred thousand francs to the sellers.  Between now and then, Monsieur Birotteau can pay off his notes; though of course he can’t count on what Roguin has carried off to meet them.  Even if Monsieur Birotteau should be rather pinched, with a little manipulation he will come out all right.”