But though the law compels the bankrupt to appear, it has no power to oblige the creditor to do so.  A meeting of creditors is a ceremony of no real importance except in special cases,—­when, for instance, a swindler is to be dispossessed and a coalition among the creditors agreed upon, when there is difference of opinion between the privileged creditors and the unsecured creditors, or when the concordat is specially dishonest, and the bankrupt is in need of a deceptive majority.  But in the case of a failure when all has been given up, the meeting is a mere formality.  Pillerault went to each creditor, one after the other, and asked him to give his proxy to his attorney.  Every creditor, except du Tillet, sincerely pitied Cesar, after striking him down.  Each knew that his conduct was scrupulously honest, that his books were regular, and his business as clear as the day.  All were pleased to find no “gay and illegitimate creditor” among them.  Molineux, first the agent and then the provisional assignee, had found in Cesar’s house everything the poor man owned, even the engraving of Hero and Leander which Popinot had given him, his personal trinkets, his breast-pin, his gold buckles, his two watches,—­things which an honest man might have taken without thinking himself less than honest.  Constance had left her modest jewel-case.  This touching obedience to the law struck the commercial mind keenly.  Birotteau’s enemies called it foolishness; but men of sense held it up to its true light as a magnificent supererogation of integrity.  In two months the opinion of the Bourse had changed; every one, even those who were most indifferent, admitted this failure to be a rare commercial wonder, seldom seen in the markets of Paris.  Thus the creditors, knowing that they were secure of nearly sixty per cent of their claims, were very ready to do what Pillerault asked of them.  The solicitors of the commercial courts are few in number; it therefore happened that several creditors employed the same man, giving him their proxies.  Pillerault finally succeeded in reducing the formidable assemblage to three solicitors, himself, Ragon, the two assignees, and the commissioner.

Early in the morning of the solemn day, Pillerault said to his nephew,—­

“Cesar, you can go to your meeting to-day without fear; nobody will be there.”

Monsieur Ragon wished to accompany his debtor.  When the former master of “The Queen of Roses” first made known the wish in his little dry voice, his ex-successor turned pale; but the good old man opened his arms, and Birotteau threw himself into them as a child into the arms of its father, and the two perfumers mingled their tears.  The bankrupt gathered courage as he felt the indulgences shown to him, and he got into the coach with his uncle and Ragon.  Precisely at half past ten o’clock the three reached the cloister Saint-Merri, where the Court of Commerce was then held.  At that hour there was no one in the Hall of Bankruptcy.  The