What followed was truly surprising—­enough to make one believe in fatality.  My readers probably will not believe it; but as these Memoirs will not be published till I have left this world, it would be of no use for me to disguise the truth in any way, especially as the writing of them is only the amusement of my leisure hours.  Well, let him who will believe it; this is absolutely what happened.  I wrote down the question myself, erected the pyramid, and carried out all the magical ceremonies without letting Esther have a hand in it.  I was delighted to be able to check an act of extreme imprudence, and I was determined to do so.  A double meaning, which I knew how to get, would abate M. d’O——­’s courage and annihilate his plans.  I had thought over what I wanted to say, and I thought I had expressed it properly in the numbers.  With that idea, as Esther knew the alphabet perfectly well, I let her extract the answer, and transfer it into letters.  What was my surprise when I heard her read these words: 

“In a matter of this kind neither fear nor hesitate.  Your repentance would be too hard for you to bear.”

That was enough.  Father and daughter ran to embrace me, and M. d’O-said that when the vessel was sighted a tithe of the profits should be mine.  My surprise prevented me giving any answer; I had intended to write trust and hazard, and I had written fear and hesitate.  But thanks to his prejudice, M. d’O——­ only saw in my silence confirmation of the infallibility of the oracle.  In short, I could do nothing more, and I took my leave leaving everything to the care of chance, who sometimes is kind to us in spite of ourselves.

The next morning I took up my abode in a splendid suite of rooms in Esther’s house, and the day after I took her to a concert, where she joked with me on the grief I should endure on account of the absence of Madame Trend and my daughter.  Esther was the only mistress of my soul.  I lived but to adore her, and I should have satisfied my love had not Esther been a girl of good principles.  I could not gain possession of her, and was full of longing and desire.

Four or five days after my installation in my new quarters, M. d’O—–­communicated to me the result of a conference which he had had with M. Pels and six other bankers on the twenty millions.  They offered ten millions in hard cash and seven millions in paper money, bearing interest at five or six per cent. with a deduction of one per cent. brokerage.  Furthermore, they would forgive a sum of twelve hundred thousand florins owed by the French India Company to the Dutch Company.

With such conditions I could not venture to decide on my own responsibility, although, personally, I thought them reasonable enough, the impoverished state of the French treasury being taken into consideration.  I sent copies of the proposal to M. de Boulogne and M. d’Afri, begging from them an immediate reply.  At the end of a week I received an answer in the writing of M. de Courteil, acting for M. de Boulogne, instructing me to refuse absolutely any such proposal, and to report myself at Paris if I saw no chance of making a better bargain.  I was again informed that peace was imminent, though the Dutch were quite of another opinion.