When he left the bridge of Saints-Peres for the Place du Carrousel this surveillance ceased, and he could then indulge freely in reflection—­at least as freely as his trouble and discouragement permitted.

“The weak kill themselves; the strong fight to their last breath.”

And, low as he was, he was not yet at his last breath.

When he decided to appeal to Glady he had hesitated between him and a usurer named Caffie, whom he did not know personally, but whom he had heard spoken of as a rascal who was interested in all sorts of affairs, preferring the bad to the good—­of successions, marriages, interdictions, extortions; and if he had not been to him it was for fear of being refused, as much as from the dread of putting himself in such hands in case of meeting with compliance.  But these scruples and these fears were useless now; since Glady failed him, cost what it might and happen what would, he must go to this scamp for assistance.

He knew that Caffie lived in the Rue Sainte-Anne, but he did not know the number.  He had only to go to one of his patients, a wine-merchant in the Rue Therese, to find his address in the directory.  It was but a step, and he decided to run the risk; there was need of haste.  Discouraged by all the applications that he had made up to this time, disheartened by betrayed hopes, irritated by rebuffs, he did not deceive himself as to the chances of this last attempt, but at least he would try it, slight though the hope of success might be.

It was an old house where Caffie lived, and had been formerly a private hotel; it was composed of two wings, one on the street, the other on an inside court.  A porte cochere gave access to this court, and under its roof, near the staircase, was the concierge’s lodge.  Saniel knocked at the door in vain; it was locked and would not open.  He waited several minutes, and in his nervous impatience walked restlessly up and down the court.  At last an old woman appeared carrying a small wax taper.  She was feeble and bent, and began to excuse herself; she was alone and could not be everywhere at the same time, in her lodge and lighting the lamps on the stairways.  Caffie lived on the first floor, in the wing on the street.

Saniel mounted the stairs and rang the bell.  A long time passed, or at least it seemed long to him, before there was an answer.  At last he heard a slow and heavy step on the tiled floor and the door was opened, but held by a hand and a foot.

“What do you wish?”

“Monsieur Caffie.”

“I am he.  Who are you?”

“Doctor Saniel.”

“I have not sent for a doctor.”

“It is not as doctor that I am here, but as client.”

“This is not the hour when I receive clients.”

“But you are at home.”

“That is a fact!”

And Caffie, concluding to open the door, asked Saniel to enter, and then closed it.