The day servants disturbed him when they came in to sweep the rooms and open the windows.  He went into the lavatory, and there bathed his face.  When his ablutions were over he wrote a note to Jeanne, saying that he had reflected, and could not possibly let her go away with him.  He implored her to do all in her power to forget him.  He gave this letter to one of the messengers, and told him to give it into the hands of Madame Cayrol’s maid, and to none other.

The care of a woman and the worry of another household seemed unbearable to him.  Besides, what could he do with Jeanne?  The presence of his mistress would prevent his being able to go back to Micheline.  And now he felt that his only hope of safety was in Micheline’s love for him.

But first of all he must go and see if Herzog had returned, and ascertain the real facts of the position in regard to the Universal Credit Company.

Herzog occupied a little house on the Boulevard Haussmann, which he had hired furnished from some Americans.  The loud luxury of the Yankees had not frightened him.  On the contrary, he held that the gay colors of the furniture and the glitter of the gilded cornices were bound to have a fascination for prospective shareholders.  Suzanne had reserved a little corner for herself, modestly hung with muslin and furnished with simple taste, which was a great contrast to the loud appearance of the other part of the house.

On arriving, Serge found a stableman washing a victoria.  Herzog had returned.  The Prince quietly went up the steps, and had himself announced.

The financier was sitting in his study by the window, looking through the newspapers.  When Serge entered he rose.  The two men stood facing each other for a moment.  The Prince was the first to speak.

“How is it that you have kept me without news during your absence?” asked he, harshly.

“Because,” replied Herzog, calmly, “the only news I had was not good news.”

“At least I should have known it.”

“Would the result of the operation have been different?”

“You have led me like a child in this affair,” Serge continued, becoming animated.  “I did not know where I was going.  You made me promises, how have you kept them?”

“As I was able,” quietly answered Herzog.  “Play has its chances.  One seeks Austerlitz and finds Waterloo.”

“But,” cried the Prince, angrily, “the shares which you sold ought not to have gone out of your hands.”

“You believed that?” retorted the financier, ironically.  “If they ought not to have gone out of my hands it was hardly worth while putting them into them.”

“In short,” said Panine, eager to find some responsible party on whom he could pour out all the bitterness of his misfortune, “you took a mean advantage of me.”

“Good!  I expected you to say that!” returned Herzog, smiling.  “If the business had succeeded, you would have accepted your share of the spoil without any scruples, and would have felt ready to crown me.  It has failed; you are trying to get out of the responsibility, and are on the point of treating me as if I were a swindler.  Still, the affair would not have been more honest in the first instance than in the second, but success embellishes everything.”