goods or other value received, and the first endorser
pays the amount named for the obliging person who accepts it. This
species of fraud is tolerated because it is impossible to detect it,
and, moreover, it is an imaginary fraud which only becomes real if
payment is ultimately refused.

When at length it was evidently impossible to borrow any longer, whether
because the amount of the debt was now so greatly increased, or
because Castanier was unable to pay the large amount of interest on
the aforesaid sums of money, the cashier saw bankruptcy before him. On
making this discovery, he decided for a fraudulent bankruptcy rather
than an ordinary failure, and preferred a crime to a misdemeanor. He
determined, after the fashion of the celebrated cashier of the Royal
Treasury, to abuse the trust deservedly won, and to increase the number
of his creditors by making a final loan of the sum sufficient to keep
him in comfort in a foreign country for the rest of his days. All this,
as has been seen, he had prepared to do.

Aquilina knew nothing of the irksome cares of this life; she enjoyed her
existence, as many a woman does, making no inquiry as to where the
money came from, even as sundry other folk will eat their buttered rolls
untroubled by any restless spirit of curiosity as to the culture and
growth of wheat; but as the labor and miscalculations of agriculture
lie on the other side of the baker's oven, so beneath the unappreciated
luxury of many a Parisian household lie intolerable anxieties and
exorbitant toil.

While Castanier was enduring the torture of the strain, and his thoughts
were full of the deed that should change his whole life, Aquilina was
lying luxuriously back in a great armchair by the fireside, beguiling
the time by chatting with her waiting-maid. As frequently happens in
such cases the maid had become the mistress' confidant, Jenny having
first assured herself that her mistress' ascendency over Castanier was
complete.

"What are we to do this evening? Leon seems determined to come," Mme.
de la Garde was saying, as she read a passionate epistle indited upon a
faint gray notepaper.

"Here is the master!" said Jenny.

Castanier came in. Aquilina, nowise disconcerted, crumpled up the
letter, took it with the tongs, and held it in the flames.

"So that is what you do with your love-letters, is it?" asked Castanier.

"Oh goodness, yes," said Aquilina; "is it not the best way of keeping
them safe? Besi