is wife. "What did
I tell you just now, Madame des Grassins? Grandet is honorable to the
backbone, and would never allow his name to remain under the slightest
cloud! Money without honor is a disease. There is honor in the
provinces! Right, very right, Grandet. I'm an old soldier, and I can't
disguise my thoughts; I speak roughly. Thunder! it is sublime!"

"Th-then s-s-sublime th-things c-c-cost d-dear," answered the goodman,
as the banker warmly wrung his hand.

"But this, my dear Grandet,--if the president will excuse me,--is a
purely commercial matter, and needs a consummate business man. Your
agent must be some one fully acquainted with the markets,--with
disbursements, rebates, interest calculations, and so forth. I am going
to Paris on business of my own, and I can take charge of--"

"We'll see about t-t-trying to m-m-manage it b-b-between us, under the
p-p-peculiar c-c-circumstances, b-b-but without b-b-binding m-m-myself
to anything th-that I c-c-could not do," said Grandet, stuttering;
"because, you see, monsieur le president naturally expects me to pay the
expenses of his journey."

The goodman did not stammer over the last words.

"Eh!" cried Madame des Grassins, "why it is a pleasure to go to Paris. I
would willingly pay to go myself."

She made a sign to her husband, as if to encourage him in cutting
the enemy out of the commission, _coute que coute_; then she glanced
ironically at the two Cruchots, who looked chap-fallen. Grandet seized
the banker by a button and drew him into a corner of the room.

"I have a great deal more confidence in you than in the president," he
said; "besides, I've other fish to fry," he added, wriggling his wen. "I
want to buy a few thousand francs in the Funds while they are at eighty.
They fall, I'm told, at the end of each month. You know all about these
things, don't you?"

"Bless me! then, am I to invest enough to give you a few thousand francs
a year?"

"That's not much to begin with. Hush! I don't want any one to know I am
going to play that game. You can make the investment by the end of
the month. Say nothing to the Cruchots; that'll annoy them. If you are
really going to Paris, we will see if there is anything to be done for
my poor nephew."

"Well, it's all settled. I'll start to-morrow by the mail-post," said
des Grassins aloud, "and I will come and take your last directions
at--what hour will suit you?"

"Five o'clock, just before dinner," said Grandet,