ich was said
to be a very good remedy against chest complaints, but was
extraordinarily dear, for which reason many a bigwig thought it _de bon
ton_ to suffer from chest complaints, so as to have an excuse for using
the sugar. The banker himself was a very respectable-looking old
gentleman of about seventy, with a face gracious to amiability, and at
first sight certainly most taking. Not only the dress, but the whole
manner of the man, vividly suggested Talleyrand, one of whose greatest
admirers he actually was. His hair was of a marvellously beautiful
white, but his face quite red and clean-shaved, and therefore all the
fresher and more animated; his teeth were white and even, his hands
extraordinarily smooth and delicate, as is generally the case with men
who have had much to do with the kneading of dough.

No sooner did the man of money perceive Abellino at the open door than
he put down the paper which he was reading without the aid of an
eyeglass, and, advancing to meet him to the very threshold, greeted him
with the most engaging affability.

"Monseigneur," exclaimed the young Merveilleux (such was the title of
the dandies of those days), "I am your servant to the very heel of my
shoe."

"Monseigneur," replied Monsieur Griffard, with similar pleasantry, "I am
your servant to the very depths of my cellar."

"Ha, ha, ha! Well said, well said! You answered me there," laughed the
young dandy. "In an hour's time that _bon-mot_ will be repeated in every
salon of the town. Well, what's the news in Paris, my dear money
monarch? I don't want bad news--tell me only the good!"

"The best news," said the banker, "is that we see you in Paris again.
And still better news than that is seeing you here."

"Ah, Monsieur Griffard, you are always so courtly!" cried the young man,
flinging himself into an armchair. "Well, Monsieur Griffard," he
continued, regarding himself at the same time in a little pocket-mirror
to see whether his smooth hair had been rumpled, "if you have only got
good news to tell me, I, on the other hand, have brought you nothing but
bad."

"Par exemple?"

"Par exemple. You know I went to Hungary to look after a certain
inheritance of mine, a certain patrimony which would bring me in a clear
million and a half."

"I know," said the banker, with a cold smile, and one of his hands began
playing with a pen.

"Then you also know, perhaps, that in the Asiatic kingdom where my
inheritance lies, nothing i