turned to
look at the farmer.

"I've done for him," replied Pere Leger, in a low voice.

"Good! I like to see those nobles fooled. If you should want twenty
thousand francs or so, I'll lend them to you--But Francois, the
conductor of Touchard's six o'clock coach, told me that Monsieur
Margueron was invited by the Comte de Serizy to dine with him to-day at
Presles."

"That was the plan of his Excellency, but we had our own little ways of
thwarting it," said the farmer, laughing.

"The count could appoint Monsieur Margueron's son, and you haven't any
place to give,--remember that," said the inn-keeper.

"Of course I do; but if the count has the ministry on his side, I have
King Louis XVIII.," said Pere Leger, in a low voice. "Forty thousand of
his pictures on coin of the realm given to Moreau will enable me to buy
Les Moulineaux for two hundred and sixty thousand, money down, before
Monsieur de Serizy can do so. When he finds the sale is made, he'll
be glad enough to buy the farm for three hundred and sixty thousand,
instead of letting me cut it up in small lots right in the heart of his
property."

"Well done, bourgeois!" cried the inn-keeper.

"Don't you think that's good play?" said Leger.

"Besides," said the inn-keeper, "the farm is really worth that to him."

"Yes; Les Moulineaux brings in to-day six thousand francs in rental.
I'll take another lease of it at seven thousand five hundred for
eighteen years. Therefore it is really an investment at more than two
and a half per cent. The count can't complain of that. In order not to
involve Moreau, he is himself to propose me as tenant and farmer; it
gives him a look of acting for his master's interests by finding him
nearly three per cent for his money, and a tenant who will pay well."

"How much will Moreau make, in all?"

"Well, if the count gives him ten thousand francs for the transaction
the matter will bring him fifty thousand,--and well-earned, too."

"After all, the count, so they tell me, doesn't like Presles. And
then he is so rich, what does it matter what it costs him?" said the
inn-keeper. "I have never seen him, myself."

"Nor I," said Pere Leger. "But he must be intending to live there,
or why should he spend two hundred thousand francs in restoring the
chateau? It is as fine now as the King's own palace."

"Well, well," said the inn-keeper, "it was high time for Moreau to
feather his nest."

"Yes, for if the masters come there," repl