the fact that when Cerizet's lease is renewed, they will owe
you a thousand francs."

David went forthwith to his enemies. Now, any foreman may become a
master printer, but there are not always the makings of a good man of
business in a skilled typographer; David knew very little of business;
when, therefore, with a heavily-beating heart and a sensation of
throttling, David had put his excuses badly enough and formulated his
request, the answer--"This is nothing to do with us; the bill has
been passed on to us by Metivier; Metivier will pay us. Apply to M.
Metivier"--cut him short at once.

"Oh!" cried Eve when she heard the result, "as soon as the bill is
returned to M. Metivier, we may be easy."

At two o'clock the next day, Victor-Ange-Hermenegilde Doublon, bailiff,
made protest for non-payment at two o'clock, a time when the Place du
Murier is full of people; so that though Doublon was careful to stand
and chat at the back door with Marion and Kolb, the news of the protest
was known all over the business world of Angouleme that evening. Tall
Cointet had enjoined it upon Master Doublon to show the Sechards the
greatest consideration; but when all was said and done, could the
bailiff's hypocritical regard for appearances save Eve and David from
the disgrace of a suspension of payment? Let each judge for himself.
A tolerably long digression of this kind will seem all too short;
and ninety out of every hundred readers shall seize with avidity upon
details that possess all the piquancy of novelty, thus establishing yet
once again the trust of the well-known axiom, that there is nothing so
little known as that which everybody is supposed to know--the Law of the
Land, to wit.

And of a truth, for the immense majority of Frenchmen, a minute
description of some part of the machinery of banking will be as
interesting as any chapter of foreign travel. When a tradesman living
in one town gives a bill to another tradesman elsewhere (as David was
supposed to have done for Lucien's benefit), the transaction ceases
to be a simple promissory note, given in the way of business by one
tradesman to another in the same place, and becomes in some sort a
letter of exchange. When, therefore, Metivier accepted Lucien's three
bills, he was obliged to send them for collection to his correspondents
in Angouleme--to Cointet Brothers, that is to say. Hence, likewise, a
certain initial loss for Lucien in exchange on Angouleme, taking the
pr