e, which had begun to fill
with clients. This crowd had but little interest for the head of the
establishment, as it consisted chiefly of waiters from small eating
houses, and cooks who knew little or nothing of what was going on in the
houses where they were in service. Finding this to be the case, Mascarin
handed them all over to Beaumarchef, and only occasionally nodded to the
serviteur of some great family, who chanced to stroll in.

He was busily engaged in arranging those pieces of cardboard which had
so much puzzled Paul in his first visit, and was so much occupied with
his task, that all he could do was to mutter broken exclamations: "What
a stupendous undertaking! but I have to work single-handed, and hold in
my hands all these threads, which for twenty years, with the patience of
a spider, I have been weaving into a web. No one, seeing me here,
would believe this. People who pass me by in the street say, 'That is
Mascarin, who keeps a servants' registry office;' that is the way in
which they look upon me. Let them laugh if they like; they little know
the mighty power I wield in secret. No one suspects me, no, not one. I
may seem too sanguine, it is true," he continued, still glancing over
his papers, "or the net may break and some of the fishes slip out. That
idiot, Mussidan, asked me if I was acquainted with the Penal code. I
should think I was, for no one has studied them more deeply than I have,
and there is a clause in volume 3, chapter 2, which is always before me.
Penal servitude for a term of years; and if I am convicted under Article
306, then it means a life sentence." He shuddered, but soon a smile of
triumph shone over his face as he resumed, "Ah, but to send a man like
Mascarin for change of air to Toulon, he must be caught, and that is not
such an easy task. The day he scents danger he disappears, and leaves
no trace behind him. I fear that I cannot look for too much from my
companions, Catenac and Hortebise; I have up to now kept them back.
Croisenois would never betray me, and as for Beaumarchef, La Candele,
Toto Chupin, and a few other poor devils, they would be a fine haul
for the police. They couldn't split, simply because they know nothing."
Mascarin chuckled, and then adjusting his spectacles with his favorite
gesture, said, "I shall go on in the course I have commenced, straight
as the flight of an arrow. I ought to make four millions through
Croisenois. Paul shall marry Flavia, that is all