ieth representation,
thinking to find him and obtain my money. The house was less than half
full; but Madame Scio was very beautiful. They told me in the foyer that
the play would run a few nights longer. I went seven different times to
Mongenod's lodging and did not find him; each time I left my name with
the landlady. At last I wrote again: 'Monsieur, if you do not wish to
lose my respect, as you have my friendship, you will treat me now as a
stranger,--that is to say, with politeness; and you will tell me when
you will be ready to pay your note, which is now due. I shall act
according to your answer. Your obedient servant, Alain.' No answer. We
were then in 1799; one year, all but two months, had expired. At the
end of those two months I went to Bordin. Bordin took the note, had
it protested, and sued Mongenod for me. Meantime the disasters of the
French armies had produced such depreciation of the Funds that investors
could buy a five-francs dividend on seven francs capital. Therefore,
for my hundred louis in gold, I might have bought myself fifteen hundred
francs of income. Every morning, as I took my coffee and read the paper,
I said to myself: 'That cursed Mongenod! if it were not for him I
should have three thousand francs a year to live on.' Mongenod became
by _bete-noire_; I inveighed against him even as I walked the streets.
'Bordin is there,' I thought to myself; 'Bordin will put the screws on,
and a good thing, too.' My feelings turned to hatred, and my hatred to
imprecations; I cursed the man, and I believed he had every vice. 'Ah!
Monsieur Barillaud was very right,' thought I, 'in all he told me!'"

Monsieur Alain paused reflectively.

"Yes," he said again, "I thought him very right in all he told me. At
last, one morning, in came my debtor, no more embarrassed than if he
didn't owe me a sou. When I saw him I felt all the shame he ought to
have felt. I was like a criminal taken in the act; I was all upset.
The eighteenth Brumaire had just taken place. Public affairs were doing
well, the Funds had gone up. Bonaparte was off to fight the battle
of Marengo. 'It is unfortunate, monsieur,' I said, receiving Mongenod
standing, 'that I owe your visit to a sheriff's summons.' Mongenod took
a chair and sat down. 'I came to tell you,' he said, 'that I am totally
unable to pay you.' 'You made me miss a fine investment before the
election of the First Consul,--an investment which would have given me
a little fortune