and
said:

"You dear creature, who speak of nothing but the injury done to me! Do
you not know that I hate him as bitterly for his falseness to you? But
nothing of that sort has any existence for me at this moment. You see
in me simply a business man who wishes to have an understanding with
his partner for the good of the firm. So let him come down without the
slightest fear, and if you dread any outbreak on my part, stay here with
us. I shall need only to look at my old master's daughter to be reminded
of my promise and my duty."

"I trust you, my friend," said Claire; and she went up to bring her
husband.

The first minute of the interview was terrible. Georges was deeply
moved, humiliated, pale as death. He would have preferred a hundred
times over to be looking into the barrel of that man's pistol at
twenty paces, awaiting his fire, instead of appearing before him as an
unpunished culprit and being compelled to confine his feelings within
the commonplace limits of a business conversation.

Risler pretended not to look at him, and continued to pace the floor as
he talked:

"Our house is passing through a terrible crisis. We have averted the
disaster for to-day; but this is not the last of our obligations. That
cursed invention has kept my mind away from the business for a long
while. Luckily, I am free now, and able to attend to it. But you must
give your attention to it as well. The workmen and clerks have followed
the example of their employers to some extent. Indeed, they have become
extremely negligent and indifferent. This morning, for the first time in
a year, they began work at the proper time. I expect that you will
make it your business to change all that. As for me, I shall work at my
drawings again. Our patterns are old-fashioned. We must have new ones
for the new machines. I have great confidence in our presses. The
experiments have succeeded beyond my hopes. We unquestionably have
in them a means of building up our business. I didn't tell you sooner
because I wished to surprise you; but we have no more surprises for each
other, have we, Georges?"

There was such a stinging note of irony in his voice that Claire
shuddered, fearing an outbreak; but he continued, in his natural tone.

"Yes, I think I can promise that in six months the Risler Press will
begin to show magnificent results. But those six months will be very
hard to live through. We must limit ourselves, cut down our expenses,
save in