-and-gold drawing rooms, a noise of doors, an established current
of bare-faced and vulgar exploitation attracted from the four corners of
Paris and the suburbs by this gigantic fortune and incredible facility.

For these small sums, these regular distributions, recourse was not had
to the check-book. For such purposes the Nabob kept in one of his
rooms a mahogany chest of drawers, a horrible little piece of furniture
representing the savings of a house porter, the first that Jansoulet had
bought when he had been able to give up living in furnished apartments;
which he had preserved since, like a gambler's fetish; and the three
drawers of which contained always two hundred thousand francs in cash.
It was to this constant supply that he had recourse on the days of his
large receptions, displaying a certain ostentation in the way in which
he would handle the gold and silver, by great handfuls, thrusting it to
the bottom of his pockets to draw it out thence with the gesture of
a cattle dealer; a certain vulgar way of raising the skirts of his
frock-coat and of sending his hand "to the bottom and into the pile."
To-day there must be a terrible void in the drawers of the little chest.

After so many mysterious whispered confabulations, demands more or less
clearly formulated, chance entries and triumphant departures, the last
client having been dismissed, the chest of drawers closed and locked,
the flat in the Place Vendome began to empty in the uncertain light of
the afternoon towards four o'clock, that close of the November days so
exceedingly prolonged afterward by artificial light. The servants were
clearing away the coffee and the raki, and bearing off the open and
half-emptied cigar-boxes. The Nabob, thinking himself alone, gave a sigh
of relief. "Ouf! that's over." But no. Opposite him, some one comes out
from a corner that is already dark, and approaches with a letter in his
hand.

Another!

And at once, mechanically, the poor man made that eloquent,
horse-dealer's gesture of his. Instinctively, also, the visitor showed a
movement of recoil so prompt, so hurt, that the Nabob understood that he
was making a mistake, and took the trouble to examine the young man who
stood before him, simply but correctly dressed, of a dull complexion,
without the least sign of a beard, with regular features, perhaps a
little too serious and fixed for his age, which, aided by his hair of
pale blond colour, curled in little ringlets l