rich man.

From the corner in which he had ensconced himself, de Gery was watching
the scene with interest, knowing what importance his friend attached to
this introduction, when the same chance which all through the evening
had so cruelly been giving the lie to the native simplicity of his
inexperience, caused him to distinguish a short dialogue near him, amid
that buzz of many conversations through which each hears just the word
that interests him.

"It is indeed the least that Monpavon can do, to enable him to make a
few good acquaintances. He has introduced him to so many bad ones. You
know that he has just put Paganetti and all his gang on his shoulders."

"Poor fellow! But they will devour him."

"Bah! It is only fair that he should be made to disgorge a little. He
has been such a thief himself away yonder among the Turks."

"Really, do you believe that is so?"

"Do I believe it? I am in possession of very precise details on the
point which I have from Baron Hemerlingue, the banker, who effected the
last Tunisian loan. He knows some stories about the Nabob, he does. Just
imagine."

And the infamous gossip commenced. For fifteen years Jansoulet had
exploited the former Bey in a scandalous fashion. Names of purveyors
were cited and tricks wonderful in their assurance, their effrontery;
for instance, the story of a musical frigate, yes, a veritable musical
box, like a dining-room picture, which he had bought for two hundred
thousand francs and sold again for ten millions; the cost price of a
throne sold at three millions for which the account could be seen in the
books of an upholsterer of the Faubourg Saint-Honore did not exceed a
hundred thousand francs; and the funniest part of it was that, the Bey
having changed his mind, the royal seat, fallen into disgrace before it
had even been unpacked, remained still nailed in its packing-case at the
custom-house in Tripoli.

Next, beyond these wildly extravagant commissions on the provision of
the least toy, they laid stress upon accusations more grave but no less
certain, since they also sprang from the same source. It seemed there
was, adjoining the seraglio, a harem of European women admirably
equipped for his Highness by the Nabob, who must have been a good
judge in such matters, having practised formerly, in Paris--before
his departure for the East--the most singular trades: vendor of
theatre-tickets, manager of a low dancing-hall, and of an establishment
m