cy.
I had only to deal with the income derived from the various estates,
and while being fully aware that large sums had been placed within
the hands of his bankers, I had not troubled to be curious respecting
the ultimate destination of such moneys. My patron possessed, as has
already been intimated, a lively--nay, an exaggerated--sense of the
value of money. He was, indeed, as I remember thinking at this time,
somewhat of a miser, loving money for its own sake, and not, as did
the Baron Giraud, merely for the grandeur and position to be purchased
therewith.

"But I am not like you," said the financier at length.

"No; you have a thousand louis for every one that I possess."

"But I have nothing solid--no lands, no estates except my chateau in
Var."

His panic had by no means subsided, and presently he found himself on
the verge of tears--a pitiable, despicable object. The Vicomte--soothing
and benevolent--went on to explain more fully the position of his own
affairs. He told us that on information received from a sure source he
had months earlier concluded that the Emperor's illness was of a more
serious nature than the general public believed.

"You, my dear friend," he said, "engaged as you have been in the
affairs of the outside world--the Suez Canal, Mexico, the
Colonies--have perhaps omitted to watch matters nearer home. While
looking at a distant mountain one may fall over a little stone--is it
not so?"

He had, he informed us, withdrawn his small interest in such
securities as depended upon the stability of the Government, but that
for men occupying a public position, either by accident of birth
or--and he bowed in his pleasant way towards the Baron--by the force
of their genius, to send their money out of France by the ordinary
financial channels would excite comment, and perhaps hasten the crisis
that all good patriots would fain avoid. He talked thus collectedly
and fairly while the Baron Giraud could but wipe his forehead with a
damp handkerchief and gasp incoherent exclamations of terror.

"I could realize a couple of million," said the financier, "in two
days, but there is much that I cannot sell just now--the fall of the
government makes it necessary to hold much that I could have sold at a
profit a fortnight ago."

The Vicomte was playing with a quill pen. How well I knew the action!
It seemed that the millionaire was recovering from his shock, of which
re-establishment the outward and visibl