a moment if I say that her
happiness depended not so long ago upon Daddy Gobseck; but as the old
gentleman died at the age of ninety, M. de Restaud will soon be in
possession of a handsome fortune. This requires some explanation. As for
poor Fanny Malvaut, you know her; she is my wife."

"Poor fellow, he would admit that, with his usual frankness, with a
score of people to hear him!" said the Vicomtesse.

"I would proclaim it to the universe," said the attorney.

"Go on, drink your glass, my poor Derville. You will never be anything
but the happiest and the best of men."

"I left you in the Rue du Helder," remarked the uncle, raising his face
after a gentle doze. "You had gone to see a Countess; what have you done
with her?"

"A few days after my conversation with the old Dutchman," Derville
continued, "I sent in my thesis, and became first a licentiate in
law, and afterwards an advocate. The old miser's opinion of me went up
considerably. He consulted me (gratuitously) on all the ticklish bits
of business which he undertook when he had made quite sure how he stood,
business which would have seemed unsafe to any ordinary practitioner.
This man, over whom no one appeared to have the slightest influence,
listened to my advice with something like respect. It is true that he
always found that it turned out very well.

"At length I became head-clerk in the office where I had worked for
three years and then I left the Rue des Gres for rooms in my employer's
house. I had my board and lodging and a hundred and fifty francs per
month. It was a great day for me!

"When I went to bid the usurer good-bye, he showed no sign of feeling,
he was neither cordial nor sorry to lose me, he did not ask me to come
to see him, and only gave me one of those glances which seemed in some
sort to reveal a power of second-sight.

"By the end of a week my old neighbor came to see me with a tolerably
thorny bit of business, an expropriation, and he continued to ask for my
advice with as much freedom as if he paid for it.

"My principal was a man of pleasure and expensive tastes; before the
second year (1818-1819) was out he had got himself into difficulties,
and was obliged to sell his practice. A professional connection in those
days did not fetch the present exorbitant prices, and my principal asked
a hundred and fifty thousand francs. Now an active man, of competent
knowledge and intelligence, might hope to pay off the capital in t