if you would lend me the
purchase-money, I could clear it off in ten years' time.'

"'Come, that is plain speaking,' said Daddy Gobseck, and he held out his
hand and grasped mine. 'Nobody since I have been in business has stated
the motives of his visit more clearly. Guarantees?' asked he, scanning
me from head to foot. 'None to give,' he added after a pause, 'How old
are you?'

"'Twenty-five in ten days' time,' said I, 'or I could not open the
matter.'

"'Precisely.'

"'Well?'

"'It is possible.'

"'My word, we must be quick about it, or I shall have some one buying
over my head.'

"'Bring your certificate of birth round to-morrow morning, and we will
talk. I will think it over.'

"'Next morning, at eight o'clock, I stood in the old man's room. He took
the document, put on his spectacles, coughed, spat, wrapped himself
up in his black greatcoat, and read the whole certificate through from
beginning to end. Then he turned it over and over, looked at me, coughed
again, fidgeted about in his chair, and said, 'We will try to arrange
this bit of business.'

"I trembled.

"'I make fifty per cent on my capital,' he continued, 'sometimes I make
a hundred, two hundred, five hundred per cent.'

"I turned pale at the words.

"'But as we are acquaintances, I shall be satisfied to take twelve and
a half per cent per--(he hesitated)--'well, yes, from you I would be
content to take thirteen per cent per annum. Will that suit you?'

"'Yes,' I answered.

"'But if it is too much, stick up for yourself, Grotius!' (a name he
jokingly gave me). 'When I ask you for thirteen per cent, it is all in
the way of business; look into it, see if you can pay it; I don't like a
man to agree too easily. Is it too much?'

"'No,' said I, 'I will make up for it by working a little harder.'

"'Gad! your clients will pay for it!' said he, looking at me wickedly
out of the corner of his eyes.

"'No, by all the devils in hell!' cried I, 'it shall be I who will pay.
I would sooner cut my hand off than flay people.'

"'Good-night,' said Daddy Gobseck.

"'Why, fees are all according to scale,' I added.

"'Not for compromises and settlements out of Court, and cases where
litigants come to terms,' said he. 'You can send in a bill for thousands
of francs, six thousand even at a swoop (it depends on the importance of
the case), for conferences with So-and-so, and expenses, and drafts, and
memorials, and your jargon. A man must learn to l