beautiful diamonds! such diamonds! and tolerably cheaply. Aha! aha!
Werbrust and Gigonnet, you thought you had old Papa Gobseck! _Ego
sum papa_! I am master of the lot of you! Paid! paid, principal and
interest! How silly they will look to-night when I shall come out with
this story between two games of dominoes!'

"The dark glee, the savage ferocity aroused by the possession of a few
water-white pebbles, set me shuddering. I was dumb with amazement.

"'Aha! There you are, my boy!' said he. 'We will dine together. We will
have some fun at your place, for I haven't a home of my own, and these
restaurants, with their broths, and sauces, and wines, would poison the
Devil himself.'

"Something in my face suddenly brought back the usual cold, impassive
expression to his.

"'You don't understand it,' he said, and sitting down by the hearth,
he put a tin saucepan full of milk on the brazier.--'Will you breakfast
with me?' continued he. 'Perhaps there will be enough here for two.'

"'Thanks,' said I, 'I do not breakfast till noon.'

"I had scarcely spoken before hurried footsteps sounded from the
passage. The stranger stopped at Gobseck's door and rapped; there was
that in the knock which suggested a man transported with rage. Gobseck
reconnoitred him through the grating; then he opened the door, and in
came a man of thirty-five or so, judged harmless apparently in spite of
his anger. The newcomer, who was quite plainly dressed, bore a strong
resemblance to the late Duc de Richelieu. You must often have met him,
he was the Countess' husband, a man with the aristocratic figure (permit
the expression to pass) peculiar to statesmen of your faubourg.

"'Sir,' said this person, addressing himself to Gobseck, who had quite
recovered his tranquillity, 'did my wife go out of this house just now?'

"'That is possible.'

"'Well, sir? do you not take my meaning?'

"'I have not the honor of the acquaintance of my lady your wife,'
returned Gobseck. 'I have had a good many visitors this morning, women
and men, and mannish young ladies, and young gentlemen who look like
young ladies. I should find it very hard to say----'

"'A truce to jesting, sir! I mean the woman who has this moment gone out
from you.'

"'How can I know whether she is your wife or not? I never had the
pleasure of seeing you before.'

"'You are mistaken, M. Gobseck,' said the Count, with profound irony in
his voice. 'We have met before, one morning in my wife