amel's
back. And what a burden his camel carried--flour-mill, saw-mill,
ash-factory, farms, a general store, lime-kilns, agency for
lightning-rods and insurance, cattle-dealing, the project for the new
cheese-factory, and money-lending!

Money-lending? It seemed strange that Jean Jacques should be able to
lend money, since he himself had to borrow, and mortgage also, from time
to time. When things began to go really wrong with him financially, he
mortgaged his farms, his flour-mill, and saw-mill, and then lent money
on other mortgages. This he did because he had always lent money, and it
was a habit so associated with his prestige, that he tied himself up in
borrowing and lending and counter-mortgaging till, as the saying is,
"a Philadelphia lawyer" could not have unravelled his affairs without
having been born again in the law. That he was able to manipulate his
tangled affairs, while keeping the confidence of those from whom he
borrowed, and the admiration of those to whom he lent, was evidence of
his capacity. "Genius of a kind" was what his biggest creditor called it
later.

After a personal visit to St. Saviour's, this biggest creditor and
financial potentate--M. Mornay--said that if Jean Jacques had been
started right and trained right, he would have been a "general in the
financial field, winning big battles."

M. Mornay chanced to be a friend of Judge Carcasson, and when he visited
Vilray he remembered that the Judge had spoken often of his humble but
learned friend, the Clerk of the Court, and of his sister. So M.
Mornay made his way from the office of the firm of avocats whom he had
instructed in his affairs with Jean Jacques, to that of M. Fille. Here
he was soon engaged in comment on the master-miller and philosopher.

"He has had much trouble, and no doubt his affairs have suffered,"
remarked M. Fille cautiously, when the ice had been broken and the Big
Financier had referred casually to the difficulties among which Jean
Jacques was trying to maintain equilibrium; "but he is a man who can do
things too hard for other men."

The Big Financier lighted another cigar and blew away several clouds of
smoke before he said in reply, "Yes, I know he has had family trouble
again, but that is a year ago, and he has had a chance to get another
grip of things."

"He did not sit down and mope," explained M. Fille. "He was at work the
next day after his daughter's flight just the same as before. He is a
man of gre