up too.

"Me--I am what I always was, nothing can change me," he exclaimed
defiantly. "I will sell the Barbille farm and build the mill again."

So it was that by hook or by crook, and because the Big Financier had
more heart than he even acknowledged to his own wife, Jean Jacques
did sell the Barbille farm, and got in cash--in good hard cash-eight
thousand dollars after the mortgage was paid. M. Mornay was even willing
to take the inadequate indemnity of the insurance policy on the mill,
and lose the rest, in order that Jean Jacques should have the eight
thousand dollars to rebuild. This he did because Jean Jacques showed
such amazing courage after the burning of the mill, and spread himself
out in a greater activity than his career had yet shown. He shaved
through this financial crisis, in spite of the blow he had received by
the loss of his lawsuits, the flitting of his cousin, Auguste Charron,
and the farm debts of this same cousin. It all meant a series of
manipulations made possible by the apparent confidence reposed in him by
M. Mornay.

On the day he sold his farm he was by no means out of danger of absolute
insolvency--he was in fact ruined; but he was not yet the victim of
those processes which would make him legally insolvent. The vultures
were hovering, but they had not yet swooped, and there was the Manor
saw-mill going night and day; for by the strangest good luck Jean
Jacques received an order for M. Mornay's new railway (Judge Carcasson
was behind that) which would keep his saw-mill working twenty-four hours
in the day for six months.

"I like his pluck, but still, ten to one, he loses," remarked M. Mornay
to Judge Carcasson. "He is an unlucky man, and I agree with Napoleon
that you oughtn't to be partner with an unlucky man."

"Yet you have had to do with Monsieur Jean Jacques," responded the aged
Judge.

M. Mornay nodded indulgently.

"Yes, without risk, up to the burning of the mill. Now I take my
chances, simply because I'm a fool too, in spite of all the wisdom I see
in history and in life's experiences. I ought to have closed him up, but
I've let him go on, you see."

"You will not regret it," remarked the Judge. "He really is worth it."

"But I think I will regret it financially. I think that this is the
last flare of the ambition and energy of your Jean Jacques. That often
happens--a man summons up all his reserves for one last effort. It's
partly pride, partly the undefeated thing in