"And you dare to say that to me, now, rogue as you are," exclaimed
Florestan, furious with anger, "when was it not you yourself who brought
me into contact with the person who negotiated these bills?"

"Now, my dear aristocrat," replied Badinot, coolly, "be cool! You very
skilfully counterfeit commercial signatures; but, although they are so
adroitly done, that is no reason why you should treat your friends with
disagreeable familiarity; and, if you give way to unseemly fits of
temper, I shall leave you, and then you may arrange this matter by
yourself."

"And do you think it possible for a man to be calm in such a position as
that in which I find myself? If what you say be true, if this charge be
to-day preferred at the office of the attorney-general, I am lost!"

"It is really as I tell you, unless you have again recourse to your
charming, blue-eyed Providence."

"Impossible!"

"Then make up your mind to the worst. It is a pity; it was the last
bill; and for five and twenty thousand miserable francs (1,000_l._) to
go and take the air at Toulon is awkward, absurd, foolish! How could a
clever fellow like you allow yourself to be thus taken aback?"

"What can I do? What can I do? Nothing here is my own, and I have not
twenty louis in the world left."

"Your friends?"

"Why, I am in debt to every one who could lend me. Do you think else
that I am such a fool as to have waited until to-day before I applied to
them?"

"True; but, come, let us discuss the matter quietly; that is the best
way of arriving at a reasonable conclusion. Just now, I wish to explain
to you how you had been met by a party more clever than yourself, but
you did not attend to me."

"Well, tell me now, if that will do any good."

"Let us recapitulate. You said to me two months since, 'I have bills on
different banking-houses, at long dates, for a hundred and thirteen
thousand francs (4,520_l._), and, my dear Badinot, I wish you to find me
the means of cashing them.'"

"Well, and then--"

"Listen: I asked you to let me see these bills; a certain something made
me suspect that they were forged, although so admirably done. I did not
suspect, it is true, that you were so expert in calligraphy; but,
employing myself in looking after your fortune when you had no longer
any fortune to look after, I found you were completely done up! I had
arranged the deed by which your horses, your carriages, and the
furniture of this house became the pro