ousand francs, Beaudenord with four
hundred thousand, d'Aiglemont with a million, Matifat with three hundred
thousand, Charles Grandet (who married Mlle. d'Aubrion) with half a
million, and so forth, and so forth.

"Now, if Nucingen had himself brought out a joint-stock company, with
the shares of which he proposed to indemnify his creditors after more or
less ingenious manoeuvring, he might perhaps have been suspected. He
set about it more cunningly than that. He made some one else put up the
machinery that was to play the part of the Mississippi scheme in Law's
system. Nucingen can make the longest-headed men work out schemes
for him without confiding a word to them; it is his peculiar talent.
Nucingen just let fall a hint to du Tillet of the pyramidal, triumphant
notion of bringing out a joint-stock enterprise with capital sufficient
to pay very high dividends for a time. Tried for the first time, in days
when noodles with capital were plentiful, the plan was pretty sure
to end in a run upon the shares, and consequently in a profit for the
banker that issued them. You must remember that this happened in 1826.

"Du Tillet, struck through he was by an idea both pregnant and
ingenious, naturally bethought himself that if the enterprise failed,
the blame must fall upon somebody. For which reason, it occurred to
him to put forward a figurehead director in charge of his commercial
machinery. At this day you know the secret of the firm of Claparon and
Company, founded by du Tillet, one of the finest inventions----"

"Yes," said Blondet, "the responsible editor in business matters, the
instigator, and scapegoat; but we know better than that nowadays. We
put, 'Apply at the offices of the Company, such and such a number, such
and such a street,' where the public find a staff of clerks in green
caps, about as pleasing to behold as broker's men."

"Nucingen," pursued Bixiou, "had supported the firm of Charles Claparon
and Company with all his credit. There were markets in which you might
safely put a million francs' worth of Claparon's paper. So du Tillet
proposed to bring his firm of Claparon to the fore. So said, so done.
In 1825 the shareholder was still an unsophisticated being. There was
no such thing as cash lying at call. Managing directors did not pledge
themselves not to put their own shares upon the market; they kept no
deposit with the Bank of France; they guaranteed nothing. They did not
even condescend to explain