er the colonnades of the Bourse, and towards four o'clock in the
afternoon it exploded.--'Here is something serious; have you heard
the news?' asked du Tillet, drawing Werbrust into a corner. 'Here is
Nucingen gone off to Brussels, and his wife petitioning for a separation
of her estate.'

"'Are you and he in it together for a liquidation?' asked Werbrust,
smiling.

"'No foolery, Werbrust,' said du Tillet. 'You know the holders of his
paper. Now, look here. There is business in it. Shares in this new
concern of ours have gone up twenty per cent already; they will go up to
five-and-twenty by the end of the quarter; you know why. They are going
to pay a splendid dividend.'

"'Sly dog,' said Werbrust. 'Get along with you; you are a devil with
long and sharp claws, and you have them deep in the butter.'

"'Just let me speak, or we shall not have time to operate. I hit on
the idea as soon as I heard the news. I positively saw Mme. de Nucingen
crying; she is afraid for her fortune.'

"'Poor little thing!' said the old Alsacien Jew, with an ironical
expression. 'Well?' he added, as du Tillet was silent.

"'Well. At my place I have a thousand shares of a thousand francs in our
concern; Nucingen handed them over to me to put on the market, do you
understand? Good. Now let us buy up a million of Nucingen's paper at
a discount of ten or twenty per cent, and we shall make a handsome
percentage out of it. We shall be debtors and creditors both; confusion
will be worked! But we must set about it carefully, or the holders may
imagine that we are operating in Nucingen's interests.'

"Then Werbrust understood. He squeezed du Tillet's hand with an
expression such as a woman's face wears when she is playing her neighbor
a trick.

"Martin Falleix came up.--'Well, have you heard the news?' he asked.
'Nucingen has stopped payment.'

"'Pooh,' said Werbrust, 'pray don't noise it about; give those that hold
his paper a chance.'

"'What is the cause of the smash; do you know?' put in Claparon.

"'You know nothing about it,' said du Tillet. 'There isn't any smash.
Payment will be made in full. Nucingen will start again; I shall find
him all the money he wants. I know the causes of the suspension. He has
put all his capital into Mexican securities, and they are sending him
metal in return; old Spanish cannon cast in such an insane fashion that
they melted down gold and bell-metal and church plate for it, and all
the wreck of the Span