you. Yes, I put a spoke in her marriage--and you will not get
her married without my help! Handsome as Mademoiselle Hortense is, she
needs a fortune----"

"Alas! yes," said the Baroness, wiping her eyes.

"Well, just ask your husband for ten thousand francs," said Crevel,
striking his attitude once more. He waited a minute, like an actor who
has made a point.

"If he had the money, he would give it to the woman who will take
Josepha's place," he went on, emphasizing his tones. "Does a man ever
pull up on the road he has taken? In the first place, he is too sweet on
women. There is a happy medium in all things, as our King has told us.
And then his vanity is implicated! He is a handsome man!--He would
bring you all to ruin for his pleasure; in fact, you are already on the
highroad to the workhouse. Why, look, never since I set foot in your
house have you been able to do up your drawing-room furniture. 'Hard up'
is the word shouted by every slit in the stuff. Where will you find a
son-in-law who would not turn his back in horror of the ill-concealed
evidence of the most cruel misery there is--that of people in decent
society? I have kept shop, and I know. There is no eye so quick as that
of the Paris tradesman to detect real wealth from its sham.--You have
no money," he said, in a lower voice. "It is written everywhere, even on
your man-servant's coat.

"Would you like me to disclose any more hideous mysteries that are kept
from you?"

"Monsieur," cried Madame Hulot, whose handkerchief was wet through with
her tears, "enough, enough!"

"My son-in-law, I tell you, gives his father money, and this is what I
particularly wanted to come to when I began by speaking of your son's
expenses. But I keep an eye on my daughter's interests, be easy."

"Oh, if I could but see my daughter married, and die!" cried the poor
woman, quite losing her head.

"Well, then, this is the way," said the ex-perfumer.

Madame Hulot looked at Crevel with a hopeful expression, which so
completely changed her countenance, that this alone ought to have
touched the man's feelings and have led him to abandon his monstrous
schemes.

"You will still be handsome ten years hence," Crevel went on, with his
arms folded; "be kind to me, and Mademoiselle Hulot will marry. Hulot
has given me the right, as I have explained to you, to put the matter
crudely, and he will not be angry. In three years I have saved the
interest on my capital, for my dissip