d you will have none of it! That is one.--Or by finding some old
man of sixty, very rich, childless, and anxious to have children; that
is difficult, still such men are to be met with. Many old men take up
with a Josepha, a Jenny Cadine, why should not one be found who is ready
to make a fool of himself under legal formalities? If it were not for
Celestine and our two grandchildren, I would marry Hortense myself. That
is two.--The last way is the easiest----"

Madame Hulot raised her head, and looked uneasily at the ex-perfumer.

"Paris is a town whither every man of energy--and they sprout like
saplings on French soil--comes to meet his kind; talent swarms here
without hearth or home, and energy equal to anything, even to making a
fortune. Well, these youngsters--your humble servant was such a one
in his time, and how many he has known! What had du Tillet or Popinot
twenty years since? They were both pottering round in Daddy Birotteau's
shop, with not a penny of capital but their determination to get on,
which, in my opinion, is the best capital a man can have. Money may be
eaten through, but you don't eat through your determination. Why, what
had I? The will to get on, and plenty of pluck. At this day du Tillet is
a match for the greatest folks; little Popinot, the richest druggist of
the Rue des Lombards, became a deputy, now he is in office.--Well, one
of these free lances, as we say on the stock market, of the pen, or of
the brush, is the only man in Paris who would marry a penniless beauty,
for they have courage enough for anything. Monsieur Popinot married
Mademoiselle Birotteau without asking for a farthing. Those men are
madmen, to be sure! They trust in love as they trust in good luck and
brains!--Find a man of energy who will fall in love with your daughter,
and he will marry without a thought of money. You must confess that by
way of an enemy I am not ungenerous, for this advice is against my own
interests."

"Oh, Monsieur Crevel, if you would indeed be my friend and give up your
ridiculous notions----"

"Ridiculous? Madame, do not run yourself down. Look at yourself--I love
you, and you will come to be mine. The day will come when I shall say to
Hulot, 'You took Josepha, I have taken your wife!'

"It is the old law of tit-for-tat! And I will persevere till I have
attained my end, unless you should become extremely ugly.--I shall
succeed; and I will tell you why," he went on, resuming his attitude,
and