y
ruin's known," he thought, and feeling that his strength was deserting
him, he poured out a brimming glass of Madeira, which he emptied at a
single draught. The wine lent him fictitious energy. Fury mounted to his
brain; he lost all control over himself, and springing up, with his face
purple with rage, he exclaimed: "It's a shame! an infamous shame! and
Trigault deserves to be severely punished. He has no business to keep a
man in hot water for three days about such a trifle. If he had said
'No' in the first place, I should have made other arrangements, and I
shouldn't now find myself in a dilemma from which I see no possible way
of escape. No gentleman would have been guilty of such a contemptible
act--no one but a shopkeeper or a thief would have stooped to such
meanness! This is the result of admitting these ridiculous parvenus into
society, just because they happen to have money."

It certainly hurt Pascal to hear these insults heaped upon the baron,
and it hurt him all the more since they were entirely due to the course
he had personally adopted.

However, a gesture, even a frown, might endanger the success of his
undertaking, so he preserved an impassive countenance. "I must say that
I don't understand your indignation, Monsieur le Marquis," he said,
coldly. "I can see why you might feel annoyed, but why you should fly
into a passion--"

"Ah! you don't know----" began M. de Valorsay, but he stopped short. It
was time. The truth had almost escaped his lips.

"Know what?" inquired Pascal.

But the marquis was again upon his guard. "I have a debt that must be
paid this evening, at all hazards--a sacred obligation--in short, a debt
of honor."

"A debt of one hundred thousand francs?"

"No, it is only twenty-five thousand."

"Is it possible that a rich man like you can be troubled about such a
trifling sum, which any one would lend you?"

M. de Valorsay interrupted him with a contemptuous sneer. "Didn't you
just tell me that we were living in an age when no one has any money
except those who are in business? The richest of my friends have
only enough for themselves, even if they have enough. The time of old
stockings, stuffed full of savings, is past! Shall I apply to a banker?
He would ask two days for reflection, and he would require the names of
two or three of my friends on the note. If I go to my notary, there will
be endless forms to be gone through, and remonstrances without number."

For a momen