id Paul, continuing his remarks to Madame Evangelista, "I
deplore the extravagance of my youth, which does not permit me to stop
this discussion, as you deplore your ignorance of business and your
involuntary wastefulness. God is my witness that I am not thinking, at
this moment, of myself. A simple life at Lanstrac does not alarm me; but
how can I ask Mademoiselle Natalie to renounce her tastes, her habits?
Her very existence would be changed."

"Where did Evangelista get his millions?" said the widow.

"Monsieur Evangelista was in business," replied the old notary; "he
played in the great game of commerce; he despatched ships and made
enormous sums; we are simply a landowner, whose capital is invested,
whose income is fixed."

"There is still a way to harmonize all interests," said Solonet,
uttering this sentence in a high falsetto tone, which silenced the other
three and drew their eyes and their attention upon himself.

This young man was not unlike a skilful coachman who holds the reins of
four horses, and amuses himself by first exciting his animals and then
subduing them. He had let loose these passions, and then, in turn, he
calmed them, making Paul, whose life and happiness were in the balance,
sweat in his harness, as well as his own client, who could not clearly
see her way through this involved discussion.

"Madame Evangelista," he continued, after a slight pause, "can resign
her investment in the Five-per-cents at once, and she can sell this
house. I can get three hundred thousand francs for it by cutting the
land into small lots. Out of that sum she can give you one hundred and
fifty thousand francs. In this way she pays down nine hundred thousand
of her daughter's patrimony, immediately. That, to be sure, is not all
that she owes her daughter, but where will you find, in France, a better
dowry?"

"Very good," said Maitre Mathias; "but what, then, becomes of madame?"

At this question, which appeared to imply consent, Solonet said, softly,
to himself, "Well done, old fox! I've caught you!"

"Madame," he replied, aloud, "will keep the hundred and fifty thousand
francs remaining from the sale of the house. This sum, added to the
value of her furniture, can be invested in an annuity which will give
her twenty thousand francs a year. Monsieur le comte can arrange to
provide a residence for her under his roof. Lanstrac is a large house.
You have also a house in Paris," he went on, addressing himself to