en thousand francs
to the Mont-de-Piete to get the plate back. Forty-three thousand francs
in all, including the costs. The silver is very much alloyed; the Baron
will give her a new service, and we shall bone a few thousand francs out
of that. You owe--what? two years' account with the dressmaker?"

"Put it at six thousand francs," replied Europe.

"Well, if Madame Auguste wants to be paid and keep our custom, tell her
to make out a bill for thirty thousand francs over four years. Make a
similar arrangement with the milliner. The jeweler, Samuel Frisch the
Jew, in the Rue Saint-Avoie, will lend you some pawn-tickets; we must
owe him twenty-five thousand francs, and we must want six thousand for
jewels pledged at the Mont-de-Piete. We will return the trinkets to
the jeweler, half the stones will be imitation, but the Baron will not
examine them. In short, you will make him fork out another hundred and
fifty thousand francs to add to our nest-eggs within a week."

"Madame might give me a little help," said Europe. "Tell her so, for she
sits there mumchance, and obliges me to find more inventions than three
authors for one piece."

"If Esther turns prudish, just let me know," said Carlos. "Nucingen
must give her a carriage and horses; she will have to choose and buy
everything herself. Go to the horse-dealer and the coachmaker who
are employed by the job-master where Paccard finds work. We shall get
handsome horses, very dear, which will go lame within a month, and we
shall have to change them."

"We might get six thousand francs out of a perfumer's bill," said
Europe.

"Oh!" said he, shaking his head, "we must go gently. Nucingen has only
got his arm into the press; we must have his head. Besides all this, I
must get five hundred thousand francs."

"You can get them," replied Europe. "Madame will soften towards the fat
fool for about six hundred thousand, and insist on four hundred thousand
more to love him truly!"

"Listen to me, my child," said Carlos. "The day when I get the last
hundred thousand francs, there shall be twenty thousand for you."

"What good will they do me?" said Europe, letting her arms drop like a
woman to whom life seems impossible.

"You could go back to Valenciennes, buy a good business, and set up as
an honest woman if you chose; there are many tastes in human nature.
Paccard thinks of settling sometimes; he has no encumbrances on his
hands, and not much on his conscience; you might s