fumer's clerk had
flung it round his neck.

Master of Roguin's secret, du Tillet made use of it to establish his
power over wife, mistress, and husband. Madame Roguin, when told of a
disaster she was far from suspecting, accepted du Tillet's attentions,
who about this time left his situation with Birotteau, confident of
future success. He found no difficulty in persuading the mistress to
risk a certain sum of money as a provision against the necessity of
resorting to prostitution if misfortunes overtook her. The wife, on the
other hand, regulated her accounts, and gathered together quite a little
capital, which she gave to the man whom her husband confided in; for
by this time the notary had given a hundred thousand francs of the
remaining trust-money to his accomplice. Du Tillet's relations to Madame
Roguin then became such that her interest in him was transformed
into affection and finally into a violent passion. Through his three
sleeping-partners Ferdinand naturally derived a profit; but not content
with that profit, he had the audacity, when gambling at the Bourse in
their name, to make an agreement with a pretended adversary, a man of
straw, from whom he received back for himself certain sums which he
had charged as losses to his clients. As soon as he had gained fifty
thousand francs he was sure of fortune. He had the eye of an eagle to
discern the phases through which France was then passing. He played low
during the campaign of the allied armies, and high on the restoration of
the Bourbons. Two months after the return of Louis XVIII., Madame Roguin
was worth two hundred thousand francs, du Tillet three hundred thousand,
and the notary had been able to get his accounts once more into order.

La belle Hollandaise wasted her share of the profits; for she was
secretly a prey to an infamous scoundrel named Maxime de Trailles, a
former page of the Emperor. Du Tillet discovered the real name of
this woman in drawing out a deed. She was Sarah Gobseck. Struck by the
coincidence of the name with that of a well-known usurer, he went to the
old money-lender (that providence of young men of family) to find out
how far he would back the credit of his relation. The Brutus of usurers
was implacable towards his great-niece, but du Tillet himself pleased
him by posing as Sarah's banker, and having funds to invest. The Norman
nature and the rapacious nature suited each other. Gobseck happened to
want a clever young man to examin