m, even if we do not like them'; 'France
has had enough of politics,' etc. Don't gorge yourself at every
table where you dine; recollect you are to maintain the dignity of a
millionaire. Don't shovel in your snuff like an old Invalide; toy with
your snuff-box, glance often at your feet, and sometimes at the ceiling,
before you answer; try to look sagacious, if you can. Above all, get rid
of your vile habit of touching everything; in society a banker ought to
seem tired of seeing and touching things. Hang it! you are supposed to
be passing wakeful nights; finance makes you brusque, so many elements
must be brought together to launch an enterprise,--so much study!
Remember to take gloomy views of business; it is heavy, dull, risky,
unsettled. Now, don't go beyond that, and mind you specify nothing.
Don't sing those songs of Beranger at table; and don't get fuddled. If
you are drunk, your future is lost. Roguin will keep an eye on you. You
are going now among moral people, virtuous people; and you are not to
scare them with any of your pot-house principles."

This lecture produced upon the mind of Charles Claparon very much
the effect that his new clothes produced upon his body. The jovial
scapegrace, easy-going with all the world, and long used to a
comfortable shabbiness, in which his body was no more shackled than his
mind was shackled by language, was now encased in the new clothes his
tailor had just sent home, rigid as a picket-stake, anxious about his
motions as well as about his speech; drawing back his hand when it was
imprudently thrust out to grasp a bottle, just as he stopped his tongue
in the middle of a sentence. All this presented a laughable discrepancy
to the keen observation of Pillerault. Claparon's red face, and his wig
with its profligate ringlets, gave the lie to his apparel and pretended
bearing, just as his thoughts clashed and jangled with his speech.
But these worthy people ended by crediting such discordances to the
preoccupation of his busy mind.

"He is so full of business," said Roguin.

"Business has given him little education," whispered Madame Ragon to
Cesarine.

Monsieur Roguin overheard her, and put a finger on his lips:--

"He is rich, clever, and extremely honorable," he said, stooping to
Madame Ragon's ear.

"Something may be forgiven in consideration of such qualities," said
Pillerault to Ragon.

"Let us read the deeds before dinner," said Roguin; "we are all alone."

Madame