iterature, who does high-class politics and the
little theatres in the government newspapers,--I may say a statesman on
the high-road to becoming an author."

Finot pulled Gaudissart by the coat-tails.

"Well, well, my sons," said the judge, to whom these words explained the
aspect of the table, where there stilled remained the tokens of a very
excusable feast. "Anselme," said the old gentleman to his nephew, "dress
yourself, and come with me to Monsieur Birotteau's, where I have a visit
to pay. You shall sign the deed of partnership, which I have carefully
examined. As you mean to have the manufactory for your oil on the
grounds in the Faubourg du Temple, I think you had better take a formal
lease of them. Monsieur Birotteau might have others in partnership with
him, and it is better to settle everything legally at once; then there
can be no discussion. These walls seem to me very damp, my dear boy;
take up the straw matting near your bed."

"Permit me, monsieur," said Gaudissart, with an ingratiating air, "to
explain to you that we have just pasted up the paper ourselves, and
that's the--reason why--the walls--are not--dry."

"Economy? quite right," said the judge.

"Look here," said Gaudissart in Finot's ear, "my friend Popinot is a
virtuous young man; he is going with his uncle; let's you and I go and
finish the evening with our cousins."

The journalist showed the empty lining of his pockets. Popinot saw the
gesture, and slipped his twenty-franc piece into the palm of the author
of the prospectus.

The judge had a coach at the end of the street, in which he carried off
his nephew to the Birotteaus.

VII

Pillerault, Monsieur and Madame Ragon, and Monsieur Roguin were playing
at boston, and Cesarine was embroidering a handkerchief, when the judge
and Anselme arrived. Roguin, placed opposite to Madame Ragon, near whom
Cesarine was sitting, noticed the pleasure of the young girl when she
saw Anselme enter, and he made Crottat a sign to observe that she turned
as rosy as a pomegranate.

"This is to be a day of deeds, then?" said the perfumer, when the
greetings were over and the judge told him the purpose of the visit.

Cesar, Anselme, and the judge went up to the perfumer's temporary
bedroom on the second floor to discuss the lease and the deed of
partnership drawn up by the magistrate. A lease of eighteen years was
agreed upon, so that it might run the same length of time as the lease
of the shop