ealed the
skinny legs on which he boldly stood. Cesar showed him, triumphantly,
the four rooms constructed by the architect out of the first floors of
the two houses.

"Hey! hey! Well, it is your affair, Monsieur Birotteau," said Molineux.
"My first floor thus improved will be worth more than three thousand
francs to me."

Birotteau answered with a jest; but he was pricked as if with a pin at
the tone in which the little old man had pronounced the words.

"I shall soon have my first floor back again; the man will ruin
himself." Such was the real meaning of the speech which Molineux
delivered like the scratch of a claw.

The sallow face and vindictive eye of the old man struck du Tillet,
whose attention had first been attracted by a watch-chain from which
hung a pound of jingling gew-gaws, and by a green coat with a collar
whimsically cocked up, which gave the old man the semblance of a
rattlesnake. The banker approached the usurer to find out how and why he
had thus bedizened himself.

"There, monsieur," said Molineux, planting one foot in the boudoir, "I
stand upon the property of Monsieur le Comte de Grandville; but here,"
he added, showing the other, "I stand upon my own. I am the owner of
this house."

Molineux was so ready to lend himself to any one who would listen to
him, and so delighted by du Tillet's attentive manner, that he gave a
sketch of his life, related his habits and customs, told the improper
conduct of the Sieur Gendrin, and, finally, explained all his
arrangements with the perfumer, without which, he said, the ball could
not have been given.

"Ah! Monsieur Cesar let you settle the lease?" said du Tillet. "It is
contrary to his habits."

"Oh! I asked it of him. I am good to my tenants."

"If Pere Birotteau fails," thought du Tillet, "this little imp would
make an excellent assignee. His sharpness is invaluable; when he is
alone he must amuse himself by catching flies, like Domitian."

Du Tillet went to the card-table, where Claparon was already stationed,
under orders; Ferdinand thought that under shelter of a game of
_bouillotte_ his counterfeit banker might escape notice. Their demeanor
to each other was that of two strangers, and the most suspicious man
could have detected nothing that betrayed an understanding between them.
Gaudissart, who knew the career of Claparon, dared not approach him
after receiving a solemnly frigid glance from the promoted commercial
traveller which warned