ry well that we should look ahead and
foresee everything; you can't be surprised that I should attend to my
business properly."

"Monsieur Claparon is right," said Joseph Lebas.

"I am right," said Claparon,--"right commercially. But this is an affair
of landed property. Now, what must I have? Money, to pay the sellers. We
won't speak now of the two hundred and forty thousand francs,--which I
am sure Monsieur Birotteau will be able to raise soon," said Claparon,
looking at Lebas. "I have come now to ask for a trifle, merely
twenty-five thousand francs," he added, turning to Birotteau.

"Twenty-five thousand francs!" cried Cesar, feeling ice in his veins
instead of blood. "What claim have you, monsieur?"

"What claim? Hey! we have to make a payment and execute the deeds before
a notary. Among ourselves, of course, we could come to an understanding
about the payment, but when we have to do with a financial public
functionary it is quite another thing! He won't palaver; he'll trust you
no farther than he can see. We have got to come down with forty
thousand francs, to secure the registration, this week. I did not expect
reproaches in coming here, for, thinking this twenty-five thousand
francs might be inconvenient to you just now, I meant to tell you that,
by a mere chance, I have saved you--"

"What?" said Birotteau, with that rending cry of anguish which no man
ever mistakes.

"A trifle! The notes amounting to twenty-five thousand francs on divers
securities which Roguin gave me to negotiate I have credited to you,
for the registration payment and the fees, of which I will send you an
account; there will be a small amount to deduct, and you will then owe
me about six or seven thousand francs."

"All that seems to me perfectly proper," said Lebas. "In your place,
monsieur, I should do the same towards a stranger."

"Monsieur Birotteau won't die of it," said Claparon; "it takes more than
one shot to kill an old wolf. I have seen wolves with a ball in their
head run, by God, like--wolves!"

"Who could have foreseen such villany as Roguin's?" said Lebas, as
much alarmed by Cesar's silence as by the discovery of such enormous
speculations outside of his friend's legitimate business of perfumery.

"I came very near giving Monsieur Birotteau a receipt for his four
hundred thousand francs," said Claparon. "I should have blown up if I
had, for I had given Roguin a hundred thousand myself the day before.
Our mutual con