rds
on which his name was inscribed, F. du Tillet,--a fashion, according
to commercial jurisprudence, which belonged only to the great world.
Ferdinand had entered the employ of this Orgon with the intentions of a
Tartuffe. He paid court to Madame Cesar, tried to seduce her, and
judged his master very much as the wife judged him herself, and all with
alarming rapidity. Though discreet, reserved, and accustomed to say only
what he meant to say, du Tillet unbosomed his opinions on men and life
in a way to shock a scrupulous woman who shared the religious feelings
of her husband, and who thought it a crime to do the least harm to a
neighbor. In spite of Madame Birotteau's caution, du Tillet suspected
the contempt in which she held him. Constance, to whom Ferdinand had
written a few love-letters, soon noticed a change in his manners, which
grew presuming, as if intended to convey the idea of a mutual good
understanding. Without giving the secret reason to her husband, she
advised him to send Ferdinand away. Birotteau agreed with his wife, and
the dismissal was determined upon.

Two days before it was carried into effect, on a Saturday night when
Birotteau was making up his monthly accounts, three thousand francs were
found to be missing. His consternation was dreadful, less for the
loss than for the suspicions which fell upon three clerks, one cook, a
shop-boy, and several habitual workmen. On whom should he lay the blame?
Madame Birotteau never left her counter. The clerk who had charge of the
desk was a nephew of Monsieur Ragon named Popinot, a young man nineteen
years old, who lived with the Birotteaus and was integrity itself.
His figures, which disagreed with the money in the desk, revealed the
deficit, and showed that the abstraction had been made after the balance
had been added up. Husband and wife resolved to keep silence and watch
the house. On the following day, Sunday, they received their friends.
The families who made up their coterie met at each other's houses for
little festivities, turn and turn about. While playing at _bouillote_,
Roguin the notary placed on the card-table some old louis d'or which
Madame Cesar had taken only a few days before from a bride, Madame
d'Espart.

"Have you been robbing the poor-box?" asked the perfumer, laughing.

Roguin replied that he had won the money, at the house of a banker,
from du Tillet, who confirmed the answer without blushing. Cesar, on
the other hand, grew scarle