iberty of drawing it
up, in case monsieur should happen to desire to discharge his debt." And
he drew a paper from his pocket-book and presented it to his patron.
The document was written in a minute, fantastic hand, and couched in the
choicest language.

Newman laid down the money, and M. Nioche dropped the napoleons one by
one, solemnly and lovingly, into an old leathern purse.

"And how is your young lady?" asked Newman. "She made a great impression
on me."

"An impression? Monsieur is very good. Monsieur admires her appearance?"

"She is very pretty, certainly."

"Alas, yes, she is very pretty!"

"And what is the harm in her being pretty?"

M. Nioche fixed his eyes upon a spot on the carpet and shook his head.
Then looking up at Newman with a gaze that seemed to brighten and
expand, "Monsieur knows what Paris is. She is dangerous to beauty, when
beauty hasn't the sou."

"Ah, but that is not the case with your daughter. She is rich, now."

"Very true; we are rich for six months. But if my daughter were a plain
girl I should sleep better all the same."

"You are afraid of the young men?"

"The young and the old!"

"She ought to get a husband."

"Ah, monsieur, one doesn't get a husband for nothing. Her husband must
take her as she is: I can't give her a sou. But the young men don't see
with that eye."

"Oh," said Newman, "her talent is in itself a dowry."

"Ah, sir, it needs first to be converted into specie!" and M. Nioche
slapped his purse tenderly before he stowed it away. "The operation
doesn't take place every day."

"Well, your young men are very shabby," said Newman; "that's all I can
say. They ought to pay for your daughter, and not ask money themselves."

"Those are very noble ideas, monsieur; but what will you have? They are
not the ideas of this country. We want to know what we are about when we
marry."

"How big a portion does your daughter want?"

M. Nioche stared, as if he wondered what was coming next; but he
promptly recovered himself, at a venture, and replied that he knew a
very nice young man, employed by an insurance company, who would content
himself with fifteen thousand francs.

"Let your daughter paint half a dozen pictures for me, and she shall
have her dowry."

"Half a dozen pictures--her dowry! Monsieur is not speaking
inconsiderately?"

"If she will make me six or eight copies in the Louvre as pretty as that
Madonna, I will pay her the same price," said Newman.