e and injured
manner, he sternly exclaimed: "I think you have lost your senses."
His demeanor and intonation were so perfectly cool that Chupin seemed
slightly abashed. "It seems that you think me capable of urging you to
commit some dangerous and dishonorable act," continued M. Fortunat.

"Why--no--m'sieur--I assure you."

There was such evident hesitation in the utterance of this "no" that the
agent at once resumed: "Come, you are not ignorant of the fact that
in addition to my business as a collector, I give my attention to the
discovery of the heirs of unclaimed estates? You are aware of this?
Very well then: pray tell me how I am to find them without searching for
them? If I wish this lady to be watched, it is only in view of reaching
a poor lad who is likely to be defrauded of the wealth that rightfully
belongs to him. And when I give you a chance to make forty or fifty
francs in a couple of days, you receive my proposition in this style!
You are an ingrate and a fool, Victor!"

Chupin's nature combined, in a remarkable degree, the vices and
peculiarities of the dweller in the Paris faubourgs, who is born old,
but who, when aged in years, still remains a gamin. In his youth he had
seen many strange things, and acquired a knowledge of life that would
have put the experience of a philosopher to shame. But he was not fit to
cope with M. Fortunat, who had an immense advantage over him, by reason
of his position of employer, as well as by his fortune and education.
So Chupin was both bewildered and disconcerted by the cool arguments his
patron brought forward; and what most effectually allayed his suspicions
was the small compensation offered for the work--merely forty or fifty
francs. "Small potatoes, upon my word!" he thought. "Just the price of
an honest service; he would have offered more for a piece of rascality."
So, after considering a moment, he said, aloud: "Very well; I'm your
man, m'sieur."

M. Fortunat was secretly laughing at the success of his ruse. Having
come with the intention of offering his agent a handsome sum, he was
agreeably surprised to find that Chupin's scruples would enable him to
save his money. "If I hadn't found you engaged in study, Victor," he
said, "I should have thought you had been drinking. What venomous insect
stung you so suddenly? Haven't I confided similar undertakings to you
twenty times since you have been in my employment? Who ransacked Paris
to find certain debtors who we