la Peyrade has lost much time in getting installed--forgive
the pun--at the Thuilleries. The scamp has made his way pretty fast, you
must own that."

"Not so fast but what his marriage," said Cerizet, "is at the present
moment a very doubtful thing."

"Doubtful!" cried Dutocq; "why doubtful?"

"Well, I am commissioned to propose to him another wife, and I'm not
sure that any choice is left to him."

"What the devil are you about, my dear fellow, lending your hand in this
way to another marriage when you know we have a mortgage on the first?"

"One isn't always master of circumstances, my friend; I saw at once when
the new affair was laid before me that the one we had settled on must
infallibly go by the board. Consequently, I've tried to work it round in
our interests, yours and mine."

"Ah ca! do you mean they are pulling caps for this Theodose? Who is the
new match? Has she money?"

"The 'dot' is pretty good; quite as much as Mademoiselle Colleville's."

"Then I wouldn't give a fig for it. La Peyrade has signed those notes
and he will pay them."

"Will he pay them? that's the question. You are not a business man,
neither is Theodose; it may come into his head to dispute the validity
of those notes. What security have we that if the facts about their
origin should come out, and the Thuillier marriage shouldn't come
off, the court of commerce mightn't annul them as 'obligations without
cause.' For my part, I should laugh at such a decision; I can stand
it; and, moreover, my precautions are taken; but you, as clerk to a
justice-of-peace, don't you see that such an affair would give the
chancellor a bone to pick with you?"

"But, my good fellow," said Dutocq, with the ill-humor of a man who sees
himself face to face with an argument he can't refute, "you seem to have
a mania for stirring up matters and meddling with--"

"I tell you again," said Cerizet, "this came to me; I didn't seek it;
but I saw at once that there was no use struggling against the influence
that is opposing us; so I chose the course of saving ourselves by a
sacrifice."

"A sacrifice! what sort of sacrifice?"

"Parbleu! I've sold my share of those notes, leaving those who bought
them to fight it out with Master barrister."

"Who is the purchaser?"

"Who do you suppose would step into my shoes unless it were the persons
who have an interest in this other marriage, and who want to hold a
power over Theodose, and control him by force if