aughter and heiress, is over head and ears in debt;
that he makes enormous secret loans; and that in order to get out of
his difficulties he means to gnaw the newspaper to the bone; and I shall
insinuate that the position of a man so much in debt must be known to
the public before long, and become a fatal blow to the candidate whose
right hand he is."

"That's not bad," said du Portail; "but there's another and even more
conclusive use to be made of the discovery."

"Tell me, master; I'm listening," said Cerizet.

"Thuillier has not yet been able, has he, to explain to himself the
reason of the seizure of the pamphlet?"

"Yes, he has," replied Cerizet. "La Peyrade was telling me only
yesterday, by way of explaining Thuillier's idiotic simplicity, that he
had believed a most ridiculous bit of humbug. The 'honest bourgeois'
is persuaded that the seizure was instigated by Monsieur Olivier Vinet,
substitute to the procureur-general. The young man aspired for a moment
to the hand of Mademoiselle Colleville, and the worthy Thuillier has
been made to imagine that the seizure of his pamphlet was a revenge for
the refusal."

"Good!" said du Portail; "to-morrow, as a preparation for the other
version of which you are to be the organ, Thuillier shall receive from
Monsieur Vinet a very sharp and decided denial of the abuse of power he
foolishly gave ear to."

"Will he?" said Cerizet, with curiosity.

"But another explanation must take its place," continued du Portail;
"you must assure Thuillier that he is the victim of police machinations.
That is all the police is good for, you know,--machinations."

"I know that very well; I've made that affirmation scores of times when
I was working for the republican newspapers and--"

"When you were 'the courageous Cerizet,'" interrupted du Portail. "Well,
the present machination, here it is. The government was much displeased
at seeing Thuillier elected without its influence to the Council-general
of the Seine; it was angry with an independent and patriotic citizen
who showed by his candidacy that he could do without it; and it learned,
moreover, that this excellent citizen was preparing a pamphlet on
the subject, always a delicate one, of the finances, as to which this
dangerous adversary had great experience. So, what did this essentially
corrupt government do? It suborned a man in whom, as it learned,
Thuillier placed confidence, and for a sum of twenty-five thousand
francs (a m