e have no need of you or your money;
and I request you not to honor these precincts any longer with your
presence."

"Dear! dear! dear!" said Cerizet; "so papa Thuillier has let the wool be
pulled over his eyes again!"

"Leave the room!" said Thuillier; "you have nothing more to do here."

"Hey, my boy!" said Cerizet, turning to la Peyrade, "so you've twisted
the old bourgeois round your finger again? Well, well, no matter! I
think you are making a mistake not to go and see du Portail, and I shall
tell him--"

"Leave this house!" cried Thuillier, in a threatening tone.

"Please remember, my dear monsieur, that I never asked you to employ me;
I was well enough off before you sent for me, and I shall be after.
But I'll give you a piece of advice: don't pay the twenty-five thousand
francs out of your own pocket, for that's hanging to your nose."

So saying, Cerizet put his thirty-three thousand francs in banknotes
back into his wallet, took his hat from the table, carefully smoothed
the nap with his forearm and departed.

Thuillier had been led by Cerizet into what proved to be a most
disastrous campaign. Now become the humble servant of la Peyrade, he
was forced to accept his conditions, which were as follows: five hundred
francs a month for la Peyrade's services in general; his editorship of
the paper to be paid at the rate of fifty francs a column,--which was
simply enormous, considering the small size of the sheet; a binding
pledge to continue the publication of the paper for six months,
under pain of the forfeiture of fifteen thousand francs; an absolute
omnipotence in the duties of editor-in-chief,--that is to say, the
sovereign right of inserting, controlling, and rejecting all articles
without being called to explain the reasons of his actions,--such were
the stipulations of a treaty in duplicate made openly, "in good faith,"
between the contracting parties. _But_, in virtue of another and secret
agreement, Thuillier gave security for the payment of the twenty-five
thousand francs for which la Peyrade was accountable to Madame Lambert,
binding the said Sieur de la Peyrade, in case the payment were required
before his marriage with Celeste Colleville could take place, to
acknowledge the receipt of said sum advanced upon the dowry.

Matters being thus arranged and accepted by the candidate, who saw no
chance of election if he lost la Peyrade, Thuillier was seized with a
happy thought. He went to the Cirque-O