the Thuilliers'; to the Thuilliers' she came, after running about the
streets--for they didn't give her quite the right address--till ten
o'clock; but she got there while the company were still sitting round
waiting for the notary, and gaping at each other, no one knowing what
to say and do, for neither Brigitte nor Thuillier have faculty enough
to get out of such a scrape with credit; and we all missed the voice of
Madame de Godollo and the talent of Madame Phellion."

"Oh! you are too polite, Monsieur le maire," said Madame Phellion,
bridling.

"Well, as I said," continued Minard, "at ten o'clock Madame Lambert
reached the antechamber of Monsieur the general-councillor, and there
she asked, in great excitement, to see la Peyrade."

"That was natural," said Phellion; "he being the intermediary of the
investment, this woman had a right to question him."

"You should just have seen that Tartuffe!" continued Minard. "He had no
sooner gone out than he returned, bringing the news. As everybody was
longing to get away, there followed a general helter-skelter. And then
what does our man do? He goes back to Madame Lambert, who was crying
that she was ruined! she was lost!--which might very well be true, but
it might also be only a scene arranged between them in presence of the
company, whom the woman's outcries detained in the antechamber. 'Don't
be anxious, my good woman,' said la Peyrade; 'the investment was made at
your request, consequently, I owe you nothing; BUT it is enough that
the money passed through my hands to make my conscience tell me I am
responsible. If the notary's assets are not enough to pay you I will do
so.'"

"Yes," said Phellion, "that was my idea as you told it; the intermediary
is or ought to be responsible. I should not have hesitated to do as
Monsieur de la Peyrade did, and I do not think that after such conduct
as that he ought to be taxed with Jesuitism."

"Yes, you would have done so," said Minard, "and so should I, but we
shouldn't have done it with a brass band; we should have paid our money
quietly, like gentlemen. But this electoral manager, how is he going to
pay it? Out of the 'dot'?"

At this moment the little page entered the room and gave a letter
to Felix Phellion. It came from pere Picot, and was written at his
dictation by Madame Lambert, for which reason we will not reproduce the
orthography. The writing of Madame Lambert was of those that can never
be forgotten when once seen