d the other; "on the terms I now am with him, you can readily
believe we don't see each other; still less should I receive his
confidences. But I draw the induction from the well-known character of
the person, and you may be sure that when he finds it for his interest
to leave you, he'll throw you away like an old coat--I've passed that
way, and I speak from experience."

"Then you must have had some difficulties with him before you joined my
paper?" said Thuillier, interrogatively.

"Parbleu!" replied Cerizet; "the affair of this house which he helped
you to buy was mine; I started that hare. He was to put me in relation
with you, and make me the principal tenant of the house. But the
unfortunate affair of that bidding-in gave him a chance to knock me out
of everything and get all the profits for himself."

"Profits!" exclaimed Thuillier. "I don't see that he got anything out of
that transaction, except the marriage which he now refuses--"

"But," interrupted Cerizet, "there's the ten thousand francs he got
out of you on pretence of the cross which you never received, and the
twenty-five thousand he owes to Madame Lambert, for which you went
security, and which you will soon have to pay like a good fellow."

"What's this I hear?" cried Brigitte, up in arms; "twenty-five thousand
francs for which you have given security?"

"Yes, mademoiselle," interposed Cerizet; "behind that sum which this
woman had lent him there was a mystery, and if I had not laid my hand
on the true explanation, there would certainly have been a very dirty
ending to it. La Peyrade was clever enough not only to whitewash himself
in Monsieur Thuillier's eyes, but to get him to secure the debt."

"But," said Thuillier, "how do you know that I did give security for
that debt, if you have not seen him since then?"

"I know it from the woman herself, who tells the whole story now she is
certain of being paid."

"Well," said Brigitte to her brother, "a pretty business you are engaged
in!"

"Mademoiselle," said Cerizet, "I only meant to warn Monsieur Thuillier a
little. I think myself that you are sure to be paid. Without knowing the
exact particulars of this new marriage, I am certain the family would
never allow him to owe you to such mortifying debts; if necessary, I
should be very glad to intervene."

"Monsieur," said Thuillier, stiffly, "thanking you for your officious
intervention, permit me to say that it surprises me a little, for the