the
course of the discussion held his hand behind his ear to catch sounds,
and mangled his meaning so thoroughly in trying to utter his words that
Grandet fell a victim to his humanity and was compelled to prompt the
wily Jew with the words and ideas he seemed to seek, to complete himself
the arguments of the said Jew, to say what that cursed Jew ought to have
said for himself; in short, to be the Jew instead of being Grandet. When
the cooper came out of this curious encounter he had concluded the only
bargain of which in the course of a long commercial life he ever had
occasion to complain. But if he lost at the time pecuniarily, he gained
morally a valuable lesson; later, he gathered its fruits. Indeed, the
goodman ended by blessing that Jew for having taught him the art of
irritating his commercial antagonist and leading him to forget his own
thoughts in his impatience to suggest those over which his tormentor
was stuttering. No affair had ever needed the assistance of deafness,
impediments of speech, and all the incomprehensible circumlocutions with
which Grandet enveloped his ideas, as much as the affair now in hand. In
the first place, he did not mean to shoulder the responsibility of
his own scheme; in the next, he was determined to remain master of the
conversation and to leave his real intentions in doubt.

"M-m-monsieur de B-B-Bonfons,"--for the second time in three years
Grandet called the Cruchot nephew Monsieur de Bonfons; the
president felt he might consider himself the artful old fellow's
son-in-law,--"you-ou said th-th-that b-b-bankruptcy c-c-could, in some
c-c-cases, b-b-be p-p-prevented b-b-by--"

"By the courts of commerce themselves. It is done constantly," said
Monsieur C. de Bonfons, bestriding Grandet's meaning, or thinking he
guessed it, and kindly wishing to help him out with it. "Listen."

"Y-yes," said Grandet humbly, with the mischievous expression of a boy
who is inwardly laughing at his teacher while he pays him the greatest
attention.

"When a man so respected and important as, for example, your late
brother--"

"M-my b-b-brother, yes."

"--is threatened with insolvency--"

"They c-c-call it in-ins-s-solvency?"

"Yes; when his failure is imminent, the court of commerce, to which he
is amenable (please follow me attentively), has the power, by a decree,
to appoint a receiver. Liquidation, you understand, is not the same
as failure. When a man fails, he is dishonored; but when he