dmiring the sly speech of the old
man, which he alone had understood. The family stood about the coach
until it started; then as it disappeared upon the bridge, and its rumble
grew fainter in the distance, Grandet said:

"Good-by to you!"

Happily no one but Maitre Cruchot heard the exclamation. Eugenie and her
mother had gone to a corner of the quay from which they could still see
the diligence and wave their white handkerchiefs, to which Charles made
answer by displaying his.

"Ah! mother, would that I had the power of God for a single moment,"
said Eugenie, when she could no longer see her lover's handkerchief.

* * * * *

Not to interrupt the current of events which are about to take place in
the bosom of the Grandet family, it is necessary to cast a forestalling
eye upon the various operations which the goodman carried on in Paris
by means of Monsieur des Grassins. A month after the latter's departure
from Saumur, Grandet, became possessed of a certificate of a hundred
thousand francs a year from his investment in the Funds, bought
at eighty francs net. The particulars revealed at his death by the
inventory of his property threw no light upon the means which his
suspicious nature took to remit the price of the investment and receive
the certificate thereof. Maitre Cruchot was of opinion that Nanon,
unknown to herself, was the trusty instrument by which the money was
transported; for about this time she was absent five days, under a
pretext of putting things to rights at Froidfond,--as if the goodman
were capable of leaving anything lying about or out of order!

In all that concerned the business of the house of Guillaume Grandet
the old cooper's intentions were fulfilled to the letter. The Bank of
France, as everybody knows, affords exact information about all the
large fortunes in Paris and the provinces. The names of des Grassins
and Felix Grandet of Saumur were well known there, and they enjoyed the
esteem bestowed on financial celebrities whose wealth comes from immense
and unencumbered territorial possessions. The arrival of the Saumur
banker for the purpose, it was said, of honorably liquidating the
affairs of Grandet of Paris, was enough to avert the shame of protested
notes from the memory of the defunct merchant. The seals on the property
were taken off in presence of the creditors, and the notary employed by
Grandet went to work at once on the inventory of the assets. S