uidators, about the ninth month of the fourth year, that his
nephew had made a fortune in the Indies and was disposed to pay his
father's debts in full; he therefore could not take upon himself to make
any settlement without previously consulting him; he had written to him,
and was expecting an answer. The creditors were held in check until the
middle of the fifth year by the words, "payment in full," which the wily
old miser threw out from time to time as he laughed in his beard, saying
with a smile and an oath, "Those Parisians!"

But the creditors were reserved for a fate unexampled in the annals
of commerce. When the events of this history bring them once more into
notice, they will be found still in the position Grandet had resolved to
force them into from the first.

As soon as the Funds reached a hundred and fifteen, Pere Grandet sold
out his interests and withdrew two million four hundred thousand francs
in gold, to which he added, in his coffers, the six hundred thousand
francs compound interest which he had derived from the capital. Des
Grassins now lived in Paris. In the first place he had been made a
deputy; then he became infatuated (father of a family as he was, though
horribly bored by the provincial life of Saumur) with a pretty actress
at the Theatre de Madame, known as Florine, and he presently relapsed
into the old habits of his army life. It is useless to speak of his
conduct; Saumur considered it profoundly immoral. His wife was fortunate
in the fact of her property being settled upon herself, and in having
sufficient ability to keep up the banking-house in Saumur, which was
managed in her name and repaired the breach in her fortune caused by the
extravagance of her husband. The Cruchotines made so much talk about
the false position of the quasi-widow that she married her daughter very
badly, and was forced to give up all hope of an alliance between Eugenie
Grandet and her son. Adolphe joined his father in Paris and became, it
was said, a worthless fellow. The Cruchots triumphed.

"Your husband hasn't common sense," said Grandet as he lent Madame des
Grassins some money on a note securely endorsed. "I am very sorry for
you, for you are a good little woman."

"Ah, monsieur," said the poor lady, "who could have believed that when
he left Saumur to go to Paris on your business he was going to his
ruin?"

"Heaven is my witness, madame, that up to the last moment I did all I
could to prevent him fro