r ratafia! He is a good, good man--"

The secret of Grandet's joy lay in the complete success of his
speculation. Monsieur des Grassins, after deducting the amount which
the old cooper owed him for the discount on a hundred and fifty thousand
francs in Dutch notes, and for the surplus which he had advanced to make
up the sum required for the investment in the Funds which was to produce
a hundred thousand francs a year, had now sent him, by the diligence,
thirty thousand francs in silver coin, the remainder of his first
half-year's interest, informing him at the same time that the Funds
had already gone up in value. They were then quoted at eighty-nine;
the shrewdest capitalists bought in, towards the last of January, at
ninety-three. Grandet had thus gained in two months twelve per cent on
his capital; he had simplified his accounts, and would in future receive
fifty thousand francs interest every six months, without incurring any
taxes or costs for repairs. He understood at last what it was to invest
money in the public securities,--a system for which provincials have
always shown a marked repugnance,--and at the end of five years he found
himself master of a capital of six millions, which increased without
much effort of his own, and which, joined to the value and proceeds
of his territorial possessions, gave him a fortune that was absolutely
colossal. The six francs bestowed on Nanon were perhaps the reward of
some great service which the poor servant had rendered to her master
unawares.

"Oh! oh! where's Pere Grandet going? He has been scurrying about since
sunrise as if to a fire," said the tradespeople to each other as they
opened their shops for the day.

When they saw him coming back from the wharf, followed by a porter from
the coach-office wheeling a barrow which was laden with sacks, they all
had their comments to make:--

"Water flows to the river; the old fellow was running after his gold,"
said one.

"He gets it from Paris and Froidfond and Holland," said another.

"He'll end by buying up Saumur," cried a third.

"He doesn't mind the cold, he's so wrapped up in his gains," said a wife
to her husband.

"Hey! hey! Monsieur Grandet, if that's too heavy for you," said a
cloth-dealer, his nearest neighbor, "I'll take it off your hands."

"Heavy?" said the cooper, "I should think so; it's all sous!"

"Silver sous," said the porter in a low voice.

"If you want me to take care of you, keep your tongu