s, nowadays, what was called a
"financier" in times gone by, we invariably imagine enormous corpulence,
short legs, a gigantic wig, and a broad face with a triple chin,--and it
is not without reason that we have become accustomed to form such a
picture of such a personage. Everyone knows to what great abuses the royal
tax-farming led, and it seems as though there were a law of nature which
renders fatter than the rest of mankind those who fatten, not only upon
their own laziness, but also upon the work of others.

Monsieur Godeau, among financiers, was one of the most classical to be
found,--that is to say, one of the fattest. At the present time he had the
gout, which was nearly as fashionable in his day as the nervous headache
is in ours. Stretched upon a lounge, his eyes half-closed, he was coddling
himself in the coziest corner of a dainty boudoir. The panel-mirrors which
surrounded him, majestically duplicated on every side his enormous person;
bags filled with gold covered the table; around him, the furniture, the
wainscot, the doors, the locks, the mantel-piece, the ceiling were gilded;
so was his coat. I do not know but that his brain was gilded too. He was
calculating the issue of a little business affair which could not fail to
bring him a few thousand louis; and was even deigning to smile over it to
himself when Croisilles was announced. The young man entered with an
humble, but resolute air, and with every outward manifestation of that
inward tumult with which we find no difficulty in crediting a man who is
longing to drown himself. Monsieur Godeau was a little surprised at this
unexpected visit; then he thought his daughter had been buying some
trifle, and was confirmed in that thought by seeing her appear almost at
the same time with the young man. He made a sign to Croisilles not to sit
down but to speak. The young lady seated herself on a sofa, and
Croisilles, remaining standing, expressed himself in these terms:

"Sir, my father has failed. The bankruptcy of a partner has forced him to
suspend his payments and unable to witness his own shame he has fled to
America, after having paid his last sou to his creditors. I was absent
when all this happened; I have just come back and have known of these
events only two hours. I am absolutely without resources, and determined
to die. It is very probable that, on leaving your house, I shall throw
myself into the water. In all probability, I would already have done