to him than the inspection of a number of ledgers,
and as long as Burle kept steady, he--Laguitte--could smoke his pipe
in peace and sign the books in all confidence. However, he continued
to keep one eye open for a little while longer and found the receipts
genuine, the entries correct, the columns admirably balanced. A month
later he contented himself with glancing at the receipts and running his
eye over the totals. Then one morning, without the slightest suspicion
of there being anything wrong, simply because he had lit a second pipe
and had nothing to do, he carelessly added up a row of figures and
fancied that he detected an error of thirteen francs. The balance seemed
perfectly correct, and yet he was not mistaken; the total outlay was
thirteen francs more than the various sums for which receipts were
furnished. It looked queer, but he said nothing to Burle, just making up
his mind to examine the next accounts closely. On the following week he
detected a fresh error of nineteen francs, and then, suddenly becoming
alarmed, he shut himself up with the books and spent a wretched morning
poring over them, perspiring, swearing and feeling as if his very skull
were bursting with the figures. At every page he discovered thefts of a
few francs--the most miserable petty thefts--ten, eight, eleven francs,
latterly, three and four; and, indeed, there was one column showing that
Burle had pilfered just one franc and a half. For two months, however,
he had been steadily robbing the cashbox, and by comparing dates the
major found to his disgust that the famous lesson respecting Gagneux
had only kept him straight for one week! This last discovery infuriated
Laguitte, who struck the books with his clenched fists, yelling through
a shower of oaths:

"This is more abominable still! At least there was some pluck about
those forged receipts of Gagneux. But this time he is as contemptible
as a cook charging twopence extra for her cabbages. Powers of hell! To
pilfer a franc and a half and clap it in his pocket! Hasn't the brute
got any pride then? Couldn't he run away with the safe or play the fool
with actresses?"

The pitiful meanness of these pilferings revolted the major, and,
moreover, he was enraged at having been duped a second time, deceived
by the simple, stupid dodge of falsified additions. He rose at last and
paced his office for a whole hour, growling aloud.

"This gives me his measure. Even if I were to thresh him to a