all my born days, I have not lent anybody _that_
much----'

"He held out his penny as he spoke, with the important air of a man that
gives a learned demonstration.

"That evening at the Varietes, Antonia spoke to the Count.

"'A reading-room is very dull, all the same,' said she; 'I feel that I
have no sort of taste for that kind of life, and I see no future in it.
It is only fit for a widow that wishes to keep body and soul together,
or for some hideously ugly thing that fancies she can catch a husband
with a little finery.'

"'It was your own choice,' returned the Count. Just at that moment, in
came Nucingen, of whom Maxime, king of lions (the 'yellow kid gloves'
were the lions of that day) had won three thousand francs the evening
before. Nucingen had come to pay his gaming debt.

"'Ein writ of attachment haf shoost peen served on me by der order of
dot teufel Glabaron,' he said, seeing Maxime's astonishment.

"'Oh, so that is how they are going to work, is it?' cried Maxime. 'They
are not up to much, that pair--'

"'It makes not,' said the banker, 'bay dem, for dey may apply demselfs
to oders pesides, und do you harm. I dake dees bretty voman to vitness
dot I haf baid you dees morning, long pefore dat writ vas serfed.'"

"Queen of the boards," smiled La Palferine, looking at Malaga, "thou art
about to lose thy bet."

"Once, a long time ago, in a similar case," resumed Desroches, "a too
honest debtor took fright at the idea of a solemn declaration in a court
of law, and declined to pay Maxime after notice was given. That time we
made it hot for the creditor by piling on writs of attachment, so as to
absorb the whole amount in costs--"

"Oh, what is that?" cried Malaga; "it all sounds like gibberish to me.
As you thought the sturgeon so excellent at dinner, let me take out the
value of the sauce in lessons in chicanery."

"Very well," said Desroches. "Suppose that a man owes you money, and
your creditors serve a writ of attachment upon him; there is nothing to
prevent all your other creditors from doing the same thing. And now what
does the court do when all the creditors make application for orders to
pay? _The court divides the whole sum attached, proportionately among
them all._ That division, made under the eye of a magistrate, is what
we call a _contribution_. If you owe ten thousand francs, and your
creditors issue writs of attachment on a debt due to you of a thousand
francs, each one of them gets