e, of course, knew that I
belong to you. Ah! monsieur, judging by the talk of the quays, you are
running your head into a noose. The fortune of Mademoiselle de La Bastie
is, like her name, modest. The vessel on which the father returned does
not belong to him, but to rich China merchants to whom he renders an
account. They even say things that are not at all flattering to Monsieur
Mignon's honor. Having heard that you and Monsieur le duc were rivals
for Mademoiselle de La Bastie's hand, I have taken the liberty to warn
you; of the two, wouldn't it be better that his lordship should gobble
her? As I came home I walked round the quays, and into that theatre-hall
where the merchants meet; I slipped boldly in and out among them. Seeing
a well-dressed stranger, those worthy fellows began to talk to me of
Havre, and I got them, little by little, to speak of Colonel Mignon.
What they said only confirms the stories the fishermen told me; and I
feel that I should fail in my duty if I keep silence. That is why I did
not get home in time to dress monsieur this morning."

"What am I to do?" cried Canalis, who remembered his proposals to
Modeste the night before, and did not see how he could get out of them.

"Monsieur knows my attachment to him," said Germain, perceiving that the
poet was quite thrown off his balance; "he will not be surprised if I
give him a word of advice. There is that clerk; try to get the truth out
of him. Perhaps he'll unbutton after a bottle or two of champagne, or at
any rate a third. It would be strange indeed if monsieur, who will one
day be ambassador, as Philoxene has heard Madame la duchesse say time
and time again, couldn't turn a little notary's clerk inside out."

CHAPTER XXIII. BUTSCHA DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF

At this instant Butscha, the hidden prompter of the fishing part, was
requesting the secretary to say nothing about his trip to Paris, and not
to interfere in any way with what he, Butscha, might do. The dwarf
had already made use of an unfavorable feeling lately roused against
Monsieur Mignon in Havre in consequence of his reserve and his
determination to keep silence as to the amount of his fortune. The
persons who were most bitter against him even declared calumniously that
he had made over a large amount of property to Dumay to save it from the
just demands of his associates in China. Butscha took advantage of this
state of feeling. He asked the fishermen, who owed him many a good t