and you are quits; that is right enough; but _Chesnel_! a man
to whom one is attached!----"

"Yes, our adorable Victurnien has run through a hundred thousand livres,
dear Marquis," resumed the Chevalier, flicking a trace of snuff from his
waistcoat; "it is not much, I know. I myself at his age---- But, after
all, let us let old memories be, Marquis. The Count is living in the
provinces; all things taken into consideration, it is not so much amiss.
He will not go far; these irregularities are common in men who do great
things afterwards----"

"And he is sleeping upstairs, without a word of this to his father,"
exclaimed the Marquis.

"Sleeping innocently as a child who has merely got five or six little
bourgeoises into trouble, and now must have duchesses," returned the
Chevalier.

"Why, he deserves a lettre de cachet!"

"'They' have done away with lettres de cachet," said the Chevalier.
"You know what a hubbub there was when they tried to institute a law
for special cases. We could not keep the provost's courts, which M. _de_
Bonaparte used to call commissions militaires."

"Well, well; what are we to do if our boys are wild, or turn out
scapegraces? Is there no locking them up in these days?" asked the
Marquis.

The Chevalier looked at the heartbroken father and lacked courage to
answer, "We shall be obliged to bring them up properly."

"And you have never said a word of this to me, Mlle. d'Esgrignon,"
added the Marquis, turning suddenly round upon Mlle. Armande. He never
addressed her as Mlle. d'Esgrignon except when he was vexed; usually she
was called "my sister."

"Why, monsieur, when a young man is full of life and spirits, and leads
an idle life in a town like this, what else can you expect?" asked Mlle.
d'Esgrignon. She could not understand her brother's anger.

"Debts! eh! why, hang it all!" added the Chevalier. "He plays cards,
he has little adventures, he shoots,--all these things are horribly
expensive nowadays."

"Come," said the Marquis, "it is time to send him to the King. I will
spend to-morrow morning in writing to our kinsmen."

"I have some acquaintance with the Ducs de Navarreins, de Lenoncourt, de
Maufrigneuse, and de Chaulieu," said the Chevalier, though he knew, as
he spoke, that he was pretty thoroughly forgotten.

"My dear Chevalier, there is no need of such formalities to present
a d'Esgrignon at court," the Marquis broke in.--"A hundred thousand
livres," he muttered; "this Ch