uoted by all other houses; he could guarantee in each case that
the paper should be a better color, and in every way superior to the
best kinds hitherto in use. Newspapers are always supplied by contract;
there would be time before the present contracts expired to complete all
the subterranean operations with buyers, and to obtain a monopoly of
the trade. Cointet calculated that he could rid himself of Sechard while
Metivier was taking orders from the principal Paris newspapers, which
even then consumed two hundred reams daily. Cointet naturally offered
Metivier a large commission on the contracts, for he wished to secure a
clever representative on the spot, and to waste no time in traveling to
and fro. And in this manner the fortunes of the firm of Metivier, one
of the largest houses in the paper trade, were founded. The tall Cointet
went back to Angouleme to be present at Petit-Claud's wedding, with a
mind at rest as to the future.

Petit-Claud had sold his professional connection, and was only waiting
for M. Milaud's promotion to take the public prosecutor's place,
which had been promised to him by the Comtesse du Chatelet. The public
prosecutor's second deputy was appointed first deputy to the Court of
Limoges, the Keeper of the Seals sent a man of his own to Angouleme,
and the post of first deputy was kept vacant for a couple of months. The
interval was Petit-Claud's honeymoon.

While Boniface Cointet was in Paris, David made a first experimental
batch of unsized paper far superior to that in common use for
newspapers. He followed it up with a second batch of magnificent vellum
paper for fine printing, and this the Cointets used for a new edition of
their diocesan prayer-book. The material had been privately prepared by
David himself; he would have no helpers but Kolb and Marion.

When Boniface came back the whole affair wore a different aspect; he
looked at the samples, and was fairly satisfied.

"My good friend," he said, "the whole trade of Angouleme is in crown
paper. We must make the best possible crown paper at half the present
price; that is the first and foremost question for us."

Then David tried to size the pulp for the desired paper, and the result
was a harsh surface with grains of size distributed all over it. On the
day when the experiment was concluded and David held the sheets in his
hand, he went away to find a spot where he could be alone and swallow
his bitter disappointment. But Boniface Co