this winter that you detected a young man cheating at cards? You said
nothing to him at the time, but you found out that he was rich, and,
calling upon him the next day, borrowed ten thousand francs. When do you
intend to repay that loan?"

Croisenois sank back in his chair, overcome with surprise at this
display of knowledge on Mascarin's part. "This is too terrible,"
muttered he, but Mascarin went on,--

"I know, at least, two thousand persons in Paris who only exist by
the exercise of this profession; for I have studied them all, from
the convict who screws money out of his former companions, in penal
servitude, to the titled villain, who, having discovered the frailty of
some unhappy woman, forces her to give him her daughter as his wife.
I know a mere messenger in the Rue Douai, who in five years amassed a
comfortable fortune. Can you guess how? When he was intrusted with
a letter, he invariably opened it, and made himself master of its
contents, and if there was a compromising word in it, he pounced down
upon either the writer or the person to whom it was addressed. I also
know of one large limited company which pays an annual income to a
scoundrel with half a dozen foreign orders, who has found out that they
have broken their statues of association, and holds proofs of their
having done so. But the police are on the alert, and our courts deal
very severely with blackmailers."

Mascarin went on: "The English, however, are our masters, for in London
a compromising servant is as easily negotiable as a sound bill of
exchange. There is in the city a respectable jeweller, who will advance
money on any compromising letter with a good name at the foot. His shop
is a regular pawnshop of infamy. In the States it has been elevated
to the dignity of a profession, and the citizen at New York dreads the
blackmailers more than the police, if he is meditating some dishonorable
action. Our first operations did not bring in any quick returns, and the
harvest promised to be a late one; but you have come upon us just as
we are about to reap our harvest. The professions of Hortebise and
Catenac--the one a doctor and the other a lawyer--facilitated our
operations greatly. One administered to the diseases of the body,
and the other to that of the purse, and, of course, thus they became
professors of many secrets. As for me, the head and chief, it would not
do to remain an idle looker-on. Our funds had dwindled down a good deal,
an