s employed by a publisher?"
asked Godefroid.

"Yes."

"Well, then, Monsieur Bernard, before I can say how much I can _give_
over what those other gentlemen _offer_, I must know the terms on which
you stand with them."

"That is fair," said Monsieur Bernard, who seemed rather pleased to find
himself the object of a competition by which he might profit. "Do you
know what my work is?"

"No; I only know it is a good enterprise from a business point of view."

"It is only half-past nine, my daughter has breakfasted, and Cartier
will not bring the flowers for an hour or more; we have time to talk,
Monsieur--Monsieur who?"

"Godefroid."

"Monsieur Godefroid, the work in question was projected by me in
1825, at the time when the ministry, being alarmed by the persistent
destruction of landed estates, proposed that law of primogeniture which
was, you will remember, defeated. I had remarked certain imperfections
in our codes and in the fundamental institutions of France. Our codes
have often been the subject of important works, but those works were
all from the point of view of jurisprudence. No one had even ventured to
consider the work of the Revolution, or (if you prefer it) of Napoleon,
as a whole; no one had studied the spirit of those laws, and judged
them in their application. That is the main purpose of my work; it
is entitled, provisionally, 'The Spirit of the New Laws;' it includes
organic laws as well as codes, all codes; for we have many more than
five codes. Consequently, my work is in several volumes; six in all, the
last being a volume of citations, notes, and references. It will take
me now about three months to finish it. The proprietor of this house, a
former publisher, of whom I made a few inquiries, perceived, scented I
may say, the chance of a speculation. I, in the first instance, thought
only of doing a service to my country, and not of my own profit. Well,
this Barbet has circumvented me. You will ask me how it was possible for
a publisher to get the better of a magistrate, a man who knows the laws.
Well, it was in this way: You know my history; Barbet is an usurer;
he has the keen glance and the shrewd action of that breed of men. His
money was always at my heels to help me over my worst needs. Strange to
say, on the days I was most defenceless against despair he happened to
appear."

"No, no, my dear Monsieur Bernard," said Godefroid, "he had a spy in
Madame Vauthier; she told him when you nee