Baron de Nucingen sent word that he was ill and wanted you to
visit him, would you reply, 'Let him come here to me'?"

"I should go to him," said the Jew, coldly, spitting into a Dutch pot
made of mahogany and full of sand.

"You would go," said Godefroid, gently, "because the Baron de Nucingen
has two millions a year, and--"

"The rest has nothing to do with the matter; I should go."

"Well, monsieur, you must go to the lady on the boulevard du
Mont-Parnasse for the same reason. Without possessing the fortune of
the Baron du Nucingen, I am here to tell you that you may yourself put
a price upon this lady's cure, or upon your attendance if you fail; I am
ready to pay it in advance. But perhaps, monsieur, as you are a Polish
refugee and, I believe, a communist, the lady's parentage may induce
you to make a sacrifice to Poland. She is the granddaughter of Colonel
Tarlowski, the friend of Poniatowski."

"Monsieur, you came here to ask me to cure that lady, and not to give
me advice. In Poland I am a Pole; in Paris I am Parisian. Every man does
good in his own way; the greed with which I am credited is not without
its motive. The wealth I am amassing has its destination; it is a sacred
one. I sell health; the rich can afford to purchase it, and I make them
pay. The poor have their doctors. If I had not a purpose in view I would
not practise medicine. I live soberly and I spend my time in rushing
hither and thither; my natural inclination is to be lazy, and I used to
be a gambler. Draw your conclusions, young man. You are too young still
to judge old men."

Godefroid was silent.

"From what you say," went on the doctor, "the lady in question is the
granddaughter of that imbecile who had no courage but that of fighting,
and who took part in delivering over his country to Catherine II?"

"Yes, monsieur."

"Well, be at her house Monday next at three o'clock," said Halpersohn,
taking out a note-book in which he wrote a few words. "You will give me
then two hundred francs; and if I promise to cure the patient you will
give me three thousand. I am told," he added, "that the lady has shrunk
to almost nothing."

"Monsieur, if the most celebrated doctors in Paris are to be believed,
it is a neurotic case of so extraordinary a nature that they denied the
possibility of its symptoms until they saw them."

"Ah! yes, I remember now what the young lad told me. To-morrow,
monsieur."

Godefroid withdrew, after bowing to the