lp him, but it supplies the capital of a grocer who may fail and lose
all. Why? Because men like to feel superior in protecting an incapable,
and are displeased at not feeling themselves the equal of a man of
genius. A clever man would have been lost in public estimation had he
stammered, as Minoret did, evasive and foolish answers with a frightened
air. Zelie sent her servants to efface the vindictive words wherever
they were found; but the effect of them on Minoret's conscience still
remained.

The result of his interview with his assailant was soon apparent. Though
Goupil had concluded his bargain with the sheriff the night before, he
now impudently refused to fulfil it.

"My dear Lecoeur," he said, "I am unexpectedly enabled to buy up
Monsieur Dionis's practice; I am therefore in a position to help you
to sell to others. Tear up the agreement; it's only the loss of two
stamps,--here are seventy centimes."

Lecoeur was too much afraid of Goupil to complain. All Nemours knew
before night that Minoret had given Dionis security to enable Goupil
to buy his practice. The latter wrote to Savinien denying his charges
against Minoret, and telling the young nobleman that in his new position
he was forbidden by the rules of the supreme court, and also by his
respect for law, to fight a duel. But he warned Savinien to treat him
well in future; assuring him he was a capital boxer, and would break his
leg at the first offence.

The walls of Nemours were cleared of the inscription; but the quarrel
between Minoret and his wife went on; and Savinien maintained a
threatening silence. Ten days after these events the marriage of
Mademoiselle Massin, the elder, to the future notary was bruited about
the town. Mademoiselle Massin had a dowry of eighty thousand francs and
her own peculiar ugliness; Goupil had his deformities and his practice;
the union therefore seemed suitable and probable. One evening, towards
midnight, two unknown men seized Goupil in the street as he was leaving
Massin's house, gave him a sound beating, and disappeared. The notary
kept the matter a profound secret, and even contradicted an old woman
who saw the scene from her window and thought that she recognized him.

These great little events were carefully studied by Bongrand, who became
convinced that Goupil held some mysterious power over Minoret, and he
determined to find out its cause.

CHAPTER XIX. APPARITIONS

Though the public opinion of the l