emptiness of the strongbox. The poor man assumed a jaunty, unconcerned
air which was truly pitiful to see. Business was good--very good. He
happened to be passing through the quarter and thought he would come in
a moment--that was natural, was it not? One likes to see old friends.

But these preambles, these constantly expanding circumlocutions, did not
bring him to the point he wished to reach; on the contrary, they led him
away from his goal, and imagining that he detected surprise in the eyes
of his auditors, he went completely astray, stammered, lost his head,
and, as a last resort, took his hat and pretended to go. At the door he
suddenly bethought himself:

"Ah! by the way, so long as I am here--"

He gave a little wink which he thought sly, but which was in reality
heartrending.

"So long as I am here, suppose we settle that old account."

The two brothers and the young woman in the counting-room gazed at one
another a second, unable to understand.

"Account? What account, pray?"

Then all three began to laugh at the same moment, and heartily too, as
if at a joke, a rather broad joke, on the part of the old cashier. "Go
along with you, you sly old Pere Planus!" The old man laughed with them!
He laughed without any desire to laugh, simply to do as the others did.

At last they explained. Fromont Jeune had come in person, six months
before, to collect the balance in their hands.

Sigismond felt that his strength was going. But he summoned courage to
say:

"Ah! yes; true. I had forgotten. Sigismond Planus is growing old, that
is plain. I am failing, my children, I am failing."

And the old man went away wiping his eyes, in which still glistened
great tears caused by the hearty laugh he had just enjoyed. The
young people behind him exchanged glances and shook their heads. They
understood.

The blow he had received was so crushing that the cashier, as soon as
he was out-of-doors, was obliged to sit down on a bench. So that was the
reason why Georges did not come to the counting-room for money. He made
his collections in person. What had taken place at the Prochassons' had
probably been repeated everywhere else. It was quite useless, therefore,
for him to subject himself to further humiliation. Yes, but the notes,
the notes!--that thought renewed his strength. He wiped the perspiration
from his forehead and started once more to try his luck with a customer
in the faubourg. But this time he took his precau