nd incapable of reconstructing, the time has also
arrived for the reappearance in his proper name and rank of the man
in whom you take so gracious an interest. In vain you have pressed
him to do so before; till now he had not amassed together, by the
slow process of petty gains and constant savings, with such
additions as prudent speculations on his own account might
contribute, the modest means necessary to his resumed position; and
as he always contended against your generous offers, no
consideration should ever tempt him either to appropriate to his
personal use a single sou intrusted to him for a public purpose, or
to accept from friendship the pecuniary aid which would abase him
into the hireling of a cause. No! Victor de Mauleon despises too
much the tools that he employs to allow any man hereafter to say,
'Thou also wert a tool, and hast been paid for thy uses.'

"But to restore the victim of calumny to his rightful place in this
gaudy world, stripped of youth and reduced in fortune, is a task
that may well seem impossible. To-morrow he takes the first step
towards the achievement of the impossible. Experience is no bad
substitute for youth, and ambition is made stronger by the goad of
poverty.

"Thou shalt hear of his news soon."

BOOK V.

CHAPTER I.

The next day at noon M. Louvier was closeted in his study with M.
Gandrin.

"Yes," cried Louvier, "I have behaved very handsomely to the beau
Marquis. No one can say to the contrary."

"True," answered Gandrin. "Besides the easy terms for the transfer of
the mortgages, that free bonus of one thousand louis is a generous and
noble act of munificence."

"Is it not! and my youngster has already begun to do with it as I meant
and expected. He has taken a fine apartment; he has bought a coupe
and horses; he has placed himself in the hands of the Chevalier de
Finisterre; he is entered at the Jockey Club. Parbleu, the one thousand
louis will be soon gone."

"And then?"

"And then! why, he will have tasted the sweets of Parisian life; he will
think with disgust of the vieux manoir. He can borrow no more. I must
remain sole mortgagee, and I shall behave as handsomely in buying his
estates as I have behaved in increasing his income."

Here a clerk entered and said that a monsieur wished to see M. Louvier
for a few minutes in private, on urgent business.

"Tell him to send in his card."