lly represented. Was it stupidity, imprudence,
love or charity?

"'The second bill, bearing the signature "Fanny Malvaut," came to me
from a linen-draper on the highway to bankruptcy. Now, no creature who
has any credit with a bank comes to _me_. The first step to my door
means that a man is desperately hard up; that the news of his failure
will soon come out: and, most of all, it means that he has been
everywhere else first. The stag is always at bay when I see him, and a
pack of creditors are hard upon his track. The Countess lived in the Rue
du Helder, and my Fanny in the Rue Montmartre. How many conjectures I
made as I set out this morning! If these two women were not able to pay,
they would show me more respect than they would show their own fathers.
What tricks and grimaces would not the Countess try for a thousand
francs! She would be so nice to me, she would talk to me in that
ingratiating tone peculiar to endorsers of bills, she would pour out
a torrent of coaxing words, perhaps she would beg and pray, and I...'
(here the old man turned his pale eyes upon me)--'and I not to be moved,
inexorable!' he continued. 'I am there as the avenger, the apparition of
Remorse. So much for hypotheses. I reached the house.

"'"Madame la Comtesse is asleep," says the maid.

"'"When can I see her?"

"'"At twelve o'clock."

"'"Is Madame la Comtesse ill?"

"'"No, sir, but she only came home at three o'clock this morning from a
ball."

"'"My name is Gobseck, tell her that I shall call again at twelve
o'clock," and I went out, leaving traces of my muddy boots on the carpet
which covered the paved staircase. I like to leave mud on a rich man's
carpet; it is not petty spite; I like to make them feel a touch of the
claws of Necessity. In the Rue Montmartre I thrust open the old gateway
of a poor-looking house, and looked into a dark courtyard where the
sunlight never shines. The porter's lodge was grimy, the window looked
like the sleeve of some shabby wadded gown--greasy, dirty, and full of
holes.

"'"Mlle. Fanny Malvaut?"

"'"She has gone out; but if you have come about a bill, the money is
waiting for you."

"'"I will look in again," said I.

"'As soon as I knew that the porter had the money for me, I wanted to
know what the girl was like; I pictured her as pretty. The rest of the
morning I spent in looking at the prints in the shop windows along the
boulevard; then, just as it struck twelve, I went through the Count