the
Franchessinis, the two Vandenesses, the Ajuda-Pintos,--all the most
fashionable young men in Paris, in short? A prince and an ambassador
(you know them both) are my partners at play. I draw my revenues from
London and Carlsbad and Baden and Bath. Is not this the most brilliant
of all industries!'

"'True.'

"'You make a sponge of me, begad! you do. You encourage me to go and
swell myself out in society, so that you can squeeze me when I am hard
up; but you yourselves are sponges, just as I am, and death will give
you a squeeze some day.'

"'That is possible.'

"'If there were no spendthrifts, what would become of you? The pair of
us are like soul and body.'

"'Precisely so.'

"'Come, now, give us your hand, Grandaddy Gobseck, and be magnanimous if
this is "true" and "possible" and "precisely so."'

"'You come to me,' the usurer answered coldly, 'because Girard, Palma,
Werbrust, and Gigonnet are full up of your paper; they are offering it
at a loss of fifty per cent; and as it is likely they only gave you half
the figure on the face of the bills, they are not worth five-and-twenty
per cent of their supposed value. I am your most obedient! Can I in
common decency lend a stiver to a man who owes thirty thousand francs,
and has not one farthing?' Gobseck continued. 'The day before yesterday
you lost ten thousand francs at a ball at the Baron de Nucingen's.'

"'Sir,' said the Count, with rare impudence, 'my affairs are no concern
of yours,' and he looked the old man up and down. 'A man has no debts
till payment is due.'

"'True.'

"'My bills will be duly met.'

"'That is possible.'

"'And at this moment the question between you and me is simply whether
the security I am going to offer is sufficient for the sum I have come
to borrow.'

"'Precisely.'

"A cab stopped at the door, and the sound of wheels filled the room.

"'I will bring something directly which perhaps will satisfy you,' cried
the young man, and he left the room.

"'Oh! my son,' exclaimed Gobseck, rising to his feet, and stretching
out his arms to me, 'if he has good security, you have saved my life. It
would be the death of me. Werbrust and Gigonnet imagined that they were
going to play off a trick on me; and now, thanks to you, I shall have a
good laugh at their expense to-night.'

"There was something frightful about the old man's ecstasy. It was the
one occasion when he opened his heart to me; and that flash of joy,
swift though