d a beautiful Ternaux shawl, by way of pin-money,
said he, and to efface any unpleasant impression made in the heat of
discussion. The copies of the draft had scarcely been made out, Cachan
had barely had time to send the documents to Petit-Claud, together
with the three unlucky forged bills, when the Sechards heard a
deafening rumble in the street, a dray from the Messageries stopped
before the door, and Kolb's voice made the staircase ring again.

"Montame! montame! vifteen tausend vrancs, vrom Boidiers" (Poitiers).
"Goot money! vrom Monziere Lucien!"

"Fifteen thousand francs!" cried Eve, throwing up her arms.

"Yes, madame," said the carman in the doorway, "fifteen thousand
francs, brought by the Bordeaux coach, and they didn't want any more
neither! I have two men downstairs bringing up the bags. M. Lucien
Chardon de Rubempre is the sender. I have brought up a little leather
bag for you, containing five hundred francs in gold, and a letter it's
likely."

Eve thought that she must be dreaming as she read:--

"MY DEAR SISTER,--Here are fifteen thousand francs. Instead of
taking my life, I have sold it. I am no longer my own; I am only
the secretary of a Spanish diplomatist; I am his creature. A new
and dreadful life is beginning for me. Perhaps I should have done
better to drown myself.

"Good-bye. David will be released, and with the four thousand
francs he can buy a little paper-mill, no doubt, and make his
fortune. Forget me, all of you. This is the wish of your unhappy
brother.
"LUCIEN."

"It is decreed that my poor boy should be unlucky in everything, and
even when he does well, as he said himself," said Mme. Chardon, as she
watched the men piling up the bags.

"We have had a narrow escape!" exclaimed the tall Cointet, when he was
once more in the Place du Murier. "An hour later the glitter of the
silver would have thrown a new light on the deed of partnership. Our
man would have fought shy of it. We have his promise now, and in three
months' time we shall know what to do."

That very evening, at seven o'clock, Cerizet bought the business, and
the money was paid over, the purchaser undertaking to pay rent for the
last quarter. The next day Eve sent forty thousand francs to the
Receiver-General, and bought two thousand five hundred francs of
_rentes_ in her husband's name. Then she wrote to her father-in-law and
asked him