d. A matter of private
interest, disguised under the swelling terms of the public welfare, the
national needs. Millions were to be gained. Molina was charged with the
duty of sounding the President of the Council and the Minister of Public
Works. Two honest men. The _dodge_, as the _Tumbler_ said, was to make
them swallow the affair under the guise of patriotism. A strategical
railroad. The means of rapid locomotion in case of mobilization. With
such high-sounding words, _strategy_, _frontier_, _safety_, they could
carry a good many points.

Unfortunately, Vaudrey was rather skittish on these particular
questions, besides he was informed on the matter. He felt his flesh
creep while Molina was speaking. Just before, on seeing the banker's
card, the idea of the money of which the fat man was one of the
incarnations, had suddenly dawned upon him as a hope. Who knows? By
Molina's aid, he might, perhaps, free himself from anxiety about the
Gochard bill of exchange!--But from the minister's first words, although
the banker could not get to the point, intimidated as he was by
Sulpice's honest look, it was clear that Vaudrey surmised some repugnant
suggestions in the hesitating words of this man.

What! Molina hesitating? He did not go straight to the point, squarely,
according to his custom, Molina the illustrious _Tumbler_? Eh! no! the
intentionally cold bearing of the minister decidedly discomposed him.
Vaudrey's glance never wandered from his for a moment. When the promoter
pronounced the word Bourse, a disdainful curl played upon Sulpice's
lips, but not a word escaped him. Molina heard his own voice break the
silence of the ministerial cabinet and he felt himself entangled. He
came to propose a combination, a bonus, and he did not suspect that
Vaudrey would refuse to have a hand in it. And here, this devilish
minister appeared not to understand, did not understand, perhaps, or
else he understood too well. Molina was not accustomed to such
hard-of-hearing people. With his fat hand, he had dropped into the hands
of senators and ministers of the former regime, a sum for which the only
receipt given was a smile. He was accustomed to the style of
conversation carried on by hints and ended between intelligent people by
a _shake of the hand_, that in which some bits of paper rested:
bank-notes or paid-up shares. And this Vaudrey knew nothing! So he felt
himself obliged to explain himself clearly, to stoop to dotting every
_i_,