. Are the motives set
forth in your letter your real motives for resolving to leave me? Isn't
there underneath it all one of these infamous stories that I know are
being circulated against me in Paris? I am sure you would be frank
enough to tell me, and to give me a chance to--to set myself right in
your eyes."

Paul assured him that he had no other reasons for going, but that those
he had mentioned were surely sufficient, as it was a matter of
conscience.

"Listen to me then, my child, and I am sure that I shall be able to
keep you. Your letter, eloquent as it was with honesty and sincerity,
told me nothing new, nothing that I had not been convinced of for three
months. Yes, my dear Paul, you were right; Paris is more complicated
than I thought. What I lacked when I arrived here was an honest,
disinterested cicerone to put me on my guard against persons and
things. I found none but people who wanted to make money out of me. All
the degraded scoundrels in the city have left the mud from their boots
on my carpets. I was looking at those poor salons of mine just now.
They need a good thorough sweeping; and I promise you that they shall
have, _jour de Dieu!_ and from no light hand. But I am waiting until I
am a deputy. All these rascals are of service to me in my election; and
the election is too necessary to me for me to throw away the slightest
chance. This is the situation in two words. Not only does the bey not
intend to repay the money I loaned him a month ago; he has met my claim
with a counter-claim for twenty-four millions, the figure at which he
estimates the sums I obtained from his brother. That is infernal
robbery, an impudent slander. My fortune is my own, honestly my own. I
made it in my dealings as a contractor. I enjoyed Ahmed's favor; he
himself furnished me with opportunities for making money. It is very
possible that I have screwed the vise a little hard sometimes. But the
matter must not be judged with the eyes of a European. The enormous
profits that the Levantines make are a well-known and recognized thing
over yonder; they are the ransom of the savages whom we introduce to
western comforts. This wretched Hemerlingue, who is suggesting all this
persecution of me to the bey, has done very much worse things. But
what's the use of arguing? I am in the wolf's jaws. Pending my
appearance to justify myself before his courts--I know all about
justice in the Orient--the bey has begun by putting an embargo o