g their nation compromised the prosperity of the country
and the maintenance of peace; and they urged Lisbeth to find what in
trade is called security.

"The only hold you have over this fellow is on his liberty," observed
Monsieur Rivet.

Monsieur Achille Rivet was assessor at the Tribunal of Commerce.

"Imprisonment is no joke for a foreigner," said he. "A Frenchman remains
five years in prison and comes out, free of his debts to be sure, for
he is thenceforth bound only by his conscience, and that never troubles
him; but a foreigner never comes out.--Give me your promissory note; my
bookkeeper will take it up; he will get it protested; you will both be
prosecuted and both be condemned to imprisonment in default of payment;
then, when everything is in due form, you must sign a declaration.
By doing this your interest will be accumulating, and you will have a
pistol always primed to fire at your Pole!"

The old maid allowed these legal steps to be taken, telling her protege
not to be uneasy, as the proceedings were merely to afford a guarantee
to a money-lender who agreed to advance them certain sums. This
subterfuge was due to the inventive genius of Monsieur Rivet. The
guileless artist, blindly trusting to his benefactress, lighted his pipe
with the stamped paper, for he smoked as all men do who have sorrows or
energies that need soothing.

One fine day Monsieur Rivet showed Mademoiselle Fischer a schedule, and
said to her:

"Here you have Wenceslas Steinbock bound hand and foot, and so
effectually, that within twenty-four hours you can have him snug in
Clichy for the rest of his days."

This worthy and honest judge at the Chamber of Commerce experienced
that day the satisfaction that must come of having done a malignant good
action. Beneficence has so many aspects in Paris that this contradictory
expression really represents one of them. The Livonian being fairly
entangled in the toils of commercial procedure, the point was to
obtain payment; for the illustrious tradesman looked on Wenceslas as
a swindler. Feeling, sincerity, poetry, were in his eyes mere folly in
business matters.

So Rivet went off to see, in behalf of that poor Mademoiselle Fischer,
who, as he said, had been "done" by the Pole, the rich manufacturers for
whom Steinbock had worked. It happened that Stidmann--who, with the
help of these distinguished masters of the goldsmiths' art, was raising
French work to the perfection it has now reac