to be met."

"Well, you shall have six months' pay of your three appointments in
advance. This pre-payment will help you, perhaps, to get the notes out
of the hands of the money-lender. And I will see Nucingen, and perhaps
may succeed in releasing your father's pension, pledged to him, without
its costing you or our office a sou. The peer has not killed the banker
in Nucingen; he is insatiable; he wants some concession.--I know not
what----"

So on his return to the Rue Plumet, Victorin could carry out his plan of
lodging his mother and sister under his roof.

The young lawyer, already famous, had, for his sole fortune, one of the
handsomest houses in Paris, purchased in 1834 in preparation for his
marriage, situated on the boulevard between the Rue de la Paix and
the Rue Louis-le-Grand. A speculator had built two houses between
the boulevard and the street; and between these, with the gardens
and courtyards to the front and back, there remained still standing a
splendid wing, the remains of the magnificent mansion of the Verneuils.
The younger Hulot had purchased this fine property, on the strength of
Mademoiselle Crevel's marriage-portion, for one million francs, when it
was put up to auction, paying five hundred thousand down. He lived on
the ground floor, expecting to pay the remainder out of letting the
rest; but though it is safe to speculate in house-property in Paris,
such investments are capricious or hang fire, depending on unforeseen
circumstances.

As the Parisian lounger may have observed, the boulevard between the Rue
de la Paix and the Rue Louis-le-Grand prospered but slowly; it took
so long to furbish and beautify itself, that trade did not set up its
display there till 1840--the gold of the money-changers, the fairy-work
of fashion, and the luxurious splendor of shop-fronts.

In spite of two hundred thousand francs given by Crevel to his daughter
at the time when his vanity was flattered by this marriage, before the
Baron had robbed him of Josepha; in spite of the two hundred thousand
francs paid off by Victorin in the course of seven years, the property
was still burdened with a debt of five hundred thousand francs, in
consequence of Victorin's devotion to his father. Happily, a rise in
rents and the advantages of the situation had at this time improved the
value of the houses. The speculation was justifying itself after eight
years' patience, during which the lawyer had strained every nerve to p