portunity to say what I think about your
dealings. Do you think that wives are to turn their husbands into
machines for supplying money? You draw the bow-string too tightly, my
dear fellow--it will break. I'll proclaim on the house-top what others
dare not say, and we'll see if I don't succeed in organizing a little
crusade against you." And animated by the sound of his own words,
his anger came back to him, and in a louder and ever louder voice he
continued: "Ah! you prate of the scandal that would be created by my
resistance to your demands. That's your system; but, with me, it won't
succeed. You threaten me with a law-suit; very good. I'll take it upon
myself to enlighten Paris, for I know your secrets, Mr. Dressmaker. I
know the goings on in your establishment. It isn't always to talk about
dress that ladies stop at your place on returning from the Bois. You
sell silks and satins no doubt; but you sell Madeira, and excellent
cigarettes as well, and there are some who don't walk very straight
on leaving your establishment, but smell suspiciously of tobacco and
absinthe. Oh, yes, let us go to law, by all means! I shall have an
advocate who will know how to explain the parts your customers pay, and
who will reveal how, with your assistance, they obtain money from other
sources than their husband's cash-box."

When M. Van Klopen was addressed in this style, he was not at all
pleased. "And I!" he exclaimed, "I will tell people that Baron Trigault,
after losing all his money at play, repays his creditors with curses."

The noise of an overturned chair told Pascal that the baron had sprung
up in a furious passion "You may say what you like, you rascally fool!
but not in my house," he shouted. "Leave--leave, or I will ring----"

"Monsieur----"

"Leave, leave, I tell you, or I sha'n't have the patience to wait for a
servant!"

He must have joined action to word, and have seized Van Klopen by
the collar to thrust him into the hall, for Pascal heard a sound of
scuffling, a series of oaths worthy of a coal-heaver, two or three
frightened cries from the baroness, and several guttural exclamations
in German. Then a door closed with such violence that the whole house
shook, and a magnificent clock, fixed to the wall of the smoking-room,
fell on to the floor.

If Pascal had not heard this scene, he would have deemed it incredible.
How could one suppose that a creditor would leave this princely mansion
with his bill unpaid? B