ject.

He was about to float a credit and discount company superior to any in
the world. He would come back and talk with Madame Desvarennes about it,
because she ought to participate in the large profits which the matter
promised. There was no risk. The novelty of the undertaking consisted in
the concurrence of the largest banking-houses of France and abroad, which
would hinder all competition, and prevent hostility on the part of the
great money-handlers. It was very curious, and Madame Desvarennes would
feel great satisfaction in knowing the mechanism of this company,
destined to become, from the first, the most important in the world, and
yet most easy to understand.

Madame Desvarennes neither said "Yes" nor "No." Moved by the soft and
insinuating talkativeness of Herzog, she felt herself treading on
dangerous ground. It seemed to her that her foot was sinking, as in those
dangerous peat-mosses of which the surface is covered with green grass,
tempting one to run on it. Cayrol was under the charm. He drank in the
German's words. This clever man, who had never till then been duped, had
found his master in Herzog.

Pierre and Marechal had come nearer, and Madame Desvarennes, profiting by
this mingling of groups, introduced the men to each other. On hearing the
name of Pierre Delarue, Herzog looked thoughtful, and asked if the young
man was the renowned engineer whose works on the coast of Africa had
caused so much talk in Europe? On Madame Desvarennes replying in the
affirmative, he showered well-chosen compliments on Pierre. He had had
the pleasure of meeting Delarue in Algeria, when he had gone over to
finish the railroad in Morocco.

But Pierre had stepped back on learning that the constructor of that
important line was before him.

"Ah! is it you, sir, who carried out that job?" said he. "Faith! you
treated those poor Moors rather hardly!"

He remembered the misery of the poor natives employed by Europeans who
superintended the work. Old men, women, and children were placed at the
disposal of the contractors by the native authorities, to dig up and
remove the soil; and these poor wretches, crushed with hard work, and
driven with the lash by drunken overseers--who commanded them with a
pistol in hand--under a burning sun, inhaled the noxious vapors arising
from the upturned soil, and died like flies. It was a terrible sight, and
one that Pierre could not forget.

But Herzog, with his cajoling sweetness, pr