ighter. However, as others have not the same reasons that I
have to hope and believe what I hope and believe, it is quite natural
that they should feel doubts of my future. You felt it yourself instantly
in not finding it a good guarantee for the small loan of three thousand
francs."

"A loan and marriage are not the same thing. A loan relieves you
temporarily, and leaves you in a state to contract several others
successively, which, you must acknowledge, weakens the guarantee that you
offer. While a marriage instantly opens to you the road that your
ambition wishes to travel."

"I have never thought of marriage."

"If you should think of it?"

"There must be a woman first of all."

"If I should propose one, what would you say?"

"But--"

"You are surprised?"

"I confess that I am."

"My dear sir, I am the friend of my clients, and for many of them--I dare
to say it--a father. And having much affection for a young woman, and for
the daughter of one of my friends, while listening to you I thought that
one or the other might be the woman you need. Both have fortunes, and
both possess physical attractions that a handsome man like yourself has a
right to demand. And for the rest, I have their photographs, and you may
see for yourself what they are."

He opened a drawer in his desk, and took from it a package of
photographs. As he turned them over Saniel saw that they were all
portraits of women. Presently he selected two and handed them to Saniel.

One represented a woman from thirty-eight to forty years, corpulent,
robust, covered with horrible cheap jewelry that she had evidently put on
for the purpose of being photographed. The other was a young girl of
about twenty years, pretty, simply and elegantly dressed, whose
distinguished and reserved physiognomy was a strong contrast to the first
portrait.

While Saniel looked at these pictures Caffie studied him, trying to
discover the effect they produced.

"Now that you have seen them," he said, "let us talk of them a little. If
you knew me better, my dear sir, you would know that I am frankness
itself, and in business my principle is to tell everything, the good and
the bad, so that my clients are responsible for the decisions they make.
In reality, there is nothing bad about these two persons, because, if
there were, I would not propose them to you. But there are certain things
that my delicacy compels me to point out to you, which I do frankly,
feeling ce