men face to face, and clear
up this point afterwards. But it may be considered as quite certain that
Jacques Collin, after the fashion of such wretches, has hidden in some
safe place the most compromising of the young fellow's letters, adored
as he was by----"

"And yet you are afraid, Camusot? Why, you will be President of the
Supreme Court much sooner than I expected!" cried Madame Camusot, her
face beaming. "Now, then, you must proceed so as to give satisfaction
to everybody, for the matter is looking so serious that it might quite
possibly be snatched from us.--Did they not take the proceedings out of
Popinot's hands to place them in yours when Madame d'Espard tried to get
a Commission in Lunacy to incapacitate her husband?" she added, in reply
to her husband's gesture of astonishment. "Well, then, might not the
public prosecutor, who takes such keen interest in the honor of Monsieur
and Madame de Serizy, carry the case to the Upper Court and get a
councillor in his interest to open a fresh inquiry?"

"Bless me, my dear, where did you study criminal law?" cried Camusot.
"You know everything; you can give me points."

"Why, do you believe that, by to-morrow morning, Monsieur de Granville
will not have taken fright at the possible line of defence that might
be adopted by some liberal advocate whom Jacques Collin would manage to
secure; for lawyers will be ready to pay him to place the case in their
hands!--And those ladies know their danger quite as well as you do--not
to say better; they will put themselves under the protection of the
public prosecutor, who already sees their families unpleasantly close
to the prisoner's bench, as a consequence of the coalition between
this convict and Lucien de Rubempre, betrothed to Mademoiselle de
Grandlieu--Lucien, Esther's lover, Madame de Maufrigneuse's former
lover, Madame de Serizy's darling. So you must conduct the affair in
such a way as to conciliate the favor of your public prosecutor, the
gratitude of Monsieur de Serizy, and that of the Marquise d'Espard
and the Comtesse du Chatelet, to reinforce Madame de Maufrigneuse's
influence by that of the Grandlieus, and to gain the complimentary
approval of your President.

"I will undertake to deal with the ladies--d'Espard, de Maufrigneuse,
and de Grandlieu.

"You must go to-morrow morning to see the public prosecutor. Monsieur de
Granville is a man who does not live with his wife; for ten years he
had for his mistress a