a member of that vile class who recognize no difference between
honor and disgrace, between good and evil, between self-respect and
infamy, who know only one god--which is money."

"Do not show yourself so implacable against these _vile_ beings, my
dearest! There is much that is useful in them, at any rate they are
helping me to the finest horses belonging to the aristocracy."

A stealthy step was heard at the door of the cabinet.

"Do you hear that timid rap?" asked the banker. "The rapper's heart is
at this moment in his knuckles. It is curious how men betray in trifles
what at the time has possession of their feelings. The mere rapping
gives a keen observer an insight into the heart of a person whom he
does not as yet see. Listen--" Rapping again, still more stealthily and
imploringly. "I must go and relieve the poor devil, whom nobody would
suspect for a mighty leader. Now, Mr. Seraphin, Act the Second. Come
in!"

The man who entered, attired in a dress coat and kids, was Erdblatt, a
tobacco merchant, spare in person, and with restless, spering eyes. The
millionaire greeted him coldly, then pointed him to the chair that had
been occupied by Schwefel. The impression produced by the two hundred
thousands on the man of tobacco was far more decided than in the case
of the manufacturer of straw hats. Erdblatt was restless in his chair,
and as the needle is attracted by the pole, so did Erdblatt's whole
being turn towards the money. His eyes glanced constantly over the
paper treasures, and a spasmodic jerking seized upon his fingers. But
he soon sat motionless and stiff, as if thunderstruck at Greifmann's
terrible words.

"Your substantial firm," began the mighty man of money, after some few
formalities, "has awaked in me a degree of attention which the ordinary
course of business does not require. I have to-day received notice from
an English banking-house that in a few days several bills first of
exchange, amounting to sixty thousand florins, will be presented to be
paid by you."

Erdblatt was dumfounded and turned pale.

"The amount is not precisely what can be called insignificant,"
continued Greifmann coolly, "and I did not wish to omit notifying you
concerning the bills, because, as you are aware, the banking business
is regulated by rigorous and indiscriminating forms."

Erdblatt took the hint, turned still more pale, and uttered not a word.

"This accumulation of bills of exchange is something abnormal,