eet of paper containing Arnoux's written promise to her: "This
document in no way constitutes you the proprietor of the shares. The
company has no cognisance of the matter." In short, he sent her away
unceremoniously, while she choked with rage; and Frederick would have to
go to Arnoux's house at once to have the matter cleared up.

But Arnoux would perhaps imagine that he had come to recover in an
indirect fashion the fifteen thousand francs due on the mortgage which
he had lost; and then this claim from a man who had been his mistress's
lover seemed to him a piece of baseness.

Selecting a middle course, he went to the Dambreuse mansion to get
Madame Regimbart's address, sent a messenger to her residence, and in
this way ascertained the name of the cafe which the Citizen now haunted.

It was the little cafe on the Place de la Bastille, in which he sat all
day in the corner to the right at the lower end of the establishment,
never moving any more than if he were a portion of the building.

After having gone successively through the half-cup of coffee, the glass
of grog, the "bishop," the glass of mulled wine, and even the red wine
and water, he fell back on beer, and every half hour he let fall this
word, "Bock!" having reduced his language to what was actually
indispensable. Frederick asked him if he saw Arnoux occasionally.

"No!"

"Look here--why?"

"An imbecile!"

Politics, perhaps, kept them apart, and so Frederick thought it a
judicious thing to enquire about Compain.

"What a brute!" said Regimbart.

"How is that?"

"His calf's head!"

"Ha! explain to me what the calf's head is!"

Regimbart's face wore a contemptuous smile.

"Some tomfoolery!"

After a long interval of silence, Frederick went on to ask:

"So, then, he has changed his address?"

"Who?"

"Arnoux!"

"Yes--Rue de Fleurus!"

"What number?"

"Do I associate with the Jesuits?"

"What, Jesuits!"

The Citizen replied angrily:

"With the money of a patriot whom I introduced to him, this pig has set
up as a dealer in beads!"

"It isn't possible!"

"Go there, and see for yourself!"

It was perfectly true; Arnoux, enfeebled by a fit of sickness, had
turned religious; besides, he had always had a stock of religion in his
composition, and (with that mixture of commercialism and ingenuity which
was natural to him), in order to gain salvation and fortune both
together, he had begun to traffick in religious objects.

Freder