h loss of time in litigation that
he had come to look upon the meagre and uncertain dividends obtained by
such compromises as fully counterbalanced by a better employment of the
time spent in coming and going, in making proposals, or in listening to
excuses for dishonesty.

"If the bankrupt is an honest man, and recovers himself, he will pay
you," Ragon would say. "If he is without means and simply unfortunate,
why torment him? If he is a scoundrel, you will never get anything. Your
known severity will make you seem uncompromising; it will be impossible
to negotiate with you; consequently you are the one who will get paid as
long as there is anything to pay with."

Cesar came to all appointments at the expected hour; but if he were kept
waiting, he left ten minutes later with an inflexibility which nothing
ever changed. Thus his punctuality compelled all persons who had
dealings with him to be punctual themselves.

The dress adopted by the worthy man was in keeping with his manners and
his countenance. No power could have made him give up the white muslin
cravats, with ends embroidered by his wife or daughter, which hung down
beneath his chin. His waistcoat of white pique, squarely buttoned, came
down low over his stomach, which was rather protuberant, for he was
somewhat fat. He wore blue trousers, black silk stockings, and shoes
with ribbon ties, which were often unfastened. His surtout coat,
olive-green and always too large, and his broad-brimmed hat gave him the
air of a Quaker. When he dressed for the Sunday evening festivities he
put on silk breeches, shoes with gold buckles, and the inevitable square
waistcoat, whose front edges opened sufficiently to show a pleated
shirt-frill. His coat, of maroon cloth, had wide flaps and long skirts.
Up to the year 1819 he kept up the habit of wearing two watch-chains,
which hung down in parallel lines; but he only put on the second when he
dressed for the evening.

* * * * *

Such was Cesar Birotteau; a worthy man, to whom the fates presiding at
the birth of men had denied the faculty of judging politics and life
in their entirety, and of rising above the social level of the middle
classes; who followed ignorantly the track of routine, whose opinions
were all imposed upon him from the outside and applied by him without
examination. Blind but good, not spiritual but deeply religious, he had
a pure heart. In that heart there shone one love, th