he gutter is always blue or green or black.
I am afraid he will die of it. But when a young man has something in his
head--" and she looked at Cesarine with a gesture which explained that
the word head meant heart.

"Has he got his lease?" asked Cesar.

"Yesterday, before a notary," replied Ragon. "He took the place for
eighteen years, but they exacted six months' rent in advance."

"Well, Monsieur Ragon, are you satisfied with me?" said the perfumer. "I
have given him the secret of a great discovery--"

"We know you by heart, Cesar," said little Ragon, taking Cesar's hands
and pressing them with religious friendship.

Roguin was not without anxiety as to Claparon's entrance on the scene;
for his tone and manners were quite likely to alarm these virtuous and
worthy people; he therefore thought it advisable to prepare their minds.

"You are going to see," he said to Pillerault and the two ladies, "a
thorough original, who hides his methods under a fearfully bad style
of manners; from a very inferior position he has raised himself up by
intelligence. He will acquire better manners through his intercourse
with bankers. You may see him on the boulevard, or on a cafe tippling,
disorderly, betting at billiards, and think him a mere idler; but he is
not; he is thinking and studying all the time to keep industry alive by
new projects."

"I understand that," said Birotteau; "I got my great ideas when
sauntering on the boulevard; didn't I, Mimi?"

"Claparon," resumed Roguin, "makes up by night-work the time lost in
looking about him in the daytime, and watching the current of affairs.
All men of great talent lead curious lives, inexplicable lives; well, in
spite of his desultory ways he attains his object, as I can testify. In
this instance he has managed to make the owners of these lands give way:
they were unwilling, doubtful, timid; he fooled them all, tired them
out, went to see them every day,--and here we are, virtually masters of
the property."

At this moment a curious _broum! broum!_ peculiar to tipplers of brandy
and other liquors, announced the arrival of the most fantastic personage
of our story, and the arbiter in flesh and blood of the future destinies
of Cesar Birotteau. The perfumer rushed headlong to the little dark
staircase, as much to tell Raguet to close the shop as to pour out his
excuses to Claparon for receiving him in the dining-room.

"What of that? It's the very place to juggle a--I mean to s