g them the surplus of invitations printed on pink paper.

"Burn all that!" cried her father. "The devil alone could have prompted
me to give that ball. If I fail, I shall seem to have been a swindler.
Stop!" he added, "words are of no avail." And he wrote the following
letter:--

My dear Brother,--I find myself in so severe a commercial crisis
that I must ask you to send me all the money you can dispose of,
even if you have to borrow some for the purpose.

Ever yours,
Cesar.

Your niece, Cesarine, who is watching me as I write, while my poor
wife sleeps, sends you her tender remembrances.

This postscript was added at Cesarine's urgent request; she then took
the letter and gave it to Raguet.

"Father," she said, returning, "here is Monsieur Lebas, who wants to
speak to you."

"Monsieur Lebas!" cried Cesar, frightened, as though his disaster had
made him a criminal,--"a judge!"

"My dear Monsieur Birotteau, I take too great an interest in you,"
said the stout draper, entering the room, "we have known each other too
long,--for we were both elected judges at the same time,--not to tell
you that a man named Bidault, called Gigonnet, a usurer, has notes of
yours turned over to his order, and marked 'not guaranteed,' by the
house of Claparon. Those words are not only an affront, but they are the
death of your credit."

"Monsieur Claparon wishes to speak to you," said Celestin, entering;
"may I tell him to come up?"

"Now we shall learn the meaning of this insult," said Lebas.

"Monsieur," said Cesar to Claparon, as he entered, "this is Monsieur
Lebas, a judge of the commercial courts, and my friend--"

"Ah! monsieur is Monsieur Lebas?" interrupted Claparon. "Delighted with
the opportunity, Monsieur Lebas of the commercial courts; there are so
many Lebas, you know, of one kind or another--"

"He has seen," said Birotteau, cutting the gabbler short, "the notes
which I gave you, and which I understood from you would not be put into
circulation. He has seen them bearing the words 'not guaranteed.'"

"Well," said Claparon, "they are not in general circulation; they are
in the hands of a man with whom I do a great deal of business,--Pere
Bidault. That is why I affixed the words 'not guaranteed.' If the notes
were intended for circulation you would have made them payable to his
order. Monsieur Lebas