e of doing.
They will give you a credit if they think you have got a good thing, and
close it the moment you get into the thick of the enterprise; and then
you will be forced to make it all over to them, at any villanous price
they choose to give. Havre, Bordeaux, Marseilles, could tell you tales
about them! They make use of politics to cover up their filthy ways. If
I were you I should get what I could out of them in any way, and without
scruple. Let us walk on, Birotteau. Joseph, lead the horse about, he is
too hot: the devil! he is a capital of a thousand crowns."

So saying, he turned toward the boulevard.

"Come, my dear master,--for you were once my master,--tell me, are you
in want of money? Have they asked you for securities, the scoundrels?
I, who know you, I offer you money on your simple note. I have made an
honorable fortune with infinite pains. I began it in Germany; I may as
well tell you that I bought up the debts of the king, at sixty per cent
of their amount: your endorsement was very useful to me at that time,
and I am not ungrateful,--not I. If you want ten thousand francs, they
are yours."

"Du Tillet!" cried Cesar, "can it be true? you are not joking with me?
Yes, I am rather pinched, but only for a moment."

"I know,--that affair of Roguin," replied du Tillet. "Hey! I am in for
ten thousand francs which the old rogue borrowed of me just before he
went off; but Madame Roguin will pay them back from her dower. I have
advised the poor woman not to be so foolish as to spend her own fortune
in paying debts contracted for a prostitute. Of course, it would be
well if she paid everything, but she cannot favor some creditors to
the detriment of others. You are not a Roguin; I know you," said du
Tillet,--"you would blow your brains out rather than make me lose a sou.
Here we are at Rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin; come home with me."

They entered a bedroom, with which Madame Birotteau's compared like
that of a chorus-singer's on a fourth floor with the appartement of a
prima-donna. The ceiling was of violet-colored satin, heightened in its
effect by folds of white satin; a rug of ermine lay at the bedside, and
contrasted with the purple tones of a Turkish carpet. The furniture
and all the accessories were novel in shape, costly, and choice in
character. Birotteau paused before an exquisite clock, decorated with
Cupid and Psyche, just designed for a famous banker, from whom du Tillet
had obtained the sole co