tteau.

"Put them away," said Cesar gravely; "they are all he had. Besides, they
belong to our daughter, and will enable us to live; so that we need ask
nothing of our creditors."

"They will think you are abstracting large sums."

"Then I will show them the letter."

"They will say that it is a fraud."

"My God! my God!" cried Birotteau. "I once thought thus of poor, unhappy
people who were doubtless as I am now."

Terribly anxious about Cesar's state, mother and daughter sat plying
their needles by his side, in profound silence. At two in the morning
Popinot gently opened the door of the salon and made a sign to Madame
Cesar to come down. On seeing his niece Pillerault took off his
spectacles.

"My child, there is hope," he said; "all is not lost. But your husband
could not bear the uncertainty of the negotiations which Anselme and I
are about to undertake. Don't leave your shop to-morrow, and take the
addresses of all the bills; we have till four o'clock in the afternoon
of the 15th. Here is my plan: Neither Ragon nor I am to be considered.
Suppose that your hundred thousand francs deposited with Roguin had been
remitted to the purchasers, you would not have them then any more than
you have them now. The hundred and forty thousand francs for which notes
were given to Claparon, and which must be paid in any state of the case,
are what you have to meet. Therefore it is not Roguin's bankruptcy which
as ruined you. I find, to meet your obligations, forty thousand francs
which you can, sooner or later, borrow on your property in the Faubourg
du Temple, and sixty thousand for your share in the house of Popinot.
Thus you can make a struggle, for later you may borrow on the lands
about the Madeleine. If your chief creditor agrees to help you, I shall
not consider my interests; I shall sell out my Funds and live on dry
bread; Popinot will get along between life and death, and as for you,
you will be at the mercy of the smallest commercial mischance; but
Cephalic Oil will undoubtedly make great returns. Popinot and I have
consulted together; we will stand by you in this struggle. Ah! I shall
eat my dry bread gaily if I see daylight breaking on the horizon. But
everything depends on Gigonnet, who holds the notes, and the associates
of Claparon. Popinot and I are going to see Gigonnet between seven
and eight o'clock in the morning, and then we shall know what their
intentions are."

Constance, wholly overcome, threw he