Volume III Part 17 (1/2)
”For my part,” said he, ”I will credit our ambassador with twenty millions, and if, contrary to my hopes, you do not succeed, the paper can be sent back to France”
I answered that there would be no question of the paper being returned, if they would be content with a fair price
”The in will be a small one; however, you will hear about that from the ambassador, ill have full instructions”
I felt so flattered by thisit over The next day I went to the Invalides, and M de Choiseul, so fa decisive action, had no sooner read M de Boulogne's letter and spoken a feords to ot ned, sealed, returned to ot a passport from M de Berkenrode, and the same day took leave of Madame Baletti and all my friends except Madame d'Urfe, hoave n all tickets
About a irl from Brussels, as excellent as she was pretty, had been married under my auspices to an Italian named Gaetan, by trade a broker This fellow, in his fit of jealousy, used to ill-treat her shamefully; I had reconciled theo-between They cato Holland My brother and Tiretta ithin furnished apartave one an excellent dinner Tiretta, drove his coach-and-four; he was ruining his ex-methodist, as still desperately in love with him
In the course of dinner Tiretta, as always in high spirits and loved a jest, began to flirt with the girl, whom he saw for the first time She, who neither meant nor suspected any ill, was quite at her ease, and we should have enjoyed the joke, and everything would have gone on pleasantly, if her husband had possessed soet into a perfect fury of jealousy
He ate nothing, changed colour ten tiers at his wife, as much as to say he did not see the joke To crown all, Tiretta began to crack jests at the poor wretch's expense, and I, foreseeing unpleasantness, endeavoured, though all in vain, to h spirits and his sallies An oyster chanced to fall on Mada near her, took it up with his lips as quick as lightning Gaetan was ave his wife such a furious box on the ear that his hand passed on froed as Gaetan took hi no arms, he defended himself with kicks and fisticuffs, till the waiter came, and we put him out of the roo at the nose, besought me to take her away somewhere, as she feared her husband would kill her if she returned to hie with her and I took her, according to her request, to her kinsman, an old attorney who lived in the fourth story of a house in the Quai de Gevres He received us politely, and after having heard the tale, he said,
”I airl; while if I had a hundred crowns I could do everything”
”Don't let that stand in your way,” said I, and drawing three hundred francs froave him the money
”Now, sir,” said he, ”I will be the ruin of her husband, who shall never knohere his wife is”
She thanked me and I left her there; the reader shall hear what beca Madaood of France, and that I should be coed e of some shares of hers and to sell them for her They amounted in value to sixty thousand francs, but she could not dispose of thehtness in the money market In addition, she could not obtain the interest due to her, which had mounted up considerably, as she had not had a dividend for three years
I agreed to sell the shares for her, but it was necessary for me to be constituted depositary and owner of the property by a deed, which was executed the same day before a notary, to whose office we both went
On returning to her house I wished to give her an I O U for the , and I let her remain satisfied of ave e for three hundred florins on M Boaz, a Jewish banker at the Hague, and I then set out ona yacht ready to start I got on board and arrived at Rotterda, and after depositing leterre” I proceeded to M d'Afri's, and found hi M de Choiseul's letter, which informed him of my business He asked me to dine in his co of Poland, who encouraged h he had notthe ambassador I went to see Boaz, wholy family He read my letter and told me he had just received a letter frohly commended to him By way of a joke he said that as it was Christ to rock the infant Jesus asleep, but I answered that I was come to keep the Feast of the Maccabees with hiained me the applause of the whole family and an invitation to stay with them I accepted the offer without hesitation, and I toldthe banker I asked hi twenty thousand florins in the short ti ht easily be done and that he would think it over
The nextafter breakfast, Boaz said,
”I have solved your problem, sir; come in here and I will tell you about it”
He tookout three thousand florins in notes and gold, he told me that if I liked I could undoubtedly make the twenty thousand florins I had spoken of
Much surprised at the ease hichin the remarks I had made, I thanked him for his kindness, and listened to his explanation
”Look at this note,” said he, ”which I received thisfrom the Mint It informs me that an issue of four hundred thousand ducats is about to be old, which is fortunately not high just now Each ducat will fetch five florins, two stivers and three-fifths This is the rate of exchange with Frankfort Buy in four hundred thousand ducats; take thee on Amsterdam, and your business is done On every ducat you will make a stiver and one-ninth, which comes to twenty-two thousand, two hundred and twenty-two of our florins Get hold of the gold to-day, and in a week you will have your clear profit
That's my idea”