Part 7 (1/2)

Ah, well!

CHAPTER III

ON THE BRINK

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You would have thought that after the shameful way in which Theodore treated me in the matter of the secret treaty that I would then and there have turned hirub for scraps out of the gutter, and hardened rass whom I had nurtured in my bosom

But, as no doubt you have remarked ere this, I have been burdened by Nature with an over-sensitive heart It is a burden, h I have suffered inexpressibly under it, I nevertheless agree with the English poet, George Crabbe, whose works I have read with a great deal of pleasure and profit in the original tongue, and who avers in one of his ini to have loved”

Not that I loved Theodore, you understand? But he and I had shared so ether of late that I was loath to think of hi his bread in the streets Then I kept hiht at times be useful to me in my business

I kept him to my hurt, as you will presently see

In those days--I a the Restoration of our beloved King Louis XVIII to the throne of his forbears--Parisian society was, as it were, divided into two distinct categories: those who had become impoverished by the revolution and the wars of the Empire, and those who hadthe for officer of cavalry; and a the latter was one Mauruss Mosenstein, a usurer of the Jewish persuasion, whose wealth was reputed in hter biblically nao had become Madame la Marquise de Firmin-Latour

Fro couple appeared upon the firmament of Parisian society I took a keen interest in all their doings In those days, you understand, it was in the essence of my business to know as much as possible of the private affairs of people in their position, and instinct had at once told me that in the case of M le Marquis de Firht prove very remunerative

Thus I very soon found out that M le Marquis had not a single louis of his own to bless himself with, and that it was Papa Mosenstein's nificent establishment in the Rue de Grammont

I also found out that Mme la Marquise was some dozen years older than Monsieur, and that she had been a hen she e had not been a happy one The husband, M le Coambler and a spendthrift, and had dissipated as much of his wife's fortune as he could lay his hands on, until one day he went off on a voyage to Aain Mrieve over her loss; indeed, she returned to the bosom of her family, and her father--a shrewd usurer, who had a the wars--succeeded, with the aid of his apparently botto his first son-in-law declared deceased by Royal decree, so as to enable the beautiful Rachel to contract another, yet e were concerned, with the Marquis de Firmin-Latour

Indeed, I learned that the worthy Israelite's one passion was the social advancehter, whoe was consu people were home from their honeyantly suood or too luxurious for Mme la Marquise de Firure in Paris society--nay, to be the Ville Luhtest and ht a chateau in the country, horses and carriages, which he placed at the disposal of the young couple; he kept up an army of servants for them, and replenished their cellars with the choicest wines He threw hter wore, and paid all his son-in-law's tailors' and shi+rt-makers' bills But always the money was his, you understand? The house in Paris was his, so was the chateau on the Loire; he lent thees, and the boxes at the opera and the Francais But here his generosity ended He had been deceived in his daughter's first husband; soa debts of an unscrupulous spendthrift He was deterht spend his wife's money--indeed, the law placed most of it at his disposal in those days--but he could not touch or ed to his father-in-law And, strangely enough, Mme la Marquise de Firmin-Latour acquiesced and aided her father in his determination

Whether it was the Jewish blood in her, or merely obedience to old Mosenstein's whim, it were impossible to say Certain it is that out of the lavish pin-ift frore allowance to her husband, and although she had everything she wanted, M le Marquis on his side had often less than twenty francs in his pocket

A very hu young cavalry officer Often have I seen hie when, at the end of a copious dinner in one of the fashi+onable restaurants--where I ed in a business capacity to keep an eye on possibly light-fingered custoave the pourboire to the waiter At such times my heart would be filled with pity for his misfortunes, and, in my own proud and lofty independence, I felt that I did not envy him his wife's millions

Of course, he borrowed fro as they would lend him any money; but noas up to his eyes in debt, and there was not a Jew inside France ould have lent him one hundred francs

You see, his precarious position was as well known as were his extravagant tastes and the obstinate parsimoniousness of M

Mosenstein

But such men as M le Marquis de Firmin-Latour, you understand, Sir, are destined by Nature first and by fortuitous circumstances afterwards to become the clients of men of ability likesoldier would be forced to seek the advice of someone wiser than himself, for indeed his present situation could not last er It would soon be ”sink” with hier ”swim”

And I was determined that when that ti man turns to the straw

So where M le Marquis went in public I went, when possible I was biding e

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