Part 23 (2/2)

We'll share the reward, I promise you Faith of an honest man You liar, you cheat, you--”

What was the use of talking? I had not got five francs I had spent ten sous in getting myself some breakfast, and three francs in a savoury pie flavoured with garlic and in a quarter of a bottle of cognac I groaned aloud I had exactly twenty-five sous left

We went back to the tavern hoping against hope that Legros had not yet turned out the pockets of the blouse, and that we ht induce him, by threat or cajolery or the usurious interest of twenty-five sous, to grant his client a further twenty-four hours wherein to redeelance at the interior of the tavern, however, told us that all our hopes were in vain Legros, the landlord, was even then turning the blouse over and over, whilst his hideous hag of a as talking to the police inspector, as showing her the paper that announced the offer of two thousand five hundred francs for the recovery of a valuable bracelet, the property of Mlle Mars, the distinguished tragedienne

We only waited one ainst the s of the Trois Tigres, just long enough to see Legros extracting the leather case froh to hear the police inspector saying pereht to be able to let the police knoho stole the bracelet You ht”

Then we both fled incontinently down the street

Now, Sir, was I not right when I said that honour and loyalty are the essential qualities in our profession? If Theodore had not been such a liar and such a traitor, he and I, between us, would have been richer by three thousand francs that day

CHAPTER VII

AN OVER-SENSITIVE HEART

1

No doubt, Sir, that you have noticed during the course of our conversations that Nature has endowed me with an over-sensitive heart

I feel keenly, Sir, very keenly Blows dealt me by Fate, or, as has been more often the case, by the cruel and treacherous hand ofI as whom Nature pre-ordained for love and for happiness

I am an ideal family man

What? You did not know that I was h Madame Ratichon does not perhaps fulfil all my ideals of exquisite wo help these last years of comparative prosperity Yes, you see enius--if I may so express myself--found their reward at last You will be the first to acknowledge--you, the confidant of my life's history--that that reas fully deserved I worked for it, toiled and thought and struggled, up to the last; and had Fate been just, rather than grudging, I should have attained that ideal which would have filled my cup of happiness to the brie did mark the close of my professional career, and is therefore worthy of record Since that day, Sir--a happy one for me, a blissful one for Mht of an all-wise Providence, to gratify my bucolic tastes I live now, Sir, a and ence on the struggles and the blunders of ues, oft consulted by them in matters that require special tact and discretion I sit and drealorious days of long ago, when kings and emperors placed the destiny of their inheritance in my hands, when autocrats and dictators came to me for assistance and advice, and the na that was h of regret escapes my lips, Mme Ratichon--whose thinness is everladsoh she is not all that I could wish in the matter of the culinary arts, yet she can fry a cutlet passably, and one of her brothers is a wholesale wine merchant of excellent reputation

It was soon after my connexion with that abominable Marquis de Firmin-Latour that I first made the acquaintance of the present Mme

Ratichon, under somewhat peculiar circumstances

I remember it was on the first day of April in the year 1817 that M

Rochez--Fernand Rochez was his exact name--came to see me at my office in the Rue Daunou, and the date proved propitious, as you will presently see How M Rochez caifts and powers, I cannot tell you He never would say He had heard of h a friend, was all that he vouchsafed to say

Theodore had shown hiiven Theodore his lies and his treachery, and taken hiain got the better of my prudence, and Theodore was installed once more in the antechamber of my apart with s that I could afford

So there he was on duty on that fateful first of April which was destined to be the turning-point of my destiny And he showed M de Rochez in

At once I knew my man--the type, I hty of manner and nonchalant of speech, M Rochez had the word ”adventurer” writ all over his well-groo, his nails were beautifully polished, his pantaloons fitted him without a wrinkle These were of a soft putty shade; his coat was bottle-green, and his hat of the latest modish shape A perfect exquisite, in fact

And he came to the point without much preamble

”M--er--Ratichon,” he said, ”I have heard of you through a friend, who tells me that you are the most unscrupulous scoundrel he has ever co fronant protest at the coarse insult But with an authoritative gesture he checked the flow of nation