Volume VI Part 44 (1/2)

And the journalist, after giving his address, added: ”You will have the raved on the chronometer under a baron's coronet”

Madeleine, surprised, began to smile, and when they went out, took his arm with a certain affection She found him really clever and capable

Now that he had an incoht

The jeweler bowed the: ”You can depend upon me; it will be ready on Thursday, Baron”

They paused before the Vaudeville, at which a new piece was being played

”If you like,” said he, ”ill go to the theater this evening Let us see if we can have a box”

They took a box, and he continued: ”Suppose we dine at a restaurant”

”Oh, yes; I should like that!”

He was as happy as a king, and sought what else they could do ”Suppose we go and ask Mada with us Her husband is at hohted to see hihtly dreaded the firstwith his mistress, was not ill-pleased that his as present to prevent anything like an explanation But Clotilde did not seeed her husband to accept the invitation

The dinner was lovely, and the evening pleasant George and Madeleine got hoht them upstairs, the journalist struck a waxthe fla forth as he struck, caused their two lit-up faces to show in the glass standing out against the darkness of the staircase They reseht

Du Roy raised his hand to light up their reflections, and said, with a

laugh of triumph: ”Behold the millionaires!”

XV

The conquest of Morocco had been accoiers, held the whole of the African shore of the Mediterranean as far as Tripoli, and had guaranteed the debt of the newly annexed territory It was said that two ained a score of millions over the business, and Laroche-Mathieu was alnorant of the fact that he had brought doo birds with one stone, and ht to ten millions out of the copper and iron ht for al prior to the conquest, and sold after the French occupation to companies formed to promote colonization He had become in a few days one of the lords of creation, one of those omnipotent financiers more powerful than monarchs who cause heads to bow, mouths to stammer, and all that is base, cowardly, and envious, to well up froer the Jew Walter, head of a shady bank, er of a fishy paper, deputy suspected of illicit jobbery He was Monsieur Walter, the wealthy Israelite

He wished to show himself off Aware of the , ned one of the finest iving onto the Champs Elysees, he proposed to hi a stick, within twenty-four hours He offered three millions, and the prince, te day Walter installed himself in his new domicile Then he had another idea, the idea of a conqueror ishes to conquer Paris, the idea of a Bonaparte The whole city was flocking at that arian artist, Karl Marcowitch, exhibited at a dealer's na on the water The art critics, filled with enthusiasm, declared the picture the ht it for four hundred thousand francs, and took it away, thus cutting suddenly short a flow of public curiosity, and forcing the whole of Paris to speak of him in terms of envy, blame, or approbation Then he had it announced in the papers that he would invite everyone known in Parisian society to view at his house son ht not be said that he had hidden away a work of art His house would be open; let those ould, coh to show at the door the letter of invitation

This ran as follows: ”Monsieur and Mada of you to honor them with your company on December 30th, between 9 and 12 pon the Waters,' lit up by electric light” Then, as a postscript, in sht” So those ished to stay could, and out of these the

Walters would recruit their future acquaintances The others would view the picture, the mansion, and their owners orldly curiosity, insolent and indifferent, and would then go away as they came But Daddy Walter knew very well that they would return later on, as they had corown rich like hi was that they should enter his house, all these titled paupers ere mentioned in the papers, and they would enter it to see the face of a ained fifty millions in six weeks; they would enter it to see and note who else caood taste and dexterity to summon them to admire a Christian picture at the home of a child of Israel He seeiven five hundred thousand francs for the religiouson the Waters' And this masterpiece will always remain before my eyes in the house of the Jew, Walter”

In society there had been a great deal of talk over these invitations, which, after all, did not pledge one in any way One could go there as one went to see watercolors at Monsieur Petit's The Walters owned aso that everyone could ad could be better The _Vie Francaise_ for a fortnight past had published everyevent of the 30th December, and had striven to kindle public curiosity

Du Roy was furious at the governor's triuht himself rich with the five hundred thousand francs extorted from his wife, and now he held hi his modest fortune with the shower ofable to pick any of it up His envious hatred waxed daily He was angry with everyone--with the Walters, whom he had not been to see at their new home; with his wife, who, deceived by Laroche-Mathieu, had persuaded him not to invest in the Morocco loan; and, above all, with the minister who had tricked him, who had made use of hient, his secretary, hisfrole this triumphant foe As a minister, Laroche-Mathieu had shown modesty in mien, and in order to retain his portfolio, did not let it be seen that he was gorged with gold But Du Roy felt the presence of this gold in the haughtier tone of the parvenu barrister, in hisaffirned in the Du Roy household, having taken the place and the days of the Count de Vaudrec, and spoke to the servants like a second h hi ants to bite, and dares not But he was often harsh and brutal towards Madeleine, who shrugged her shoulders and treated him like a clumsy child She was, besides, astonished at his continual ill-huru, and yet your position is a splendid one”

He would turn his back without replying

He had declared at first that he would not go to the governor's entertainment, and that he would never more set foot in the house of that dirty Jew For twohim to come, to make an appointment with her whenever he liked, in order, she said, that she ained for hi letters into the fire Not that he had renounced receiving his share of their profits, but he wanted to madden her, to treat her with contempt, to trample her under feet She was too rich He wanted to show his pride The very day of the exhibition of the picture, as Madeleine pointed out to hio, he replied: ”Hold your tongue I shall stay at home”

Then after dinner he suddenly said: ”It will be better after all to undergo this affliction Get dressed at once”

She was expecting this, and said: ”I will be ready in a quarter of an hour” He dressed growling, and even in the cab he continued to spit out his spleen