give a penny, the hot man who snuffs a profit; listen to him
attentively!"

All three went up to the second floor of a fine-looking house on the
boulevard des Italiens, where they found themselves surrounded by the
elegances then in fashion. A young man about twenty-eight years of age
advanced to meet them with a smiling face, for he saw Leon de Lora
first. Vauvinet held out his hand with apparent friendliness to
Bixiou, and bowed coldly to Gazonal as he motioned them to enter his
office, where bourgeois taste was visible beneath the artistic
appearance of the furniture, and in spite of the statuettes and the
thousand other little trifles applied to our little apartments by
modern art, which has made itself as small as its patrons.

Vauvinet was dressed, like other young men of our day who go into
business, with extreme elegance, which many of them regard as a
species of prospectus.

"I've come for some money," said Bixiou, laughing, and presenting his
notes.

Vauvinet assumed a serious air, which made Gazonal smile, such
difference was there between the smiling visage that received them and
the countenance of the money-lender recalled to business.

"My dear fellow," said Vauvinet, looking at Bixiou, "I should
certainly oblige you with the greatest pleasure, but I haven't any
money to loan at the present time."

"Ah, bah!"