shininess of his trousers, traces of hard wear that the clothes-brush
fails to remove, would impress a superficial observer with the idea
that here was a thrifty and upright human being, sufficient of the
philosopher or of the aristocrat to wear shabby clothes. But,
unluckily, it is easy to find penny-wise people who will prove weak,
wasteful, or incompetent in the capital things of life.

The cashier wore the ribbon of the Legion of Honor at his
button-hole, for he had been a major of dragoons in the time of the
Emperor. M. de Nucingen, who had been a contractor before he became a
banker, had had reason in those days to know the honorable disposition
of his cashier, who then occupied a high position. Reverses of fortune
had befallen the major, and the banker out of regard for him paid him
five hundred francs a month. The soldier had become a cashier in the
year 1813, after his recovery from a wound received at Studzianka
during the Retreat from Moscow, followed by six months of enforced
idleness at Strasbourg, whither several officers had been transported
by order of the Emperor, that they might receive skilled attention.
This particular officer, Castanier by name, retired with the honorary
grade of colonel, and a pension of two thousand four hundred francs.

In ten years' time the cashier had completely effaced the soldier, and
Castanier inspired the banker with such trust in him, that he was
associated in the transactions that went on in the private office
behind his little counting-house. The baron himself had access to it
by means of a secret staircase. There, matters of business were
decided. It was the bolting-room where proposals were sifted; the
privy council chamber where the reports of the money market were
analyzed; circular notes issued thence; and finally, the private
ledger and the journal which summarized the work of all the