was the Baroness d'Aldrigger with her three hundred thousand francs,
Beaudenord with four hundred thousand, d'Aiglemont with a million,
Matifat with three hundred thousand, Charles Grandet (who married
Mlle. d'Aubrion) with half a million, and so forth, and so forth.

"Now, if Nucingen had himself brought out a joint-stock company, with
the shares of which he proposed to indemnify his creditors after more
or less ingenious manoeuvring, he might perhaps have been suspected.
He set about it more cunningly than that. He made some one else put up
the machinery that was to play the part of the Mississippi scheme in
Law's system. Nucingen can make the longest-headed men work out
schemes for him without confiding a word to them; it is his peculiar
talent. Nucingen just let fall a hint to du Tillet of the pyramidal,
triumphant notion of bringing out a joint-stock enterprise with
capital sufficient to pay very high dividends for a time. Tried for
the first time, in days when noodles with capital were plentiful, the
plan was pretty sure to end in a run upon the shares, and consequently
in a profit for the banker that issued them. You must remember that
this happened in 1826.

"Du Tillet, struck through he was by an idea both pregnant and
ingenious, naturally bethought himself that if the enterprise failed,
the blame must fall upon somebody. For which reason, it occurred to
him to put forward a figurehead director in charge of his commercial
machinery. At this day you know the secret of the firm of Claparon and
Company, founded by du Tillet, one of the finest inventions----"

"Yes," said Blondet, "the responsible editor in business matters, the
instigator, and scapegoat; but we know better than that nowadays. We
put, 'Apply at the offices of the Company, such and such a number,