"Thaddeus turned pale," said the count, "but he didn't say a word."

"Oh! his name is Thaddeus, is it?"

"Yes; Thaddeus folded the paper and gave it back to me, and then he
said: 'I thought, Adam, that we were one for life or death, and that
we should never part. Do you want to be rid of me?' 'Oh!' I said, 'if
you take it that way, Thaddeus, don't let us say another word about
it. If I ruin myself you shall be ruined too.' 'You haven't fortune
enough to live as a Laginski should,' he said, 'and you need a friend
who will take care of your affairs, and be a father and a brother and
a trusty confidant.' My dear child, as Paz said that he had in his
look and voice, calm as they were, a maternal emotion, and also the
gratitude of an Arab, the fidelity of a dog, the friendship of a
savage,--not displayed, but ever ready. Faith! I seized him, as we
Poles do, with a hand on each shoulder, and I kissed him on the lips.
'For life and death, then! all that I have is yours--do what you will
with it.' It was he who found me this house and bought it for next to
nothing. He sold my Funds high and bought in low, and we have paid for
this barrack with the profits. He knows horses, and he manages to buy
and sell at such advantage that my stable really costs very little;
and yet I have the finest horses and the most elegant equipages in all
Paris. Our servants, brave Polish soldiers chosen by him, would go
through fire and water for us. I seem, as you say, to be ruining
myself; and yet Paz keeps the house with such method and economy that
he has even repaired some of my foolish losses at play,--the
thoughtless folly of a young man. My dear, Thaddeus is as shrewd as
two Genoese, as eager for gain as a Polish Jew, and provident as a
good housekeeper. I never could force him to live as I did when I was
a bachelor. Sometimes I had to use a sort of friendly coercion to make