of a nature to become a possible cause of dispute with associates.

"I could only," he said to Cadenet, "take them at six per cent
interest, and you can do better than that in your own business. We
will go into partnership later, if you like, in some serious
enterprise, some good opportunity which may require, say, fifty
thousand francs. When you have got that sum to invest, let me know,
and we'll talk about it."

Cerizet had only suggested the affair of the house to Theodose after
making sure that among the three, Madame Poiret, Cadenet, and himself,
it was impossible to raise the full sum of one hundred thousand
francs.

The "lender by the little week" was thus in perfect safety in his den,
where he could even, if necessity came, appeal to the law. On certain
mornings there might be seen as many as sixty or eighty persons, men
as often as women, either in the wine-shop, or the alley, or sitting
on the staircase, for the distrustful Cerizet would only admit six
persons at a time into his office. The first comers were first served,
and each had to go by his number, which the wine-merchant, or his
shop-boy, affixed to the hats of the man and the backs of the women.
Sometimes the clients would sell to each other (as hackney-coachmen do
on the cabstands), head numbers for tail numbers. On certain days,
when the market business was pressing, a head number was often sold
for a glass of brandy and a sou. The numbers, as they issued from
Cerizet's office, called up the succeeding numbers; and if any
disputes arose Cadenet put a stop to the fray at once my remarking:--

"If you get the police here you won't gain anything; _he_'ll shut up