"I'll tell you the matter roughly--and remark, if you please, that I
compromise myself in telling it to you; for these secrets are
entrusted to me as a lawyer. Therefore understand that you and I are
both committing a crime, so to speak, of leze-confidence! A notary of
Paris was in partnership with an architect; they bought land and built
upon it; at the present moment, property has come down with a rush;
they find themselves embarrassed--but all that doesn't concern us.
Among the houses built by this illegal partnership--for notaries, you
know, are sworn to have nothing to do with enterprises--is a very good
one which, not being finished, must be sold at a great sacrifice; so
great that they now ask only one hundred thousand francs for it,
although the cost of the land and the building was at least four
hundred thousand. As the whole interior is still unfinished, the value
of what is still to do is easily appraised; it will probably not be
more than fifty thousand francs. Now, owing to its excellent position,
this house, when finished, will certainly bring in a rental, over and
above the taxes, of forty thousand francs a year. It is built of
freestone, the corners and copings of cut granite; the facade is
covered with handsome carvings, on which they spent more than twenty
thousand francs; the windows are plate glass with a new style of
fastening called 'cremona.'"

"Well, where is the difficulty?"

"Just here: the notary wants to reserve to himself this bit of the
cake he is forced to surrender; he is, under the name of a friend, the
creditor who requests the sale of the property by the assignee of the
bankruptcy. The case has not been brought into court; for legal
proceedings cost so much money. The sale is to be made by voluntary
agreement. Now, this notary has applied to one of my clients to lend