depravity. Cerizet was to Dutocq what the hound is the huntsman.
Knowing himself the necessities of poverty and wretchedness, he set up
that business of gutter usury called, in popular parlance, "the loan
by the little week." He began this at first by help of Dutocq, who
shared the profits; but, at the present moment this man of many legal
crimes, now the banker of fishwives, the money-lender of
costermongers, was the gnawing rodent of the whole faubourg.

"Well," said Cerizet as Dutocq opened his door, "Theodose has just
come in; let us go to his room."

The advocate of the poor was fain to allow the two men to pass before
him.

All three crossed a little room, the tiled floor of which, covered
with a coating of red encaustic, shone in the light; thence into a
little salon with crimson curtains and mahogany furniture, covered
with red Utrecht velvet; the wall opposite the window being occupied
by book-shelves containing a legal library. The chimney-piece was
covered with vulgar ornaments, a clock with four columns in mahogany,
and candelabra under glass shades. The study, where the three men
seated themselves before a soft-coal fire, was the study of a lawyer
just beginning to practise. The furniture consisted of a desk, an
armchair, little curtains of green silk at the windows, a green
carpet, shelves for lawyer's boxes, and a couch, above which hung an
ivory Christ on a velvet background. The bedroom, kitchen, and rest of
the apartment looked out upon the courtyard.

"Well," said Cerizet, "how are things going? Are we getting on?"