"Very good," continued Theodose. "I shall test you. In order to make
yourself eligible, you must pay taxes on a certain amount of property,
and you are not paying them."

"I beg your pardon; I'm all right for the municipal council at any
rate; I pay two francs ninety-six centimes."

"Yes, but the tax on property necessary for election to the chamber is
five hundred francs, and there is no time to lose in acquiring that
property, because you must prove possession for one year."

"The devil!" cried Thuillier; "between now and a year hence to be
taxed five hundred francs on property which--"

"Between now and the end of July, at the latest, you must pay that
tax. Well, I feel enough interest in you to tell you the secret of an
affair by which you might make from thirty to forty thousand francs a
year, by employing a capital of one hundred and fifty thousand at
most. I know that in your family it is your sister who does your
business; I am far from thinking that a mistake; she has, they tell
me, excellent judgment; and you must let me begin by obtaining her
good-will and friendship, and proposing this investment to her. And
this is why: If Mademoiselle Thuillier is not induced to put faith in
my plan, we shall certainly have difficulty with her. Besides, it
won't do for YOU to propose to her that she should put the investment
of her money in your name. The idea had better come from me. As to my
means of getting you elected to the municipal council, they are these:
Phellion controls one quarter of the arrondissement; he and Laudigeois
have lived in it these thirty years, and they are listened to like