(for instance) in costs, especially if you can manage to raise counter
applications."

"And an attorney always manages to do it," said Cardot. "How many a
time one of you has come to me with, 'What is there to be got out of
the case?'"

"It is particularly easy to manage it if the debtor eggs you on to run
up costs till they eat up the amount. And, as a rule, the Count's
creditors took nothing by that move, and were out of pocket in law and
personal expenses. To get money out of so experienced a debtor as the
Count, a creditor should really be in a position uncommonly difficult
to reach; it is a question of being creditor and debtor both, for then
you are legally entitled to work the confusion of rights, in law
language--"

"To the confusion of the debtor?" asked Malaga, lending an attentive
ear to this discourse.

"No, the confusion of rights of debtor and creditor, and pay yourself
through your own hands. So Claparon's innocence in merely issuing
writs of attachment eased the Count's mind. As he came back from the
Varietes with Antonia, he was so much the more taken with the idea of
selling the reading-room to pay off the last two thousand francs of
the purchase-money, because he did not care to have his name made
public as a partner in such a concern. So he adopted Antonia's plan.
Antonia wished to reach the higher ranks of her calling, with splendid
rooms, a maid, and a carriage; in short, she wanted to rival our
charming hostess, for instance--"