"Well, then, _on fait un commandement tendant de saisie immobiliere_,
viz: The mortgagee gives a notice that the property shall be put up for
sale. Then it is put up for sale, and in most cases the mortgagee buys
it in. Here, certainly, no competitors in the mere business way would
vie with Louvier; the mortgage at three and a half per cent. covers more
than the estate is apparently worth. Ah! but stop, M. le Marquis; the
notice is not yet served: the whole process would take six months from
the day it is served to the taking possession after the sale; in the
meanwhile, if you pay the interest due, the action drops. Courage, M. le
Marquis! Hope yet, if you condescend to call me friend."

"And me," cried Lemercier; "I will sell out of my railway shares to-
morrow-see to it, Duplessis--enough to pay off the damnable interest.
See to it, _mon ami_."

"Agree to that, M. le Marquis, and you are safe for another year," said
Duplessis, folding up the paper on which he had made his notes, but
fixing on Alain quiet eyes half concealed under drooping lids.

"Agree to that!" cried Rochebriant, rising--"agree to allow even my worst
enemy to pay for me moneys I could never hope to repay--agree to allow
the oldest and most confiding friends to do so--M. Duplessis, never!
If I carried the porter's knot of an Auverguat, I should still remain
gentilhomme and Breton."

Duplessis, habitually the driest of men, rose with a moistened eye and
flushing cheek--"Monsieur le Marquis, vouchsafe me the honour to shake
hands with you. I, too, am by descent gentilhomme, by profession a
speculator on the Bourse. In both capacities I approve the sentiment you