"'Daddy Gobseck,' I began, 'is intimately convinced of the truth of
the principle which he takes for a rule of life. In his opinion, money
is a commodity which you may sell cheap or dear, according to
circumstances, with a clear conscience. A capitalist, by charging a
high rate of interest, becomes in his eyes a secured partner by
anticipation. Apart from the peculiar philosophical views of human
nature and financial principles, which enable him to behave like a
usurer, I am fully persuaded that, out of his business, he is the most
loyal and upright soul in Paris. There are two men in him; he is petty
and great--a miser and a philosopher. If I were to die and leave a
family behind me, he would be the guardian whom I should appoint. This
was how I came to see Gobseck in this light, monsieur. I know nothing
of his past life. He may have been a pirate, may, for anything I know,
have been all over the world, trafficking in diamonds, or men, or
women, or State secrets; but this I affirm of him--never has human
soul been more thoroughly tempered and tried. When I paid off my loan,
I asked him, with a little circumlocution of course, how it was that
he had made me pay such an exorbitant rate of interest; and why,
seeing that I was a friend, and he meant to do me a kindness, he
should not have yielded to the wish and made it complete.--"My son,"
he said, "I released you from all need to feel any gratitude by giving
you ground for the belief that you owed me nothing."--So we are the
best friends in the world. That answer, monsieur, gives you the man
better than any amount of description.'

"'I have made up my mind once and for all,' said the Count. 'Draw up
the necessary papers; I am going to transfer my property to Gobseck. I
have no one but you to trust to in the draft of the counter-deed,
which will declare that this transfer is a simulated sale, and that
Gobseck as trustee will administer my estate (as he knows how to