"I left him without seeking to explain the meaning of his words.

"M. de Restaud's mother has prejudiced him against me, and he is very
far from taking me as his legal adviser; still, I went to see Gobseck
last week to tell him about Ernest's love for Mlle. Camille, and
pressed him to carry out his contract, since that young Restaud is
just of age.

"I found the old bill-discounter had been kept to his bed for a long
time by the complaint of which he was to die. He put me off, saying
that he would give the matter his attention when he could get up again
and see after his business; his idea being no doubt that he would not
give up any of his possessions so long as the breath was in him; no
other reason could be found for his shuffling answer. He seemed to me
to be much worse than he at all suspected. I stayed with him long
enough to discern the progress of a passion which age had converted
into a sort of craze. He wanted to be alone in the house, and had
taken the rooms one by one as they fell vacant. In his own room he had
changed nothing; the furniture which I knew so well sixteen years ago
looked the same as ever; it might have been kept under a glass case.
Gobseck's faithful old portress, with her husband, a pensioner, who
sat in the entry while she was upstairs, was still his housekeeper and
charwoman, and now in addition his sick-nurse. In spite of his
feebleness, Gobseck saw his clients himself as heretofore, and
received sums of money; his affairs had been so simplified, that he
only needed to send his pensioner out now and again on an errand, and
could carry on business in his bed.

"After the treaty, by which France recognized the Haytian Republic,