important deeds in a diligence at the mercy of other travellers;
neither does he spend twenty francs between Paris and Moisselles; or
expose himself to be arrested as a deserter--"

"Monseigneur," said Georges Marest, "I may have amused myself with the
bourgeois in the diligence, but--"

"Let his Excellency finish what he was saying," said the notary,
digging his elbow into his clerk's ribs.

"A notary," continued the count, "ought to practise discretion,
shrewdness, caution from the start; he should be incapable of such a
blunder as taking a peer of France for a tallow-chandler--"

"I am willing to be blamed for my faults," said Georges; "but I never
left my deeds at the mercy of--"

"Now you are committing the fault of contradicting the word of a
minister of State, a gentleman, an old man, and a client," said the
count. "Give me that deed of sale."

Georges turned over and over the papers in his portfolio.

"That will do; don't disarrange those papers," said the count, taking
the deed from his pocket. "Here is what you are looking for."

Crottat turned the paper back and forth, so astonished was he at
receiving it from the hands of his client.

"What does this mean, monsieur?" he said, finally, to Georges.