"--standing before the Count, that image of flaunting Debt, in his
blue flannel dressing-gown, slippers worked by some Marquise or other,
trousers of white woolen stuff, and a dazzling shirt? There he stood,
with a gorgeous cap on his black dyed hair, playing with the tassels
at his waist--"

"'Tis a bit of genre for anybody who knows what the pretty little
morning room, hung with silk and full of valuable paintings, where
Maxime breakfasts," said Nathan. "You tread on a Smyrna carpet, you
admire the sideboards filled with curiosities and rarities fit to make
a King of Saxony envious--"

"Now for the scene itself," said Desroches, and the deepest silence
followed.

"'Monsieur le Comte,' began Cerizet, 'I have come from a M. Charles
Claparon, who used to be a banker--'

"'Ah! poor devil, and what does he want with me?'

"'Well, he is at present your creditor for a matter of three thousand
two hundred francs, seventy-five centimes, principal, interest, and
costs--'

"'Coutelier's business?' put in Maxime, who knew his affairs as a
pilot knows his coast.

"'Yes, Monsieur le Comte,' said Cerizet with a bow. 'I have come to
ask your intentions.'