is going on in his pancreas, and which, at the present moment, had a
blood-sucker named Bidault, otherwise called Gigonnet, a money-lender,
who lived in the Rue Grenetat. In this quarter old stables were filled
with oil-casks, and the carriage-houses were packed with bales of
cotton. Here were stored in bulk the articles that were sold at retail
in the markets.

Madame Madou, formerly a fish-woman, but thrown, some ten years since,
into the dried-fruit trade by a liaison with the former proprietor of
her present business (an affair which had long fed the gossip of the
markets), had originally a vigorous and enticing beauty, now lost
however in a vast embonpoint. She lived on the lower floor of a yellow
house, which was falling to ruins, and was held together at each story
by iron cross-bars. The deceased proprietor had succeeded in getting
rid of all competitors, and had made his business a monopoly. In spite
of a few slight defects of education, his heiress was able to carry it
along, and take care of her stores, which were in coachhouses,
stables, and old workshops, where she fought the vermin with eminent
success. Not troubled with desk or ledgers, for she could neither read
nor write, she answered a letter with a blow of her fist, considering
it an insult. In the main she was a good woman, with a high-colored
face, and a foulard tied over her cap, who mastered with bugle voice
the wagoners when they brought the merchandise; such squabbles usually
ending in a bottle of the "right sort." She had no disputes with the
agriculturists who consigned her the fruit, for they corresponded in
ready money,--the only possible method of communication, to receive
which Mere Madou paid them a visit in the fine season of the year.

Birotteau found this shrewish trader among sacks of filberts, nuts,
and chestnuts.