his lips. His great experience in commercial matters had given him a
few fixed habits, which some people called eccentricities. If a note
were overdue he sent for the bailiff, and thought only of recovering
capital, interest, and costs; and the bailiff was ordered to pursue
the matter until the debtor went into bankruptcy. Cesar then stopped
all proceedings, never appeared at any meeting of creditors, and held
on to his securities. He adopted this system and his implacable
contempt for bankrupts from Monsieur Ragon, who in the course of his
commercial life had seen such loss of time in litigation that he had
come to look upon the meagre and uncertain dividends obtained by such
compromises as fully counterbalanced by a better employment of the
time spent in coming and going, in making proposals, or in listening
to excuses for dishonesty.

"If the bankrupt is an honest man, and recovers himself, he will pay
you," Ragon would say. "If he is without means and simply unfortunate,
why torment him? If he is a scoundrel, you will never get anything.
Your known severity will make you seem uncompromising; it will be
impossible to negotiate with you; consequently you are the one who
will get paid as long as there is anything to pay with."

Cesar came to all appointments at the expected hour; but if he were
kept waiting, he left ten minutes later with an inflexibility which
nothing ever changed. Thus his punctuality compelled all persons who
had dealings with him to be punctual themselves.

The dress adopted by the worthy man was in keeping with his manners
and his countenance. No power could have made him give up the white
muslin cravats, with ends embroidered by his wife or daughter, which
hung down beneath his chin. His waistcoat of white pique, squarely