"With such risks as yours," he said, "a man of your calibre should not
behave like a fool and walk on tiptoe, but speculate--boldly."

He advised Roguin to take a large sum from the remaining trust-moneys
and give it to him, du Tillet, with permission to stake it bravely on
some large operation, either at the Bourse, or in one of the thousand
enterprises of private speculation then about to be launched. Should
he win, they were to form a banking-house, where they could turn to
good account a portion of the deposits, while the profits could be
used by Roguin for his pleasures. If luck went against them, Roguin
was to get away and live in foreign countries, and trust to _his
friend_ du Tillet, who would be faithful to him to the last sou. It
was a rope thrown to a drowning man, and Roguin did not perceive that
the perfumer's clerk had flung it round his neck.

Master of Roguin's secret, du Tillet made use of it to establish his
power over wife, mistress, and husband. Madame Roguin, when told of a
disaster she was far from suspecting, accepted du Tillet's attentions,
who about this time left his situation with Birotteau, confident of
future success. He found no difficulty in persuading the mistress to
risk a certain sum of money as a provision against the necessity of
resorting to prostitution if misfortunes overtook her. The wife, on
the other hand, regulated her accounts, and gathered together quite a
little capital, which she gave to the man whom her husband confided
in; for by this time the notary had given a hundred thousand francs of
the remaining trust-money to his accomplice. Du Tillet's relations to
Madame Roguin then became such that her interest in him was
transformed into affection and finally into a violent passion. Through
his three sleeping-partners Ferdinand naturally derived a profit; but
not content with that profit, he had the audacity, when gambling at