necessary evil of all good government, and whose love of gambling
renders them insatiable. On making this discovery, du Tillet at once
saw the reason of Gobseck's insensibility to the claims of his niece.

Under these circumstances du Tillet the banker (for Ferdinand was now
a banker) advised Roguin to lay up something against a rainy day, by
persuading his clients to invest in some enterprise which might enable
him to put by for himself large sums of money, in case he were forced
to go into bankruptcy through the affairs of the bank. After many ups
and downs, which were profitable to none but Madame Roguin and du
Tillet, Roguin heard the fatal hour of his insolvency and final ruin
strike. His misery was then worked upon by his faithful friend.
Ferdinand invented the speculation in lands about the Madeleine. The
hundred thousand francs belonging to Cesar Birotteau, which were in
the hands of the notary, were made over to du Tillet; for the latter,
whose object was to ruin the perfumer, had made Roguin understand that
he would run less risk if he got his nearest friends into the net. "A
friend," he said, "is more considerate, even if angry."

Few people realize to-day how little value the lands about the
Madeleine had at the period of which we write; but at that time they
were likely to be sold even below their then value, because of the
difficulty of finding purchasers willing to wait for the profits of
the enterprise. Now, du Tillet's aim was to seize the profits speedily
without the losses of a protracted speculation. In other words, his
plan was to strangle the speculation and get hold of it as a dead
thing, which he might galvanize back to life when it suited him. In
such a scheme the Gobsecks, Palmas, and Werbrusts would have been
ready to lend a hand, but du Tillet was not yet sufficiently intimate
with them to ask their aid; besides, he wanted to hide his own hand in