Castles in the Air

reaty that I would then and there have turned him out of doors, sent him back to grub for scraps out of the g

have suffered inexpressibly under it, I nevertheless agree with the English poet, George Crabbe, whose works I have read with a great deal of plea

ether of late that I was loath to think of him as reduced to begging his bread in the street

hurt, as you wi

o had become impoverished by the revolution and the wars of the Empire, and those who had made their fortunes thereby. Among the former was M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour, a handsome young officer of cavalry; and among the l

ings. In those days, you understand, it was in the essence of my business to know as much as possible of the private affairs of people in the

own to bless himself with, and that it was Papa Mosenstein's millions that

fortune as he could lay his hands on, until one day he went off on a voyage to America, or goodness knows where, and was never heard of again. Mme. la Comtesse, as she then was, did not grieve over her loss; indeed, she returned to the bosom of her family, and her father-a shrewd usurer, who had amassed an enormous

s for them, and replenished their cellars with the choicest wines. He threw money about for diamonds and pearls which his daughter wore, and paid all his son-in-law's tailors' and shirt-makers' bills. But always the money was his, you understand? The house in Paris was his, so was the chateau on the Loire; he lent them to his daughter. He lent her the diamonds, and the carriages, and the boxes at the opera and the Fran?ais. But here his generosity ended. He had been deceived in his daughter's first husband; some of the money which he had given her had gone to pay the gambling debts of an unscrupulous spendthrift. He was determined that this should not occur again. A m

the fashionable restaurants-where I myself was engaged in a business capacity to keep an eye on possibly light-fingered customers-it would be Mme. la Marquise who paid the bill, even gave the

would lend him any money; but now he was up to his eyes in debt, and ther

known as were his extravagant tastes and th

come the clients of men of ability like myself. I knew that sooner or later the elegant young soldier would be forced to seek the advice of someon

time came he should turn to me as

went, when possible. I was biding my t