"Oh! not that, no indeed!" cried the countess. "Look down on you because you wanted to do a kind deed? No, a hundred times, no! You know that that is impossible!" "Then why refuse?" "Listen, Monsieur Thierry; will you give me your word as a man of honor that you fully understand me, that you are quite sure of the sincerity and unselfishness of my behavior toward you?" "Yes, madame, I give you my word of honor. If that wasn't so, _mordié!_ do you suppose I would have come to see you again?" "Very well, then I accept," said Julie, offering him her hand; "but on one condition, and that is that you give me back your good will." Old Antoine lost his head when he felt that soft little hand in his hard dry one. He had a sort of dizzy feeling, and, in his uncertainty what to do with that hand, which he thought that he ought not to kiss, and which he dared not press, he let it fall again, and stammered out his thanks incoherently, but with something like warmth. "Since you treat me as if you were my debtor," continued Madame d'Estrelle, "I warn you that I shall be very exacting. As a matter of fact, I need only twenty thousand francs for the moment. Authorize me to offer the other twenty thousand to Madame Thierry as from you." "Oh! that isn't possible!" said Antoine angrily. "She will refuse.--There's a person who detests me! I have just been to call on her. She turned tail and ran up into her garret!" "Is it that you have wronged her in some way then, neighbor?" "Never! If she chooses to think otherwise--But let her say what she will, I am an honorable man." "She has never said that you weren't." "Has she never spoken to you about me? Come, on _your_ word of honor?" "On my honor, never!" "In that case--look you! tell her to respect me as she ought, and don't talk about giving her money that belongs to you; for, deuce take me! if you choose to think well of me and not blush at my friendship, I'll toss her a pretty little present! I'll redeem her house at Sèvres. What would you say to that, eh?" "I should say, my dear neighbor," exclaimed Madame d'Estrelle, deeply touched, "that you are the best of men!" "The best, honor bright?" said the rich man, flattered to the last degree in his pride; "the best, you say?" "Yes, the best rich man whom I know." "Then it's as good as done! Will you come to breakfast at my house to-morrow with some scientific men, very famous men of intellect, and attend a christening? Will you be godmother and stand up with me?" "Yes, at what hour?" "Twelve o'clock." "I will come! but I must come with some one, as you are to have men there who do not know me. I will come with----" "With my sister-in-law; I see what you are coming at!" "Do you forbid me?" "Forbid you? Do you know that you talk as if I were your master?" he rejoined, with a fatuous, mysterious air. "As if you were my father," replied Julie artlessly.