"I do not need your kind services. This usurer, whom I had never heard of before, sent for me yesterday to offer to loan me, each year, more money than I have spent in my whole life." "What! He makes you such an offer as that, this usurer who never loans so much as a sou without the very best security. Men of his stamp set a very small valuation on honesty, industry, and integrity, and I know that these are your sole patrimony, my dear Louis." "You are mistaken, Florestan. My father is worth over two millions." "Your father!" exclaimed Saint-Herem, in profound astonishment. "Your father?" "Yes. In some mysterious way this usurer has managed to discover a secret, of which even I had not the slightest suspicion, I assure you, so he sent for me--" "To offer you his services, of course. He and others of his ilk are always on the lookout for hidden fortunes, and when they find them they offer to the prospective heirs such advances as will enable them to squander their wealth before they inherit it. So you are rich, my dear Louis! You need not feel any doubts on the subject. If Porquin has made you such an offer, he knows it for a certainty." "Yes, I think so, too," said Louis, almost sadly. "Why do you speak so mournfully, Louis? One would suppose that you had just made some terrible discovery. What is the matter with you? What is the meaning of those tears I saw in your eyes a little while ago? And of that exclamation, 'I am very miserable!' You miserable, and why?" "Do not ridicule me, my friend. The truth is, I love, and I have been deceived." "You have a rival, then, I suppose." "Yes, and, to crown my misfortunes, this rival--" "Go on." "Is this rascally usurer." "Porquin, that old scoundrel! The girl prefers him to you? Impossible! But what leads you to suppose--" "Several suspicious circumstances; besides, he says so." "Fine authority that! He lies, I am certain of it." "But, Florestan, he is rich, and the girl I loved, or rather whom I still love in spite of myself, is terribly poor." "The devil!" "Besides, she has an invalid connection to take care of. This scoundrel's offers must have dazzled the poor child, or want may have induced her to listen to the voice of the tempter, as so many others do. What does the discovery of this wealth profit me now? I care nothing for it if I cannot share it with Mariette." "Listen, Louis, I know you, and I feel confident that you must have placed your affections wisely." "Yes; and for more than a year Mariette has given every proof of her faithful attachment to me, but yesterday, without the slightest warning, came a letter breaking our engagement." "A good girl who has loved a man as poor as you were faithfully for a year would not have been so quickly won over by the promises of an old villain like Porquin. He lied to you; I haven't a doubt of it." Then calling out at the top of his voice, to the great surprise of Louis, he exclaimed: