The four bottles were placed on a table; the gentlemen took their places at it, and the glasses were filled and emptied rapidly. “We haven’t a sou, Lampin, and that’s a wretched disease.” “Bah! because you are fools!--Here’s your health.” “What do you mean by that, Jean-Fesse?” “I mean that if I had your talents, and especially Monbrun’s, I wouldn’t be where you are now, but I would have my bread well buttered.” “What do you mean?” asked Edouard, pouring out a glass of brandy; “explain yourself.” “Anybody can understand that, my son; I tell you again that if I knew how to handle a pen as you do, I would speculate on a large scale! But you’re scared to death!” “We have speculated enough, but it hasn’t succeeded with us.” “But that’s not what I’m talking about, youngster. Let’s take a drink, messieurs; it’s good stuff, at all events.” “Tell us, Lampin, what you would have done to----” “Ah! I’m a blade, I am; I would risk the job! But I write like a cat.” “But what is it that you’d write?” “That depends--sometimes one thing, sometimes another.--Look here, here’s a note that a friend entrusted to me; it is the proceeds of his father’s property, which is to be paid him here in Paris, because he means to enjoy himself with us.” “What is it?” “A note for twelve hundred francs, accepted by a famous banker of Paris. Oh! it’s good, anyone would discount it for you on the instant; my colleague knows a man who lives in the suburbs of Paris, and who proposed to give him _rocks_ for his paper.--Well, my boy, make one like it, and you can get that discounted too.” “What? What do you say? Counterfeit this note?” “Oh, no, not counterfeit it, for instead of twelve hundred francs I would make it twelve thousand; it’s just an imitation. Here’s your health.” “Why, you villain! that’s forgery!” “No, it ain’t forgery; it’s a note that we put in circulation; it ain’t forgery; is it, Dufresne? In all this, the banker is the only one that’s fooled; but those rascals are rich enough to make us a little present.” “In fact,” said Dufresne, “it isn’t exactly a forgery; we create a note, that’s all, and we make someone else pay it.” “That’s just it, my boy, it’s only a little joke.--Oh! you understand such games, you do; but Monbrun is a little dull.” “No, no, I understand very well, messieurs; but I cannot consent to resort to such methods. I disapprove of your plan.” “Is that so? Well, you’ll never get ahead, my man, and you’ll die of hunger, like the fleas in winter!” “It is true that we have no resources,” said Dufresne; “no linen, no clothes except those we have on!” “That’s very fine! Just reflect that you have everything to gain and nothing to lose.” “What about honor?” said Edouard in a weak voice. “Honor! Pardi! I rather guess yours has been roaming the country for a long while; as for Dufresne, he’s like me, never had any, for fear of losing it.” “This rascal of a Lampin is always joking! Let’s have a drink, messieurs.”