“So long as the father lives, he will not give his son a farthing; and the old printer has no mind as yet to send in an order for his funeral cards.” “Agreed!” said Petit-Claud, promptly making up his mind. “I don’t ask you for guarantees; I am an attorney. If any one plays me a trick, there will be an account to settle between us.” “The rogue will go far,” thought Cointet; he bade Petit-Claud good-morning. The day after this conference was the 30th of April, and the Cointets presented the first of the three bills forged by Lucien. Unluckily, the bill was brought to poor Mme. Séchard; and she, seeing at once that the signature was not in her husband’s handwriting, sent for David and asked him point-blank: “You did not put your name to that bill, did you?” “No,” said he; “your brother was so pressed for time that he signed for me.” Eve returned the bill to the bank messenger sent by the Cointets. “We cannot meet it,” she said; then, feeling that her strength was failing, she went up to her room. David followed her. “Go quickly to the Cointets, dear,” Eve said faintly; “they will have some consideration for you; beg them to wait; and call their attention besides to the fact that when Cérizet’s lease is renewed, they will owe you a thousand francs.” David went forthwith to his enemies. Now, any foreman may become a master printer, but there are not always the makings of a good man of business in a skilled typographer; David knew very little of business; when, therefore, with a heavily-beating heart and a sensation of throttling, David had put his excuses badly enough and formulated his request, the answer--“This is nothing to do with us; the bill has been passed on to us by Métivier; Métivier will pay us. Apply to M. Métivier”--cut him short at once. “Oh!” cried Eve when she heard the result, “as soon as the bill is returned to M. Métivier, we may be easy.” At two o’clock the next day, Victor-Ange-Herménégilde Doublon, bailiff, made protest for non-payment at two o’clock, a time when the Place du Mûrier is full of people; so that though Doublon was careful to stand and chat at the back door with Marion and Kolb, the news of the protest was known all over the business world of Angoulême that evening. Tall Cointet had enjoined it upon Master Doublon to show the Séchards the greatest consideration; but when all was said and done, could the bailiff’s hypocritical regard for appearances save Eve and David from the disgrace of a suspension of payment? Let each judge for himself. A tolerably long digression of this kind will seem all too short; and ninety out of every hundred readers shall seize with avidity upon details that possess all the piquancy of novelty, thus establishing yet once again the trust of the well-known axiom, that there is nothing so little known as that which everybody is supposed to know--the Law of the Land, to wit.