No sooner was the storm passed over to Poitiers, and an attorney practising in the Court-Royal instructed to defend the case, than Petit-Claud, a champion facing both ways, made application in Mme. Séchard’s name for the immediate separation of her estate from her husband’s; using “all diligence” (in legal language) to such purpose, that he obtained an order from the court on the 28th, and inserted notice at once in the _Charente Courier_. Now David the lover had settled ten thousand francs upon his wife in the marriage contract, making over to her as security the fixtures of the printing office and the household furniture; and Petit-Claud therefore constituted Mme. Séchard her husband’s creditor for that small amount, drawing up a statement of her claims on the estate in the presence of a notary on the 1st of August. While Petit-Claud was busy securing the household property of his clients, he gained the day at Poitiers on the point of law on which the demurrer and appeals were based. He held that, as the court of the Seine had ordered the plaintiff to pay costs of proceedings in the Paris commercial court, David was so much the less liable for expenses of litigation incurred upon Lucien’s account. The Court-Royal took this view of the case, and judgment was entered accordingly. David Séchard was ordered to pay the amount in dispute in the Angoulême Court, less the law expenses incurred in Paris; these Métivier must pay, and each side must bear its own costs in the appeal to the Court-Royal. David Séchard was duly notified of the result on the 17th of August. On the 18th the judgment took the practical shape of an order to pay capital, interest, and costs, followed up by notice of an execution for the morrow. Upon this Petit-Claud intervened and put in a claim for the furniture as the wife’s property duly separated from her husband’s; and what was more, Petit-Claud produced Séchard senior upon the scene of action. The old vinegrower had become his client on this wise. He came to Angoulême on the day after Eve’s visit, and went to Maître Cachan for advice. His son owed him arrears of rent; how could he come by this rent in the scrimmage in which his son was engaged? “I am engaged by the other side,” pronounced Cachan, “and I cannot appear for the father when I am suing the son; but go to Petit-Claud, he is very clever, he may perhaps do even better for you than I should do.” Cachan and Petit-Claud met at the Court. “I have sent you Séchard senior,” said Cachan; “take the case for me in exchange.” Lawyers do each other services of this kind in country towns as well as in Paris. The day after Séchard senior gave Petit-Claud his confidence, the tall Cointet paid a visit to his confederate. “Try to give old Séchard a lesson,” he said. “He is the kind of man that will never forgive his son for costing him a thousand francs or so; the outlay will dry up any generous thoughts in his mind, if he ever has any.”