Salomon had just told him: "To forestall the news on the Bourse is sometimes worth gold ingots!" A _forestaller_! As well say the revelation of a State secret, base speculation, almost treachery! And yet on hearing these words that covered up an insult, he had not even rung for the messenger to show Molina out, but had striven to comprehend nothing! As the result of this conversation, he felt uncomfortable. The man had left an odor of pollution, as it were, behind him. Vaudrey must needs be soon reassured respecting the Gochard paper. In visiting Marianne, he observed that his mistress was a shrewd woman. She informed him immediately that Claire Dujarrier whom she had seen, would secure a renewal from Gochard, who was unknown to Vaudrey, from three months to three months until the expiration of six months in consideration of an additional twenty thousand francs for each period of ninety days. "I did not understand that at first," Marianne began by remarking. "Oh!" said Sulpice, "I understand perfectly, it is absolute usury. But time is ready money, and in six months it will be easier for me to pay one hundred and forty thousand francs than a hundred thousand to-day. I have plans." "What?" "Very difficult to explain, but quite clear in my mind! The important part is not to have the date of maturity on the first of June, but on the first of December." "Then nothing is more simple. Madame Dujarrier will arrange it." "Is Madame Dujarrier a providence then?" "Almost," said Marianne coldly. Sulpice was intoxicated with joy, realizing that he had before him all the necessary time in which to free himself from his embarrassment, when Marianne should have returned him his first acceptance for one hundred thousand francs against a new one for one hundred and forty thousand. He breathed again. From the twenty-sixth of April to the first of December, he had nearly seven months in which to free himself. He repeated the calculation that he had formerly made when he said: "I have ample time!" He reentered the Hotel Beauvau in a cheerful mood, Adrienne was delighted. She feared to see him return nervous and dejected. "Then you will be brilliant presently at Madame Gerson's." "Stop! that's so. It is this evening in fact!--" He had forgotten it. Marianne, too, was not free. She was going, she said, to Auteuil for that bill of exchange. Vaudrey did not therefore, regret the soiree. His going to Madame Gerson's was now a matter of indifference to him. "As for me, I am so happy, oh! so happy!" said Adrienne, clapping her little hands like a child. In undressing, Vaudrey fortunately found this document which he had folded in four and left in his waistcoat pocket: "On the first of June next, I will pay to the order of Monsieur Adolphe Gochard of No. 9, Rue Albouy, the sum of One Hundred Thousand Francs, value received in cash. "SULPICE VAUDREY, "Rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin, 37."