“I borrow money of him,” continued Clamens, “and he loans it because he appreciates better than anybody else the necessity of having it. Adroit himself in chasing up twenty-franc pieces, he thinks he has in me a promising pupil. Then his loans to me serve as an excuse to his conscience. If he strips others, he considers that I strip him, and, therefore, concludes that, instead of practising the trade of a sharper, he is only making an application of the _lex talionis_. The man is not exactly a dangerous character; but he has ten thousand _confrères_, who prey upon forty thousand fools, and their mode of life operates to the detriment of a hundred thousand poor devils, who perish from hunger or find their way to the galleys. I suppose that the term ‘usurer’ represents to your mind a miserly old man in a brown overcoat and a black silk cap?” “There is in my native province,” replied Eusebe, “an old man named Gardet, who is said to be very grinding on the poor who borrow money from him; and it is a fact that this creature is attired nearly as you say, with the exception of the black silk cap. In a number of books that I have read during the past two years, the usurer is always described as dressed in that style.” “It is an error. Now-a-days, the evil-doer is young. That is one of the most curious characteristics of our age. The young men gamble at the Bourse, while the old devote their attention to trade. The young men keep the women; the old conceal themselves in their closets. It is a sad thing to contemplate; but such is nevertheless the case. _Revenons à nos moutons._ Those two young dandies before us, who balance their canes with such an air, count hardly fifty years between them; yet they are the most unmerciful Jews in Paris.” “But,” interrupted Eusebe, “I thought you were a Jew.” “I am an Israelite,” responded Clamens, rather hastily,--“which is not at all the same thing. Such as you see them, that fashionable youth and his dazzling friend have ruined many people. At this moment, they are not merely promenading, as you might perhaps suppose: they are seeking custom. Have you need of money?” “My friend,” said Eusebe, “you know that I am quite a barbarian, and ignorant of many features of Parisian life. Do me the favor, then,--if I do not try your patience,--to define more exactly the profession of these men.” “That is easy enough. These fellows have comprehended the fact that the want of money is the complaint of almost everybody, and they have undertaken to supply the needful by founding a loan-and-trust company,--which would be quite philanthropic if the premium were not cent. per cent. For example: they loan on security five hundred francs for six months; at the expiration of that time they receive one thousand for their five hundred.” “Why a thousand?” “For the interest of the money advanced for six months.” “If they make that much, they ought to lend the money for a year: they would then have no need to give any at all.”