"Why, there's considerable risk, and so I make up my mind to sell the whole at once. M. le Vicomte is also known as a connoisseur in first-class furniture and objects of art, so that anything that he has selected will always fetch double its value, and I am safe to realise a large sum. Do as I do, Edwards, and realise--realise. Don't risk your profits in speculation. You, first coachman of M. le Vicomte de Saint-Remy,--why, there'll be a competition for you. And yesterday I just heard of a minor who has recently been emancipated, a cousin of Madame la Duchesse de Lucenay, the young Duc de Montbrison, who has just arrived from Italy with his tutor, and is forming his establishment. Two hundred and fifty thousand livres of income (10,000_l._) from land, my dear Edwards, two hundred and fifty thousand livres a year,--just entering into life,--twenty years of age only,--with all the illusions of simple confidence, and all the desires of expenditure,--prodigal as a prince. I know the steward; and I tell you, in confidence, he has all but concluded with me as first _valet de chambre_. He patronises me,--the fool!" And M. Boyer shrugged his shoulders, whilst he inhaled another large pinch of snuff. "You hope to get rid of him?" "_Parbleu_, he is a jackanapes,--an ass! He places me there as if he ought not to have any fears of me. Before two months I shall be in his place." "Two hundred and fifty thousand livres a year in land!" replied Edwards, reflecting; "and a young man! It is a good house?" "I tell you there is everything to make a man comfortable. I will speak to my protector for you," said M. Boyer, with irony. "Take the place; it is a fortune which has roots to it, and one may hold on by it for a long time. It is not like the unfortunate million of M. le Vicomte, a snowball, and nothing else,--a ray of a Parisian sun, and that's all. I soon saw that I should only be a bird of passage here. It's a pity, for the establishment did us credit; and, to the last moment, I will serve M. le Vicomte with the respect and esteem due to him." "_Ma foi_, my dear Boyer, I thank you, and accept your proposition. And, now I think of it, suppose I were to propose the stud of M. le Vicomte to this young duke! It is all ready, and known and admired all over Paris." "True, you may make a profitable affair of it." "And you, why don't you propose to him this house so admirably fitted up in every way? What could he find better?"