Thereupon he abandoned the log with which he was struggling. "The errand's done, my dear," he said smiling. "Don't I forestall all your desires? I saw Larsonneau last night." "And he promised you the hundred and thirty-six thousand francs?" she asked anxiously. Between the two flaming logs he was building a mountain of live cinders, delicately taking up the smallest fragments with the tongs, and looking with a satisfied air at the elevation which he raised with infinite art. "Oh! how fast you go!" he muttered. "A hundred and thirty-six thousand francs make a large sum. Larsonneau is a good fellow, but his means are still limited. He is quite ready to oblige you--" He paused, blinking his eyes and rebuilding a corner of the elevation which had fallen through. The pastime began to confuse the young woman's ideas. Despite herself she watched the work of her husband whose clumsiness increased. She felt inclined to give him advice. Forgetting Worms, the bill, and her need of money, she ended by exclaiming: "But place that large bit, there, underneath; the others will then keep up." Her husband submissively obeyed her, and added: "He can only find fifty thousand francs. It will always make a nice instalment. Only, he won't mix this affair up with the Charonne one. He is but an intermediary, do you understand, my dear? The person who really lends the money demands enormous interest. He wants a note of hand for eighty thousand francs at six months' date." And having crowned the height with a pointed cinder he crossed his hands over the tongs and looked fixedly at his wife. "Eighty thousand francs!" she cried. "But that's robbery! Do you advise me to do anything so foolish?" "No," he answered plainly. "But, if you are in absolute need of money, I won't forbid it." He rose up as if he meant to leave the room. Renée, in a state of cruel indecision, looked at her husband, and at the bill which he laid upon the mantelshelf. She ended by taking her poor head in her hands and murmuring: "Oh! these business matters! My head is splitting, this morning. Well, I shall sign this bill for eighty thousand francs. If I didn't, I should become altogether ill. I know myself, I should spend the day in frightful tortures--I prefer to be foolish at once. It will relieve me."