He also carried a malacca cane, which he deposited upon my desk, and a gold-rimmed spy-glass which, with a gesture of supreme affectation, he raised to his eye.

“Now, M. Hector Ratichon,” he said abruptly, “perhaps you will be good enough to explain.”

I had risen when he entered.  But now I sat down again and coolly pointed to the best chair in the room.

“Will you give yourself the trouble to sit down, M. le Marquis?” I riposted blandly.

He called me names—­rude names! but I took no notice of that . . . and he sat down.

“Now!” he said once more.

“What is it you desire to know, M. le Marquis?” I queried.

“Why you interfered in my affairs last night?”

“Do you complain?” I asked.

“No,” he admitted reluctantly, “but I don’t understand your object.”

“My object was to serve you then,” I rejoined quietly, “and later.”

“What do you mean by ’later’?”

“To-day,” I replied, “to-morrow; whenever your present position becomes absolutely unendurable.”

“It is that now,” he said with a savage oath.

“I thought as much,” was my curt comment.

“And do you mean to assert,” he went on more earnestly, “that you can find a way out of it?”

“If you desire it—­yes!” I said.

“How?”

He drew his chair nearer to my desk, and I leaned forward, with my elbows on the table, the finger-tips of one hand in contact with those of the other.

“Let us begin by reviewing the situation, shall we, Monsieur?” I began.

“If you wish,” he said curtly.

“You are a gentleman of refined, not to say luxurious tastes, who finds himself absolutely without means to gratify them.  Is that so?”

He nodded.

“You have a wife and a father-in-law who, whilst lavishing costly treasures upon you, leave you in a humiliating dependence on them for actual money.”

Again he nodded approvingly.

“Human nature,” I continued with gentle indulgence, “being what it is, you pine after what you do not possess—­namely, money.  Houses, equipages, servants, even good food and wine, are nothing to you beside that earnest desire for money that you can call your own, and which, if only you had it, you could spend at your pleasure.”

“To the point, man, to the point!” he broke in impatiently.

“One moment, M. le Marquis, and I have done.  But first of all, with your permission, shall we also review the assets in your life which we will have to use in order to arrive at the gratification of your earnest wish?”

“Assets?  What do you mean?”

“The means to our end.  You want money; we must find the means to get it for you.”

“I begin to understand,” he said, and drew his chair another inch or two closer to me.