“Firstly, M. le Marquis,” I resumed, and now my voice had become earnest and incisive, “firstly you have a wife, then you have a father-in-law whose wealth is beyond the dreams of humble people like myself, and whose one great passion in life is the social position of the daughter whom he worships.  Now,” I added, and with the tip of my little finger I touched the sleeve of my aristocratic client, “here at once is your first asset.  Get at the money-bags of papa by threatening the social position of his daughter.”

Whereupon my young gentleman jumped to his feet and swore and abused me for a mudlark and a muckworm and I don’t know what.  He seized his malacca cane and threatened me with it, and asked me how the devil I dared thus to speak of Mme. la Marquise de Firmin-Latour.  He cursed, and he stormed and he raved of his sixteen quarterings and of my loutishness.  He did everything in fact except walk out of the room.

I let him go on quite quietly.  It was part of his programme, and we had to go through the performance.  As soon as he gave me the chance of putting in a word edgeways I rejoined quietly: 

“We are not going to hurt Madame la Marquise, Monsieur; and if you do not want the money, let us say no more about it.”

Whereupon he calmed down; after a while he sat down again, this time with his cane between his knees and its ivory knob between his teeth.

“Go on,” he said curtly.

Nor did he interrupt me again whilst I expounded my scheme to him—­one that, mind you, I had evolved during the night, knowing well that I should receive his visit during the day; and I flatter myself that no finer scheme for the bleeding of a parsimonious usurer was ever devised by any man.

If it succeeded—­and there was no reason why it should not—­M. de Firmin-Latour would pocket a cool half-million, whilst I, sir, the brain that had devised the whole scheme, pronounced myself satisfied with the paltry emolument of one hundred thousand francs, out of which, remember, I should have to give Theodore a considerable sum.

We talked it all over, M. le Marquis and I, the whole afternoon.  I may tell you at once that he was positively delighted with the plan, and then and there gave me one hundred francs out of his own meagre purse for my preliminary expenses.

The next morning we began work.

I had begged M. le Marquis to find the means of bringing me a few scraps of the late M. le Comte de Naquet’s—­Madame la Marquise’s first husband—­handwriting.  This, fortunately, he was able to do.  They were a few valueless notes penned at different times by the deceased gentleman and which, luckily for us all, Madame had not thought it worth while to keep under lock and key.

I think I told you before, did I not? what a marvellous expert I am in every kind of calligraphy, and soon I had a letter ready which was to represent the first fire in the exciting war which we were about to wage against an obstinate lady and a parsimonious usurer.