The inevitable questions which commence every examination had scarcely been addressed to him before his impetuous temper gained the mastery, and he burst forth in invectives against Prosper.

M. Patrigent was obliged to impose silence upon him, reminding him of what was due to himself, no matter what wrongs he had suffered at the hands of his clerk.

Although he had very slightly examined Prosper, the judge was now scrupulously attentive and particular in having every question answered.  Prosper’s examination had been a mere formality, the stating and proving a fact.  Now it related to collecting the attendant circumstances and the most trifling particulars, so as to group them together, and reach a just conclusion.

“Let us proceed in order,” said the judge, “and pray confine yourself to answering my questions.  Did you ever suspect your cashier of being dishonest?”

“Certainly not.  Yet there were reasons which should have made me hesitate to trust him with my funds.”

“What reasons?”

“M.  Bertomy played cards.  I have known of his spending whole nights at the gaming table, and losing immense sums of money.  He was intimate with an unprincipled set.  Once he was mixed up with one of my clients, M. de Clameran, in a scandalous gambling affair which took place at the house of some disreputable woman, and wound up by being tried before the police court.”

For some minutes the banker continued to revile Prosper.

“You must confess, monsieur,” interrupted the judge, “that you were very imprudent, if not culpable, to have intrusted your safe to such a man.”

“Ah, monsieur, Prosper was not always thus.  Until the past year he was a model of goodness.  He lived in my house as one of my family; he spent all of his evenings with us, and was the bosom friend of my eldest son Lucien.  One day, he suddenly left us, and never came to the house again.  Yet I had every reason to believe him attached to my niece Madeleine.”

M. Patrigent had a peculiar manner of contracting his brows when he thought he had discovered some new proof.  He now did this, and said: 

“Might not this admiration for the young lady have been the cause of M. Bertomy’s estrangement?”

“How so?” said the banker with surprise.  “I was willing to bestow Madeleine upon him, and, to be frank, was astonished that he did not ask for her hand.  My niece would be a good match for any man, and he should have considered himself fortunate to obtain her.  She is beautiful, and her dowry will be half a million.”

“Then you can see no motive for your cashier’s conduct?”

“It is impossible for me to account for it.  I have, however, always supposed that Prosper was led astray by a young man whom he met at my house about this time, M. Raoul de Lagors.”

“Ah! and who is this young man?”

“A relative of my wife; a very attractive, intelligent young man, somewhat wild, but rich enough to pay for his follies.”