A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Z. Marcas. Lost Illusions. Gaudissart II Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ... Eve made no reply; she took leave of the brothers, vowing inwardly to look after Cerizet. "Well, here are our enemies in the place " laughed David, when Eve brought out the papers for his signature at dinner-time. "Pshaw " said she, " I will answer for Kolb and Marion; they alone would look after things. Beside, we shall be making an income of four thousand francs from the workshop, which only costs us money as it is; and, looking forward, I see a year in which you may realize your hopes." "You were born to be the wife of a scientific worker, as you said by the weir," said David, grasping her hand tenderly. But though the Sechard household had money sufficient that winter, they were none the less submitted to Cerizet's espionage, and all unconsciously became dependent upon Boniface Cointet. "We have them now " the manager of the paper-mill had exclaimed as he left the house with his brother the printer. "They will begin to regard the rent as a regular income; they will count upon it and run themselves into debt. In six months' time we will decline to renew the agreement, and then we shall see what this man of genius has at the bottom of his mind; we will offer to help him out of his difficulty by taking him into partnership and exploiting his discovery." Any shrewd man of business who should have seen tall Cointet's face as he uttered those words, "taking him into partnership," would have known that it behooves a man to be even more careful in the selection of the partner whom he takes before the Tribunal of Commerce than in the choice of the wife whom he weds at the mayor's office. Was it not enough already, and more than enough, that the ruthless hunters were on the track of the quarry? How should David and his wife, with Kolb and...