"Catch me negotiating bills for Claparon & Co., my boy.The bank collector went round to return their acceptances to them this morning," said a fat banker in his outspoken way."If you have any of their paper, look out."Claparon was in the building, in deep consultation with a man well known for the ruinous rate at which he lent money.Castanier went forthwith in search of the said Claparon, a merchant who had a reputation for taking heavy risks that meant wealth or utter ruin.The money-lender walked away as Castanier came up.A gesture betrayed the speculator's despair.
"Well, Claparon, the Bank wants a hundred thousand francs of you, and it is four o'clock; the thing is known, and it is too late to arrange your little failure comfortably," said Castanier.
"Sir!"
"Speak lower," the cashier went on."How if I were to propose a piece of business that would bring you in as much money as you require?""It would not discharge my liabilities; every business that I ever heard of wants a little time to simmer in.""I know of something that will set you straight in a moment," answered Castanier; "but first you would have to----""Do what?"
"Sell your share of paradise.It is a matter of business like anything else, isn't it? We all hold shares in the great Speculation of Eternity.""I tell you this," said Claparon angrily, "that I am just the man to lend you a slap in the face.When a man is in trouble, it is no time to pay silly jokes on him.""I am talking seriously," said Castanier, and he drew a bundle of notes from his pocket.
"In the first place," said Claparon, "I am not going to sell my soul to the Devil for a trifle.I want five hundred thousand francs before I strike----""Who talks of stinting you?" asked Castanier, cutting him short."You shall have more gold than you could stow in the cellars of the Bank of France."He held out a handful of notes.That decided Claparon.
"Done," he cried; "but how is the bargain to be make?""Let us go over yonder, no one is standing there," said Castanier, pointing to a corner of the court.
Claparon and his tempter exchanged a few words, with their faces turned to the wall.None of the onlookers guessed the nature of this by-play, though their curiosity was keenly excited by the strange gestures of the two contracting parties.When Castanier returned, there was a sudden outburst of amazed exclamation.As in the Assembly where the least event immediately attracts attention, all faces were turned to the two men who had caused the sensation, and a shiver passed through all beholders at the change that had taken place in them.
The men who form the moving crowd that fills the Stock Exchange are soon known to each other by sight.They watch each other like players round a card-table.Some shrewd observers can tell how a man will play and the condition of his exchequer from a survey of his face; and the Stock Exchange is simply a vast card-table.Every one, therefore, had noticed Claparon and Castanier.The latter (like the Irishman before him) had been muscular and powerful, his eyes were full of light, his color high.The dignity and power in his face had struck awe into them all; they wondered how old Castanier had come by it; and now they beheld Castanier divested of his power, shrunken, wrinkled, aged, and feeble.He had drawn Claparon out of the crowd with the energy of a sick man in a fever fit; he had looked like an opium-eater during the brief period of excitement that the drug can give; now, on his return, he seemed to be in the condition of utter exhaustion in which the patient dies after the fever departs, or to be suffering from the horrible prostration that follows on excessive indulgence in the delights of narcotics.The infernal power that had upheld him through his debauches had left him, and the body was left unaided and alone to endure the agony of remorse and the heavy burden of sincere repentance.Claparon's troubles every one could guess; but Claparon reappeared, on the other hand, with sparkling eyes, holding his head high with the pride of Lucifer.The crisis had passed from the one man to the other.
"Now you can drop off with an easy mind, old man," said Claparon to Castanier.
"For pity's sake, send for a cab and for a priest; send for the curate of Saint-Sulpice!" answered the old dragoon, sinking down upon the curbstone.
The words "a priest" reached the ears of several people, and produced uproarious jeering among the stockbrokers, for faith with these gentlemen means a belief that a scrap of paper called a mortgage represents an estate, and the List of Fundholders is their Bible.
"Shall I have time to repent?" said Castanier to himself, in a piteous voice, that impressed Claparon.
A cab carried away the dying man; the speculator went to the bank at once to meet his bills; and the momentary sensation produced upon the throng of business men by the sudden change on the two faces, vanished like the furrow cut by a ship's keel in the sea.News of the greatest importance kept the attention of the world of commerce on the alert;and when commercial interests are at stake, Moses might appear with his two luminous horns, and his coming would scarcely receive the honors of a pun, the gentlemen whose business it is to write the Market Reports would ignore his existence.
When Claparon had made his payments, fear seized upon him.There was no mistake about his power.He went on 'Change again, and offered his bargain to other men in embarrassed circumstances.The Devil's bond, "together with the rights, easements, and privileges appertaining thereunto,"--to use the expression of the notary who succeeded Claparon, changed hands for the sum of seven hundred thousand francs.
