But at least he had the air of loving his business, and the young minister had enjoyed a long talk with, or rather, at him.

Out of this talk had come the information that the store was losing money.

Not even the stationery department now showed a profit worth mentioning.

When Octavius had contained only five thousand inhabitants, it boasted four book-stores, two of them good ones.

Now, with a population more than doubled, only these latter two survived, and they must soon go to the wall.