Des Lupeaulx trembled when he saw those sinister faces, emitting a simultaneous look as direct as a pistol shot and as brilliant as the flash itself.
"What is it, my masters ?" he said.
The two extortioners continued cold and motionless.

Gigonnet silently pointed to the documents in his hand, and then at the servant.
"Come into my study," said des Lupeaulx, dismissing his valet by a sign.
"You understand French very well," remarked Gigonnet, approvingly.
"Have you come here to torment a man who enabled each of you to make a couple of hundred thousand francs ?" "And who will help us to make more, I hope," said Gigonnet.
"Some new affair ?" asked des Lupeaulx.

"If you want me to help you, consider that I recollect the past." "So do we," answered Gigonnet.
"My debts must be paid," said des Lupeaulx, disdainfully, so as not to seem worsted at the outset.
"True," said Gobseck.
"Let us come to the point, my son," said Gigonnet.

"Don't stiffen your chin in your cravat; with us all that is useless.

Take these deeds and read them." The two usurers took a mental inventory of des Lupeaulx's study while he read with amazement and stupefaction a deed of purchase which seemed wafted to him from the clouds by angels.
"Don't you think you have a pair of intelligent business agents in Gobseck and me ?" asked Gigonnet.
"But tell me, to what do I owe such able co-operation ?" said des Lupeaulx, suspicious and uneasy.
"We knew eight days ago a fact that without us you would not have known till to-morrow morning.