The law gives a retrospective priority to the claims of minors; and that will save you.

Monsieur Claes's hands will be tied for the future; your property becomes inalienable, and he can no longer borrow on his own estates because they will be held as security for other sums.

Moreover, the whole can be done quietly, without scandal or legal proceedings.

Your father will be forced to greater prudence in making his researches, even if he cannot be persuaded to relinquish them altogether." "Yes," said Marguerite, "but where, meantime, can we find the means of living?
The hundred thousand francs for which, you say, I must obtain a mortgage on this house, would bring in nothing while we still live here.

The proceeds of my father's property in the country will pay the interest on the three hundred thousand francs he owes to others; but how are we to live ?" "In the first place," said Emmanuel, "by investing the fifty thousand francs which belong to Gabriel in the public Funds you will get, according to present rates, more than four thousand francs' income, which will suffice to pay your brother's board and lodging and all his other expenses in Paris.