Honest creatures, who had speculated upon this woman's prostitution, who had gained their hundred per cent out of her, who had plagued with their writs the last moments of her life, and who came now after her death to gather in at once the fruits of their dishonourable calculations and the interest on their shameful credit, How wise were the ancients in having only one God for traders and robbers! Dresses, cashmeres, jewels, were sold with incredible rapidity.

There was nothing that I cared for, and I still waited.

All at once I heard: "A volume, beautifully bound, gilt-edged, entitled Manon Lescaut.

There is something written on the first page.

Ten francs." "Twelve," said a voice after a longish silence.
"Fifteen," I said.
Why?
I did not know.