Well, this last form of honor--which is perhaps a calculation, a necessity, the practice of which offers certain opportunities for grandeur to the guilty man and the possibility of a return to good--reigned absolutely between Cerizet and his clients.
Never did Cerizet make an error, nor his poor people either; neither side ever denied what was due, either capital or interests.

Many a time Cerizet, who was born among the people, corrected from one week to another some accidental error, to the benefit of a poor man who had never discovered it.

He was called a Jew, but an honest one, and his word in that city of sorrows was sacred.

A woman died, causing a loss to him of thirty francs: [*] A book on which the author has been at work since 1833, the year in which it was first announced .-- Author's note.
"See my profits! there they go!" he said to his assemblage, "and you howl upon me! You know I'll never trouble the brats; in fact, Cadenet has already taken them bread and heel-taps." After that it was said of him in both faubourgs:-- "He is not a bad fellow!" The "loan by the little week," as interpreted by Cerizet, is not, considering all things, so cruel a thing as the pawn-shop.

Cerizet loaned ten francs Tuesday on condition of receiving twelve francs Sunday morning.