He gave her a side-long glance to enjoy his triumph; he had touched the right chord in her breast.
At this moment he was standing, but he now resumed his seat beside her, and said:-- "Now here is our affair, dear aunt--for you will be a sort of aunt--" "Hush! you naughty fellow!" said Brigitte, "and go on." "I'll tell you the matter roughly--and remark, if you please, that I compromise myself in telling it to you; for these secrets are entrusted to me as a lawyer.

Therefore understand that you and I are both committing a crime, so to speak, of leze-confidence! A notary of Paris was in partnership with an architect; they bought land and built upon it; at the present moment, property has come down with a rush; they find themselves embarrassed--but all that doesn't concern us.

Among the houses built by this illegal partnership--for notaries, you know, are sworn to have nothing to do with enterprises--is a very good one which, not being finished, must be sold at a great sacrifice; so great that they now ask only one hundred thousand francs for it, although the cost of the land and the building was at least four hundred thousand.

As the whole interior is still unfinished, the value of what is still to do is easily appraised; it will probably not be more than fifty thousand francs.

Now, owing to its excellent position, this house, when finished, will certainly bring in a rental, over and above the taxes, of forty thousand francs a year.