We mustn't deceive ourselves; Mademoiselle Thuillier is the head and front of everything in this affair; if we get her on our side the town is won.

Let us say little, but that little to the point, as becomes strong men with each other.

Claparon, you know, is a fool; he'll be all his life what he always was,--a cat's-paw.

Just now he is lending his name to a notary in Paris, who is concerned with a lot of contractors, and they are all--notary and masons--on the point of ruin.

Claparon is going headlong into it.