Chapter 25 - Page 2

"I should never reach it," replied the young count.

Maxime returned the civility of his rival, and touched his hat lightly
with an air of laughable gravity.

"That's one way of looking at life," he replied in the tone of one
connoisseur to another. "You owe--?"

"Oh! a mere trifle, unworthy of being confessed to an uncle; he would
disinherit me for such a paltry sum,--six thousand."

"One is often more hampered by six thousand than by a hundred
thousand," said Maxime, sententiously. "La Palferine, you've a bold
spirit, and you have even more spirit than boldness; you can go far,
and make yourself a position. Let me tell you that of all those who
have rushed into the career at the close of which I now am, and who
have tried to oppose me, you are the only one who has ever pleased
me."

La Palferine colored, so flattered was he by this avowal made with
gracious good-humor by the leader of Parisian adventurers. This action
of his own vanity was however a recognition of inferiority which
wounded him; but Maxime divined that unpleasant reaction, easy to
foresee in so clever a mind, and he applied a balm instantly by
putting himself at the discretion of the young man.

"Will you do something for me that will facilitate my retreat from the
Olympic circus by a fine marriage? I will do as much for you."

"You make me very proud; it realizes the fable of the Rat and the
Lion," said La Palferine.

"I shall begin by lending you twenty thousand francs," continued
Maxime.

"Twenty thousand francs! I knew very well that by dint of walking up
and down this boulevard--" said La Palferine, in the style of a
parenthesis.

"My dear fellow, you must put yourself on a certain footing," said
Maxime, laughing. "Don't go on your own two feet, have six; do as I
do, I never get out of my tilbury."

"But you must be going to ask me for something beyond my powers."

"No, it is only to make a woman love you within a fortnight."

"Is it a lorette?"

"Why?"

"Because that's impossible; but if it concerns a woman, and a
well-bred one who is also clever--"

"She is a very illustrious marquise."

"You want her letters?" said the young count.

"Ah! you are after my own heart!" cried Maxime. "No, that's not it."

"Then you want me to love her?"

"Yes, in the real sense--"

"If I am to abandon the aesthetic, it is utterly impossible," said La
Palferine. "I have, don't you see, as to women a certain honor;