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Updated: June 10, 2025
His heart beat fast as his hostess brought him to the room where Lucien's troubles first began, and were now about to come to a crisis. "This is M. Petit-Claud, dear; I recommend him to you the more warmly because anything that you may do for him will doubtless benefit my ward." "You are an attorney, are you not, monsieur?" said the august Negrepelisse, scanning Petit-Claud.
In a word, his weak points are legion; and if by chance you come across a remarkable man practising as a country attorney, he is indeed above the average level. "I thought, sir, that you sent for me on your own affairs," said Petit-Claud, and a glance that put an edge on his words fell upon tall Cointet's impenetrable blue spectacles.
"I have more influence over her than she herself suspects," said Lucien; "only, my dear fellow, if I can do something with your authorities here, I have no decent clothes." Petit-Claud made as though he would offer his purse. "Thank you," said Lucien, grasping Petit-Claud's hand. "In ten days' time I will pay a visit to the Countess and return your call."
The first thing to be done is to take out a patent, and money is needed for that and experiments must be tried on a large scale in a paper-mill, which means that the discovery must pass into other hands. Oh! Petit-Claud was right!" A very vivid light sometimes dawns in the darkest prison.
As a matter of fact, this Petit-Claud, who had drunk scorn like water, was eaten up with a strong desire to succeed in life; he had no money, but nevertheless he had the audacity to buy his employer's connection for thirty thousand francs, reckoning upon a rich marriage to clear off the debt, and looking to his employer, after the usual custom, to find him a wife, for an attorney always has an interest in marrying his successor, because he is the sooner paid off.
The shrewd paper-manufacturer saw his danger at a glance; and saw, too, that with a man like Petit-Claud it was better to play above board. "I have the man for Francoise," he had said; "for with thirty thousand francs of dot, a girl must not expect too much nowadays." "We will talk it over later on," answered Francis du Hautoy, ex-consul-general.
As for David, his astonishment may be imagined; he could not understand how Petit-Claud came to know so much of his father's nature and his own history. Upright and honorable as he was, he did not dream of the relations between his lawyer and the Cointets; nor, for that matter, did he know that the Cointets were at work behind Metivier.
When he learned that the Signols owned a vineyard worth some ten or twelve thousand francs, and a tolerably comfortable cottage, he hastened to make it impossible for Henriette to marry any one else. Affairs had reached this point when Petit-Claud held out the prospect of a printing office and twenty thousand francs of borrowed capital, which was to prove a yoke upon the borrower's neck.
"Go home," said Petit-Claud, addressing his client; "take advantage of your imprudence to see your wife and child again, at any rate; and you must not be seen, mind you! How unlucky!" he added, when he was alone in the Place du Murier. "If only Cerizet were here " The buildings magniloquently styled the Angouleme Law Courts were then in process of construction.
"If each one of us gives Gannerac a bill for five hundred francs, he would have some twenty thousand francs and more; we might buy up Sechard's printing-office, and we could do as we liked with the master-printer if we lent him the capital," Petit-Claud had said.
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