Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/294

 in Brittany on what would remain to her. She talks of selling her house.”

“Well then, sell it to me,” said Minoret.

“But you talk as if you were master,” said Zélie. “What do you want with two houses?”

“If I do not close with you to-night for Les Bordières,” rejoined the justice of the peace, “our lease will be known, we shall be seized again in three days, and I shall fail in this settlement, which I am bent upon. So I shall go at once to Melun, where some farmers that I know there will buy Les Bordières without a moment’s hesitation. In this way you will lose the chance of investing in land at three per cent on the estates of Rouvre.”

“Well then, why did you come to see us?” said Zélie.

“Because you have the money, whilst my former clients would need several days to fork out one hundred and twenty-nine thousand francs. I don’t want any difficulties.”

“Let her leave Nemours and I will give them to you!” repeated Minoret.

“You understand that I cannot answer for the will of the Portenduères,” replied Bongrand, “but I am sure that they will not remain in Nemours.”

Upon this assurance, Minoret, nudged moreover by Zélie, promised the funds for paying the Portenduères’ debt to the doctor’s estate. The deed of sale was then drawn up at Dionis’s, and in it the delighted justice of the peace got Minoret to accept the conditions of the new lease, the latter as well as