After a few hours of that leaden sleep which follows greatcatastrophes, Mme. Favoral and her children were awakened on themorning of the next day, which was Sunday, by the furious clamorsof an exasperated crowd. Each one, from his own room, understoodthat the apartment had just been invaded. Loud blows upon the doorwere mingled with the noise of feet, the oaths of men, and thescreams of women. And, above this confused and continuous tumult,such vociferations as these could be heard:

"I tell you they must be at home!""Canailles, swindlers, thieves!""We want to go in: we will go in!""Let the woman come, then: we want to see her, to speak to her!"Occasionally there were moments of silence, during which theplaintive voice of the servant could be heard; but almost at oncethe cries and the threats commenced again, louder than ever.

Maxence, being ready first, ran to the parlor, where his mother andsister joined him directly, their eyes swollen by sleep and by tears.

Mme. Favoral was trembling so much that she could not succeed infastening her dress.

"Do you hear?" she said in a choking voice.

From the parlor, which was divided from the dining-room byfolding-doors, they did not miss a single insult.

"Well," said Mlle. Gilberte coldly, "what else could we expect? IfBertan came alone last night, it is because he alone had beennotified. Here are the others now."And, turning to her brother,"You must see them," she added, "speak to them."But Maxence did not stir. The idea of facing the insults and thecurses of these enraged creditors was too repugnant to him.

"Would you rather let them break in the door?" said Mlle. Gilberte.

"That won't take long."He hesitated no more. Gathering all his courage, he stepped intothe dining-room. The disorder was beyond limits. The table hadbeen pushed towards one of the corners, the chairs were upset.

They were there some thirty men and women, - concierges,shop-keepers, and retired bourgeois of the neighborhood, theircheeks flushed, their eyes staring, gesticulating as if they had afit, shaking their clinched fists at the ceiling.

"Gentlemen," commenced Maxence.

But his voice was drowned by the most frightful shouts. He hadhardly got in, when he was so closely surrounded, that he had beenunable to close the parlor-door after him, and had been driven andbacked against the embrasure of a window.

"My father, gentlemen," he resumed.

Again he was interrupted. There were three or four before him, whowere endeavoring before all to establish their own claims clearly.

They were speaking all at once, each one raising his own voice soas to drown that of the others. And yet, through their confusedexplanations, it was easy to understand the way in which the cashierof the Mutual Credit had managed things.

Formerly it was only with great reluctance that he consented to takecharge of the funds which were offered to him; and then he neveraccepted sums less than ten thousand francs, being always careful tosay, that, not being a prophet, he could not answer for any thing,and might be mistaken, like any one else. Since the Commune, on thecontrary, and with a duplicity, that could never have been suspected,he had used all his ingenuity to attract deposits. Under somepretext or other, he would call among the neighbors, theshop-keepers; and, after lamenting with them about the hard timesand the difficulty of making money, he always ended by holding up tothem the dazzling profits which are yielded by certain investmentsunknown to the public.

If these very proceedings had not betrayed him, it is because herecommended to each the most inviolable secrecy, saying, that, atthe slightest indiscretion, he would be assailed with demands, andthat it would be impossible for him to do for all what he did for one.

At any rate, he took every thing that was offered, even the mostinsignificant sums, affirming, with the most imperturbable assurance,that he could double or treble them without the slightest risk.

The catastrophe having come, the smaller creditors showed themselves,as usual, the most angry and the most intractable. The less moneyone has, the more anxious one is to keep it. There was there an oldnewspaper-vender, who had placed in M. Favoral's hands all she hadin the world, the savings of her entire life, - five hundred francs.

Clinging desperately to Maxence's garments, she begged him to givethem back to her, swearing, that, if he did not, there was nothingleft for her to do, except to throw herself in the river. Her groansand her cries of distress exasperated the other creditors.

That the cashier of the Mutual Credit should have embezzled millions,they could well understand, they said. But that he could haverobbed this poor woman of her five hundred francs, - nothing morelow, more cowardly, and more vile could be imagined; and the lawhad no chastisement severe enough for such a crime.

"Give her back her five hundred francs;" they cried. For there wasnot one of them but would have wagered his head that M. Favoral hadlots of money put away; and some went even so far as to say t............