You've lost a
fine opportunity. Good-bye to you, old carrot."
Bixiou rose, leaving Vauvinet apparently indifferent, but inwardly
annoyed by the sense that he had committed a folly.
"One moment, my dear fellow," said the money-lender. "Though I haven't
the money, I have credit. If your notes are worth nothing, I can keep
them and give you notes in exchange. If we can come to an agreement
about that railway stock we could share the profits, of course in due
proportion and I'll allow you that on--"
"No, no," said Bixiou, "I want money in hand, and I must get those
notes of Ravenouillet's cashed."
"Ravenouillet is sound," said Vauvinet. "He puts money into the
savings-bank; he is good security."
"Better than you," interposed Leon, "for HE doesn't stipend lorettes;
he hasn't any rent to pay; and he never rushes into speculations which
keep him dreading either a rise or fall."
"You think you can laugh at me, great man," returned Vauvinet, once
more jovial and caressing; "you've turned La Fontaine's fable of 'Le
Chene et le Roseau' into an elixir-- Come, Gubetta, my old
accomplice," he continued, seizing Bixiou round the waist, "you want
money; well, I can borrow three thousand francs from my friend Cerizet
instead of two; 'Let us be friends, Cinna!' hand over your colossal
cabbages,--made to trick the public like a gardener's catalogue.
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