"Is your business official?"
M. d'Argout hesitated.
"I must confess," he replied, "that it is not."
"Then you will plainly see that I cannot answer you, since any reply I made would lead to nothing!"
"But, if I returned with an official authorisation," urged M. d'Argout, anxious to sound the situation from every side.
"Ah!" said M. Laffitte, "we will cross that bridge when we come to it!"
M. d'Argout shook his head and withdrew.
"Well?" M. de Vitrolles asked him.
"All is lost, my dear Baron!" the future Director of the Bank replied, with a sigh.
"But suppose a final effort were made to force M. de Mortemart upon Paris?"