"Go to the devil! I wish I had never touched your cursed play.... Listen, some one is ringing your bell; I bet it is M. Gaillardet."
Harel opened his door and listened a moment.
"Who is it?" he asked.
"I do not know, sir," the servant answered; "it is a man carrying a stamped paper."
"A stamped paper?... This is something of a novelty! Show him in."
The man was a sheriff's officer who came on behalf of M. Gaillardet, and who, like Haman for Mardocheus, served as a herald to his fame. The stamped document was a summons before the Tribunal of Commerce, seeking to force M. Harel to remove the unlucky asterisks.
"Good!" I cried, "this is a joint affair! I shall find the same when I get back home. You were an idiot to play this prank!"
Harel rubbed his hands together until all his joints cracked.
"A fine lawsuit," he said, "an excellent lawsuit! I only ask two such per year for six years and my fortune is made!"
"But you will lose the case!"