“Speak,” answered Serge, rather puzzled.
“You find yourself at this moment, vulgarly speaking, left in the lurch. Your wants are many and your resources few.”
“At least—” protested Serge.
“Good! There you are refractory,” said the financier, laughingly, “and I have not finished. The day after your marriage you formed your household on a lavish footing; you gave splendid receptions; you bought race-horses; in short, you went the pace like a great lord. Undoubtedly it costs a lot of money to keep up such an establishment. As you spent without counting the cost, you confounded the capital with the interest, so that at this moment you are three parts ruined. I don’t think you would care to change your mode of living, and it is too late in the day to cut down expenses and exist on what remains? No. Well, to keep up your present style you need at least a million francs every year.”
“You calculate like Cocker,” remarked Serge, smiling with some constraint.
“That is my business,” answered Herzog. “There are two ways by which you can obtain that million. The first is by making it up with your mother-in-law, and consenting, for money, to live under her dominion. I know her, she will agree to this.”
“But,” said Serge, “I refuse to submit.”
“In that case you must get out of your difficulties alone.”
“And how?” inquired the Prince, with astonishment.
Herzog looked at him seriously.