"Madame—" he murmured.
"Permit me to finish. We are associates now," said she, with a charming smile. "Now, in an association each one ought to take a share of the common expenses. A project like ours must be conducted with skill and celerity; a miserable question of money might mar its success or retard its execution. It is in that sense that I have spoken to you, and in which I repeat my words—are you rich?"
"In any other position but that in which fate has temporarily placed me, I should answer you—yes, Madame, for I am an artist—my tastes are simple, and I live almost on nothing, only finding joys and happiness in the ever-fresh surprises that the art which I cultivate procures me, and which I madly love. But at this moment, in the perilous position in which you and I find ourselves—when it is necessary to undertake a desperate struggle against a whole population—I must be frank with you, and admit that money, the sinews of war, almost wholly fails me. I must assure you, in a word, that I am poor."
"So much the better!" cried the marchioness, with a movement of joy.
"Upon my word," pursued he, gaily, "I never complain; it is only now that I begin to regret those riches for which I have always so little cared, for they would have facilitated the means of being useful to you; but we must try and do without them."
"Do not distress yourself about that, Sir. In this affair you bring courage and devotion; leave me to bring that money which you have not."
"On my word, Madame," answered the artist, "since you so frankly put the question, I do not see why I should give way, in refusing you, to a ridiculous susceptibility perfectly out of place, since it is your interests that are at stake in this matter. I accept, then, the money that you shall consider fitting to place at my disposal; but, of course, I shall render you an account of it."
"Pardon, Sir; it is not a loan that I offer to make you; it is my part in the association that I bring—that is all."
"I understand it so, Madame; only if I spend your money, will it not be necessary that you should know in what way?"
"Well and good!" exclaimed the marchioness, going to a piece of furniture, of which she opened a drawer, from whence she took a rather long purse, through the meshes of which glittered a considerable quantity of onces.