Corentin, surprised that the Duke should have remembered him, went forward after bowing low to the two noblemen.
“Always about the same individual, or about his concerns, my dear sir,” said the Duc de Grandlieu.
“But he is dead,” said Corentin.
“He has left a partner,” said the Duc de Chaulieu, “a very tough customer.”
“The convict Jacques Collin,” replied Corentin.
“Will you speak, Ferdinand?” said the Duke de Chaulieu to his friend.
“That wretch is an object of fear,” said the Duc de Grandlieu, “for he has possessed himself, so as to be able to levy blackmail, of the letters written by Madame de Serizy and Madame de Maufrigneuse to Lucien Chardon, that man’s tool. It would seem that it was a matter of system in the young man to extract passionate letters in return for his own, for I am told that Mademoiselle de Grandlieu had written some—at least, so we fear—and we cannot find out from her—she is gone abroad.”
“That little young man,” replied Corentin, “was incapable of so much foresight. That was a precaution due to the Abbe Carlos Herrera.”
Corentin rested his elbow on the arm of the chair on which he was sitting, and his head on his hand, meditating.
“Money!—The man has more than we have,” said he. “Esther Gobseck served him as a bait to extract nearly two million francs from that well of gold called Nucingen.—Gentlemen, get me full legal powers, and I will rid you of the fellow.”