"That's to inspire confidence," explained the senior partner.
"I see! Like this!" chuckled the adventurer sticking his finger into M. Perissard's paunch.
"Ah, yes!" rumbled M. Merivel, rolling his eyes up piously and clasping his hands, "Confidence is such a be—u—tiful thing in these days of disrespect! Alas! To-day respect is rapidly disappearing. The young have ceased to respect the old and the family solicitor no longer holds the proud position that was his. 'Where are the snows of yesteryear'?"
Laroque listened to this speech with a grin that indicated an utter absence of the virtue the decline of which struck M. Merivel as so exceedingly deplorable.
"By Jove! He talks well, doesn't he?" he exclaimed.
"Like a book!" declared M. Perissard in a hoarse but enthusiastic whisper. "But to resume," he added in his "business" voice, "I'm in business now."
"What sort of business?" inquired the adventurer.
"Business of all kinds. I refuse no business!"
"With money in it," amended M. Merivel, in a thunderous aside.
"But we deal principally in the faults, vices and weakness of our fellow men," continued the senior partner.