"'I wish I had the money, Eloi.'
"'You say then that you cannot pay, till Michaelmas, the hundred and twenty crowns you should have paid to-day?'
"'That is to say, cousin,' cried Pélagie, always bolder or less patient than her husband, 'that we should have given you half of it.'
"'Yes; but that half was due a fortnight ago; and, besides, I am in such want of that half, that—See here, now, I offered just now to give you back your bills for two hundred francs; well, pay me one, and I return you both. There is nothing stingy or greedy in that offer, I hope; I lent you a hundred and twenty crowns, and I cry quits for sixty.'
"'Cousin, I repeat that I have no money, and besides, if I had sixty crowns, I would give them you, which would not prevent my giving you the sixty others later.'
"'It is sixty crowns that I lose on the affair I miss for want of money.'
"'Pélagie longed to remind Eloi that the profit sacrificed had been but fifty crowns a few minutes before, but she held her tongue.
"'I am no Turk,' continued the miller; 'I will renew your bills. Draw one of a hundred and fifty crowns payable at Michaelmas.'
"The husband and wife exchanged a look. Pélagie spoke.
"'What, cousin! a hundred and fifty crowns! That makes, then, thirty crowns interest from now till Michaelmas, and that on sixty crowns, or rather on fifty, since only half the sum is due; and out of the sixty crowns ten are for interest.'