"'Write out the bill; I will make my mark.'
"Eloi wrote; but, when about to set down the sum upon the stamp he had brought with him, he checked himself.
"'Tranquille,' said he, 'the stamp is five sous; it is not fair I should pay it. Give me five sous.'
"'There is not a sou in the house,' said Pélagie.
"'Then we will add it to the amount of the bill. Thus: At Michaelmas I promise to pay to my cousin, Eloi Alain, the sum of four hundred and fifty-one francs (one cannot put four hundred and fifty francs and five sous, it would look so paltry,) which he has been so obliging as to lend me in hard cash. Signed, Tranquille Alain. There, put your mark, and you, Pélagie, put yours also.'
"The signatures given, Eloi returned the old bills with the air of a benefactor conferring an immense favour.
"'This time, cousin,' said he, 'be punctual. I shall pay away your bill to a miller at Cherbourg; and if you are not prepared to take it up when due, he may not be so accommodating as I am; for, after all, these four hundred and fifty-one francs would be very useful to me, if I had them in my pocket instead of having lent them to you. Four hundred and fifty-one francs are not to be picked up under every hedge; it is not every day one finds a cousin willing to lend him four hundred and fifty-one francs.'
"No one made any observation on this pretended loan of four hundred and fifty-one francs.
"'Well, I must be off. I perhaps lost my temper a little, cousin, but I am really in want of the money. You understand—when one has reckoned on four hundred and fifty-one francs that one has lent—and then not to receive a single copper, it is rather vexatious; but, however, I will manage as I can. I am hasty at the moment, but I bear no malice. It is all forgotten.'
"He then took up the two whitings which had been laid aside for him. At the same time he took a third out of the basket, and placed it beside one of his, comparing the two.