Granville's estate

"All to Dumont. Calliste de Durand."

There is only such a short sentence on the note with a beautiful rose pattern, but for Louis, this few-word answer and the appearance of Mr. Dumont are like the sudden rain after a long drought, almost making him Kneeling down to thank the Virgin Mary for the gift—during the time Joseph was away, they endured the persecution and threats of Bernard and Clermont, to the point of almost despair; it can even be said bluntly, if Joseph came back empty-handed, and Louie couldn't imagine the crazy choices he and Alred would make!

When Louis took the letter out of the envelope and showed it to Alred, Andrew Dumont had already greeted Officer Clermont.

"Monsieur Guillonet du Clermont, it is a pleasure to meet you here, I remember we met at a ball given by the Prefect of Police in Paris, Monsieur Thomas, but it is a pity that you were with a beautiful to talk to such a lady that I have no chance of making friends with you."

"Hello, Mr. Andrew Dumont."

Officer Claremont replied calmly, his gray-blue eyes examined the senior executive of Durand Bank, as if he was thinking about finding some flaws in him: "Your arrival is really unexpected, please allow me to I take the liberty to ask, are you here at the request of Monsieur Farentin, or at the order of the Vicomte de Durand?"

"Ah, Mr. Clermont, the two things you mentioned are actually not in conflict." Mr. Dumont said with a smile, "I came here because Mr. Louis du Farentin wanted to work in our bank. A bill of 15 francs was cashed, and M. de Durand, upon learning of this, gave me full authority to deal with M. du Farentin's request. After all, as you know, a great man like M. de Durand is very busy every day , it is impossible for him to handle everything himself, this is the time for us small staff to serve him."

"So it is, Mr. Dumont, but with all due respect, there is a reason for Mr. Farentin's request. It involves the reputation of a noble Mr. de Granville. It seems inappropriate for you to participate rashly."

"Mr. Police Officer, if this is what you are worried about, then this is not something worth worrying about." Dumont replied lightly, and he turned to Louis and Alred: "Keeping secrets for guests is the most basic requirement of our profession , as long as M. Farentin and M. de Granville trust and are willing to authorize me, I can act as their joint agent. Mr. Du Farentin, have you read the letter of M. Viscount? "

"I've finished watching, sir." Louis said, and he found his voice trembling when he opened his mouth: "I agree with his arrangement, then, please, Mr. Dumont."

"It is my pleasure, Monsieur. So, M. de Granville, what do you mean? Would you like to allow me to take care of your problems?"

Alred looked at the piece of paper, then at Louis, and after receiving encouraging eyes from the latter, he said in a hoarse voice: "I trust your ability and entrust this matter to you, Mr. Dumont .”

"Oh, that would be very nice, gentlemen!" said Dumont, handing over the silver-plated oak cane to his footman, and sitting down on the chair opposite Clermont, without any hesitation. He didn't mean to treat himself as a guest: "Excuse me, that little guy over there, can you bring me a glass of wine? By the way, get a glass for the two gentlemen, and Mr. Constable and Mr. Bernard; as for you, John, go and light the fire in the fireplace, it is more pleasant to sit and talk by a warm fire in this cold day."

"Yes, sir."

Seeing that Mr. Dumont even instructed the servants at No. 79 St. George Street, but did not see the expected huge amount of bills, the tea merchants who stood aside were not happy.

"Hello! Monsieur, and M. de Granville and M. Farentin, what are you doing?"

Bernard yelled, and he stared at Louis viciously: "Mr. Farentin, what about the 15 francs you promised to pay me? I have been waiting for more than two hours for your bill, and I can't stand it." Frozen. Sir, my patience has a limit!"

"Oh! Mr. Jacques Bernard, it turns out that you are the one who made Mr. Farentin need to cash out 15 francs."

Mr. Dumont exclaimed in astonishment—or, one might say, feigned astonishment—in a tone of exaggeration that even the most incomprehensible could understand: “This is A large sum of money, equal to my annual income, Monsieur Bernard, may I ask on what grounds you claim this sum from Monsieur Farentin?"

"It's too strange for you to ask why, Mr. Dumont, as people in the bank, isn't your duty to be a competent and obedient money bag?"

Bernard said, snorting heavily through his nose: "Mr. Farentin promised to give me 15 francs. I want him to show me the bill now, and all you have to do is check his bank account at your bank." Is there enough money in the account to pay the bills he draws, no? I've never seen a banker ask a cash changer how they got a signed bill."

"Sir, despite what you say, I am now Mr. Farentin's authorized representative. In this case, I can't but ask you why you want this large bill."

Du Meng said calmly, Bernard's sarcastic remarks did not affect him, he even crossed his legs comfortably, looking quite relaxed: "After all, as a big bank responsible for customers, we It is the responsibility to ensure that the wishes of the guests when disposing of property are based on their true will, and to protect their property from being lost through deceit, fraud or other bad means-such as being used by some criminals who are not worth mentioning. Trifles for blackmail. Don't you, Mr. Bernard, Mr. Clermont?"

This sentence was like pointing their noses and cursing, and Bernard jumped up immediately.

"Mr. Dumont, what do you mean? Do you mean that old Jacques is lying? I'm just asking for the compensation I deserve. Since that Mr. Farentin promised to pay 15 for his friend Franc compensation, then he should take it out immediately like a man, instead of asking his agent to push back and forth!"

"Oh, Monsieur Bernard, you are a little too excited."

Facing the angry Bernard, Mr. Dumont just shrugged slightly: "I didn't say anything to you, I just wanted to ask you the reason for asking for this 15 franc note. As the agent authorized by Mr. Farentin , if you can give a good reason, I can sign you the bill for francs now; but if you can't, sir, I'm sorry."

"Monsieur Dumont, Monsieur Bernard is demanding 15 francs from Monsieur de Granville for some incident in his tea business, and Monsieur Farentin is willing to pay this sum on behalf of his friend. This is They had an agreement before you came here."

"We didn't..."

Hearing the so-called "agreement" made by Officer Claremont without blinking an eye, Alred was so angry that he almost shouted, but Louis pulled him back in time and motioned him to see how Mr. Dumont would deal with it first. .

"What you say, Monsieur Constable, M. de Granville has done M. Bernard a very great loss."

"Of course, sir, he's cost me a fortune!"

Bernard took the words of Inspector Clermont angrily, and glared at the two young gentlemen: "Mr. de Granville has done me more damage than the dowry I gave when my daughter was married. Sir, if it wasn't for the sake of him being a nobleman, I wouldn't just ask him for such a small amount of compensation!"

"Really? But, Mr. Bernard, you don't look like you have suffered a loss." Dumont said, he picked up the wine that Joseph brought up with a smile: "According to my observation, your tea business In the past three months, the goods have been sent out and the payment has been collected normally, and the amount of tea sold has also increased very fast. Basically every half a month, a batch of goods are loaded on the ship bound for the port of Plymouth in England—— Three days ago, you delivered a batch of high-grade tea to the Scottish ship 'Moby Dick' for delivery, didn't you? How could such a thriving firm suffer business losses because of Mr. de Granville? , even to the point where you need to claim 15 francs?"

What Mr. Dumont said seemed to be just chatting, but when Jacques Bernard heard half of it, his face became ugly: "Mr. Andrew Dumont, I don't think so if you say that." Agreed, I have the deed signed by Mr. de Granville, which can prove the damage he caused me before the judge."

Alred, who also heard Mr. Dumont's words, was a little puzzled at first, but suddenly he realized something, and was so angry that he almost threw the glass of wine in his hand at Bernard's face: "Jacques Bernard! You really have... you liar!"

"In that case, Monsieur Bernard, you might as well show me the contract. . . . I say, Monsieur de Granville."

Because of Alred's sudden action, Mr. Dumont was interrupted. He gave Alred a reproachful glance, obviously disapproving of his behavior: "You still need to calm down, overly agitated emotions are harmful to us. There is only harm and no benefit."

"Al, I believe Mr. Dumont can handle this matter well, come with me!"

Louis was a little worried that his friend would mess up Mr. Dumont's negotiation because he couldn't control his anger, so he stood up hastily and prepared to take Alred to the second floor.

Mr. Dumont did not stop them from leaving, but when Clement was about to stop Alred and Louis, he seemed to "inadvertently" say something to the police officer: "Mr. Suddenly remembered one thing, have you heard that François, who is in charge of the 16th district and the No.[-] district, is about to be promoted? Ah, when the time comes, the two wealthiest districts in Paris will be vacated. Which senior police officer will take over!"

"I have never heard of this rumor, Mr. Dumont, but it seems that your news is indeed very well-informed." Officer Clement said, this time he glanced at the two young people who left, and did not stop them They are gone.

Louis took Alred up to the second floor. While trying to hear the conversation from downstairs, he quietly asked his friend, "Al, why did you get so excited just now? Mr. Dumont said that." Did those words make you angry?"

"It's not Dumont, it's Bernard, that damned liar, rascal, scoundrel!"

Alred cursed in a low voice, because he was so angry that he couldn't even take care of his proud demeanor: "That old liar, he must have known what Sologne sold him , and must have resold all those fake tea leaves, otherwise, Mr. Du Meng would not have said that the quantity of goods sent by his firm has increased very fast—maybe those fake tea leaves were mixed with real tea leaves and sold! As a result, This liar actually has the face to come to me to demand compensation for his losses, and threaten me with the contract I signed! That bastard!"

"Al, keep your voice down, and don't cause trouble for Mr. Dumont." Louis said, at this time he saw the little servant Joseph walking up the stairs, so he quickly waved to him: "Joseph! Come here quickly .”

Like an agile rabbit, Joseph jumped up to them at once, his eyes sparkling and full of energy: "Sir! I did a good job of delivering the letter you asked me to do, right?"

"You have done a very good job, Joseph, and no one can do it better than you." Louis said, he took out the franc box in his pocket, opened it, took a two-franc silver coin and handed it to Joseph to use as a gift. The reward for him: "However, how did you go there for so long? Are you lost? I thought you could deliver the letter to the Viscount de Durand in half an hour at most." And Joseph went For more than an hour, if he came back later, Louis would have watched his friend pick up the pistol!

Joseph happily wiped and wiped the silver coin with his sleeve, and then put it in his pocket cherishingly: "Sir, I found the Bank of Durand in a short time, and Father Martin knows all about the roads in Paris." Well; but when I went there and said to the bankers, 'I want to see Mr. Vicomte de Durand, I have a very important letter for him', they almost called the police to come and throw me out! Then they He also said that he can accept your letter and put it together with other letters addressed to the Viscount, but he is not sure how long it will take for those letters to reach the Viscount. Waiting for my return at home! I was there until I saw that... sir, I don't know his name, but he was standing in the back of that beautiful carriage that night on the shelf."

"The man standing on the back of the carriage?"

Just by hearing this description, Louis immediately guessed who it was: "I think you are talking about Karbo, an attendant next to Viscount Durand."