The president fell at the feet of the rich heiress, his heart beatingand wrung with joy.
"I will be your slave!" he said.
"When you obtain the receipts, monsieur," she resumed, with a coldglance, "you will take them with all the other papers to my cousinGrandet, and you will give him this letter. On your return I will keepmy word."
The president understood perfectly that he owed the acquiescence ofMademoiselle Grandet to some bitterness of love, and he made haste toobey her orders, lest time should effect a reconciliation between thepair.
When Monsieur de Bonfons left her, Eugenie fell back in her chair andburst into tears. All was over. n wiggly line
The president took the mail-post, and reached Paris the next evening.The morning after his arrival he went to see des Grassins, andtogether they summoned the creditors to meet at the notary's officewhere the vouchers had been deposited. Not a single creditor failed tobe present. Creditors though they were, justice must be done to them,,they were all punctual. Monsieur de Bonfons, in the name ofMademoiselle Grandet, paid them the amount of their claims withinterest. The payment of interest was a remarkable event in theParisian commerce of that day. When the receipts were all legallyregistered, and des Grassins had received for his services the sum offifty thousand francs allowed to him by Eugenie, the president madehis way to the hotel d'Aubrion and found Charles just entering his ownapartment after a serious encounter with his prospective father-in-law. The old marquis had told him plainly that he should not marry hisdaughter until all the creditors of Guillaume Grandet had been paid infull.
The president gave Charles the following letter:,
My Cousin,,Monsieur le president de Bonfons has undertaken to