Vast sums were quoted.

Twice had his furious appetite for courtesans ruined him.

The courtesans, as Vandeuvres used to say, avenged public morality by emptying his moneybags.

A big operation in the saltworks of the Landes had rendered him powerful on 'change, and so for six weeks past the Mignons had been getting a pretty slice out of those same saltworks.

But people were beginning to lay wagers that the Mignons would not finish their slice, for Nana was showing her white teeth.