"I have taken his measure; he's a man of honor, and he'll think it a fine thing to do you a service." Godeschal, now Derville's successor, had formerly been, for more than two years, head-clerk with Desroches.

Theodose, to whom that circumstance was known, seemed to hear the name flung into his ear in the midst of his despair by an inward voice, and he foresaw a possibility of wrenching from the hands of Claparon the weapon with which Cerizet had threatened him.

He must, however, in the first instance, gain an entrance to Desroches, and get some light on the actual situation of his enemies.

Godeschal, by reason of the intimacy still existing between the former clerk and his old master, could be his go-between.

When the attorneys of Paris have ties like those which bound Godeschal and Desroches together, they live in true fraternity, and the result is a facility in arranging any matters which are, as one may say, arrangeable.