On his side, Rodolphe went to pay a visit to his Uncle Monetti, who shone in the story of the Retreat from Moscow, and to whom Rodolphe accorded five or six times in course of the year, when matters were really serious, the satisfaction of narrating his campaigns, in return for a small loan which the veteran stove maker did not refuse too obstinately when due enthusiasm was displayed in listening to his narrations.
About two o'clock, Marcel with hanging head and a canvas under his arm, met on the Place de Carrousel Rodolphe, who was returning from his uncle's, and whose bearing also presaged ill news.
"Well," asked Marcel, "did you succeed ?" "No, my uncle has gone to Versailles.

And you ?" "That beast of a Medicis does not want any more ruined manor houses.

He wants me to do him a Bombardment of Tangiers." "Our reputations are ruined forever if we do not give this party," murmured Rodolphe.

"What will my friend, the influential critic, think if I make him put on a white tie and yellow kids for nothing." And both went back to the studio, a prey to great uneasiness.
At that moment the clock of a neighbor struck four.
"We have only three hours before us," said Rodolphe despondingly.
"But," said Marcel, going up to his friend, "are you quite sure, certain sure, that we have no money left anywhere hereabout?
Eh ?" "Neither here, nor elsewhere.

Where do you suppose it could come from ?" "If we looked under the furniture, in the stuffing of the arm chairs?
They say that the emigrant noblemen used to hide their treasures in the days of Robespierre.