I merely wrote, 'Kind regards.'
"Well, it was all of no use," said Monsieur Alain."A month went by and I had no news of Mongenod.'Les Peruviens' did not obtain the great success on which he counted.I went to the twentieth representation, thinking to find him and obtain my money.The house was less than half full; but Madame Scio was very beautiful.They told me in the foyer that the play would run a few nights longer.I went seven different times to Mongenod's lodging and did not find him; each time I left my name with the landlady.At last I wrote again:
'Monsieur, if you do not wish to lose my respect, as you have my friendship, you will treat me now as a stranger,--that is to say, with politeness; and you will tell me when you will be ready to pay your note, which is now due.I shall act according to your answer.Your obedient servant, Alain.' No answer.We were then in 1799; one year, all but two months, had expired.At the end of those two months I went to Bordin.Bordin took the note, had it protested, and sued Mongenod for me.Meantime the disasters of the French armies had produced such depreciation of the Funds that investors could buy a five-francs dividend on seven francs capital.Therefore, for my hundred louis in gold, I might have bought myself fifteen hundred francs of income.
Every morning, as I took my coffee and read the paper, I said to myself: 'That cursed Mongenod! if it were not for him I should have three thousand francs a year to live on.' Mongenod became by /bete-noire/; I inveighed against him even as I walked the streets.'Bordin is there,' I thought to myself; 'Bordin will put the screws on, and a good thing, too.' My feelings turned to hatred, and my hatred to imprecations; I cursed the man, and I believed he had every vice.'Ah!