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chap, xxii THE INCIDENT CLOSED
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give
those which he had bought for you at the current price ; that,
nevertheless, M. Constant had been so generous that he never asked
anything from you, but that he had told me in private that he had lost
more than 15 per cent, by the transaction.'
Having
given all this detail to the President, he appeared to be very much
alarmed, and besought me to make no noise about it, in which he did
wisely, for I could have named others, all the devices * of the chiefs
of the Company having come to my knowledge, and the principal part of
the large sums which they had invested in diamonds having passed
through my hands. Observing then that the President did not wish to
hear more, I took leave of him and went to tell my counsel all that had
passed. His dwelling being near that of the President, I observed that
the latter went to the fort, apparently to see the General. Between 11
o'clock and noon I was about to go to the Town Hall to know what the
Avocat Fiscal would say to me, because I knew that the President had
gone there when leaving the fort, and that they had conversed together.
But I met him half-way, and approaching me with a laughing face he
asked me where I was going. I replied that I was going to the Town Hall
to reply to some of his questions. ' I beg you,' he replied quickly,'
let us leave that affair to go and have dinner together. I was
presented yesterday with two cases, one of French wine and the other of
Rhine wine, we shall see which is the best. All I ask from you is a
word written with your own hand, that you have nothing belonging to M.
Constant.' This I gave very willingly, and in this way the whole case
came to an end.
1 ' Adresses', ' dexterities ', or worse. Not ' addresses ', as Ball rendered the term.
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