drained the Comte de Guiche, and when the Comte de Guiche was thoroughly drained, when he had turned out his pockets and his purse before him, when he declared that it would be at least a fortnight before paternal munificence would refill those pockets and that purse, De Manicamp lost all his energy; he went to bed, remained there, ate nothing, and sold his handsome clothes, under the pretense that, remaining in bed, he did not want them. During this prostration of mind and strength, the purse of the Comte de Guiche was getting full again, and when once filled, overflowed into that of De Manicamp, who bought new clothes, dressed himself again, and recommenced the same life he had followed before. This mania of selling his new clothes for a quarter of what they were worth had rendered our hero sufficiently celebrated in Orleans, a city where, in general, we should be puzzled to say why he came to pass his days of penitence. Provincial debauchés, petits maîtres of six hundred livres a year, shared the fragments of his opulence.
Among the admirers of these splendid toilets, our friend Malicorne was conspicuous; he was the son of a syndic of the city, of whom M. de Conde, always needy as a De Condé, often borrowed money at enormous interest. M. Malicorne kept the paternal money-chest; that is to say, that in those times of easy morals, he had made for himself, by following the example of his father, and lending at high interest for short terms, a revenue of eighteen hundred livres, without reckoning six hundred other livres furnished by the generosity of the syndic, so that Malicorne was the king of the gay youth of Orleans, having two thousand four hundred livres to scatter, squander, and waste on follies of every kind. But, quite contrary to Manicamp, Malicorne was terribly ambitious. He loved from ambition; he spent money from ambition; and he would have ruined himself from ambition. Malicorne had determined to rise, at whatever price it might cost, and for this, at whatever price it did cost, he had given himself a mistress and a friend. The mistress. Mile, de Montalais, was cruel, as regarded the last favors of love; but she was of a noble family, and that was sufficient for Malicorne. The friend had no friendship, but he was the favorite of the Comte de Guiche, himself the friend of Monsieur, the king's brother, and that was sufficient for Malicorne. Only, in the chapter of charges, Mile, de Montalais cost per an.: Ribbons, gloves, and sweets, a thousand livres. De Manicamp cost — money lent, never returned —
