interest, to
the profit of the owners. At the end of five years, if this sum shall not
be reclaimed, it shall be added to the Bank of the Poor. The administration
and the office of said bank shall be placed in the Rue du Temple, No. 17,
in a house bought for this purpose, in the center of that most populous
quarter. A revenue of ten thousand francs shall be appropriated to the
expenses and to the administration of the Bank of the Poor, of which the
director for life shall be---"
Polidori interrupted the notary, and said to the priest, "You will see, M.
l'Abbe, by the choice of the director of this establishment, whether
Jacques knows how to repair the wrong which he has involuntarily done. You
know that by an error which he deplores, he had falsely accused his cashier
of taking a sum which he afterward discovered."
"Doubtless."
"Well! it is to this honest young man, Francois Germain, that Jacques
assigns the life governorship of this bank, with a salary of four thousand
francs. Is it not admirable, M. l'Abbe?"
"Nothing astonishes me now, or, rather, nothing has astonished me," said
the priest. "The fervent piety, the virtues of our worthy friend, could
hardly fail of such a result. To consecrate all his fortune to such an
institution--ah! it is admirable!"
"More than a million, M. l'Abbe," said Polidori, "more than a million,
amassed by dint of order, economy, and probity; and yet there are those who
accuse Jacques of avarice! How, said they, his office brings him in fifty
or sixty thousand francs a year, and he lives like a miser!"
"To such as these," replied the abbe, with enthusiasm, "I would answer:
During fifteen years he has lived like a poor man, in order to be able at
the present time magnificently to solace the poor.
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