In the midst of the distress of the house, Cocles was the only one unmoved. But this did not arise from a want of affection, but, on the contrary, from a firm conviction. Like the rats that leave by degrees the vessel doomed to perish at sea, so that these egotistical guests have completely abandoned the ship at the moment when the vessel weighs anchor, so all these numerous clerks had by degrees deserted the offices and warehouse. Cocles had seen them go without thinking of inquiring the cause of their departure; everything was, as we have said, a question of arithmetic to Cocles, and during twenty years he had always seen all payments made with such exactitude, that it seemed as impossible to him that this exactitude could cease, and that the house should stop payment, as it would to a miller that the river that had so long turned his mill should cease to flow.
Nothing had as yet occurred to shake Cocles's belief; the last month's payment had been made with the most scrupulous exactitude; Cocles had detected an error of fourteen sous to the prejudice of Morrel, and the same evening he had brought them to Morrel, who, with a melancholy smile, threw them into an almost empty drawer, saying:
"Thanks, Cocles; you are the pearl of cashiers."
Cocles retired perfectly happy, for this eulogium of Morrel, himself the pearl of the honest men of Marseilles, flattered him more than a present of fifty dollars. But since the end of the month, Morrel had passed many an anxious hour.
In order to meet the end of the month, he had collected all his resources, and, fearing lest the report of his distress should get bruited abroad at Marseilles, when he was known to be reduced to such an extremity, he went to the fair of Beaucaire to sell his wife's and daughter's jewels, and a portion of his plate. By this means the end of the month was passed to the great honor of the house of Morrel, but his resources were now utterly exhausted. Credit, owing to the reports afloat, was — such selfishness is usual! — no longer to be had; and to meet the $20,000 due on the 15th of the present month to M. de Boville, and the $20,000 due on the 15th of the next month, Morrel had, in reality, no hope but the return of the Pharaon, whose departure he had learned from a vessel which had weighed anchor at the same time, and which had already arrived in harbor.
This vessel, which, like the Pharaon, came from Calcutta, had arrived a fortnight, whilst no intelligence had been received of the Pharaon.
Such was the state of things when, the day after his interview with M. de Boville, the confidential clerk of the house of Thomson and French, of Rome, presented himself at Morrel's.
