To-day, however, is the thirty-first of May, and he has not been yet, and to-morrow,
at midday, the payment falls due; if, therefore, I don't pay to-morrow, those gentlemen can, by the terms of the contract, break off the bargain; I shall be stripped of everything; I shall have worked for three years, and given two hundred and fifty thousand francs for nothing, absolutely for nothing at all, dear M.
I am extremely sorry; but I knew there was a coach from your part of the country
at midday, and I thought you would come by that one.