not be long before
he wakes now. Will you excuse me, my king of lodgers?"

"Certainly; but I have yet some particulars to inquire of you."

"Oh, very well," answered Madame Pipelet. Then going up to her husband,
she drew back the curtains, saying, "How are you by this time, my old
chick? Look! there's M. Rodolph, who has heard all about this fresh
villainy of Cabrion's, and is as sorry about it as can be."

"Ah, M. Rodolph," murmured Alfred, languidly turning his head towards
the announced visitor, "this time the monster has struck at my heart; I
shall quit this bed no more. I am now the object of all the placards of
this vast city; my name is blazoned upon every wall in Paris, linked
with that of a wretch unworthy of mention. Yes, _mossieur_, there you
may see 'Pipelet and Cabrion,' bound together by an enormous band of
union. Yes, I--I--the injured Pipelet--united in bonds of seeming amity
and intimacy with that fellow Cabrion! Oh, _mossieur_, pity me! My name
joined with his in the eyes of all the dwellers of this great
capital,--the leading city of Europe!"

"Ah, M. Rodolph knows all about that; but he has yet to be told of your
yesterday's adventures with those two singular women, or whatever they
were."

"Alas, monsieur," sighed Alfred, in a mournful voice, "he reserved his
master-stroke of wickedness and fiendish malice till the last. This,
however, passes all bounds, and human patience can bear no more!"

"Come, my dear M. Pipelet, calm yourself, and endeavour to relate this
fresh annoyance to me."

"All that he has hitherto done to vex and insult me is as nothing
compared to his last malignant scheme to break my heart and ruin my
peace. But now the shameless monster has gone the full extent of
fiendish provocation. I know not whether I have the power of describing
to you the scene of last night; when I attempt to speak, shame,
confusion, and outraged modesty seem to deprive me of voice and breath."

M. Pipelet, having managed with some difficulty to raise himself in his
bed, modestly buttoned his flannel waistcoat up to his throat, and began
in the following terms:

"My wife had just gone out, absorbed in the bitter reflections arising
from the sight of my name so disgracefully prostituted on every wall in
Paris; I sought to while away my solitary hours by attending to the new
soling of a boot twenty times commenced and as often abandoned,--thanks
to the unceasing persecutions of my pitiless persecuto