aches too much to
calculate just at present. Well, those three rolls have lasted me three
days; the last crumb went for supper last night. Therefore, take care
how you offer me money (for that is what men mean by help). You see I
have no option but to take it. But I warn you, don't expect gratitude; I
have none in me!"

Pisistratus.--"You are not so bad as you paint yourself. I would do
something more for you, if I can, than lend you the little I have to
offer. Will you be frank with me?"

Stranger.--"That depends; I have been frank enough hitherto, I think."

Pisistratus.--"True; so I proceed without scruple. Don't tell me your
name or your condition, if you object to such confidence; but tell me
if you have relations to whom you can apply? You shake your head.
Well, then, are you willing to work for yourself, or is it only at the
billiard-table--pardon me--that you can try to make four sous produce
ten francs?"

Stranger (musing).--"I understand you. I have never worked yet,--I abhor
work. But I have no objection to try if it is in me."

Pisistratus.--"It is in you. A man who can walk from Paris to Boulogne
with twelve sous in his pocket and save four for a purpose; who can
stake those four on the cool confidence in his own skill, even at
billiards; who can subsist for three days on three rolls; and who, on
the fourth day, can wake from the stones of a capital with an eye and
a spirit as proud as yours,--has in him all the requisites to subdue
fortune."

Stranger.--"Do you work--you?"

Pisistratus.--"Yes--and hard."

Stranger.--"I am ready to work, then."

Pisistratus.--"Good. Now, what can you do?"

Stranger (with his odd smile).--"Many things useful. I can split
a bullet on a penknife; I know the secret tierce of Coulon, the
fencing-master; I can speak two languages (besides English) like a
native, even to their slang; I know every game in the cards; I can act
comedy, tragedy, farce; I can drink down Bacchus himself; I can make any
woman I please in love with me,--that is, any woman good for nothing.
Can I earn a handsome livelihood out of all this,--wear kid gloves and
set up a cabriolet? You see my wishes are modest!"

Pisistratus.--"You speak two languages, you say, like a native,--French,
I suppose, is one of them?"

Stranger.--"Yes."

Pisistratus.--"Will you teach it?"

Stranger (haughtily). "No. Je suis gentilhomme, which means more or
less than a gentleman. Gentilhomme means well born, beca