om a few characteristic
touches," continued Nathan. "He once came upon a friend of his, a
fellow-Bohemian, involved in a dispute on the boulevard with a bourgeois
who chose to consider himself affronted. To the modern powers that
be, Bohemia is insolent in the extreme. There was talk of calling one
another out.

"'One moment,' interposed La Palferine, as much Lauzun for the occasion
as Lauzun himself could have been. 'One moment. Monsieur was born, I
suppose?'

"'What, sir?'

"'Yes, are you born? What is your name?'

"'Godin.'

"'Godin, eh!' exclaimed La Palferine's friend.

"'One moment, my dear fellow,' interrupted La Palferine. 'There are the
Trigaudins. Are you one of them?'

"Astonishment.

"'No? Then you are one of the new dukes of Gaeta, I suppose, of imperial
creation? No? Oh, well, how can you expect my friend to cross swords
with you when he will be secretary of an embassy and ambassador _some
day_, and you will owe him respect? _Godin!_ the thing is non-existent!
You are a nonentity, Godin. My friend cannot be expected to beat the
air! When one is somebody, one cannot fight with a nobody! Come, my dear
fellow--good-day.'

"'My respects to madame,' added the friend.

"Another day La Palferine was walking with a friend who flung his cigar
end in the face of a passer-by. The recipient had the bad taste to
resent this.

"'You have stood your antagonist's fire,' said the young Count, 'the
witnesses declare that honor is satisfied.'

"La Palferine owed his tailor a thousand francs, and the man instead
of going himself sent his assistant to ask for the money. The assistant
found the unfortunate debtor up six pairs of stairs at the back of
a yard at the further end of the Faubourg du Roule. The room was
unfurnished save for a bed (such a bed!), a table, and such a table!
La Palferine heard the preposterous demand--'A demand which I should
qualify as illegal,' he said when he told us the story, 'made, as it
was, at seven o'clock in the morning.'

"'Go,' he answered, with the gesture and attitude of a Mirabeau, 'tell
your master in what condition you find me.'

"The assistant apologized and withdrew. La Palferine, seeing the
young man on the landing, rose in the attire celebrated in verse in
_Britannicus_ to add, 'Remark the stairs! Pay particular attention to
the stairs; do not forget to tell him about the stairs!'

"In every position into which chance has thrown La Palferine, he has
never failed