ching Madam's dinner
hour, and I was sent away fasting. What was worse, the _coupe_ left for
me to pay for. It was three hours since it had been ordered; price, two
francs an hour; total, six francs. I had given the driver my address,
and we were clattering away towards the Rue des Vieux Augustins, when I
remembered, with a sinking of the heart I trust you may never
experience, that I had not six francs in the world,--at least in this
part of the world,--thanks to my Todworth cousin; that I had, in fact,
only fifteen paltry sous in my pocket!

"Here was a scrape! I had ridden in Madam Waldoborough's carriage with a
vengeance! Six francs to pay! and how was I ever to pay it? '_Cocher!
cocher!_' I cried out, despairingly, '_attendez!_'

"'_Qu'est-il?_' says the _cocher_, stopping promptly.

"Struck with the appalling thought that every additional rod we
travelled involved an increase of expense, my first impulse was to jump
out and dismiss him. But then came the more frightful nightmare fancy,
that it was not possible to dismiss him unless I could pay him! I must
keep him with me until I could devise some means of raising the six
francs, which an hour later would be eight francs, and an hour later ten
francs, and so forth. Every moment that I delayed payment swelled the
debt; like a ruinous rate of interest, and diminished the possibility of
ever being able to pay him at all. And of course I could not keep him
with me forever,--go about the world henceforth in a hired coach, with a
driver and span of horses impossible to get rid of.

"'_Que veut Monsieur?_' says the driver, looking over at me with his red
face, and waiting for my orders.

"That recalled me from my hideous revery. I knew I might as well be
travelling as standing still, since he was to be paid by the hour; so I
said, 'Drive on, drive faster!'

"I had one hope,--that on reaching my lodgings I might prevail upon the
_concierge_ to pay for the coach. I stepped out with alacrity, said
gayly to my coachman, '_Combien est-ce que je vous dois?_' and put my
hand in among my fifteen sous with an air of confidence.

"The driver looked at his watch, and said, with business-like
exactness, '_Six francs vingt-cinq centimes, Monsieur._' _Vingt-cinq
centimes!_ My debt had increased five cents whilst I had been thinking
about it! '_Avec quelque-chose pour la boisson_,' he added with a
persuasive smile. With a trifle besides for drink-money,--for that every
French d