ng at the door so
complacently, so stolidly, intent only on sticking by me at the rate of
two francs an hour until paid off,--without feeling a shadow of sympathy
for my distress, but secretly laughing at it, doubtless,--that provoked
me; and I was pleased to think of him waiting there still, after I
should have escaped, until at last his beaming red face would suddenly
grow purple with wrath, and his placidity change to consternation, on
discovering that he had been outwitted. But I knew too well what he
would do. He would report me to the police! Worse than that, he would
report me to Madam Waldoborough!

"Already I fancied him, with his whip under his arm, smilingly taking
off his hat, and extending his hand to the amazed and indignant lady,
with a polite request that she would pay for that _coupe_! What _coupe_?
And he would tell his story, and the Goddess would be thunderstruck; and
the eyes of the Spider would sparkle wickedly; and I should be damned
forever!

"Then I could see the Parisian detectives--the best in the world--going
to take down from the lady's lips a minute description of the
adventurer, the swindler, who had imposed upon them, and attempted to
cheat a poor hack-driver out of his hard-earned wages! Then would
appear the reports in the newspapers,--how a well-dressed young man, an
American, Monsieur X., (or perhaps my name would be given,) had been the
means of enlivening the fashionable circles of Paris with a choice bit
of scandal, by inviting a very distinguished lady, also an American,
(whose Thursday evening receptions we well know, attended by some of the
most illustrious French and foreign residents in the metropolis,) to
accompany him on a tour of inspection to the Gobelins, and had
afterwards been guilty of the unexampled baseness of leaving the _coupe_
he had employed standing, unpaid, at the door of a certain house in the
Rue Racine, whilst he escaped by a private passage into the Rue de la
Harpe, and so forth, and so forth. I saw it all. I blushed, I shuddered
at the fancied ignominy of the exposure.

"'No,' said I; 't is impossible! If you can't help me to the money, I
must try--but where, how can I hope to raise eight francs, (for it is
four hours by this time, to say nothing of the drink-money!)--how can I
ever hope to raise that sum in Paris?'

"'You can pawn your watch,' says my false friend, rubbing his hands, and
smiling, as if he really enjoyed the comicality of the thing.