g to commence to be devoured by hunger again--for,
believe me, if you will, comrade, but, such as you see me, I have been
hungry all my life."

The words were startling, especially to a Sybarite who had just been
longing for the kitchen of the Cafe-Anglais, and the Duc de Hardimont
looked at his companion in almost terrified amazement. The soldier smiled
sadly, showing his hungry, wolf-like teeth, as white as his sickly face,
and, as if understanding that the other expected something further in the
way of explanation or confidence:

"Come," said he, suddenly ceasing his familiar way of speaking, doubtless
divining that his companion belonged to the rich and happy; "let us walk
along the road to warm our feet, and I will tell you things, which
probably you have never heard of--I am called Jean-Victor, that is all,
for I am a foundling, and my only happy remembrance is of my earliest
childhood, at the Asylum. The sheets were white on our little beds in the
dormitory; we played in a garden under large trees, and a kind Sister took
care of us, quite young and as pale as a wax-taper--she died afterwards of
lung trouble--I was her favorite, and would rather walk by her than play
with the other children, because she used to draw me to her side and lay
her warm thin hand on my forehead. But when I was twelve years old, after
my first communion, there was nothing but poverty. The managers put me as
apprentice with a chair mender in Faubourg Saint-Jacques. That is not a
trade, you know, it is impossible to earn one's living at it, and as proof
of it, the greater part of the time the master was only able to engage the
poor little blind boys from the Blind Asylum. It was there that I began to
suffer with hunger. The master and mistress, two old Limousins--afterwards
murdered, were terrible misers, and the bread, cut in tiny pieces for each
meal, was kept under lock and key the rest of the time. You should have
seen the mistress at supper time serving the soup, sighing at each
ladleful she dished out. The other apprentices, two blind boys, were less
unhappy; they were not given more than I, but they could not see the
reproachful look the wicked woman used to give me as she handed me my
plate. And then, unfortunately, I was always so terribly hungry. Was it my
fault, do you think? I served there for three years, in a continual fit of
hunger. Three years! And one can learn the work in one month. But the
managers could not know everyth