nary. He began stammering like a
crazy man:--

"Really? What! You will keep me? You do not drive me forth? A convict!
You call me sir! You do not address me as thou? 'Get out of here, you
dog!' is what people always say to me. I felt sure that you would expel
me, so I told you at once who I am. Oh, what a good woman that was who
directed me hither! I am going to sup! A bed with a mattress and sheets,
like the rest of the world! a bed! It is nineteen years since I have
slept in a bed! You actually do not want me to go! You are good
people. Besides, I have money. I will pay well. Pardon me, monsieur the
inn-keeper, but what is your name? I will pay anything you ask. You are
a fine man. You are an inn-keeper, are you not?"

"I am," replied the Bishop, "a priest who lives here."

"A priest!" said the man. "Oh, what a fine priest! Then you are not
going to demand any money of me? You are the cure, are you not? the cure
of this big church? Well! I am a fool, truly! I had not perceived your
skull-cap."

As he spoke, he deposited his knapsack and his cudgel in a corner,
replaced his passport in his pocket, and seated himself. Mademoiselle
Baptistine gazed mildly at him. He continued:

"You are humane, Monsieur le Cure; you have not scorned me. A good
priest is a very good thing. Then you do not require me to pay?"

"No," said the Bishop; "keep your money. How much have you? Did you not
tell me one hundred and nine francs?"

"And fifteen sous," added the man.

"One hundred and nine francs fifteen sous. And how long did it take you
to earn that?"

"Nineteen years."

"Nineteen years!"

The Bishop sighed deeply.

The man continued: "I have still the whole of my money. In four days I
have spent only twenty-five sous, which I earned by helping unload some
wagons at Grasse. Since you are an abbe, I will tell you that we had a
chaplain in the galleys. And one day I saw a bishop there. Monseigneur
is what they call him. He was the Bishop of Majore at Marseilles. He is
the cure who rules over the other cures, you understand. Pardon me,
I say that very badly; but it is such a far-off thing to me! You
understand what we are! He said mass in the middle of the galleys, on an
altar. He had a pointed thing, made of gold, on his head; it glittered
in the bright light of midday. We were all ranged in lines on the three
sides, with cannons with lighted matches facing us. We could not see
very well. He spoke; but he was too far off