ign vagabond had taken such a
place within his thoughts. The pose of his limbs and head, irregular but
not ungraceful; his disillusioned lips; the rings of smoke that issued
from them--all signified rebellion, and the overthrow of law and order.
His thin, lopsided nose, the rapid glances of his goggling, prominent
eyes, were subtlety itself; he stood for discontent with the accepted.

"How do I live when I am on the tramp?" he said, "well, there are
the consuls. The system is not delicate, but when it's a question of
starving, much is permissible; besides, these gentlemen were created for
the purpose. There's a coterie of German Jews in Paris living entirely
upon consuls." He hesitated for the fraction of a second, and resumed:
"Yes, monsieur; if you have papers that fit you, you can try six or
seven consuls in a single town. You must know a language or two; but
most of these gentlemen are not too well up in the tongues of the
country they represent. Obtaining money under false pretences? Well,
it is. But what's the difference at bottom between all this honourable
crowd of directors, fashionable physicians, employers of labour,
ferry-builders, military men, country priests, and consuls themselves
perhaps, who take money and give no value for it, and poor devils who
do the same at far greater risk? Necessity makes the law. If those
gentlemen were in my position, do you think that they would hesitate?"

Shelton's face remaining doubtful, Ferrand went on instantly: "You're
right; they would, from fear, not principle. One must be hard pressed
before committing these indelicacies. Look deep enough, and you will see
what indelicate things are daily done by the respectable for not half so
good a reason as the want of meals."

Shelton also took a cigarette--his own income was derived from property
for which he gave no value in labour.

"I can give you an instance," said Ferrand, "of what can be done by
resolution. One day in a German town, 'etant dans la misere', I decided
to try the French consul. Well, as you know, I am a Fleming, but
something had to be screwed out somewhere. He refused to see me; I sat
down to wait. After about two hours a voice bellowed: 'Has n't the brute
gone?' and my consul appears. 'I 've nothing for fellows like you,' says
he; 'clear out!'

"'Monsieur,' I answered, 'I am skin and bone; I really must have
assistance.'

"'Clear out,' he says, 'or the police shall throw you out!'

"I don't budge.