I remarked drily, "who hath seen
obstacles thus thrown in his way, and--"

"One moment, M.--er--Ratichon," he broke in sharply. "I have not
finished. I will not attempt to describe my feelings to you. I have
been writhing--yes, writhing!--in face of those obstacles of which
you speak so lightly, and for a long time I have been cudgelling my
brains as to the possible means whereby I might approach my divinity
unchecked. Then one day I bethought me of you--"

"Of me, Sir?" I ejaculated, sorely puzzled. "Why of me?"

"None of my friends," he replied nonchalantly, "would care to
undertake so scrubby a task as I would assign to you."

"I pray you to be more explicit," I retorted with unimpaired dignity.

Once more he paused. Obviously he was a born mountebank, and he
calculated all his effects to a nicety.

"You, M.--er--Ratichon," he said curtly at last, "will have to take
the duenna off my hands."

I was beginning to understand. So I let him prattle on the while my
busy brain was already at work evolving the means to render this man
service, which in its turn I expected to be amply repaid. Thus I
cannot repeat exactly all that he said, for I was only listening with
half an ear. But the substance of it all was this: I was to pose as
the friend of M. Fernand Rochez, and engage the attention of Mlle.
Goldberg senior the while he paid his court to the lovely Leah. It was
not a repellent task altogether, because M. Rochez's suggestion opened
a vista of pleasant parties at open-air cafes, with foaming tankards
of beer, on warm afternoons the while the young people sipped sirops
and fed on love. My newly found friend was pleased to admit that my
personality and appearance would render my courtship of the elderly
duenna a comparatively easy one. She would soon, he declared, fall a
victim to my charms.

After which the question of remuneration came in, and over this we did
not altogether agree. Ultimately I decided to accept an advance of two
hundred francs and a new suit of clothes, which I at once declared was
indispensable under the circumstances, seeing that in my well-worn
coat I might have the appearance of a fortune-hunter in the eyes of
the suspicious old dame.

Within my mind I envisaged the possibility of touching M. Rochez for a
further two hundred francs if and when opportunity arose.

2.

The formal introduction took place on the boulevards one fine
afternoon shortly after that. Mlle. Leah was walkin