nly I dive into my pocket and take the papers out
again. It was a mechanical movement, an unconscious nervous twitch. I
selected a white unwritten page, and--God knows where I got the notion
from--but I made a cornet, closed it carefully, so that it looked as if
it were filled with something, and threw it far out on to the pavement.
The breeze blew it onward a little, and then it lay still.

By this time hunger had begun to assail me in earnest. I sat and looked
at the white paper cornet, which seemed as if it might be bursting with
shining silver pieces, and incited myself to believe that it really did
contain something. I sat and coaxed myself quite audibly to guess the
sum; if I guessed aright, it was to be mine.

I imagined the tiny, pretty penny bits at the bottom and the thick
fluted shillings on top--a whole paper cornet full of money! I sat and
gazed at it with wide opened eyes, and urged myself to go and steal it.

Then I hear the constable cough. What puts it into my head to do the
same? I rise up from the seat and repeat the cough three times so that
he may hear it. Won't he jump at the corner when he comes. I sat and
laughed at this trick, rubbed my hands with glee, and swore with
rollicking recklessness. What a disappointment he will get, the dog!
Wouldn't this piece of villainy make him inclined to sink into hell's
hottest pool of torment! I was drunk with starvation; my hunger had
made me tipsy.

A few minutes later the policeman comes by, clinking his iron heels on
the pavement, peering on all sides. He takes his time; he has the whole
night before him; he does not notice the paper bag--not till he comes
quite close to it. Then he stops and stares at it. It looks so white
and so full as it lies there; perhaps a little sum--what? A little sum
of silver money?... and he picks it up. Hum ... it is light--very
light; maybe an expensive feather; some hat trimming.... He opened it
carefully with his big hands, and looked in. I laughed, laughed,
slapped my thighs, and laughed, like a maniac. And not a sound issued
from my throat; my laughter was hushed and feverish to the intensity of
tears.

Clink, clink again over the paving-stones, and the policeman took a
turn towards the landing-stage. I sat there, with tears in my eyes, and
hiccoughed for breath, quite beside myself with feverish merriment. I
commenced to talk aloud to myself all about the cornet, imitated the
poor policeman's movements, peeped into