ffected,
glances that counted the ovals of the ceiling or the bread-crumbs on the
table-cloth, mouths compressed to stifle a yawn, betrayed, accordingly,
the general impatience provoked by this untimely story. Yet he himself
seemed not to weary of it. He found pleasure in the recital of his
sufferings past, even as the mariner safe in port, remembering his
voyagings over distant seas, and the perils and the great shipwrecks.
There followed the story of his good luck, the prodigious chance that
had placed him suddenly upon the road to fortune. "I was wandering about
the quays of Marseilles with a comrade as poverty-stricken as myself,
who is become rich, he also, in the service of the Bey, and, after
having been my chum, my partner, is now my most cruel enemy. I may
mention his name, _pardi_! It is sufficiently well known--Hemerlingue.
Yes, gentlemen, the head of the great banking house. 'Hemerlingue &
Co.' had not in those days even the wherewithal to buy a pennyworth of
_clauvisses_ on the quay. Intoxicated by the atmosphere of travel that
one breathes down there, the idea came into our minds of starting out,
of going to seek our livelihood in some country where the sun shines,
since the lands of mist were so inhospitable to us. But where to go? We
did what sailors sometimes do in order to decide in what low hole they
will squander their pay. You fix a scrap of paper on the brim of your
hat. You make the hat spin on a walking-stick; when it stops spinning
you follow the pointer. In our case the paper needle pointed towards
Tunis. A week later I landed at Tunis with half a louis in my pocket,
and I came back to-day with twenty-five millions!"

An electric shock passed round the table; there was a gleam in every
eye, even in those of the servants. Cardailhac said, "Phew!" Monpavon's
nose descended to common humanity.

"Yes, my boys, twenty-five millions in liquidated cash, without speaking
of all that I have left in Tunis, of my two palaces at the Bardo, of my
vessels in the harbour of La Goulette, of my diamonds, of my precious
stones, which are worth certainly more than the double. And you know,"
he added, with his kindly smile and in his hoarse, plebeian voice, "when
that is done there will still be more."

The whole company rose to its feet, galvanized.

"Bravo! Ah, bravo!"

"Splendid!"

"Deuced clever--deuced clever!"

"Now, that is something worth talking about."

"A man like him ought to be in the Chambe