ll demands. You may
depend that she did not forgot a word of the legal formulas, and that
she arranged the affair in due form according to the Prussian code. The
receipt, written throughout in the Colonel's hand, filled three large
pages.

He signed the instrument with a flourish, and received in exchange the
signature of Nicholas, which he knew well.

"Well," said he to the old gentleman, "you're certainly not such an Arab
as they said you were at Berlin. Shake hands, old scamp! I don't usually
shake hands with any but honest people; but on an occasion like this,
one can do a little something extra."

"Do it double, Monsieur Fougas," said Frau Meiser, humbly. "Will you not
join us in this modest supper?"

"Gad! old lady, it's not a thing to be refused. My supper must be cold
at the inn of the 'Clock'; and your viands, smoking on their chafing
dishes, have already caused me more than one fit of distraction.
Besides, here are some yellow glass flutes, on which Fougas will not be
at all reluctant to play an air."

The respectable Catharine had an extra plate laid, and ordered Berbel to
go to bed. The Colonel folded up Father Meiser's million, rolled it
carefully among a pile of bank-bills, and put the whole into the little
pocket-book which his dear Clementine had sent him.

The clock struck eleven.

At half-past eleven Fougas began to see everything in a rosy cloud. He
praised the Rhine wine highly, and thanked the Meisers for their
hospitality. At midnight, he assured them of his highest esteem. At
quarter past twelve, he embraced them. At half-past twelve, he delivered
a eulogy on the illustrious John Meiser, his friend and benefactor. When
he learned that John Meiser had died in that house, he poured forth a
torrent of tears. At quarter to one, he assumed a confidential tone, and
spoke of his son, whom he was going to make happy, and of the betrothed
who was waiting for him. About one o'clock, he tasted a celebrated port
wine which Frau Meiser had herself gone to bring from the cellar. About
half-past one, his tongue thickened and his eyes grew dim; he struggled
some time against drunkenness and sleepiness, announced that he was
going to describe the Russian campaign, muttered the name of the
Emperor, and slid under the table.

"You may believe me, if you will," said Frau Meiser to her husband,
"this is not a man who has come into our house; it's the devil!"

"The devil!"

"If not, would I have advised yo