ties not so
far away as France. Up there, at Sheleilieh, there will perhaps be next
month a little Gaston. If I go away, who will feed him? I have not the
courage of Monsieur, who separates himself so easily from objects of
virtue. _Voila!_"

Magin said nothing for a moment. Then:

"Courage, yes! One needs a little courage in this curious world." There
was a pause, as the boat cut around a dark curve. "But do not think, my
poor Gaston, that it is I who blame you. On the contrary, I find you
very reasonable--more reasonable than many ministers of state. If others
in Europe had been able to express themselves like you, Gaston, Monsieur
Guy and his friends would not have run away so suddenly. It takes
courage, too, not to run after them." He made a sound, as if changing
his position, and presently he began to sing softly to himself.

"Monsieur would make a fortune in the _cafe-chantant_," commented
Gaston. He began to feel, at last, after the favorable reception of his
speech, a little cheered. He felt cooler, too, in this quiet rushing
moonlight of the river. "What is it that Monsieur sings? It seems to me
that I have heard that air."

"Very likely you have, Gaston. It is a little song of sentiment, sung by
all the sentimental young ladies of the world. He who wrote it, however,
was far from sentimental. He was a fellow countryman of mine--and of the
late Abraham!--who loved your country so much that he lived in it and
died in it." And Magin sang again, more loudly, the first words of the
song:

"Ich weiss nicht, was soll es bedeuten,
Dass ich so traurig bin;
Ein Maerchen aus alten Zeiten,
Das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn."

Gaston listened with admiration, astonishment, and perplexity. It
suddenly came back to him how this original Brazilian had sworn when the
chest caught his clothes.

"But, Monsieur, I thought--Are you, then, a German?"

Magin, after a second, laughed.

"But Gaston, am I then an enemy?"

Gaston examined him in the moonlight.

"Well," he answered slowly, "if your country and mine are at war--"

"What has that to do with us, as you just now so truly said? You have
found that your country's quarrel was not cause enough for you to leave
Persia, and so have I. _Voila tout!_" He examined Gaston in turn. "But I
thought you knew all the time. Such is fame! I flattered myself that
your Monsieur Guy would leave no one untold. Whereas he has left us the
pleasure of a situation mor