tle table so that the glass and bottles leaped and Narcisse
darted for shelter into the cafe.

"_Tron de l'air!_" he cried. "I have it. It is an illumination.
Asticot--here! Leave your book. I shall be Paragot in character as well
as name. We shall fiddle with Blanquette as we fiddled yesterday--and I
shall be a watch-dog like Pere Paragot and keep her an honest girl.
We'll make it a firm, Paragot and Company, and there will always be two
sous for bread and two to throw to a dog. I like throwing sous to dogs.
It is my nature. Now I know why I was sent into the world. It was to
play the fiddle up and down the sunny land of France. My little Asticot,
why haven't we thought of it before? You shall learn to play the
trumpet, Asticot, and Narcisse shall walk on his hind legs and collect
the money. It will be magnificent!"

"Are you serious, Monsieur?" asked Blanquette, trembling.

"Serious? Over an inspiration that came straight from the _bon Dieu_?
But yes, I am serious. _Et toi?_" he added sharply using for the first
time the familiar pronoun, "are you afraid I will beat you like Pere
Paragot?"

"You can if you like," she said huskily; and I wondered why on earth she
should have turned the colour of cream cheese.

CHAPTER VII

NOT being content with having attached to his person a stray dog and a
mongrel boy and rendering himself responsible for their destinies,
Paragot must now saddle himself with a young woman. Had she been a
beautiful gipsy, holding fascinating allurements in lustrous eyes and
pomegranate lips, and witchery in a supple figure, the act would have
been a commonplace of human weakness. But in the case of poor
Blanquette, squat and coarse, her heavy features only redeemed from
ugliness by youth, honesty and clean teeth, the eternal attraction of
sex was absent.

From the decorative point of view she was as unlovely as Narcisse or
myself. She was dull, unimaginative, ignorant, as far removed from
Paragot as Narcisse from a greyhound. Why then, in the name of men and
angels, should Paragot have taken her under his protection? My only
answer to the question is that he was Paragot. Judge other men by
whatever standard you have to hand; it will serve its purpose in a rough
and ready manner; but Paragot--unless with me idolatry has obscured
reason--Paragot can only be measured by that absolute standard which
lies awful and unerring on the knees of the high gods.

Of course he saved the girl from