drole, hein?_"

"Why do they think I am very rich?"

"That is what I asked them. They said if a man did not work he must be
either rich or a rogue; and they know you are not a rogue, _mon
Maitre_."

"They flatter me," said Paragot. "Would you like to live in the country,
Blanquette?"

"Oh yes!" she cried with conviction. "_Il y a des betes. J'adore ca._
And then it smells so good."

"It does," he sighed. "I haven't smelt it for over three years. Ah! to
have the scent of the good wet earth in one's nostrils and the sound of
bees in one's ears. For two pins I would go gipsying again. If I were a
rich man, my little Blanquette, I would buy the farm, and give it you as
your dowry, and sometimes you would let me come and stay with you."

"But as I shall never marry, _mon Maitre_, there will be no need of a
dowry."

She said it smilingly, as if she welcomed her lot as a predestined old
maid. There was not a sign on her plain pleasant face of the torment
raging in her bosom. In my youthful ignorance I did not know whether to
deplore woman's deceit or to admire her stout-heartedness.

"My child," said Paragot, "no human being can, without arrogance, say
what he will or what he will not do. Least of all a woman."

Having uttered this profound piece of wisdom my master went to bed.

* * * * *

During the next few weeks Paragot suffered the boredom of a provisional
condition of existence. He went to bed early, for lack of evening
entertainment, and rose late in the morning for lack of daily
occupation. With what he termed "the crapulous years," he had divested
himself of his former associates and habits. Friends that would
harmonise with his gloves and umbrella he had none as yet. If he ordered
an _aperitif_ before the midday meal, it was on the terrace of a cafe on
the Boulevard Saint-Germain, where he sat devouring newspapers in awful
solitude. Sometimes he took Blanquette for a sedate walk; but no longer
Blanquette _en cheveux_. He bought her a mystical headgear composed as
far as I could see of three plums and a couple of feathers, which the
girl wore with an air of happy martyrdom. He discoursed to her on the
weather and the political situation. At this period he began to develop
republican sympathies. Formerly he had swung, according to the caprice
of the moment, from an irreconcilable nationalism to a fantastic
anarchism. Now he was proud to identify himself with the once despise