pose to mock?"

"I am not here to expound my philosophy," replied the other, "but to
distribute these cream tarts. If I mention that I heartily include
myself in the ridicule of the transaction, I hope you will consider
honour satisfied and condescend. If not, you will constrain me to eat my
twenty-eighth, and I own to being weary of the exercise."

"You touch me," said the Prince, "and I have all the will in the world
to rescue you from this dilemma, but upon one condition. If my friend
and I eat your cakes--for which we have neither of us any natural
inclination--we shall expect you to join us at supper by way of
recompense."

The young man seemed to reflect.

"I have still several dozen upon hand," he said at last; "and that will
make it necessary for me to visit several more bars before my great
affair is concluded. This will take some time; and if you are
hungry----"

The Prince interrupted him with a polite gesture.

"My friend and I will accompany you," he said; "for we have already a
deep interest in your very agreeable mode of passing an evening. And now
that the preliminaries of peace are settled, allow me to sign the treaty
for both."

And the Prince swallowed the tart with the best grace imaginable.

"It is delicious," said he.

"I perceive you are a connoisseur," replied the young man.

Colonel Geraldine likewise did honour to the pastry; and every one in
that bar having now either accepted or refused his delicacies, the young
man with the cream tarts led the way to another and similar
establishment. The two commissionaires, who seemed to have grown
accustomed to their absurd employment, followed immediately after; and
the Prince and the Colonel brought up the rear, arm-in-arm, and smiling
to each other as they went. In this order the company visited two other
taverns, where scenes were enacted of a like nature to that already
described--some refusing, some accepting, the favours of this vagabond
hospitality, and the young man himself eating each rejected tart.

On leaving the third saloon the young man counted his store. There were
but nine remaining, three in one tray and six in the other.

"Gentlemen," said he, addressing himself to his two new followers, "I am
unwilling to delay your supper. I am positively sure you must be hungry.
I feel that I owe you a special consideration. And on this great day for
me, when I am closing a career of folly by my most conspicuously silly
action, I wish