the rest of the home-going Parisians, and were about to take our places,
when Müller, climbing like a cat to the roof-seats on the top of the
second-class carriages, beckoned us to follow.

"Who would be shut up with ten fat people and a baby, when fresh air can
be breathed, and tobacco smoked, for precisely the same fare?" asked he.
"You don't mean to say that you came down to St. Germains in one of the
dens below?"

"Yes, we did," I replied; "but we had it to ourselves."

"So much the worse. Man is a gregarious animal, and woman also--which
proves Zimmerman to have been neither, and accounts for the brotherhood
of _Les Chicards_. Would you like to see how that old gentleman looks
when he is angry?"

"Which? The one in the opposite corner?"

"The same."

"Well, that depends on circumstances. Why do you ask?"

"Because I'll engage to satisfy your curiosity in less than ten
minutes."

"Oh, no, don't affront him," said I. "We shall only have a scene."

"I won't affront him. I promise not to utter a syllable, either
offensive or defensive."