start?"

"I have two travellers in there after a cup of coffee," replied
Pierrotin.

The hollow-cheeked young man and his page reappeared.

"Come, let's start!" was the general cry.

"We are going to start," replied Pierrotin. "Now, then, make ready,"
he said to the porter, who began thereupon to take away the stones
which stopped the wheels.

Pierrotin took Rougeot by the bridle and gave that guttural cry, "Ket,
ket!" to tell the two animals to collect their energy; on which,
though evidently stiff, they pulled the coach to the door of the Lion
d'Argent. After which manoeuvre, which was purely preparatory,
Pierrotin gazed up the rue d'Enghien and then disappeared, leaving the
coach in charge of the porter.

"Ah ca! is he subject to such attacks,--that master of yours?" said
Mistigris, addressing the porter.

"He has gone to fetch his feed from the stable," replied the porter,
well versed in all the usual tricks to keep passengers quiet.

"Well, after all," said Mistigris, "'art is long, but life is short'
--to Bichette."

At this particular epoch, a fancy for mutilating or transposing