numberless injustices to which he had been a victim. He complained
particularly of the Bourbons; and as he neglected to tell me who the
Bourbons were, I got the idea--I can't tell how--that the Bourbons
were horse-dealers established at Waterloo. The Captain, who never
interrupted his talk except for the purpose of pouring out wine,
furthermore made charges against a number of dirty scoundrels,
blackguards, and good-for-nothings whom I did not know anything
about, but whom I hated from the bottom of my heart. At dessert
I thought I heard the Captain say my father was a man who could be
led anywhere by the nose; but I am not quite sure that I understood
him. I had a buzzing in my ears; and it seemed to me that the table
was dancing.

My uncle put on his frogged coat, took his bell shaped hat, and we
descended to the street, which seemed to me singularly changed. It
looked to me as if I had not been in it before for ever so long
a time. Nevertheless, when we came to the Rue de Seine, the idea
of my doll suddenly returned to my mind and excited me in an
extraordinary way. My head was on fire. I resolved upon a desperate
expedient. We were passing before the window. She was there,
behind the glass--with her red checks, and her flowered petticoat,
and her long legs.

"Uncle," I said, with a great effort, "will you buy that doll for
me?"

And I waited.

"Buy a doll for a boy--sacrebleu!" cried my uncle, in a voice of
thunder. "Do you wish to dishonour yourself? And it is that old