"Come, let us gather round the festive board," said he joyously. "This
is breakfast and dinner in one. Rose, be seated; and you, my dear
friend, will surely share with us the repast we owe to you?"

With many protestations of regret, however, Daddy Tantaine pleaded an
important engagement at the other end of Paris. "And," added he, "it is
absolutely necessary that I should see Mascarin this evening, for I must
try my best to make him look on you with a favorable eye."

Rose was very glad when the old man took his departure, for his
ugliness, the shabbiness of his dress, and his general aspect of dirt,
drove away all the feelings of gratitude she ought to have evinced, and
inspired in her loathing and repugnance; and she fancied that his eyes,
though veiled by his colored glasses, could detect the minutest secrets
of her heart; but still this did not prevent her putting on a sweet
smile and entreating him to remain.

But Daddy Tantaine was resolute; and after impressing upon Paul the
necessity of punctuality, he went away, repeating, as he passed through
the door, "May good appetite be present at your little feast, my dears."

As soon, however, as the door was closed he bent down and listened. The
young people were as merry as larks, and their laughter filled the
bare attic of the Hotel de Perou. Why should not Paul have been in good
spirits? He had in his pocket the address of the man who was to make his
fortune, and on the chimney-piece was the balance of the banknote, which
seemed to him an inexhaustible sum. Rose, too, was delighted, and could
not refrain from jeering at their benefactor, whom she stigmatized as
"an old idiot."