his feet resting on the mantelpiece, and smoking a long porcelain
pipe, wrapped in a flamboyant dressing-robe, no doubt stolen from
the abandoned residence of some bourgeois lacking in taste. He did
not get up, neither did he greet them nor look at them. He was a
magnificent specimen of the insolence natural to victorious soldiers.

After a few seconds, he said in his defective French:

--"What do you want?"

The Count spoke:--"We wish to continue our journey, Sir."

--"No!"

--"May I inquire what is the reason for this refusal?"

--"Because I don't want."

--"I would respectfully call your attention to the fact, Sir, that
your General in chief has delivered us a permit to go to Dieppe,
and I don't think we did anything to deserve your rigors."

--"I don't want to let you go, that is all; you may retire!"

Having bowed, all three retired.

They spent a wretched afternoon. They could not in any way account
for this German's caprice, and the most singular ideas worried
their heads. Everybody stayed in the kitchen and there was endless
discussion imagining the most unlikely things. Perhaps they wanted