plain that I had no baldness, my hair being very thick and I but
twenty-four years of age, when it was explained that my hair
could be shaved. They asked me to accept, alas! not a part in
the Revue, but a specialty as a sandwich-man. Knowing the
English tongue as I do, I may afford the venturesomeness to play
upon it a little: I asked for bread, and they offered me not a
role, but a sandwich!

It must be undoubted that I possessed not the disposition to
make any fun with my accomplishments during those days that I
spent under the awning of the Cafe' de la Paix. I had consented
to be the advertisement in greatest desperation, and not
considering what the reality would be. Having consented, honour
compelled that I fulfil to the ending. Also, the costume and
outfittings I wore were part of my emolument. They had been
constructed for me by the finest tailor; and though I had
impulses, often, to leap up and fight through the noisy ones
about me and run far to the open country, the very garments I
wore were fetters binding me to remain and suffer. It seemed to
me that the hours were spent not in the centre of a ring of
human persons, but of un-well-made pantaloons and ugly skirts.
Yet all of these pantaloons and skirts had such scrutinous eyes
and expressions of mirth to laugh like demons at my conscious,
burning, painted head; eyes which spread out, astonished at the
sight of me, and peered and winked and grinned from the big
wrinkles above the gaiters of Zouaves, from the red breeches of
the gendarmes, the knickerbockers of the cyclists, the white
ducks of sergents de ville, and the knees of the boulevardiers,
bagged with sitting cross-legged at the little tables. I could
not escape these eyes;--how scornfully they twinkled at me