deeper in our Greek.




CHAPTER XVII

Outside Mademoiselle Catherine's House--We are invited in by M.
d'Anquetil--The Supper--The Visit of the Owner and the horrible
Consequences.


That evening my tutor and I happened to be in the Rue du Bac, and as
it was rather warm M. Jerome Coignard said to me:

"Jacques Tournebroche, my son, would it be agreeable to you to turn
to the left, into the Rue de Grenelle, in quest of a tavern--that's
to say, to some place where we could get a pot of wine for two sous?
I am rather short of cash, my boy, and strongly suppose you to be no
better off. M. d'Asterac, who possibly can make gold, does not give
any to his secretaries and servants, as we well know, to our cost,
you and I. He leaves us in a lamentable state. I have never a penny
in my pocket, and it will become necessary to remedy that evil by
industry and artifice. It is a fine thing to bear poverty with an
even mind, like Epictetus of glorious memory. But it is an exercise
I am tired of and which has become tedious by habit. I feel it is
high time for a change of virtue, and to insinuate myself into the
possession of wealth without being possessed by it, which certainly
is the noblest state to be reached by the soul of a philosopher. I
shall feel myself obliged, very soon, to earn profits of some kind