me seven francs, De Breze, and you shall share the banquet."

De Breze shook his head expressively.

"But," resumed Savarin, "though credit exists no more except with my
laundress, upon terms of which the usury is necessarily proportioned to
the risk, yet, as I had the honour before to observe, there is comfort
for the proprietor. The instinct of property is imperishable."

"Not in the house where I lodge," said Lemercier. "Two soldiers were
billeted there; and during my stay in the ambulance they enter my rooms,
and cart away all of the little furniture left there, except a bed and a
table. Brought before a court-martial, they defend themselves by saying,
'The rooms were abandoned.' The excuse was held valid. They were let
off with a reprimand and a promise to restore what was not already
disposed of. They have restored me another table and four chairs."
"Nevertheless, they had the instinct of property, though erroneously
developed, otherwise they would not have deemed any excuse for their act
necessary. Now for my instance of the inherent tenacity of that
instinct. A worthy citizen in want of fuel sees a door in a garden wall,
and naturally carries off the door. He is apprehended by a gendarme who
sees the act. 'Voleur,' he cries to the gendarme, 'do you want to rob me
of my property?' 'That door your property? I saw you take it away.'
'You confess,' cries the citizen, triumphantly--'you confess that it
is my property; for you saw me appropriate it.' Thus you see how
imperishable is the instinct of property. No sooner does it disappear as
yours than it reappears as mine."

"I would laugh if I could," said Lemercier, "but such a convulsion would
be fatal. _Dieu des dieux_, how empty I am!" He reeled as he spoke, and