cigars and cigarettes that Leonie put on the table with the coffee were
of the highest excellence. Agreeable conversation whiled away some
hours, and Tricotrin began to look for his uncle to get up. But it was
raining smartly, and monsieur Rigaud was reluctant to bestir himself.
Another hour lagged by, and at last Tricotrin faltered:

"I fear I must beg you to excuse me for leaving you, my uncle; it is
most annoying, but I am compelled to go out. The fact is, I have
consented to collaborate with Capus, and he is so eccentric, this dear
Alfred--we shall be at work all night."

"Go, my good Gustave," said his uncle readily; "and, as I am very
tired, if you have no objection, I will occupy your bed."

Tricotrin's jaw dropped, and it was by a supreme effort that he
stammered how pleased the arrangement would make him. To intensify the
fix, Leonie and the cook had disappeared--doubtless to the mansarde in
which they slept--and he was left to cope with the catastrophe alone.
However, having switched on the lights, he conducted the elderly
gentleman to an enticing apartment. He wished him an affectionate
"good-night," and after promising to wake him early, made for home,
leaving the manufacturer sleepily surveying the room's imperial
splendour.

"What magnificence!" soliloquised monsieur Rigaud. "What toilet
articles!" He got into bed. "What a coverlet--there must be twenty
thousand francs on top of me!"

He had not slumbered under them long when he was aroused by such a
commotion that he feared for the action of his heart. Blinking in the