was instant. A tide of color rushed into his cheeks, he rose
with an alacrity that was comic.

'He--he was much older than madame supposed!'

Madame laughed delightedly. 'How charming! How ingenuous! He positively
must sit down again. It was assured that they would become friends!
Where was that waiter? Where was that second coffee-cup?'

But monsieur remained standing.

Madame's eyes, now alive with interest, literally danced to her
thoughts.

'Come! Come! They must not allow the coffee to become cold!'

But monsieur picked up his hat and coat.

'What! He was not going? Oh, it was impossible! He could not be so
unkind!' Her face expressed dismay.

But her only answer was a stiff little bow, and a second later the door
had closed and the boy was running down the stairs of the hotel as
though some enemy were in hot pursuit.

CHAPTER IV

The mind of the boy was very full as he passed out of the hotel, so full
that he scarcely noticed the whip of cold air that stung his face or the
white mantle that lay upon the streets, wrapping in a silver sheath all
that was sordid, all that was dirty and unpicturesque in that corner of
Paris. The human note had been touched in that moment in the
_salle-a-manger,_ and his ears still tingled to its sound. Alarm,
disgust, and a strange exultant satisfaction warred within him in a
manner to be comprehended by his own soul alone.

As he stepped out into the rue de Dunkerque he scarcely questioned in
what direction his feet should carry him. North, south, east, or west
were equal on that first day. Everywhere was promise--everywhere a call.
Nonchalantly and without intention he turned to the left and found
himself once more in face of the Gare du Nord.

It is a good thing to rejoice in spite of the world; it is an infinitely
better thing to rejoice in company with it. With solitude and freedom,
the alarm, the disgust receded, and as he went forward the exultation
grew, until once again his mercurial spirits lifted him as upon wings.

The majority of passers-by at this morning hour were workers--work-girls
out upon their errands, business men going to or from the _cafes_; but
here and there was to be seen an artist, consciously indifferent to
appearances; here and there an artisan, unconsciously picturesque in his
coarse working-clothes; here and there a well-dressed woman, sunning
herself in the cold, bright air like a bird of gay plumage. It was the
world in miniatur