very well,' says I. 'You mean M.
Germain, the _bete noire_ of the prison yard.' 'And of you, too, I
suppose?' said the officer, in a severe and serious manner. 'Oh, bless
you,' says I, 'I am too good-natured, as well as too much of a coward,
to venture to call any one disagreeable; and less M. Germain than any
one else,' says I, 'for I don't see any harm in him, and other folks
appear to me very cruel and unjust towards him.' 'That's all right,
then,' answers the officer; 'and I can tell you that you are bound to
side with M. Germain, for he has been very kind to you,' he says. 'To
me?' says I; 'how do you mean?' 'Well,' he answers, 'I don't mean M.
Germain exactly, and it ain't to you altogether he's been kind; but
still, for all that,' says Rousel, 'you are bound to show him your
gratitude.'"

"Try," said Germain, smilingly, "and make me understand what it is you
do mean."

"That's precisely what I said to the officer. 'Speak more clearly,' I
says. So then he makes answer, 'Why, it was not M. Germain, but the very
pretty young person that was here just now to see him, who loaded your
sister with all sorts of kindnesses. She overheard the poor thing
telling you all her troubles; and directly as the creature went out, the
charming young woman as come visiting to M. Germain went and offered to
serve her in every way she could.'"

"Dear, good Rigolette!" murmured Germain, deeply affected by this little
incident; "she said not one word to me of all this."

"'Well, to be sure!' I says to the officer; 'what a poor stupid goose I
am!' 'You are quite right--you are!' M. Germain--leastways, his
friend--has been good to me,--that is to say to my sister Jeanne, which
is the same thing, only much more than if the favour had been done to
myself."

"Poor, dear Rigolette!" said Germain; "ever the same tender,
compassionate, generous-hearted creature!"

"So then the officer goes on to say how he heard all that passed between
your nice young woman and my poor sister Jeanne. 'And now,' he says,
'Pique-Vinaigre, that you are aware of the fact, if you don't try to
show kindness by every means in your power to M. Germain, and more
especially, if you should know of any plot got up against him and not
warn him of it, why,' he says, 'Pique-Vinaigre, you would be a regular
scamp and a blackguard.' 'I tell you what,' I makes answer and says,
'I'm an unfinished scamp as yet, but I'm no blackguard, and, what's
more, I never will be worse