asking me
more?"

"Not if it be for more than mere curiosity," said he, drawing nearer to
me; "not if I ask from a sincere interest in you."

"But I ought, perhaps, to hear something of him that questions me," said
I, affecting an amount of circumspection that was far from natural to
me.

"Then go out upon the quay yonder, and ask who is Pierre Dubos. My
character and my name are well known in Havre; you 'll not have to ask
often without an answer."

"Well, then, citizen, tell me what more you wish to learn about me. I
'll tell you whatever you like, if I only know it."

"Have you dined yet, lad?" asked he, quietly.

"No; I have not had time."

"Come, then, and partake of mine;" and, without waiting for an answer,
he let down the shutter that closed the entrance to his shop, and led me
by the arm into a room behind it.

Pierre Dubos, though nearer to sixty than fifty, was only a short time
married to a very pretty and young woman who, as he entered the room,
was arranging the table for dinner. She received me with much courtesy,
scarcely heeding, if she even heard, the explanation her husband gave to
account for my presence.

The meal was an excellent one, and passed off with all that easy
conviviality that every class of Frenchmen know how to display. Monsieur
Dubos seemed somewhat of a character, and rather piqued himself on doing
things that others might never have thought of. His marriage appeared to
have been one of these; his invitation to myself was another.

"You know, Jeanette," said he, "we might never have met if it had not
been for the ferry being delayed at Honfleur. We made acquaintance on
the steps of the pier; and see what has come of it! Now, I have come to
know Bernard here by a similar accident. Who knows what may arise out of
that?"

Madame smiled benignly in assent to the theory, the happy results of
which she seemed to acknowledge.

Coffee came after dinner; and then I began to think how I should take my
leave. Ere I could solve the problem to my satisfaction, Dubos said,--

"Shall we all go to the comedy this evening? They play a grand piece,
one of Beaumanhui's,--and it will amuse us."

Madame hailed the proposition with delight; and I really felt sorry as I
said,--

"But this will never bring me to England."

"What need to go there? Why not stay in France? Was it not a pleasanter
country and a better climate? At all events, what urgent haste was
there? Would not to-morrow