waiting for my mocha and maraschino. In the drawing-room I blaze
forth in all the vividness of agreeability."

"What could have induced one so evidently intended for a foreground
figure to prefer the humble and shadowy part of a 'quatorzieme '?" said
he, in surprise.

"The 'Res Dura' that crosses every man's destiny, and a spice of that
spirit of investigation which teaches one to explore very unwholesome
depths and very unrewarding regions,--a blending of that which made the
Czar a carpenter, and Louis Philippe a teacher of mathematics."

"Ah! that reminds me," interposed he, "that I ought to put you on your
guard. To-day a Royal Prince will honor us with his company. There are
a couple of ministers and a general. The rest of the party are of
the artiste class, whose susceptibilities you cannot wound; authors,
actresses, journalists, and danseuses, however touchy in the great
world, are angels of good temper in small societies." With this he
proceeded to give me a nearer insight into the kind of company into
which I was to be introduced,--a society, so far as I could learn, that
a rigid moralist might have deemed "more fair than honest." I learned,
too, that I owed the distinction of my invitation to a wager between his
Royal Highness the Duc de St. Cloud and my host; the bet being that De
Minerale was to find out a "quatorzieme" and bring him to dinner, his
search for one not to begin till after five o'clock p.m.; the Prince
being fully convinced that no regular practitioner in that walk any
longer existed. "Your presence, my dear sir," continued he, "is worth,
independent of the charm of your conversation, fifty Napoleons;
one-half of which I must beg you to accept;" saying which, he gracefully
presented me with a purse, whose pleasant weight descended into my palm
with a sensation indescribably soft and soothing.

All this time we were rattling along towards Belleville at a rapid pace;
and although the rain swept past in torrents, the lightning flashed, and
the wind tore the strong trees from their roots, and strewed the ground
with their gigantic limbs, I sat in a revery of sweet and delightful
fancies, the only alloy to my ecstasy being a passing fear that at
each moment shot through me: Can this be real? Am I awake? or has
long fasting so weakened my faculties that this is but a delusion; and
instead of hastening to a dinnerparty with a royal guest, I am speeding
onwards to a prison, or, mayhap, a madhouse. Th