ed
neither humor nor tenderness.

He wore a pair of new green kid gloves, was dressed in a brown cloth coat
bound with a braid of several different shades, showing different dates of
repair, and surmounted by a velvet collar of the same date as the coat.
His trousers were of a nondescript gray, and flapped about a pair of
brand-new gaiters, evidently purchased for the occasion, and, from the
numerous positions assumed while he talked, evidently one size too small.

His hat--the judicious use of which added such warmth, color, and
picturesqueness to his style of delivery, now pressed to his chest, now
raised aloft, now debased to the cobbles--had once had some dignity and
proportions. Continual maltreatment had long since taken all the gay and
frolicsome curl out of its brim, while the crown had so often collapsed
that the scars of ill-usage were visible upon it. And yet at a distance
this relic of a former fashion, as handled by Baeader,--it was so
continually in his grasp and so seldom on his head, that you could never
say it was worn,--this hat, brushed, polished, and finally slicked by its
owner to a state slightly confusing as to whether it were made of polished
iron or silk, was really a very gay and attractive affair.

It was easy to see that the person before me had spared neither skill,
time, nor expense to make as favorable an impression on his possible
employers as lay in his power.

"At the moment of the arrival of ze depeche telegraphique," Baeader
continued, "I was in ze office of monsieur ze proprietaire. It was at ze
conclusion of some arrangement commercial, when mon ami ze proprietaire
say to me: 'Baeader, it is ze abandoned season in Paris. Why not arrange
for ze gentlemen in Normandy? The number of francs a day will be at
least'"--here Baeader scrutinized carefully the governor's face--'"at least
to ze amount of ten'--is it not so, messieurs? Of course," noting a slight
contraction of the eyebrows, "if ze service was of long time, and to ze
most far-away point, some abatement could be posseeble. If, par exemple,
it was to St. Malo, St. Servan, Parame, Cancale speciale, Dieppe petite,
Dinard, and ze others, the sum of nine francs would be quite sufficient."

The governor had never heard Dieppe called "petite" nor Cancale
"speciale," and said so, lifting his eyebrows inquiringly. Baeader did not
waver. "But if messieurs pretend a much smaller route and of few days, say
to St. Michel, Parame, and Can