semaids knew whether his rank was great or small, and
whether, to please their cantankerous master, they were to fly or walk
at his beck, or in the case of a mere bourgeois, to drink his wine on
the way to his room.

Germain, on first arriving a few days previously, found himself in an
atmosphere of Oriental abjectness; for when the Rouen diligence drove
through the inn gateway, and mine host at his pot-room window remarked
his smart belongings, his landlord soul settled him as a person of
quality. But when the innkeeper had thought it out for an hour over his
wine, his attitude became one of doubt.

"No valet, no people," he muttered, "this fish then is no noble, and
yet, by his mien, no bourgeois. Luggage scanty, dress fine. What is he?
Gambler of Paris? Swiss? Italian? No, he speaks French, but without the
Court accent. By that he is none of _our_ people--that is one point
fixed. A prodigal son, then? Parbleu, I must make him pay in advance."

"Sir," said the landlord, knocking at the door of Germain's room, and
then stepping in rather freely, "I regret to tell you that it is the
rule in Fontainebleau for travellers to pay in advance."

"How much?" replied Germain, pulling out a purse full of pistoles.

The rascal was taken aback.

"I was about to say," said he, retreating, "that though such is the
rule, I am making of your honour an exception."

And he disappeared to further correct his speculations upon the visitor.
"Some little spendthrift of the provinces, I wager," was his next
conclusion. He instructed the senior stable-boy to go in and light three
candles, and chalked up the guest for nine. He also began to concoct his
bill. The household thenceforth took small liberties with Lecour's
orders.

Next day the landlord, when Monsieur was about to mount the handsomest
horse which could be hired in the town, again quitted his post of
observation at the pot-room window and advanced. He knew the animal and
its saddlery; his suave smile reappeared, and his back bent a little as
he noticed with the eye of an expert Germain's ease in his seat.

"Monsieur desires to see the Court, no doubt? He knows, perhaps, that it
does not arrive till Thursday?"

"Indeed. Tell me about the doings of the Court. I have never heard about
it."

A triumphant, hard expression came over Boniface's visage. He looked up
at his guest, straightened himself, turned his back, and went into the
house.

"What," he muttered, "I, the ent