er to reach me my cigarettes. No, the good
creature is absorbed. 'Pardon,' I say, rather louder. She looks up,
and it is clear she is impatient at being disturbed. 'Maryland,' I
request. She puts down the book and fumbles for a packet. But I am
curious to know what book it is that holds her so strongly, what
genius of a romancer has aimed so surely at her intelligence. I turn
the book round with a finger. The shop, the shelves, the horse's face
of Madame the proprietress swim before me. I could dance; I could
weep; I could embrace the lady in the pure joy of an artist
appreciated and requited. For of all the books ever printed upon
paper, that book is mine. My verses! My songs of little lives, they
grasp at her and will not let go, like importunate children; she is
not easily nor willingly free of them when affairs claim her. Nunc
dimittis!"

"What did you do?" inquired Cobb. "Give her a watch, or what?"

"My friend," said Savinien, "I was careful. To do a foolish or a
graceless thing would have been to dethrone for her a poet. There was
need of a spacious and becoming gesture. I opened her book at the
fly-leaf, and reached across to the comptoir for a pen. She turned at
that and stared, possibly fearful, poor creature, that it was the
till that attracted me. I took the pen and splashed down on the fly-
leaf of the book my name in full--a striking signature! Then without
a further word that might make an anti-climax, I took my cigarettes
and departed. I was so thrilled, so exalted, that it was five minutes
before I remembered to be afraid."

"For my fortune was becoming bizarre, you know. It was making me
ridiculous even to myself. I have told you but the salient incidents
of it; I do not desire to weary you with the facts of the broken
braces, the spurious two-franc piece, or the lost door-key. But it is
becoming sinister; it needed a counter-poise before it became so
pronounced that nothing but sudden death would suffice. The thief
steals my watch and I am relieved; he is departing with my best
wishes for his success; all promises well, till you arrive at the
charge, with your comb erect, and seize him. It is all of a piece.
Yes, I know it is funny, but it alarms me. I offer it, therefore, my
watch--a sacrifice. Perhaps it likes watches. If so, I have got off
cheaply, for, to tell the truth, it was not much of a watch."

He raised the minute glass and drank, setting it down again with a
flourish.

"And now I mu