talist, and that he had a
stake in the country, discovered that he was an altered man. He repented
of his foul deed, and his base purloining of the restaurateur's plate.
"O honesty!" he cried, "how unworthy is an action like this of a man who
has a property like mine!" So he went back to the pawnbroker with the
gloomiest face imaginable. "My friend," said he, "I have sinned against
all that I hold most sacred: I have forgotten my family and my religion.
Here is thy money. In the name of heaven, restore me the plate which I
have wrongfully sold thee!"

But the pawnbroker grinned, and said, "Nay, Mr. Gambouge, I will sell
that plate for a thousand francs to you, or I never will sell it at
all."

"Well," cried Gambouge, "thou art an inexorable ruffian, Troisboules;
but I will give thee all I am worth." And here he produced a billet of
five hundred francs. "Look," said he, "this money is all I own; it is
the payment of two years' lodging. To raise it, I have toiled for many
months; and, failing, I have been a criminal. O heaven! I STOLE that
plate that I might pay my debt, and keep my dear wife from wandering
houseless. But I cannot bear this load of ignominy--I cannot suffer the
thought of this crime. I will go to the person to whom I did wrong, I
will starve, I will confess; but I will, I WILL do right!"

The broker was alarmed. "Give me thy note," he cried; "here is the
plate."

"Give me an acquittal first," cried Simon, almost broken-hearted; "sign
me a paper, and the money is yours." So Troisboules wrote according to
Gambouge's dictation; "Received, for thirteen ounces of plate, twenty
pounds."

"Monster of iniquity!" cried the painter, "fiend of wickedness! thou art
caught in thine own snares. Hast thou not sold me five pounds' worth of
plate for twenty? Have I it not in my pocket? Art thou not a convicted
dealer in stolen goods? Yield, scoundrel, yield thy money, or I will
bring thee to justice!"

The frightened pawnbroker bullied and battled for a while; but he gave
up his money at last, and the dispute ended. Thus it will be seen that
Diabolus had rather a hard bargain in the wily Gambouge. He had taken
a victim prisoner, but he had assuredly caught a Tartar. Simon now
returned home, and, to do him justice, paid the bill for his dinner, and
restored the plate.

And now I may add (and the reader should ponder upon this, as a profound
picture of human life), that Gambouge, since he had grown rich, grew
like