of hospitality," I began.

"An utter want of everything, _mon cher_. Want of decency; want of
delicacy; want of due deference to a man of birth and blood. I see you
are sending your servant out. Now, I beg, don't make a stranger--don't
make what we call a 'Prince Russe' of me. A little quiet supper, and
something to wash it down; good fellowship will do the rest. May I give
your man the orders?"

"You will confer a great favor on me," said I.

He took my servant apart, and whispered a few minutes with him at the
window. "Try Kleptomitz first," said he aloud, as the man was leaving;
"and mind you say M. Marsac sent you. Smart 'bursche' you've got there.
If you don't take him with you, hand him over to me."

"I will do so," said I; "and am happy to have secured him a good
master."

"You'll not know him when you pass through Fiume again. I believe
there's not my equal in Europe to drill a servant. Give me a Chinese,
an Esquimau; give me a Hottentot, and in six months you shall see him
announce a visitor, deliver a letter, wait at table, or serve coffee,
with the quiet dignity and the impassive steadiness of the most
accomplished lackey. The three servants of Fiume were made by me, and
their fortunes also. One has now the chief restaurant at Rome, in the
Piazza di Spagna; the other is manager of the 'Iron Crown Hotel,' at
Zurich; he wished to have it called the 'Arms of Marsac,' but I forbade
him. I said, 'No, Pierre, no. The De Marsacs are now travelling incog.'
Like the Tavannes and the Rohans, we have to wait and bide our time.
Louis Napoleon is not immortal. Do you think he is?"

"I have no reason to think so."

"Well, well, you are too young to take interest in politics; not but
that _I_ did at fourteen: I conspired at fourteen! I will show you a
stiletto Mazzini gave me on my birthday; and the motto on the blade was,
'Au service du. Roi.' Ah! you are surprised at what I tell you. I hear
you say to yourself, 'How the devil did he come to this place? what led
him to Fiume?' A long story that; a story poor old Dumas would give
one of his eyes for. There's more adventure, more scrapes by villany,
dangers and deathblows generally, in the last twenty-two years of my
life--I am now thirty-six--than in all the Monte Cristos that ever were
written. I will take the liberty to put another log on your fire. What
do you say if we lay the cloth? It will expedite matters a little."

"With all my heart. Here are all my house