vido e santa, pecaire!' she said, in her
cracked voice.

And, curtseying and nodding, she withdrew, still staring at the coin in
the palm of her hand.

'What did she say?' asked Duruy.

'She wished you long life and health.' 'And pecaire?'

'Pecaire is a poem in itself: it sums up all the gentler passions.'

And I myself mentally repeated the artless vow. The man who stops so
kindly when a beggar puts out her hand has something better in his soul
than the mere qualities that go to make a minister.

We entered the station, still alone, as promised, and I quite without
misgivings. Had I but foreseen what was going to happen, how I should
have hastened to take my leave! Little by little, a group formed in
front of us. It was too late to fly; I had to screw up my courage.
Came the general of division and his officers, came the prefect and his
secretary, the mayor and his deputy, the school inspector and the pick
of the staff. The minister faced the ceremonial semicircle. I stood
next to him. A crowd on one side, we two on the other. Followed the
regulation spinal contortions, the empty obeisances which my dear Duruy
had come to my laboratory to forget. When bowing to St. Roch, in his
corner niche, the worshipper at the same time salutes the saint's humble
companion. I was something like St. Roch's dog in the presence of those
honors which did not concern me. I stood and looked on, with my awful
red hands concealed behind my back, under the broad brim of my felt hat.

After the official compliments had been exchanged, the conversation
began to languish; and the minister seized my right hand and gently drew
it from the mysterious recesses of my wide awake.

'Why don't you show those gentlemen your hands?' he said. 'Most people
would be proud of them.'

'Workman's hands,' said the prefect's secretary. 'Regular workman's
hands.'

The general, almost scandalized at seeing me in such distinguished
company, added: 'Hands of a dyer and cleaner.'

'Yes, workman's hands,' retorted the minister, 'and I wish you many like
them. Believe me, they will do much to help the chief industry of your
city. Skilled as they are in chemical work, they are equally capable of
wielding the pen, the pencil, the scalpel and the lens. As you here seem
unaware of it, I am delighted to inform you.'

This time, I should have liked the ground to open and swallow me up.
Fortunately, the bell rang for the train to start. I said goodbye to the
m