to stop longer, but I said to her:

"'To everyone their due, Madame. A small glass of brandy costs two sous,
and two glasses cost four.'

"She understood my meaning, and put a gold ten-franc piece into my hand.
I do not like that coin, because it is so small that if your pockets are
not very well made, and come at all unsewn, one is apt to find it in
one's boots, or not to find it at all, and so, while I was looking at it,
she was looking at me. She got red in the face, as she had misunderstood
my looks, and she said: 'Is not that enough?'

"'I did not mean that, Madame,' I replied; 'but if it is all the same to
you, I would rather have two five-franc pieces.' And she gave them to me,
and I took my leave. This has been going on for a year and a half,
Captain. I go every Tuesday evening, when you give me leave to go out of
barracks; she prefers that, as her servant has gone to bed then, but last
week I was not well, and I had to go into the infirmary. When Tuesday
came, I could not get out, and I was very vexed, because of the ten
francs which I had been receiving every week, and I said to myself:

"'If anybody goes there, I shall be done; and she will be sure to take
an artilleryman, and that made me very angry. So I sent for Paumelle, who
comes from my part of the country, and I told him how matters stood:

"'There will be five francs for you, and five for me,' I said. He agreed,
and went, as I had given him full instructions. She opened the door as
soon as he knocked, and let him in, and as she did not look at his face,
she did not perceive that it was not I, for, you know, Captain, one
dragoon is very like another, with their helmets on.

"Suddenly, however, she noticed the change, and she asked, angrily: 'Who
are you? What do you want? I do not know you.'

"Then Paumelle explained matters; he told her that I was not well, and
that I had sent him as my substitute; so she looked at him, made him also
swear to keep the matter secret, and then she accepted him, as you may
suppose, for Paumelle is not a bad-looking fellow, either. But when he
came back, Captain, he would not give me my five francs. If they had been
for myself, I should not have said a word, but they were for my father,
and on that score, I would stand no nonsense, and I said to him:

"'You are not particular in what you do, for a dragoon; you are a
discredit to your uniform.'

"He raised his fist, Captain, saying that fatigue duty like that was