d her. In short, sir, for a fortnight the Jew and his wife
so arranged matters that we supped every night with Judith, and for a
fortnight I was the happiest of men. You understand and you know how it
was, so I shall not wear out your patience; still, if you do not smoke,
you cannot imagine how pleasant it was to smoke a pipe at one's ease
with Renard and the girl's father and one's princess there before one's
eyes. Oh! yes, it was very pleasant!

"But I ought to tell you that Renard was a Parisian, and dependent on
his father, a wholesale grocer, who had educated his son with a view to
making a notary of him; so Renard had come by a certain amount of book
learning before he had been drawn by the conscription and had to bid his
desk good-bye. Add to this that he was the kind of man who looks well
in a uniform, with a face like a girl's, and a thorough knowledge of the
art of wheedling people. It was HE whom Judith loved; she cared about
as much for me as a horse cares for roast fowls. Whilst I was in the
seventh heaven, soaring above the clouds at the bare sight of Judith, my
friend Renard (who, as you see, fairly deserved his name) arrived at an
understanding with the girl, and to such good purpose, that they were
married forthwith after the custom of her country, without waiting for
permission, which would have been too long in coming. He promised her,
however, that if it should happen that the validity of this marriage was
afterwards called in question, they were to be married again according
to French law. As a matter of fact, as soon as she reached France, Mme.
Renard became Mlle. Judith once more.

"If I had known all this, I would have killed Renard then and there,
without giving him time to draw another breath; but the father, the
mother, the girl herself, and the quartermaster were all in the plot
like thieves in a fair. While I was smoking my pipe, and worshiping
Judith as if she had been one of the saints above, the worthy Renard was
arranging to meet her, and managing this piece of business very cleverly
under my very eyes.

"You are the only person to whom I have told this story. A disgraceful
thing, I call it. I have always asked myself how it is that a man who
would die of shame if he took a gold coin that did not belong to him,
does not scruple to rob a friend of happiness and life and the woman he
loves. My birds, in fact, were married and happy; and there was I, every
evening at supper, moonstruck, g