tell you all in a few words: If I am not able
to procure three thousand francs within two days, I shall be obliged to
leave Paris, to give up my studies and my work here, and go and bury
myself in my native town and become a plain country doctor."

Glady did not flinch; if he had not foreseen the amount he expected the
demand, and he continued gazing at his feet.

"You know," continued Saniel, "that I am the son of peasants; my father
was marshal in a poor village of Auvergne. At school I gave proof of a
certain aptitude for work above my comrades, and our cure conceived an
affection for me and taught me all he knew. Then he made me enter a small
seminary. But I had neither the docile mind nor the submissive character
that was necessary for this education, and after several years of pranks
and punishments, although I was not expelled, I was given to understand
that my departure would be hailed with delight. I then became usher in a
small school, but without salary, taking board and lodging as payment. I
passed a good examination and was preparing for my degree, when I left
the school owing to a quarrel. I had made some money by giving private
lessons, and I found myself the possessor of nearly eighty francs. I
started for Paris, where I arrived at five o'clock one morning in June,
and where I knew, no one. I had a small trunk containing a few shirts,
which obliged me to take a carriage. I told the coachman to take me to a
hotel in the Latin Quarter. 'Which hotel?' he asked; 'I do not care,' I
answered. 'Do you wish to go to the Hotel du Senat?' The name pleased me;
perhaps it was an omen. He took me to the Hotel du Senat, where, with
what I had left of my eighty francs, I paid a month in advance. I stayed
there eight years."

"That is remarkable."

"What else could I do? I knew Latin and Greek as well as any man in
France, but as far as anything else was concerned I was as ignorant as a
schoolmaster. The same day I tried to make use of what I knew, and I went
to a publisher of classic books, of whom I had heard my professor of
Greek literature speak. After questioning me he gave me a copy of Pindar
to prepare with Latin notes, and advanced me thirty francs, which lasted
me a month. I came to Paris with the desire to work, but without having
made up my mind what to do. I went wherever there were lectures, to the
Sorbonne, to the College de France, to the Law School, and to the School
of Medicine; but it was a month be