, in some miraculous way, all his
desires were accomplished, "that, after all, this demon was no other
than the creation of my own brain, heated by the effects of that
bottle of wine, the cause of my crime and my prosperity."

The confessor agreed with him, and they walked out of church
comfortably together, and entered afterwards a _cafe_, where they sat
down to refresh themselves after the fatigues of their devotion.

A respectable old gentleman, with a number of orders at his
button-hole, presently entered the room, and sauntered up to the
marble table, before which reposed Simon and his clerical friend.
"Excuse me, gentlemen," he said, as he took a place opposite them, and
began reading the papers of the day.

"Bah!" said he, at last,--"sont-ils grands ces journaux anglais?
Look, sir," he said, handing over an immense sheet of _The Times_ to
Mr. Gambouge, "was ever anything so monstrous?"

Gambouge smiled, politely, and examined the proffered page. "It is
enormous," he said; "but I do not read English."

"Nay," said the man with the orders, "look closer at it, Signor
Gambouge; it is astonishing how easy the language is."

Wondering, Simon took the sheet of paper. He turned pale as he looked
at it, and began to curse the ices and the waiter. "Come, M. l'Abbe,"
he said; "the heat and glare of this place are intolerable."

* * * * *

The stranger rose with them. "Au plaisir de vous revoir, mon cher
monsieur," said he; "I do not mind speaking before the Abbe here, who
will be my very good friend one of these days; but I thought it
necessary to refresh your memory, concerning our little business
transaction six years since; and could not exactly talk of it _at
church_, as you may fancy."

Simon Gambouge had seen, in the double-sheeted _Times_, the paper
signed by himself, which the little Devil had pulled out of his fob.

* * * * *

There was no doubt on the subject; and Simon, who had but a year to
live, grew more pious, and more careful than ever. He had
consultations with all the doctors of the Sorbonne and all the lawyers
of the Palais. But his magnificence grew as wearisome to him as his
poverty had been before; and not one of the doctors whom he consulted
could give him a pennyworth of consolation.

Then he grew outrageous in his demands upon the Devil, and put him to
all sorts of absurd and ridiculous tasks; but they were all punctually
p