et us see, I am to give you a hundred and
fifty francs for this copy ..."

"I won't take it," said Mueller. "I mean you to accept it as a pledge of
friendship and good-will."

"Nay, I insist on paying for it. I shall be proud to pay for it; but a
hundred and fifty are not enough. Let me give you three hundred, and
promise me that you will not put the head into your picture!"

Mueller laughed, and shook his own head resolutely. "I will give you both
the portrait and the promise," said he; "but I won't take your money, if
I know it."

"But ..."

"But I won't--and so, if you don't like me well enough to accept such a
trifle from me, I'll e'en carry the thing home again!"

And, snatching up his cap and cloak, he made a feint of putting the
portrait back into the folio.

"Not for the world!" I exclaimed, taking possession of it without
further remonstrance. "I would sooner part from all I possess. How can I
ever thank you enough?"

"By never thanking me at all! What little time the thing has cost me is
overpaid, not only by the sight of your pleasure, but by my own
satisfaction in copying it. To copy a good work is to have a lesson from
the painter, though he were dead a hundred years before; and the man who
painted that portrait, be he who he might, has taught me a trick or two
that I never knew before. _Sapristi_! see if I don't dazzle you some day
with an effect of white satin and pearls against a fair skin!"

"An ingenious argument; but it leaves me unconvinced, all the same. How!
you are not going to run away already? Here's another bottle of
Chambertin waiting to be opened; and it is yet quite early."

"Impossible! I have promised to meet a couple of men up at the Prado,
and have, besides, invited them afterwards to supper."

"What is the Prado?"

"The Prado! Why, is it possible that I have never yet introduced you to
the Prado? It's one of the joiliest places in all the Quartier
Latin--it's close to the Palais de Justice. You can dance there, or
practise pistol-shooting, or play billiards, or sup--or anything you
please. Everybody smokes--ladies not excepted."

"How very delightful!"

"Oh, magnificent! Won't you come with me? I know a dozen pretty girls
who will be delighted to be introduced to you."

"Not to-night, thank you," said I, laughing.

"Well, another time?"

"Yes, to be sure--another time."

"Well, good-night."

"Good-night, and thank you again, a thousand times over."

But he wou