'What a plight you are in, my dear Mongenod!' I said, accepting the pinch of snuff he offered me from a copper and zinc snuff-box.'Sad indeed!' he answered; 'I have but one friend left, and that is you.Ihave done all I could to avoid appealing to you; but I must ask you for a hundred louis.The sum is large, I know,' he went on, seeing my surprise; 'but if you gave me fifty I should be unable ever to return them; whereas with one hundred I can seek my fortune in better ways,--despair will inspire me to find them.' 'Then you have nothing?' Iexclaimed.'I have,' he said, brushing away a tear, 'five sous left of my last piece of money.To come here to you I have had my boots blacked and my face shaved.I possess what I have on my back.But,' he added, with a gesture, 'I owe my landlady a thousand francs in assignats, and the man I buy cold victuals from refused me credit yesterday.I am absolutely without resources.' 'What do you think of doing?' 'Enlisting as a soldier if you cannot help me.' 'You! a soldier, Mongenod?' 'I will get myself killed, or I will be General Mongenod.' 'Well,' I said, much moved, 'eat your breakfast in peace; Ihave a hundred louis.'
"At that point," said the goodman, interrupting himself and looking at Godefroid with a shrewd air, "I thought it best to tell him a bit of a fib.""'That is all I possess in the world,' I said.'I have been waiting for a fall in the Funds to invest that money; but I will put it in your hands instead, and you shall consider me your partner; I will leave to your conscience the duty of returning it to me in due time.