All at once Rodolphe put himself into a theatrical attitude, and, with great solemnity of voice and gesture, addressed the artist: "Listen to me, Marcel: the fortune which has dazzled your eyes is not the product of vile maneuvers; I have not sold my pen; I am rich, but honest. This gold, bestowed by a generous hand, I have sworn to use in laboriously acquiring a serious position--such as a virtuous man should occupy. Labor is the most scared of duties--." "And the horse, the noblest of animals," interrupted Marcel. "Bah! where did you get that sermon? Been through a course of good sense, no doubt." "Interrupt me not," replied Rodolphe, "and truce to your railleries. They will be blunted against the buckler of invulnerable resolution in which I am from this moment clad." "That will do for prologue. Now the conclusion." "This is my design. No longer embarrassed about the material wants of life, I am going seriously to work. First of all, I renounce my vagabond existence: I shall dress like other people, set up a black coat, and go to evening parties. If you are willing to follow in my footsteps, we will continue to live together but you must adopt my program. The strictest economy will preside over our life. By proper management we have before us three months' work without any preoccupation. But we must be economical." "My dear fellow," said Marcel, "economy is a science only practicable for rich people. You and I, therefore, are ignorant of its first elements. However, by making an outlay of six francs we can have the works of Monsieur Jean-Baptiste Say, a very distinguished economist, who will perhaps teach us how to practice the art. Hallo! You have a Turkish pipe there!" "Yes, I bought it for twenty-five francs." "How is that! You talk of economy, and give twenty-five francs for a pipe!" "And this is an economy. I used to break a two-sous pipe every day, and at the end of the year that came to a great deal more." "True, I should never have thought of that." They heard a neighboring clock strike six. "Let us have dinner at once," said Rodolphe. "I mean to begin from tonight. Talking of dinner, it occurs to me that we lose much valuable time every day in cooking ours; now time is money, so we must economize it. From this day we will dine out." "Yes," said Marcel, "there is a capital restaurant twenty steps off. It's rather dear, but not far to go, so we shall gain in time what we lose in money." "We will go there today," said Rodolphe, "but tomorrow or next day we will adopt a still more economical plan. Instead of going to the restaurant, we will hire a cook."