One day Marcel wanted to put Baptiste into costume, and make him sit for Pharaoh in his "Passage of the Red Sea." To this proposition Baptiste replied by a flat refusal, and demanded his wages. "Very well," said Marcel, "I will settle with you tonight." When Rodolphe returned, his friends declared that they must send away Baptiste. "He is of no use to us at all." "No, indeed--only an ornament, and not much of that." "Awfully stupid." "And equally lazy." "We must turn him off." "Let us!" "Still, he has some good points. He hashes hare very well." "And the lamp-black! He is a very Raphael for that." "Yes, but that's all he is good for. We lose time arguing with him." "He keeps us from working." "He is the cause of my 'Passage' not being finished in time for the Exhibition. He wouldn't sit for Pharaoh." "Thanks to him, I couldn't finish my article in time. He wouldn't go to the public library and hunt up the notes I wanted." "He is ruining us." "Decidedly we can't keep him." "Send him away then! But we must pay him." "That we'll do. Give me the money, and I will settle accounts with him." "Money! But it is not I who keeps the purse, but you." "Not at all! It is you who are charged with the financial department." "But I assure you," said Marcel, "I have no money." "Can there be no more? It is impossible! We can't have spent five hundred francs in eight days, especially living with the most rigid economy as we have done, and confining ourselves to absolute necessaries: [absolute superfluities, he should have said]. We must look over our accounts; and we shall find where the mistake is." "Yes, but we shan't find where the money is. However, let us see the account-book, at any rate." And this is the way they kept their accounts which had been begun under the auspices of Saint Economy: _"March 19. Received 500 francs. Paid, a Turkish pipe, 25 fr.; dinner, 15 fr.; sundries, 40 fr."_ "What are those sundries?" asked Rodolphe of Marcel, who was reading. "You know very well," replied the other, "that night when we didn't go home till morning. We saved fuel and candles by that." "Well, afterwards?" _"March 20. Breakfast, 1 fr. 50 c.; tobacco, 20 c.; dinner, 2 fr.; an opera glass, 2 fr. 50 c._--that goes to your account. What did you want a glass for? You see perfectly well." "You know I had to give an account of the Exhibition in the 'Scarf of Iris.' It is impossible to criticize paintings without a glass. The expense is quite legitimate. Well?--" "A bamboo cane--" "Ah, that goes to your account," said Rodolphe. "You didn't want a cane." "That was all we spent the 20th," was Marcel's only answer. "The 21st we breakfasted out, dined out, and supped out." "We ought not to have spent much that day." "Not much, in fact--hardly thirty francs." "But what for?" "I don't know; it's marked sundries." "Vague and treacherous heading!"