"Non," said the Mere Cliquelle's husband. "Ze Inglisman's is go--vat you call it, eh? Ah, yase, is go oot." "Oh! she's gone out, is she?" "Ah-h! Yase! yase, yase!" nodded the M.C.'s husband. "Do--you--know--when--she--will--come--back?" The Frenchman looked puzzled for a moment, but with a foreigner's intuitive cleverness be guessed at the gist of the question. "Ah, yase! you vant to know _son retour_? Cee go walk mit monsieur. Cee go joost now _a huit heures_, and cee will retour byanby, _a neuf heures_, noine clock. _Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf_"--he said, counting on his fingers--"o'cloke!" "Ooo!" said the doctor, giving a satisfied nod, "I understand, she will be back again at nine o'clock," holding up nine of his fingers in proof. "I--am--much--obliged--to--you,--I--will--come back again--at nine!" "Ah-h, yase! Dat is raite. You will retour?" "Yes, I'll come back again!" said the doctor, as he walked away, after both had bowed politely to each other, and the Gaul had entreated him to accept a hundred thousand assurances of his extreme subserviency. "Confound those stoopid foreigners!" muttered the doctor, as he walked up the street in the direction of Ingouville, to pass the time. "Confound those stoopid foreigners! Why, that fellow could have said all that in half the time in English." Volume 2, Chapter XV. "END OF SECOND ACT." The engulfment of the last straw on which he, the drowning man, had leant his weight, left Markworth without a single loophole of escape: he did not know where to turn. The Jew, Solomonson, had not only advanced him the money required for carrying on the unsuccessful lawsuit, but he was largely indebted to him besides; and Solomonson, he knew, was a very Shylock, and although he might bow and smile, and be the best of friends, and most cordial of bankers, while things were going on right and he saw some prospect of getting his money back with a large "pershentage" in addition, still Markworth was equally well aware that the Jew would rigorously exact his pound of flesh as soon as he saw the game was up, and the cards exposed, and he would be the first one to come upon him for the three thousand pounds, for which he held his bill.