"I won't let you go. Pay me what you owe me; with the old account, it's twenty-nine francs. I need the money; pay me, or come before the magistrate; he'll have you arrested as a good-for-nothing, a tramp, a vagabond, as you are--and something worse, perhaps." "I say! no rough words, or I'll lose my temper, too!" "Mon Dieu!" said Madame Gerbancourt; "are those horrid men coming any nearer?" "One of them is very drunk!" said Armantine. "How disgusting! Why, the men ought to be arrested! If we hadn't Monsieur Rochebrune with us, I should have run away long ago." "Oh! mon Dieu! I believe they're going to fight; and they're coming this way!" "Oh! look, monsieur!" I did not turn my head; I pretended not to hear, pulled my hat over my eyes, and sat perfectly still. Suddenly all three of the ladies jumped to their feet with a cry of alarm. Armantine seized my arm, so that I was compelled to rise. Ballangier, trying to escape from his persecutor, had almost fallen over our chairs, to one of which he clung to keep from falling. The wretch was drunk, but not enough so to prevent his recognizing familiar faces; and the fatality which had brought him to that exact spot decreed that he should be at my side when I rose to follow the ladies. The miserable sot uttered a cry of joy on recognizing me, and, seizing my overcoat with both hands just as his creditor descended upon him, he cried: "Stop, Piaulard! you may go to the devil now! Here's a friend who'll answer for me--pay for me if necessary. Ah! he has the _stuff_, he has; and I forbid you to call me a thief before him; if you do, I'll have a crack at you in my turn--ugly mug!" I stood as if petrified. I had not the strength to move a muscle. The great colossus, who was on the point of striking Ballangier, paused in amazement, and stared at me with the expression of one who cannot believe his ears. As for the ladies, they continued to pull me by the arm. "For heaven's sake, push that man away!" "Do come, Monsieur Rochebrune!" "That drunkard takes you for a friend of his; drive him away, do! Come! let's not stay here. Oh! it's horrible to come in contact with such people!" But I was incapable alike of speech and action. Moreover, Ballangier did not relax his grasp on my coat. "Drive me away!" he cried; "me--his friend--the most intimate friend he's got in the world! I think I see him driving me away, good old Charles! Charlot--Rochebrune, if you like that better. Ah! you think I'm mistaken, do you? you think I don't know him? Just ask him if he don't know me; ask him, and see what he says. Piaulard, you're an old ass! I'm not a vagabond and a tramp, for I've got friends to answer for me.--You'll answer for me, won't you, Charles? you won't let this old rascal arrest me?"