“Well, sir, I can't say as I understood the French of it, but I read the book in English before I come up, and it seemed to me he was pretty much of a low-down boy; yet I wanted to see how they'd make him out; hearin' it was, thought, the country over, to be such a great _play_; though to tell the truth all I could tell about _that_ was that every line seemed to end in 'awze'; and 't they all talked in rhyme, and it did strike me as kind of enervatin' to be expected to believe that people could keep it up that long; and that it wasn't only the boy that never quit on the subject of himself and his folks, but pretty near any of 'em, if he'd git the chanst, did the same thing, so't almost I sort of wondered if Rostand wasn't that kind.” “Go on with Melville Bickner,” said I. “What do you expect,” retorted Mr. Martin with a vindictive gleam in his eye, “when you give a man one of these here spiral staircase cigars? Old Peter himself couldn't keep straight along one subject if he tackled a cigar like this. Well, sir, I always thought Mel had a mighty mean time of it. He had to take care of his mother and two sisters, his little brother and an aunt that lived with them; and there was mighty little to do it on; big men don't usually leave much but debts, and in this country, of course, a man can't eat and spend long on his paw's reputation, like that little Dook of Reishtod--” “I beg to tell you, Mr. Martin--” Fiderson began hotly. Martin waved his bony hand soothingly. “Oh, I know; they was money in his mother's family, and they give him his vittles and clothes, and plenty, too. _His_ paw didn't leave much either--though he'd stole more than Boss Tweed. I suppose--and, just lookin' at things from the point of what they'd _earned_, his maw's folks had stole a good deal, too; or else you can say they were a kind of public charity; old Metternich, by what I can learn, bein' the only one in the whole possetucky of 'em that really _did_ anything to deserve his salary--” Mr. Martin broke off suddenly, observing that I was about to speak, and continued: