"Oh, my dear fellow," I said, "if you are so wealthy, you can surely lend Oudet fifty francs." "What to do?" "To buy my Piranèses from me." "Your Piranèses?" "Yes, I want to go to Paris. Oudet offered to buy my Piranèses for fifty francs, and now...." "And now he does not wish to have them?" "On the contrary, he is dying to possess them; but he hasn't a son, and cannot pay me for three months." "And you want fifty francs?" "Indeed I do." "You would like to have them?" "Rather." "Wait: perhaps we can arrange matters." "Oh, do try, my good fellow." "There is a very simple way: I cannot give you the fifty francs, because I have promised my tailor a hundred francs to-day; but Oudet can make a cheque out to me for fifty francs at three months, I will endorse the cheque, and I will give it to the tailor as ready money." We went to Oudet's. Oudet made out the cheque, and I carried off the money, thanking Gondon, and above all God, who out of His infinite loving kindness had provided me the means to advance a step farther on my way. I accompanied Gondon as far as his tailor's. At the tailor's door I ran up against old Cartier. "Well, my boy," he said, "isn't there a bit left of your dog's money to pay for a small glass of wine for your old friend?" "Certainly, if he wins it of me at billiards;" and I jingled my fifty francs. I turned to Gondon. "Come and see what happens," I said to him. "You go on; I will rejoin you.... At Camberlin's, is it not?" "At Camberlin's." Camberlin was the traditional coffee-house; since the discovery of coffee and the invention of billiards, the Camberlins had sold coffee and kept a billiard-table, from father to son. It was to Camberlin's my grandfather used to go every evening to take a hand at dominoes or piquet, until his little bitch Charmante came scratching at the door, with two lanterns held in her jaws. It was at Camberlin's my father and M. Deviolaine came to challenge each other's skill at play, as, on another green carpet, they challenged each other's skill at the chase. It was at Camberlin's, finally, that, thanks to my antecedents, I had been able, almost gratis, when I lost, to begin my education as an elder Philibert under three different masters, who had ended by seeing me a better player than they were. These three masters were--Cartier, against whom I was going to wipe out an old score; Camusat, Hiraux's nephew, who reclothed his uncle at la Râpée, when they turned him out of Villers-Cotterets in drawers and shirt; and a delightful youth, called Gaillard, who was a first-class player in all sorts of games, and who had, to my great satisfaction, replaced M. Miaud, my old rival, at the work-house. So I had become a much better player than Cartier; but, as he would never admit it, he invariably declined the six points I as invariably offered him before we began the match. Just as we were trying our cues on the billiard-table, Gondon entered.