Louët came the next day, and was exactly the same excellent, simple fellow, except that he seemed to have advanced considerably in the art of dressing himself. "Well, Louët, here you are! Why, my friend, you look like a millionaire." "Yes, because I am better dressed than formerly; but, otherwise, it is exactly the reverse. I haven't a halfpenny." "What? You haven't a halfpenny?" "No. I risked my little fortune and lost it." "Absolutely?" "The whole of it." "Ah! poor fellow!" "So I have come to ask ..." "What? Not for advice how to make a new fortune, surely?" "No: for your influence." "With the Government?" I asked, with growing astonishment. "No." "The king?" I asked, more surprised still. "No." "With the Duc d'Orléans?" "Yes." My countenance fell. I desired to keep the revered and loyal friendship I had vowed to the duke pure from all motives of interest, so that he might be sure of the genuine nature of my attachment; accordingly, every time I was asked to obtain some favour from the prince royal it caused me real pain. "The Duc d'Orléans!" I repeated. "What in the world do you want me to ask the Duc d'Orléans on your behalf, my dear Louët?" "Some small post...." "A small post!" I repeated, shrugging my shoulders. "He surely will not refuse you it," Louët added. "On the contrary, my friend, he will refuse it me, because I shall be the first to tell him to refuse my request." "Why?" "Because you have no sort of claim upon the Duc d'Orléans--you do not even know him." "Indeed I have some excuse, I do really know him," said Louët to me. "I was a college chum of his." "At Henri IV.?" "Yes." "You are certain?" "Why, of course." "Would he remember you?" "I was in the same class with him; besides, if he has forgotten me, I possess a little note in his own writing that will revive his memory." "A note from him?" "Look here: you shall see it for yourself"; and he showed me three lines on a scrap of foolscap in small handwriting containing these words:-- "MY DEAR LOUËT,--Translate for me from Ασκρωνδη as far as ὅλoς, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you. "DE CHARTRES" I seized the paper eagerly. "Oh!" I said, "that being the state of things, my dear Louët, you are saved, and I will answer for everything." "You will undertake the matter for me, then?" "With the greatest of pleasure." "When shall you see the duke?" "To-morrow morning." "When shall I come back?" "To-morrow at noon." "I shall have my post?" "I hope so." "Upon my word, my dear sir, you will have done me an immense service." "I will do it for you. Go and sleep soundly, without a care. And the day after to-morrow you will wake up with a salary of twelve hundred francs."