In two words, Dubourg learned what had happened; he could not help laughing at the catastrophe, for which he was responsible; while Ménard glared angrily at the servant, who put out her tongue at him, shrugged her shoulders, and followed him about, saying in an undertone: "For shame! what a dirty trick! a man fifty years old! who ain't learned to be clean!" The carriage awaited the travellers, and they took their seats with much satisfaction: Dubourg, overjoyed to be rid of his berlin; Ménard, impatient to leave Goton and the inn, for which he had conceived an intense aversion; and Frédéric, because he was much more comfortable in the roomy, well-hung post chaise than in monsieur le baron's wretched berlin. Ménard sighed once or twice for the seat that the Princess of Hungary had occupied; but he still had to console him the King of Prussia's snuff-box, and the prospect of drinking tokay from Tekely's cellar. VI THE LITTLE WOOD Our travellers reached the next village without mishap, and stopped there to breakfast. Ménard admired the tranquillity with which their noble companion bore the twofold loss of his carriage and his fifty thousand francs. "I am a philosopher, Monsieur Ménard," said Dubourg; "and I care little for money; indeed, I think that I should prefer mediocrity to a too exalted station: _Magna servitus est magna fortuna_." "You are no ordinary man, my dear Dubourg," said Frédéric; "there are so many people whose philosophy does not outlast their prosperity, like the coward who boasts of his courage when the danger has passed." "I certainly am not ambitious," rejoined Ménard; "and I know how to bow to circumstances; but I consider that it requires great strength of mind to give up without regret a good table and a good bed; and when I say a good bed, I don't mean a high one." Dubourg observed that when they had breakfasted it was Monsieur Ménard who paid the bill. "Don't you carry the purse?" he asked Frédéric, in an undertone. "No; my father gave the funds to Ménard." "The devil! that's a nuisance. What will he think, when he sees that I never pay?" "Why, after your saying that you had been robbed, did you add that you still had fifteen thousand francs in your pocket?" "Oh! why, why! because I wanted to play the great man, and not let your companion imagine that you would pay my expenses." "I don't dare to ask Ménard for the money; I should be afraid of hurting his feelings." "Never fear; I'll undertake to make him turn it over of his own motion." "How?" "You will see." "When you hold the purse-strings, don't play the swell too much; remember that we shall not have any more for a long while." "Can it be that you believe that I am still a rattle-head and gambler, as I was in Paris? No, my dear Frédéric, I am too well pleased to be travelling with you, to make a fool of myself; I tell you again, I mean to be a second Mentor." "Yes; your performance in the cow-barn is a very promising beginning."