"Ah, monseigneur, it is not worth offering to you." "I always like best that which is not offered to me." While he was saying these words the marquis filled one of the cups with wine and swallowed it at a draught. "Really, it's not so very bad." "Ah, monseigneur, if it were on your table--" "Then I should find it detestable; but what will you have? Variety is the spice of life. And you have become rich, then?" "No, not rich, but well enough off to buy this house." "What! the house belongs to you?" "Yes, monsieur le marquis." "Deuce take it, Master Touquet, it must be that you have made some big hauls in order to become a proprietor." The barber's face contracted; his black eyebrows frowned and almost met; he slowly rolled his eyes around him, and murmured with an effort,-- "Monsieur le marquis, I swear to you--" "O mon Dieu! I do not ask you to swear, my poor Touquet," said the marquis, laughing. "You are as uneasy as if you had become a lieutenant in crime. Do you think that I came here to inquire as to the manner in which you made your fortune? But by all the devils, I do not believe that you earned this house in your barber shop." "Monseigneur, I assure you that my economies--" "Yes, that's all very well; let's leave all that and speak of the subject which brought me here, for, of course, I came to you for something, and I'll be damned if I remember what it was." The barber appeared to breathe more freely; his face assumed its habitual expression, and he raised his eyes to the marquis, who seemed to throw aside his insolence to explain the motive of his nocturnal visit. "When I saw you this morning on the Pont-Neuf, I was following a young girl, a pretty little puss; without being a perfect beauty, she was graceful and interesting in appearance, with sparkling and very intelligent eyes. I do not believe that we should have much trouble in making a conquest of her. However, she walked faster, and would not answer any of my compliments. I carefully wrapped myself in my cloak, not wishing to be recognized by our amiable profligates, who would have made sport of me for running after a grisette. The little girl stopped to listen for a moment to Tabarin's songs, and it was while she was before the quack that I saw you and recognized you immediately; you have one of those faces that nobody forgets." "I had also recognized you, monseigneur, in spite of the cloak in which you were enveloped; for ten years have not changed your features, monsieur le marquis, and one could not easily mistake that noble figure which captivates all the belles." "You flatter me, rascal; which means that I have aged. But let's go on. As soon as you had given me your address, I returned to the side of the little one." "If monsieur le marquis had explained to me this morning what he was after, I would have spared him the trouble of following this young girl."