“Listen, landlord,” said the Lord of Bourglastic, “I like your style of cookery, and your wine suits my palate. I should like to stop here a month; but, for reasons best known to myself, I wish my fellow-travellers not to know that I have put up here. When that drunken fellow who dined with me last night wakes up, you must tell him I started without waiting for him. You will do the same with that sluggard up-stairs, and when they are fairly off, come and let me know. I will take your dining-room for a month, and I intend never to quit the table. I shall not stir out, and nobody save you must come near me. I will defray the charges, including this last dinner, but I must insist on being well served. Recruit your forces, stock your larder and your cellar, for by Bacchus! you have got a tough job before you. Only I warn you, if you tell a single soul that I am here, you had better make your will, and order your coffin!” “What an odd lot!” said Ali, as he went in-doors. “Must I send my stingy customer of last night packing? Or must I tell my drunken friend of this morning that he is here? Pshaw! They are both afraid of being seen, and won’t stir out an inch. One ought not to miss any profits, however small.” With this reflection he went into the dining-room. “Is that you, landlord? asked Allegrignac, without opening his eyes. ‘Can you tell me what has become of my friend?’ It’s no use for me to kick about--he’s not in the bed.” “He is gone, my dear sir--gone quite an hour ago. He said to me, ‘Tell the knight I leave in your room on the ground-floor, that I am sorry I cannot stop to say good-bye, for the heat is coming on, and I don’t wish to delay my journey.’” “Oh, so the drunken dog has gone--wonderful! I suppose he has paid? “Not he, sir, truly. He told me you would see to that.” Allegrignac not only opened his eyes at this, but he sat up on end. “At any rate, he paid his share?” “He has not given me a penny piece; he told me he had won a wager of you.” Before Ali had finished the sentence Allegrignac was on his legs. “You’re no better than a brigand, and I’ll wring your neck for you!” “I swear to you I have not received a farthing this blessed morning!” “Well, well,” said the Count of Salençon, recovering his good humour, “I’m well enough off not to bother myself about a trifle like that. So you tell me my bed-fellow is really gone?” “He is.” “And the one who was here last night, too?” “You saw him go yourself.” “True. Then, if I calculate rightly, there’s only one more of us left.” “The one who is snoring in my bed,” sighed Ali, spitefully. “Very well, then; open your ears wide, and listen attentively to what I say. If you let a syllable escape you, you and I shall quarrel. For reasons that I need not state, I wish to put up at your inn for a month.” “He, too!” thought Ali. “What is going to happen to the house?”