There was indeed nothing to be said. A dreadful despair rested on the face of Theophrastus; but he was the first to break the heavy silence. "My pockets are _quite_ empty," he said. "Oh, Theophrastus--Theophrastus!" moaned Marceline reproachfully. "My poor friend," said Adolphe; and he groaned. Theophrastus wiped away the cold sweat from his brow with a handkerchief of which he did not know the owner. "I see what it is," he said in a despairing tone. "I've had my _Black Feather_." Marceline and Adolphe said nothing; they were utterly overwhelmed. Theophrastus looked from one to the other and wiped the glasses of his spectacles. His face cleared a little; and then he said with a faint smile: "_Perhaps after all, in those days, it was a parlour game._" He stuck the index finger of his right hand into his mouth, with him a sign of grave preoccupation of spirit. Marceline heaved a deep sigh and said, "Take your finger out of your mouth, dear, and tell us how it came about that you had on you three watches, six handkerchiefs, four pocket-books, and eighteen purses, without counting the handkerchief and pocket-book of Commissary Mifroid. I turned your pockets out this morning to brush the linings; and as usual there was nothing in them but a few scraps of tobacco." "There was a large gathering in the Place de la Concorde. I plunged into it; and I came out of it with all these things. It's quite simple," said Theophrastus. "And what are we going to do with them?" said Adolphe in solemn tones. "What do you want me to do with them?" said Theophrastus sharply, for he was recovering a little from the shock. "You don't suppose I'm going to keep them! Is it my habit to keep things which don't belong to me? I'm an honest man; and I have never wronged a soul. You'll take these things to your friend the Commissary of Police. It will be easy enough for him to find the owners." "And what am I to tell him?" said Adolphe with a harried air. "Anything you like!" cried Theophrastus, beginning to lose his temper. "Does an honest cabman who finds a pocket-book and fifty thousand francs in his cab and takes them to the Police Station, bother about what he is going to tell the inspector? He says, 'I've found this in my cab,' and that's enough. He even gets a reward. All you have to say is: 'My friend Longuet asked me to bring you these things which he found in his pocket, and he doesn't ask for any reward.'" He spoke in a tone of impatient contempt for the intelligence of Adolphe, a tone to which Adolphe was quite unused. Adolphe frowned with ruffled dignity and was about to retort sharply, when Marceline kicked him gently under the table, a little kick which said plainly: "Theophrastus is going off his head! Come, friend, to his rescue!"