The next morning, after breakfast, the ladies, being already sadly bored in the country, where they desired at first to pass a fortnight, bade Mère Fourcy and Denise adieu and took their places in the Paris coach. "Ah! my dear," said Virginie, "how I long to be in Paris! it seems to me that it's six months since I saw Rue Montmartre and the Ambigu-Comique." "What do you think of me, who haven't theen Théodore for twenty-four hourth!" "Say what you will, there's no place but Paris for fun and dress and the theatre and punch!" "Ah! if I had to live in the country, I thould die there!" XIX A MAN IN A THOUSAND After his visit to the old man on the fifth floor, Auguste had made a vow to be prudent and to profit by the lesson which the unfortunate Dorfeuil had unconsciously given him. But an old proverb says: "Drive away the natural, and it returns at a gallop;" and Auguste's nature still impelled him to do foolish things. Moreover, being unable thenceforth, by reason of an instinctive delicacy for which he cannot be blamed, to seek diversion at his window, he was driven to seek it elsewhere. From his more prosperous days Auguste had retained the habit of playing the grand seigneur, of reckoning the cost of nothing, of following only his first impulse. He was as generous to the unfortunate as to his mistresses: to confer pleasure on others is such a gratifying habit that it is very hard to abandon it. There are people, however, who have never known that gratification. Upon examining his cash-box, Bertrand had discovered the enormous deficit consequent upon Auguste's visit to the old man. Unable to understand how his master could have spent so much money in so short a time, Bertrand concluded that they had been robbed, and made an infernal row. He proposed to go down and cudgel Schtrack and his wife, to teach them to allow thieves to enter the house; but Auguste detained him, saying: "Don't get excited, my dear fellow, we haven't been robbed." "Why, monsieur, we had about ten thousand francs left three days ago; now I can find only seven--and you say we haven't been robbed!" "No, Bertrand; it was I who took the money." "Oh! excuse me, lieutenant; if you have got it, that's different." "I don't say that I have it; I tell you that I had a use for it." "A thousand crowns in three days! you're doing well, lieutenant. I don't quite see why we came up to the fifth floor, for you didn't spend any more on the first." "I met an old friend, Bertrand,--he was in destitution." "We may very well be there, too, and it won't be long either, if we go on at this rate. Excuse me, lieutenant, I know how generous you are, I know your kind heart; but still you must remember that you haven't twenty thousand francs a year any more; and when you can't have anything but a piece of beef for dinner, it don't seem to me that it's the time to give other people partridges." "Don't be angry, Bertrand; I am going to be prudent--yes, miserly."