"What does that matter? Who cares for education nowadays? Besides, have I not been training ever since the 4th of September, to say nothing of the hard work on the ramparts?" "_Parlez moi de cela_ it is indeed hard work on the ramparts. _Infandum dolorem quorum pars magna fui_. Take the day duty. What with rising at seven o'clock, and being drilled between a middle-aged and corpulent grocer on one side and a meagre beardless barber's apprentice on the other; what with going to the bastions at eleven, and seeing half one's companions drunk before twelve; what with trying to keep their fists off one's face when one politely asks them not to call one's general a traitor or a poltroon,--the work of the ramparts would be insupportable, if I did not take a pack of cards with me, and enjoy a quiet rubber with three other heroes in some sequestered corner. As for night work, nothing short of the indomitable fortitude of a Parisian could sustain it; the tents made expressly not to be waterproof, like the groves of the Muses, "' per Quos et aquea subeant et aurae.' A fellow-companion of mine tucks himself up on my rug, and pillows his head on my knapsack. I remonstrate--he swears--the other heroes wake up and threaten to thrash us both; and just when peace is made, and one hopes for a wink of sleep, a detachment of spectators, chiefly gamins, coming to see that all is safe in the camp, strike up the Marseillaise. Ah, the world will ring to the end of time with the sublime attitude of Paris in the face of the Vandal invaders, especially when it learns that the very shoes we stand in are made of cardboard. In vain we complain. The contractor for shoes is a staunch Republican, and jobs by right divine. May I ask if you have dined yet?" "Heavens! no, it is too early. But I am excessively hungry. I had only a quarter of jugged cat for breakfast, and the brute was tough. In reply to your question, may I put another--Did you lay in plenty of stores?" "Stores? no; I am a bachelor, and rely on the stores of my married friends." "Poor De Breze! I sympathise with you, for I am in the same boat, and dinner invitations have become monstrous rare." "Oh, but you are so confoundedly rich! What to you are forty francs for a rabbit, or eighty francs for a turkey?" "Well, I suppose I am rich, but I have no money, and the ungrateful restautrants will not give me credit. They don't believe in better days." "How can you want money?"