in his pocket. He was surprised to find that it smelled of vanilla: his lady used as perfume the bouquet of the Empress Eugénie.

Already everybody was awake in the hotel. They could hear waiters laughing, servant-girls singing, soldiers brushing their officers’ clothes. Seven o’clock had just struck. Leo wanted to induce his lady to take a cup of coffee and milk, but she declared that her throat was so contracted that she would die if she tried to drink anything.

Leo, furnished with his blue spectacles, went down to pay his bill. The host asked his pardon, pardon for the noise that had been made, and that he could not even yet account for, as the officers were always so quiet! Leo assured him that he had heard nothing and that he had slept perfectly.

‘I warrant you, your neighbour on the other side’, continued the host, ‘won’t have inconvenienced you. He doesn’t make much noise, that fellow. I bet he’s still sound asleep.’

Leo leant heavily on the counter to keep himself from falling, and the young woman, who had elected to follow him, hung on his arm, pressing her veil before her eyes.

‘He’s an Englishman,’ pursued the pitiless host. ‘He must always have the best of everything. Ah! a very respectable man! But all the English are not like him. There’s one here who is a skinflint. He finds everything too dear, the room, the dinner. He wanted to pay me down a note for his hundred and twenty- five francs, a note of the Bank of England for five pounds sterling—provided only that it’s good. Wait, sir, you ought to know, for I heard you speaking English with your wife. Is it good?’

As he said this, he handed him a banknote for five pounds sterling. On one of the corners was a little red stain that Leo accounted for at once.

‘I believe it’s quite good,’ he said in a strangled voice.

‘Oh, you have plenty of time,’ went on the host. ‘The train is only due at eight o’clock, and it is always late. Please take a seat, madame, you seem tired.’

At this moment a fat servant-girl entered.

‘Quick, some hot water,’ she said, ‘for the English milord’s tea! Bring me a sponge too! He has broken his bottle, and all his room is flooded.’

At these words Leo dropped on a chair, and his companion did the same. A great inclination to laugh seized them both, and they had some trouble not to let it burst out. The young man joyfully squeezed her hand.

‘Certainly,’ said Leo to his host, ‘we shall not go until the two o’clock train. Get us a nice lunch for midday.’