A Chair on the Boulevard | Page 9

and fifty francs. More, after an avuncular
preamble which the poet skipped--having a literary hatred of digression
in the works of others--he even hinted that the allowance might be
resumed.
What a banquet there was in bohemia! How the glasses jingled
afterwards in La Lune Rousse, and oh, the beautiful hats that Germaine
and Marcelle displayed on the next fine Sunday! Even when the last
ripples of the splash were stilled, the comrades swaggered gallantly on
the boulevard Rochechouart, for by any post might not the first
instalment of that allowance arrive?

Weeks passed; and Tricotrin began to say, "It looks to me as if we
needed another Interview!"
And then came a letter which was no less cordial than its predecessor,
but which stunned the unfortunate recipient like a warrant for his
execution. Monsieur Rigaud stated that business would bring him to
Paris on the following evening and that he anticipated the pleasure of
visiting his nephew; he trusted that his dear Gustave would meet him at
the station. The poet and composer stared at each other with bloodless
faces.
"You must call at his hotel instead," faltered Pitou at last.
"But you may be sure he will wish to see my elegant abode."
"'It is in the hands of the decorators. How unfortunate!'"
"He would propose to offer them suggestions; he is a born suggester."
"'Fever is raging in the house--a most infectious fever'; we will ask a
medical student to give us one."
"It would not explain my lodging in a slum meanwhile."
"Well, let us admit that there is nothing to be done; you will have to
own up!"
"Are you insane? It is improvident youths like you, who come to
lament their wasted lives. If I could receive him this once as he expects
to be received, we cannot doubt that it would mean an income of two
thousand francs to me. Prosperity dangles before us--shall I fail to
clutch it? Mon Dieu, what a catastrophe, his coming to Paris! Why
cannot he conduct his business in Lyons? Is there not enough money in
the city of Lyons to satisfy him? O grasper! what greed! Nicolas, my
more than brother, if it were night when I took him to a sumptuous
apartment, he might not notice the name of the street--I could talk
brilliantly as we turned the corner. Also I could scintillate as I led him
away. He would never know that it was not the rue des Trois Frères."

"You are right," agreed Pitou; "but which is the pauper in our social
circle whose sumptuous apartment you propose to acquire?"
"One must consider," said Tricotrin. "Obviously, I am compelled to
entertain in somebody's; fortunately, I have two days to find it in. I
shall now go forth!"
It was a genial morning, and the first person he accosted in the rue
Ravignan was Goujaud, painting in the patch of garden before the
studios. "Tell me, Goujaud," exclaimed the poet, "have you any gilded
acquaintance who would permit me the use of his apartment for two
hours to-morrow evening?"
Goujaud reflected for some seconds, with his head to one side. "I have
never done anything so fine as this before," he observed; "regard the
atmosphere of it!"
"It is execrable!" replied Tricotrin, and went next door to Flamant. "My
old one," he explained, "I have urgent need of a regal apartment for two
hours to-morrow--have you a wealthy friend who would accommodate
me?"
"You may beautify your bedroom with all my possessions," returned
Flamant heartily. "I have a stuffed parrot that is most decorative, but I
have not a friend that is wealthy."
"You express yourself like a First Course for the Foreigner," said
Tricotrin, much annoyed. "Devil take your stuffed parrot!"
The heat of the sun increased towards midday, and drops began to
trickle under the young man's hat. By four o'clock he had called upon
sixty-two persons, exclusive of Sanquereau, whom he had been unable
to wake. He bethought himself of Lajeunie, the novelist; but Lajeunie
could offer him nothing more serviceable than a pass for the Elysée-
Montmartre. "Now how is it possible that I spend my life among such
imbeciles?" groaned the unhappy poet; "one offers me a parrot, and
another a pass for a dancing-hall! Can I assure my uncle, who is a
married man, and produces silk in vast quantities, that I reside in a

dancing-hall? Besides, we know those passes--they are available only
for ladies."
"It is true that you could not get in by it," assented Lajeunie, "but I give
it to you freely. Take it, my poor fellow! Though it may appear
inadequate to the occasion, who knows but what it will prove to be the
basis of a fortune?"
"You are as crazy as the stories you