Bohemian Days | Page 5

was even fascinating.
One suspected him to be a leech, but pardoned the motive for the
manner. He called himself a broken man. The war had blighted his fair
fortunes. For a time he had held on hopefully, but now meant to breast
the current no longer. His time was at the service of anybody. Would
monsieur like to see the city? He knew its every cleft and den. So he
had lived in Paris five years--in the same manner, elsewhere, all his
life.
A few men heard his story and helped him--one Northern man had
given him employment; his gratitude was defalcation.
To day he has sounded Hugenot; but that man of sentiment alluded to
the business habits of his ancestry, and intimated that he did not lend.
"Ou-ah cause, Andy," he says, with a flourish, "is now negotiating a
loan. When ou-ah beloved country is reduced to such straits, that she
must borow from strangers, I cannot think of relieving private
indigence."
Later in the day, however, Mr. Plade made the acquaintance of an
ingenuous youth from Pennsylvania, and obtaining a hundred francs,
for one day only, sent it straightway to Mr. Auburn Risque.
A second meeting was held at Lees' the third day noon, when the
originator of the "system" sat icily grim behind a table whereon eleven
hundred francs reposed; and the whole colony, crowding breathlessly
around, was amazed to note how little the space taken up by so great a
sum.

They opened a crevice that Lees might be gladdened with the sight of
the gold; for to-day that invalid was unusually dispirited, and could not
quit his bed.
"We are down very low, old Simp," said Pisgah, smilingly, "when
either the possession or the loss of that amount can be an event in our
lives."
"You will laugh that it was so, a week hence," answered Auburn
Risque--"when you lunch at Peters' while awaiting my third check for a
thousand dollars apiece."
"I don't believe in the system," growled Lees, opening a cold draft from
his melancholy eyes: "I don't feel that I shall ever spend a sou of the
winnings. No more will any of you. There will be no winnings to spend.
Auburn Risque will lose. He always does."
"If you were standing by at the play I should," cried Risque, while the
pock-marks in his face were like the thawings of ice. "You would croak
like an old raven, and I should forget my reckoning."
"Come now, Lees," cried all the others; "you must not see bad omen for
the Colony;" and they said, in undertone, that Lees had come to be
quite a bore.
They were all doubtful, nevertheless. Their crisis could not be
exaggerated. Their interest was almost devout. Three thousand miles
from relief; two seas between, one of water and one of fire; at home,
conscription, captivity, death: the calamity of Southerners abroad
would merit all sympathy, if it had not been induced by waste, and
unredeemed by either fortitude or regret.
The unhappy Freckle, whose luckless admiration of the rest had been
his ruin, felt that a sonorous prayer, such as his old father used to make
in the Methodist meeting-house, would be a good thing wherewith to
freight Auburn Risque for his voyage. When men stake everything on a
chance, it is natural to look up to somebody who governs chances; but
Andy Plade, in his loud, bad way, proposed a huge toast, which they

took with a cheer, and quite confused Hugenot, who had a sentiment
apropos.
Then they escorted Auburn Risque to the Chemin de fer du Nord,[C]
and packed him away in a third-class carriage, wringing his hand as if
he were their only hope and friend in the world.
[Footnote C: Northern Railway Station.]

III.
DEATH IN EXPATRIATION.
It was a weary day for the Southern Colony. They strolled about
town--to the Masque, the Jardin des Plantes, the Champ des Mars, the
Marché aux Chevaux, and finally to Freckle's place, and essayed a
lugubrious hour at whist.
"It is poor fun, Pisgah," said Mr. Simp, at last, "if we remember that
afternoon at poker when you won eight thousand francs and I lost six
thousand."
The conversation forever returned to Spa and Baden-Baden, and many
wagers were made upon the amount of money which Risque would
gain--first day--second day--first week, and so forth.
At last they resolved to send to Lees' chamber for the roulette-board,
and pass the evening in experiment. They drew Jacks for the party who
should fetch it, and Freckle, always unfortunate, was pronounced the
man. He went cheerfully, thinking it quite an honor to serve the Colony
in any capacity--for Freckle, representing a disaffected State, had fallen
under suspicion of lukewarm loyalty, and was most anxious to clear up