"And now ...?"
"And now the farce is done, I am going"; and Romieu would nod to the grocer and make off.
"What! are you going without paying for the candle?" shrieked the grocer. "At least pay for the candle."
Romieu would turn round—
"If I paid for the candle, where would be the farce?"
And he would go on his way quite heedless of the grocer's objurgations.
Occasionally, Romieu's ambitions would soar higher than teasing grocers, and he would play irreverent pranks in higher circles of commerce.
One evening, he was passing along the rue de Seine, at the corner of the rue de Bussy, at half-past twelve midnight, when an assistant was preparing to close the shop of les Deux Magots. Generally, the establishment closed at eleven, so it was unusually late.
Romieu rushed inside the shop.
"Where is the proprietor of the establishment?"