"Here you are at last, my jolly bloke! So much the better; we shall have a laugh."
"We wanted you, old son!"
"You have stayed away a long time."
"Yet I have done all I could to return to my friends. It is not my fault if they would not have me sooner."
"Just so, my crummy mate; no one will come of his own accord to be caged; but once there, one must enjoy himself."
"You are in luck, for Pique-Vinaigre is here."
"He also? an old Melun chum! famous, famous, he will help us pass the time with his stories, and customers will not be wanting, for I announce some recruits."
"Who then?"
"Just now, at the office, while they were enrolling me, they brought in two young coves. One I do not know; but the other, who wore a blue cotton cap and a gray blouse, struck my eye. I have seen the fellow somewhere. I think it was in the White Rabbit: a very fine-looking prig."
"Say now, Big Cripple, do you recollect at Melun, I bet you, before a year you would be nabbed?"