"Because I don't care for this road by night. I have goods on my back, and two are always better than one. When two men are together, people don't attack them."
I felt that he was speaking truly, and that he was afraid. So I yielded to his wishes, and the pair of us walked on, side by side, this stranger and I, at one o'clock in the morning, along the road leading from Argenteuil to Asnieres.
"Why are you going home so late when it is so dangerous?" I asked my companion.
He told me his history. He had not intended to return home this evening, as he had brought with him that very morning a stock of goods to last him three or four days. But he had been so fortunate in disposing of them that he found it necessary to get back to his abode without delay in order to deliver next day a number of things which had been bought on credit.
He explained to me with genuine satisfaction that he had managed the business very well, having a tendency to talk confidentially, and that the knick-knacks he displayed were useful to him in getting rid, while gossiping, of other things which he could not easily sell.
He added:
"I have a shop in Asnieres. 'Tis my wife keeps it."
"Ah! So you're married?"
"Yes, m'sieur, for the last fifteen months. I have got a very nice wife. She'll get a surprise when she sees me coming home to-night."
He then gave me an account of his marriage. He had been after this young girl for two years, but she had taken time to make up her mind.