"Oh dear!" exclaimed the porter, in consternation, "I've put it in the Savings' Bank."
"But consider sir," objected the young man. "I can't find another lodging in a moment! At least grant me hospitality for a day."
"Go to a hotel!" replied Monsieur Bernard. "By the way," added he, struck with a sudden idea, "if you like, I can let you a furnished room, the one you were to occupy, which has the furniture of my defaulting tenant in it. Only you know that when rooms are let this way, you pay in advance."
"Well," said the artist, finding he could do no better, "I should like to know what you are going to ask me for your hole."
"It is a very comfortable lodging, and the rent will be twenty-five francs a month, considering the circumstances, paid in advance."
"You have said that already, the expression does not deserve being repeated," said the young man, feeling in his pocket. "Have you change for five hundred francs?"
"I beg your pardon," quoth the astonished landlord.
"Five hundred, half a thousand; did you never see one before?" continued the artist, shaking the bank-note in the faces of the landlord and porter, who fairly lost their balance at the sight.
"You shall have it in a moment, sir," said the now respectful owner of the house, "there will only be twenty francs to take out, for Durand will return your deposit."
"He may keep it," replied the artist, "on condition of coming every morning to tell me the day of the week and month, the quarter of the moon, the weather it is going to be, and the form of government we are under."