“The noise woke our host; he yelled and went out to get out a light, and meanwhile you hid the tureen under the bed.”
“Exactly. Look and see if he is mistaken in a single point!”
The servants did in fact find the tureen, which they soon returned to its place, holding their noses. The host was stupefied; but his spoiled soup-stock made him rather sulky, for he expected to make soup with it for a whole week. My companion, seeing what disturbed him, came back to me.
“What has it been my intention to do, since I discovered my mistake?”
“To give our host twelve francs as compensation for this accident.”
“Parbleu! exactly! Twelve francs! I told you so a moment ago, my dear host, to appease your wrath.”
“No, monsieur, I assure you that you never mentioned it.”
“No? Well, I had it on the tip of my tongue. Now you are satisfied, I hope, and I can wake our young man.”
He came to me and pinched the end of my little finger. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes, like a person just waking, and naturally asked what I was doing there.
My companion glanced at the people of the inn; they were so surprised by all that they had seen and heard, that they stared at me as at a supernatural being.