"You understand, of course, that before returning this cane, which I carried away by mistake from my friend Blanquette's party, I wished to be sure of returning it to its owner and no one else. Have you my switch?"
"No, monsieur; I haven't it—I don't even know what has become of it."
"Bigre! I am very sorry for that. You thought, I suppose, that it was just a common switch; you didn't see that it was a nerf de bœuf, which came from China, where they make a great many canes of that material, because it bends and never breaks. You value it at six sous, but it was worth forty francs."
"Oh! if I had known that——"
"You'd have taken more care of it. However, that's a trifling mishap. You pay for what I have eaten, and we will dine together; then we shall be quits."
"What, monsieur, you propose——"
"Pray take your cane; it's a fascinating thing! Everybody stared at it. Dear Courbichon! I am delighted to have returned it to you; but I greatly regret my Chinese switch! Such is very rare in Paris. Very few like it come here from China.—I say, waiter, how much do I owe?"
"Seven francs fifty, monsieur."
"Very good. Monsieur here will attend to it."
Monsieur Courbichon did not seem overjoyed to pay for his neighbor's breakfast; however, he did it. They left the café together, and, when they were on the boulevard, Cherami passed his arm through that of the owner of the cane, saying: