"Plates? hardly; I very rarely eat in my room."
"No matter—a salad-bowl, a vase, anything you please."
Robineau looked in his buffet and returned with a porcelain preserve dish and one plate, saying:
"These are all I can find."
"Excellent," said the solicitor’s clerk, taking the two objects.
"What do you propose to do with them?"
"You will see; follow me, and shout as I do, with all your lungs, when we are near the shop."
The young man went slowly down stairs, holding the plate in one hand and the preserve dish in the other. Robineau followed, curious to see what he was going to do. When they reached the first floor, the clerk began to shout: "Stop thief!" and Robineau followed suit. Then the young man hurled the plate into the passage; whereupon Robineau ran after him to stop him.
"The devil!" he exclaimed, "that will do; don’t throw my preserve dish!"
But it was too late; the dish had already followed the plate; it broke into a thousand pieces, and at the crash all the young women rushed from the shop to inquire what was going on.