"Did you have a commission for the Granval family?" inquired the landlord, seating himself opposite the traveller, who, without heeding the question, said a moment later:
"After all, even if I had found him, he would have been no better than the rest. Everyone for himself—that’s the natural order. So much the worse for those who make fools of themselves, who allow themselves to be fleeced! It is no more than right to laugh at them.—But I defy them now! I am above them, I despise them all! And I shall be able to do without them."
"You will do without them?" said the inn-keeper, thinking that his guest was addressing him. "Oh! that’s all right, if you can. But I didn’t quite understand who you said that——"
"How much do I owe you?" demanded the stranger, rising abruptly.
"How much do you owe? Oh! it won’t take long to reckon: bread, cheese, wine—that makes twelve sous in all."
The stranger took twelve sous from a pocket of his jacket, and tossed them on the table; then, producing a pipe and tobacco from a coat pocket, he filled his pipe and said to the inn-keeper:
"Where is there a light?"
"A light—to light your pipe?"
"Apparently."
"Parbleu! there’s fire in the kitchen; it’s never cold here.—But you haven’t told me whether——"