"But how the devil do you come here?"
"Ah!" thought Christophe, "he doesn't know. That is why he was so amiable.
He'll be different when he knows."
He made it a point of honor to tell everything against himself: the brawl with the soldiers, the warrant out against him, his flight from the country.
Kohn rocked with laughter.
"Bravo!" he cried. "Bravo! That's a good story!"
He shook Christophe's hand warmly. He was delighted by any smack in the eye of authority: and the story tickled him the more as he knew the heroes of it: he saw the funny side of it.
"I say," he said, "it is past twelve. Will you give me the pleasure …?
Lunch with me?"
Christophe accepted gratefully. He thought:
"This is a good fellow—decidedly a good fellow. I was mistaken."
They went out together. On the way Christophe put forward his request: