"Which you please," returned the poet, rising. "I believe you to be strictly honorable." He thoughtfully emptied his cup. "I wish I could add you were intelligent," he went on, knocking on his head with his knuckles. "Age, age! the brains stiff and rheumatic."
The old man preceded him from a point of self-respect; Villon followed, whistling, with his thumbs in his girdle.
"God pity you," said the lord of Brisetout at the door.
"Good-bye, papa," returned Villon, with a yawn. "Many thanks for the cold mutton."
The door closed behind him. The dawn was breaking over the white roofs. A chill, uncomfortable morning ushered in the day. Villon stood and heartily stretched himself in the middle of the road.
"A very dull old gentleman," he thought. "I wonder what his goblets may be worth."
INDEX
Aesop
beast-fables
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
likeness to Kipling
Aristotle
Secretum Secretorum
Barrett, Charles Raymond
Short-Story Writings
Beast-fables
Boccaccio
Teseide
Decameron
Brown, Dr. John (1810-1882)
Rab and His Friends
Bunyan, John
Cable
Strange True Stories of Louisiana
Cervantes
Don Quixote
Chaucer
Coleridge
Ancient Mariner