"The body, the body—well what of the body?—oh! ah! I perceive. Why, sir, the body is not at all affected by the transaction. I have made innumerable purchases of the kind in my day, and the parties never experienced any inconvenience. There were Cain, and Nimrod, and Nero, and Caligula, and Dionysius, and Pisistratus, and—and a thousand others, who never knew what it was to have a soul during the latter part of their lives; yet, sir, these men adorned society. Why is'nt there A——, now, whom you know as well as I? Is he not in possession of all his faculties, mental and corporeal? Who writes a keener epigram? Who reasons more wittily? Who——but, stay! I have his agreement in my pocket-book."
Thus saying he produced a red leather wallet, and took from it a number of papers. Upon some of these Bon-Bon caught a glimpse of the letters MACHI——, MAZA——, RICH——, and the words CALIGULA and ELIZABETH. His majesty selected a narrow slip of parchment, and from it read aloud the following words:
"In consideration of certain mental endowments which it is unnecessary to specify; and in farther consideration of one thousand louis d'or, I, being aged one year and one month, do hereby make over to the bearer of this agreement all my right, title, and appurtenance in the shadow called my soul." (Signed) A——2 (Here his majesty repeated a name which I do not feel myself justifiable in indicating more unequivocally.)
2 Quære—Arouet?—Editor.
"A clever fellow that A——"—resumed he; "but like you, Monsieur Bon-Bon, he was mistaken about the soul. The soul a shadow truly!—no such nonsense, Monsieur Bon-Bon. The soul a shadow!! ha! ha! ha!—he! he! he!—hu! hu! hu! Only think of a fricasséed shadow!"
"Only think—hiccup!—of a f-r-i-c-a-s-s-e-e-d s-h-a-d-ow!!" echoed our hero, whose faculties were becoming gloriously illuminated by the profundity of his majesty's discourse.
"Only think of a—hiccup!—fricasseed shadow!!! Now damme!—hiccup!—humph!—if I would have been such a—hiccup!—nincompoop! My soul, Mr.—humph!"
"Your soul, Monsieur Bon-Bon?"
"Yes, sir—hiccup!—my soul is"—
"What, sir!"