"Come, now," said I, shaking my head, and trying to look knowing; "you--you know what I mean, well enough. Is he a grim old fellow? A--a--griffin, you know! Come, is he a gr--r--r--riffin?"
My words had by this time acquired a distressing, self-propelling tendency, and linked themselves into compounds of twenty and thirty syllables.
My vis-à-vis smiled, bit his lip, then laughed a dry, short laugh.
"Really," he said, "I am not in a position to reply to your question; but upon the whole, I should say that Dr. Chéron was not quite a griffin. The species, you see, is extinct."
I roared with laughter; vowed I had never heard a better joke in my life; and repeated his last words over and over, like a degraded idiot as I was. All at once a sense of deadly faintness came upon me. I turned hot and cold by turns, and lifting my hand to my head, said, or tried to say:--
"Room's--'bominably--close!"
"We had better go," he replied promptly. "The air will do you good. Leave me to settle for our dinners, and you shall make it right with me by-and-by."
He did so, and we left the room. Once out in the open air I found myself unable to stand. He called a fiacre; almost lifted me in; took his place beside me, and asked the name of my hotel.
I had forgotten it; but I knew that it was opposite the railway station, and that was enough. When we arrived, I was on the verge of insensibility. I remember that I was led up-stairs by two waiters, and that the stranger saw me to my room. Then all was darkness and stupor.
CHAPTER X.
THE NEXT MORNING.
"Oh, my Christian ducats!" Merchant of Venice.
Gone!--gone!--both gone!--my new gold watch and my purse full of notes and Napoleons!
I rang the bell furiously. It was answered by a demure-looking waiter, with a face like a parroquet.
"Does Monsieur please to require anything?"
"Require anything!" I exclaimed, in the best French I could muster. "I have been robbed!"
"Robbed, Monsieur?"
"Yes, of my watch and purse!"
"Tiens! Of a watch and purse?" repeated the parroquet, lifting his eyebrows with an air of well-bred surprise. "C'est drôle."
"Droll!" I cried, furiously. "Droll, you scoundrel! I'll let you know whether I think it droll! I'll complain to the authorities! I'll have the house searched! I'll--I'll. … "
I rang the bell again. Two or three more waiters came, and the master of the hotel. They all treated my communication in the same manner--coolly; incredulously; but with unruffled politeness.
"Monsieur forgets," urged the master, "that he came back to the hotel last night in a state of absolute intoxication. Monsieur was accompanied by a stranger, who was gentlemanly, it it true; but since Monsieur acknowledges that that stranger was personally unknown to him, Monsieur may well perceive it would be more reasonable if his suspicions first pointed in that direction."
Struck by the force of this observation, I flung myself into a chair and remained silent.
"Has Monsieur no acquaintances in Paris to whom he may apply for advice?" inquired the landlord.
"None," said I, moodily; "except that I have a letter of introduction to one Dr. Chéron."
The landlord and his waiters exchanged glances.
"I would respectfully recommend Monsieur to present his letter immediately," said the former. "Monsieur le Docteur Chéron is a man of the world--a man of high reputation and sagacity. Monsieur could not do better than advise with him."
"Call a cab for me," said I, after a long pause. "I will go."
The determination cost me something. Dismayed by the extent of my loss, racked with headache, languid, pale, and full of remorse for last night's folly, it needed but this humiliation to complete my misery. What! appear before my instructor for the first time with such a tale! I could have bitten my lips through with vexation.
The cab was called. I saw, but would not see, the winks and nods exchanged behind my back by the grinning waiters. I flung myself into the vehicle, and soon was once more rattling through the noisy streets. But those brilliant streets had now lost all their charm for me. I admired nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing, on the way. I could think only of my father's anger and the contempt of Dr. Chéron.
Presently the cab stopped before a large wooden gate with two enormous knockers. One half of this gate was opened by a servant in a sad-colored livery. I was shown across a broad courtyard, up a flight of lofty steps, and into a spacious salon plainly furnished.
"Monsieur le Docteur is at present engaged," said the servant, with an air of profound respect. "Will Monsieur have the goodness to be seated for a few moments."
I sat down. I rose up. I examined the books upon the table, and the pictures on the walls. I wished myself "anywhere, anywhere out of the world," and more than once was on the point of stealing out of the house, jumping into my cab, and making off without seeing the doctor at all. One consideration alone prevented me. I had lost all my money, and had not even a franc left to pay the driver. Presently the door again opened, the grave footman reappeared, and I heard the dreaded announcement:--"Monsieur le Docteur will be happy to receive Monsieur in his consulting-room."
I followed mechanically. We passed through a passage thickly carpeted, and paused before a green baize door. This door opened noiselessly, and I found myself in the great man's presence.
"It gives me pleasure to welcome the son of my old friend John Arbuthnot," said a clear, and not unfamiliar voice.
I started, looked up, grew red and white, hot and cold, and had not a syllable to utter in reply.
In Doctor Chéron, I recognised--
PYTHIAS!
CHAPTER XI.
MYSTERIOUS PROCEEDINGS.
The doctor pointed to a chair, looked at his watch, and said:--
"I hope you have had a pleasant journey. Arrived this morning?"
There was not the faintest gleam of recognition on his face. Not a smile; not a glance; nothing but the easy politeness of a stranger to a stranger.
"N--not exactly," I faltered. "Yesterday morning, sir."
"Ah, indeed! Spent the day in sight-seeing, I dare say. Admire Paris?"
Too much astonished to speak, I took refuge in a bow.
"Not found any lodgings yet, I presume?" asked the doctor, mending a pen very deliberately.
"N--not yet, sir."
"I concluded so The English do not seek apartments on Sunday. You observe the day very strictly, no doubt?"
Blushing