As he threw himself back on the bench, Cherami knocked his cane against his neighbor. Whereupon the latter turned, and pushed the cane away, muttering:
"What's that! a wager--just because my cane slipped against you? I say, my dear monsieur, who are so attached to the truth, you're very touchy, aren't you?"
The bald man made no reply; as he pushed the cane away, he had glanced at it, and from that moment he kept his eyes fixed upon it.
"Ah! you are admiring my cane now?" said Arthur; "you begin to understand that it would have been a pity to break it!--It's very neat."
Still the bald man made no reply, but raised his eyes and examined the hat which its owner had hung on a hook. He scrutinized it so carefully that Cherami lost patience, and said to himself:
"Well, well! what's the matter with this creature! How much longer is he going to stare at my hat and cane? He's beginning to make me very weary."
At last, the little man made up his mind to speak:
"That cane, monsieur--with that agate head; it's very singular!"
"You find that my cane has a singular look? Distinguished, you mean, I doubt not?"
"Why, monsieur, the fact is, that that cane--the more I look at it--a rattan--exactly!--and the hat, too--the same kind of a band--very broad----"
"Tell me, monsieur--when you have finished, will you very kindly explain yourself?" said Cherami. He began to suspect who his companion was, but he did not choose to let it appear.
"This is how it is, monsieur: I had a cane exactly like this one--so much like it that I could swear it was the same one."
"We see canes that look just alike, every day, monsieur; there's nothing extraordinary in that; there are many men who are mistaken for one another, and yet there is an expression, an animation, on a man's face which you would seek in vain on the head of a cane."
"Excuse me, monsieur; but all canes haven't an agate head cut like this one."
"If they had, they would be too common, and I wouldn't want one."
"Well, monsieur, I lost my cane and my hat at a wedding party which I attended about two months ago; that is to say, I didn't positively lose them, but they were exchanged--and I didn't gain by the change! In place of my hat, which had a band exactly like this--very broad--and the same shape--they left a pitiful, disgraceful thing; and I was obliged to buy a new one the next day; and in place of my cane I found a sort of switch, of the kind they beat clothes with--not worth six sous!"