"The devil!" said Cherami to himself; "the day opens badly! I counted on Gustave for breakfast, and now it's after twelve o'clock, and I'm as hungry as a cannibal. However, if I must, I will dispose of my new cane. I shall be sorry to do it, for it's a pretty one--a genuine rattan. But I should be still more sorry to go without breakfast. It must have cost at least thirty francs. A dealer will give me six for it,--they have all the cheek they need, those fellows,--and he'll act as if he were doing me a favor! I prefer to leave it in pawn for a beefsteak and its accessories. Come, let us look for a café where we can get a good breakfast."
Cherami was then on the boulevard, where there is no lack of cafés; for one cannot walk thirty feet without passing one. The ex-Beau Arthur entered the establishment which had the most modern show-front, seated himself at a table, hung up his hat, laid his cane on the seat, and summoned the waiter with that resounding voice and in that arrogant tone which never fail to produce their effect on the waiters in a café.
"Radishes, sardines, and butter; then a beefsteak-châteaubriand, rare, with roquefort and a bottle of bordeaux. After that, we will see. Go!--That cane is certainly worth all that I have ordered," he said to himself; "yes, and I can safely add a cup of coffee and a _petit verre._ At all events, if they are not satisfied, I will do like Bilboquet in _Les Saltimbanques_, I will pledge my signature.--I am annoyed, all the same, to find that my young friend Gustave is in Spain. But is he really in Spain? That is what I must find out."
Cherami had eaten his hors-d'oeuvre, and was about to attack his beefsteak-châteaubriand, when a short man, dressed with some pretension, with a stupid face and a bald head which seemed to beg for a wig, took his place at the table next to his, and sat down on the cane which Cherami had laid on the bench.
The new-comer jumped to his feet, putting his hand to his posterior, and exclaiming:
Cherami picked up his cane and stood it on the floor, between himself and his neighbor.
"It's lucky for you that you didn't break it," he said; "for it would have cost you a pretty penny!"
"No matter! if you had broken it, you'd have paid for it!"