"Good! good!" said he, "it is understood."
In the large dining-hall the war-commissioner and two officers were
dining together; they turned round, and we saluted them.
I sent for Mother Barriere, who came at once, her apron on her arm, as
smiling and chubby as usual. Burguet whispered a couple of words in
her ear, and she instantly opened the door at the right, and said:
"Walk in, gentlemen, walk in! You will not have to wait long."
We went into the square room at the corner of the square, a small, high
room, with two large windows covered with muslin curtains, and the
porcelain stove well heated, as it should be in winter.
A servant came to lay the table, while we warmed our hands upon the
marble.
"I have a good appetite, Moses; my pleading is going to cost you dear,"
said Burguet, laughing.
"So much the better; it cannot be too dear for the gratitude I owe you."
"Come," said he, putting his hand on my shoulder, "I won't ruin you,
but we must have a good dinner."
When the table was ready, we sat down, opposite each other, in soft,
comfortable arm-chairs; and Burguet, fastening his napkin in his
button-hole, as was his custom, took up the bill of fare. He pondered
over it a long time; for you know, Fritz, that though nightingales are
good singers, they have the sharpest beaks in the world. Burguet was
like them, and I was delighted at seeing him thus meditating.
At last he said to the servant, slowly and solemnly:
"This and that, Madeleine, cooked so and so. And such a wine to begin
with, and such another at the end."
"Very well, M. Burguet," replied Madeleine, as she went out.
Two minutes afterward she brought us a good toast soup. During a
blockade this was something greatly to be desired; three weeks later we
should have been very fortunate to have got one.
Then she brought us some Bordeaux wine, warmed in a napkin. But you do
not suppose, Fritz, that I am going to tell you all the details of this
dinner? although I remember it all, with great pleasure, to this day.
Believe me, there was nothing wanting, meats nor fresh vegetables, nor
the large well-smoked ham, nor any of the things which are dreadfully
scarce in a shut-up city. We had even salad! Madame Barriere had kept
it in the cellar, in earth, and Burguet wished to dress it himself with
olive oil. We had, too, the last juicy pears which were seen in
Phalsburg, during that winter of 1814.
Burguet seemed happy, especially when the bottle of old Lironcourt was
brought, and we drank together.
"Moses," said he with softened eyes, "if all my pleas had as good pay
as you give, I would resign my place in college; but this is the first
fee I have received."
"And if I were in your place, Burguet," I exclaimed, "instead of
staying in Phalsburg, I would go to a large city. You would have
plenty of good dinners, good hotels, and the rest would soon follow."
"Ah! twenty years ago this might have been good advice," said he,
rising, "but it is too late now. Let us go and take our coffee, Moses."
Thus it is that men of great talents often bury themselves in small
places, where nobody values them at their true worth; they fall
gradually into their own ruts, and disappear without notice.
Burguet never forgot to go to the coffee-house at about five o'clock,
to play a game of cards with the old Jew Solomon, whose trade it was.
Burguet and five or six citizens fully supported this man, who took his
beer and coffee twice a day at their expense, to say nothing of the
crowns he pocketed for the support of his family.
So far as the others were concerned, I was not surprised at this, for
they were fools! but for a man like Burguet I was always astonished at
it; for, out of twenty deals, Solomon did not let them win more than
one or two, with the risk before his eyes of losing his best practice,
by discouraging them altogether.
I had explained this fifty times to Burguet; he assented, and kept on
all the same.
When we reached the coffee-house, Solomon was already there, in the
corner of a window at the left--his little dirty cap on his nose, and
his old greasy frock hanging at the foot of the stool. He was
shuffling the cards all by himself. He looked at Burguet out of the
corner of his eye, as a bird-catcher looks at larks, as if to say:
"Come! I am here! I am expecting you!"
But Burguet, when with me, dared not obey the old man; he was ashamed
of his weakness, and merely made a little motion of his head while he
seated himself at the opposite table, where coffee was served to us.
The comrades came soon, and Solomon began to fleece them. Burguet
turned his back to them; I tried to divert his attention, but his heart
was with them; he listened to all the throws, and yawned in his hand.
About seven o'clock, when the room was full of smoke, and the balls
were rolling on the billiard tables, suddenly a young man, a soldier,
entered, looking round in all directions.
It was the deserter.
He saw us at last, and approached us with his foraging cap in his hand.
Burguet looked up and recognized him; I saw him turn red; the deserter,
on the contrary, was very pale; he tried to speak, but could not say a
word.
"Ah! my friend!" said Burguet, "here you are, safe!"
"Yes, sir," replied the conscript, "and I have come to thank you for
myself, for my father, and for my mother!"
"Ah!" said Burguet, coughing, "it is all right! it is all right!"
He looked tenderly at the young man, and asked him softly, "You are
glad to live?"
"Oh! yes, sir," replied the conscript, "very glad."
"Yes," said Burguet, in a low voice, looking at the clock; "it would
have been all over now! Poor child!"
And suddenly beginning to use the _thou_ he said, "Thou hast had
nothing with which to drink my health, and I have not another sou.
Moses, give him a hundred sous."