My Library

companion; but I have not seen him since you both left together.’ “ ‘Bah, my friend!’ said I, ‘it won’t do. I know perfectly well that my comrade here was not a youngster, but a man of full seventy years of age, if a single day!’ “ ‘Sacré bleu! You’d better tell me I lie at once, and be done with it! You may say it was an old man, but I’ll be cursed if it wasn’t a young one, not yet out of his teens; and what’s more to the purpose, I’ll back my opinion, and bet you an even bottle of Jean Lafitte, forty-two years old, that the person who accompanied you here this day was a small, thin, sallow-faced youth of not over fifteen years! Will you take the wager?’ “ ‘Yes, and forty more just like it; but who shall be our umpire, and decide the bet?’ “ ‘Why, let the witnesses, my men, and my wife or daughter, decide. I’ll warrant they won’t lie for the sake of a bottle of wine. Are you agreed?’ “ ‘Yes, call them on; I’ll trust them.’ “ ‘Of course you may, for they are honest folks. My wife let you both in at the door; I sold you a bouquet; one of my men went round the garden with you, and the other ran to fetch change for the five-franc piece you gave me to take pay from. Here, wife, Joseph, and Pierre; come here all of you. I’ve made a bet with the gentleman, and want you three to decide it.’