"Two days later," resumed the worthy man, "I met one of those men who are neither friends nor strangers, with whom we have relations from time to time, and call acquaintances,--a certain Monsieur Barillaud, who remarked accidentally, /a propos/ of the 'Peruviens,' that the author was a friend of his.'Then you know citizen Mongenod?' I said.
"In those days we were obliged by law to call each other 'citizen,'"said Monsieur Alain to Godefroid, by way of parenthesis.Then he continued his narrative:--"The citizen looked at me, exclaiming, 'I wish I never had known him;for he has several times borrowed money of me, and shown his friendship by not returning it.He is a queer fellow,--good-hearted and all that, but full of illusions! always an imagination on fire! Iwill do him this justice,--he does not mean to deceive; but as he deceives himself about everything, he manages to behave like a dishonest man.' 'How much does he owe you?' I asked.'Oh! a good many hundred francs.He's a basket with a hole in the bottom.Nobody knows where his money goes; perhaps he doesn't know himself.' 'Has he any resources?' 'Well, yes,' said Barillaud, laughing; 'just now he is talking of buying land among the savages in the United States.' Icarried away with me the drop of vinegar which casual gossip thus put into my heart, and it soured all my feelings.I went to see my old master, in whose office Mongenod and I had studied law; he was now my counsel.When I told him about my loan to Mongenod and the manner in which I had acted,--'What!' he cried, 'one of my old clerks to behave in that way! You ought to have put him off till the next day and come to see me.You would then have found out that I have forbidden my clerks to let Mongenod into this office.Within the last year he has borrowed three hundred francs of me in silver,--an enormous sum at present rates.Three days before he breakfasted with you I met him on the street, and he gave such a piteous account of his poverty that Ilet him have two louis.' 'If I have been the dupe of a clever comedian,' I said to Bordin, 'so much the worse for him, not for me.