“I know; you want to say you cannot accept my philosophy and I cannot appreciate yours; but I appreciate it more than you think, my-de’-seh.”

The convalescent’s smile showed much fatigue.

The Creole extended his hand; the immigrant seized it, wished to ask his name, but did not; and the next moment he was gone.

The convalescent walked meditatively toward his quarters, with a faint feeling of having been found asleep on duty and awakened by a passing stranger.  It was an unpleasant feeling, and he caught himself more than once shaking his head.  He stopped, at length, and looked back; but the Creole was long since out of sight.  The mortified self-accuser little knew how very similar a feeling that vanished person was carrying away with him.  He turned and resumed his walk, wondering who Monsieur might be, and a little impatient with himself that he had not asked.

“It is Honore Grandissime; it must be he!” he said.

Yet see how soon he felt obliged to change his mind.

CHAPTER VIII

SIGNED—­HONORE GRANDISSIME

On the afternoon of the same day, having decided what he would “do,” he started out in search of new quarters.  He found nothing then, but next morning came upon a small, single-story building in the rue Royale,—­corner of Conti,—­which he thought would suit his plans.  There were a door and show-window in the rue Royale, two doors in the intersecting street, and a small apartment in the rear which would answer for sleeping, eating, and studying purposes, and which connected with the front apartment by a door in the left-hand corner.  This connection he would partially conceal by a prescription-desk.  A counter would run lengthwise toward the rue Royale, along the wall opposite the side-doors.  Such was the spot that soon became known as “Frowenfeld’s Corner.”

The notice “A Louer” directed him to inquire at numero—­rue Conde.  Here he was ushered through the wicket of a porte cochere into a broad, paved corridor, and up a stair into a large, cool room, and into the presence of a man who seemed, in some respects, the most remarkable figure he had yet seen in this little city of strange people.  A strong, clear, olive complexion; features that were faultless (unless a woman-like delicacy, that was yet not effeminate, was a fault); hair en queue, the handsomer for its premature streakings of gray; a tall, well knit form, attired in cloth, linen and leather of the utmost fineness; manners Castilian, with a gravity almost oriental,—­made him one of those rare masculine figures which, on the public promenade, men look back at and ladies inquire about.