He had forbidden me to speak, so I could only express concurrence in the sentiments which he expressed by a slight elevation of my left eyebrow.

“I am determined to win the affections of Mlle. Goldberg,” M. Rochez went on glibly, “and equally am I determined to make her my wife.”

“A very natural determination,” I remarked involuntarily.

“My only trouble with regard to pressing my court is the fact that my lovely Leah is never allowed outside her father’s house, save in his company or that of his sister—­an old maid of dour mien and sour disposition, who acts the part of a duenna with dog-like tenacity.  Over and over again have I tried to approach the lady of my heart, only to be repelled or roughly rebuked for my insolence by her irascible old aunt.”

“You are not the first lover, Sir,” I remarked drily, “who hath seen obstacles thus thrown in his way, and—­”

“One moment, M.—­er—­Ratichon,” he broke in sharply.  “I have not finished.  I will not attempt to describe my feelings to you.  I have been writhing—­yes, writhing!—­in face of those obstacles of which you speak so lightly, and for a long time I have been cudgelling my brains as to the possible means whereby I might approach my divinity unchecked.  Then one day I bethought me of you—­”

“Of me, Sir?” I ejaculated, sorely puzzled.  “Why of me?”

“None of my friends,” he replied nonchalantly, “would care to undertake so scrubby a task as I would assign to you.”

“I pray you to be more explicit,” I retorted with unimpaired dignity.

Once more he paused.  Obviously he was a born mountebank, and he calculated all his effects to a nicety.

“You, M.—­er—­Ratichon,” he said curtly at last, “will have to take the duenna off my hands.”

I was beginning to understand.  So I let him prattle on the while my busy brain was already at work evolving the means to render this man service, which in its turn I expected to be amply repaid.  Thus I cannot repeat exactly all that he said, for I was only listening with half an ear.  But the substance of it all was this:  I was to pose as the friend of M. Fernand Rochez, and engage the attention of Mlle. Goldberg senior the while he paid his court to the lovely Leah.  It was not a repellent task altogether, because M. Rochez’s suggestion opened a vista of pleasant parties at open-air cafes, with foaming tankards of beer, on warm afternoons the while the young people sipped sirops and fed on love.  My newly found friend was pleased to admit that my personality and appearance would render my courtship of the elderly duenna a comparatively easy one.  She would soon, he declared, fall a victim to my charms.

After which the question of remuneration came in, and over this we did not altogether agree.  Ultimately I decided to accept an advance of two hundred francs and a new suit of clothes, which I at once declared was indispensable under the circumstances, seeing that in my well-worn coat I might have the appearance of a fortune-hunter in the eyes of the suspicious old dame.