“‘Since that is so,’ he said, ‘you shall see what a comrade is.’  I ought to say that the cab had been going all the time we were talking, and that we were out in the suburbs now.  My Chevassat raised the blind to look out; and, as soon as he saw a clothing store, he ordered the driver to stop there.  The driver did so; and then Chevassat said to me, ’Come, old man, we’ll begin by dressing you up decently.’  So we get out; and upon my word, he buys me a shirt, trousers, a coat, and everything else that was needful; he pays for a silk hat, and a pair of varnished boots.  Farther down the street was a watchmaker.  I declare he makes me a present of a gold watch, which I still have, and which they seized when they put me in jail.  Finally, he has spent his five hundred francs, and gives me eighty francs to boot, to play the gentleman.

“You need not ask if I thanked him, when we got back into the cab.  After such misery as I had endured, my morals came back with my clothes.  I would have jumped into the fire for Chevassat.  Alas!  I would not have been so delighted, if I had known what I should have to pay for all this; for in the first place”—­

“Oh, go on!” broke in the lawyer; “go on!”

Not without some disappointment, Crochard had to acknowledge that everything purely personal did not seem to excite the deepest interest.  He made a face, full of spite, and then went on, speaking more rapidly,—­

“All these purchases had taken some time; so that it was six o’clock, and almost dark, when we reached Vincennes.  A little before we got into the town, Chevassat stopped the cab, paid the driver, sends him back, and, taking me by the arm, says, ‘You must be hungry:  let us dine.’

“So we first absorb a glass of absinthe; then he carries me straight to the best restaurant, asks for a private room, and orders a dinner.  Ah, but a dinner!  Merely to hear it ordered from the bill of fare made my mouth water.

“We sit down; and I, fearing nothing, would not have changed places with the pope.  And I talked, and I ate, and I drank; I drank, perhaps, most; for I had not had anything to drink for a long time; and, finally, I was rather excited.  Chevassat seemed to have unbuttoned, and told me lots of funny things which set me a-laughing heartily.  But when the coffee had been brought, with liquors in abundance, and cigars at ten cents apiece, my individual rises, and pushes the latch in the door; for there was a latch.

“Then he comes back, and sits down right in front of me, with his elbows on the table.  ‘Now, old man,’ he says, ’we have had enough laughing and talking.  I am a good fellow, you know; but you understand that I am not treating you for the sake of your pretty face alone.  I want a good stout fellow; and I thought you might be the man.’

“Upon my word, he told me that in such a peculiar way, that I felt as if somebody had kicked me in the stomach; and I began to be afraid of him.  Still I concealed my fears, and said, ’Well, let us see; go it!  What’s the row?’