doubtless had a short conversation.
"Pere Leger," said Pierrotin, looking into the coach, "will you give

your place to Monsieur le comte? That will balance the carriage
better."

"We sha'n't be off for an hour if you go on this way," cried Georges.
"We shall have to take down this infernal bar, which cost such trouble

to put up. Why should everybody be made to move for the man who comes
last? We all have a right to the places we took. What place has

monsieur engaged? Come, find that out! Haven't you a way-book, a
register, or something? What place has Monsieur Lecomte engaged?--

count of what, I'd like to know."
"Monsieur le comte," said Pierrotin, visibly troubled, "I am afraid

you will be uncomfortable."
"Why didn't you keep better count of us?" said Mistigris. "'Short

counts make good ends.'"
"Mistigris, behave yourself," said his master.

Monsieur de Serizy was evidently taken by all the persons in the coach
for a bourgeois of the name of Lecomte.

"Don't disturb any one," he said to Pierrotin. "I will sit with you in
front."

"Come, Mistigris," said the master to his rapin, "remember the respect
you owe to age; you don't know how shockingly old you may be yourself

some day. 'Travel deforms youth.' Give your place to monsieur."
Mistigris opened the leathern curtain and jumped out with the agility

of a frog leaping into the water.
"You mustn't be a rabbit, august old man," he said to the count.

"Mistigris, 'ars est celare bonum,'" said his master.
"I thank you very much, monsieur," said the count to Mistigris's

master, next to whom he now sat.
The minister of State cast a sagacious glance round the interior of

the coach, which greatly affronted both Oscar and Georges.
"When persons want to be master of a coach, they should engage all the

places," remarked Georges.
Certain now of his incognito, the Comte de Serizy made no reply to

this observation, but assumed the air of a good-natured bourgeois.
"Suppose you were late, wouldn't you be glad that the coach waited for

you?" said the farmer to the two young men.
Pierrotin still looked up and down the street, whip in hand,

apparently reluctant to mount to the hard seat where Mistigris was
fidgeting.

"If you expect some one else, I am not the last," said the count.
"I agree to that reasoning," said Mistigris.

Georges and Oscar began to laugh impertinently.
"The old fellow doesn't know much," whispered Georges to Oscar, who

was delighted at this apparent union between himself and the object of
his envy.

"Parbleu!" cried Pierrotin, "I shouldn't be sorry for two more
passengers."

"I haven't paid; I'll get out," said Georges, alarmed.
"What are you waiting for, Pierrotin?" asked Pere Leger.

Whereupon Pierrotin shouted a certain "Hi!" in which Bichette and
Rougeot recognized a definitive resolution, and they both sprang

toward the rise of the faubourg at a pace which was soon to slacken.
The count had a red face, of a burning red all over, on which were

certain inflamed portions which his snow-white hair brought out into
full relief. To any but heedless youths, this complexion would have

revealed a constant inflammation of the blood, produced by incessant
labor. These blotches and pimples so injured the naturally noble air

of the count that careful examination was needed to find in his green-
gray eyes the shrewdness of the magistrate, the wisdom of a statesman,

and the knowledge of a legislator. His face was flat, and the nose
seemed to have been depressed into it. The hat hid the grace and

beauty of his forehead. In short, there was enough to amuse those
thoughtless youths in the odd contrasts of the silvery hair, the

burning face, and the thick, tufted eye-brows which were still jet-
black.

The count wore a long blue overcoat, buttoned in military fashion to
the throat, a white cravat around his neck, cotton wool in his ears,

and a shirt-collar high enough to make a large square patch of white
on each cheek. His black trousers covered his boots, the toes of

which were barely seen. He wore no decoration in his button-hole, and
doeskin gloves concealed his hands. Nothing about him betrayed to the

eyes of youth a peer of France, and one of the most useful statesmen
in the kingdom.

Pere Leger had never seen the count, who, on his side, knew the former
only by name. When the count, as he got into the carriage, cast the

glance about him which affronted Georges and Oscar, he was, in
reality, looking for the head-clerk of his notary (in case he had been

forced, like himself, to take Pierrotin's vehicle), intending to
caution him instantly about his own incognito. But feeling reassured

by the appearance of Oscar, and that of Pere Leger, and, above all, by
the quasi-military air, the waxed moustaches, and the general look of

an adventurer that distinguished Georges, he concluded that his note
had reached his notary, Alexandre Crottat, in time to prevent the

departure of the clerk.
"Pere Leger," said Pierrotin, when they reached the steep hill of the

faubourg Saint-Denis by the rue de la Fidelite, "suppose we get out,
hey?"

"I'll get out, too," said the count, hearing Leger's name.
"Goodness! if this is how we are going, we shall do fourteen miles in

fifteen days!" cried Georges.
"It isn't my fault," said Pierrotin, "if a passenger wishes to get

out."
"Ten louis for you if you keep the secret of my being here as I told

you before," said the count in a low voice, taking Pierrotin by the
arm.

"Oh, my thousand francs!" thought Pierrotin as he winked an eye at
Monsieur de Serizy, which meant, "Rely on me."

Oscar and Georges stayed in the coach.
"Look here, Pierrotin, since Pierrotin you are," cried Georges, when

the passengers were once more stowed away in the vehicle, "if you
don't mean to go faster than this, say so! I'll pay my fare and take a

post-horse at Saint-Denis, for I have important business on hand which
can't be delayed."

"Oh! he'll go well enough," said Pere Leger. "Besides, the distance
isn't great."

"I am never more than half an hour late," asserted Pierrotin.
"Well, you are not wheeling the Pope in this old barrow of yours,"

said Georges, "so, get on."
"Perhaps he's afraid of shaking monsieur," said Mistigris looking

round at the count. "But you shouldn't have preferences, Pierrotin, it
isn't right."

"Coucous and the Charter make all Frenchmen equals," said Georges.
"Oh! be easy," said Pere Leger; "we are sure to get to La Chapelle by

mid-day,"--La Chapelle being the village next beyond the Barriere of
Saint-Denis.

CHAPTER IV
THE GRANDSON OF THE FAMOUS CZERNI-GEORGES

Those who travel in public conveyances know that the persons thus
united by chance do not immediately have anything to say to one

another; unless under special circumstances, conversation rarely
begins until they have gone some distance. This period of silence is

employed as much in mutualexamination as in settling into their
places. Minds need to get their equilibrium as much as bodies. When

each person thinks he has discovered the age, profession, and
character of his companions, the most talkative member of the company