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 just come out of school. And at that I shook my head and went straight home.

"Bigg," said I, "this beats you, and no mistake. Just you leave it alone and go on with your work."

Well, I tried to do as I said I would, and at midnight Sir Nicolas came home, talkative as usual, but with all his wits about him. He hadn't quite the spirits of the night before, though you couldn't call him depressed; and he went to his bedroom at once.

"Hildebrand," said he, "it's better quarters than a fifth in the Hôtel de Lille we'll be occupying this day next month."

"Indeed, and I hope so, sir," said I.

"Oh, but I don't hope so at all," he went on; "I make sure. We'll be in the Trouville then, and no need to think about the bill. Bedad! it's bills that make half the trouble in life."

"There never was a truer word than that, sir," said I.

"Isn't it me that knows it—me that has enough blue paper to furnish the whole of this same hotel? But I've done with that—done with it for good, thank God!"

I said nothing in answer to this, for I saw that he only wanted to be left alone to go on talking, and, sure enough, he began again before a minute had passed.

"It's her brother that is setting himself against me," said he; "a bit of a man I could crumple up in