Dr. Cheron coughed preparatorily.
"It is some time," said he, "since you have given me any news of your father. Do you often hear from him?"
"Not very often, sir," I replied. "About once in every three weeks. He dislikes letter-writing."
Dr. Cheron took a packet of papers from his breast-pocket, and ruffling them over, said, somewhat indifferently:--
"Very true--very true. His notes are brief and few; but always to the purpose. I heard from him this morning."
"Indeed, sir?"
"Yes--here is his letter. It encloses a remittance of seventy-five pounds; fifty of which are for you. The remaining twenty-five being reserved for the defrayal of your expenses at the Ecole de Medecine and the Ecole Pratique."
I was delighted.
"Both are made payable through my banker," continued Dr. Cheron, "and I am to take charge of your share till you require it; which cannot be just yet, as I understand from this letter that your father supplied you with the sum of one hundred and five pounds on leaving England."
My delight went down to zero.
"Does my father say that I am not to have it now, sir?" I asked, hesitatingly.
"He says, as I have already told you, that it is to be yours when you require it."
"And if I require it very shortly, sir--in fact, if I require it now?"
"You ought not to require it now," replied the Doctor, with a cold, scrutinizing stare. "You ought not to have spent one hundred and five pounds in five months."
I looked down in silence. I had more than spent it long since; and I had to thank Madame de Marignan for the facility with which it had flown. It was not to be denied that my course of lessons in practical politeness had been somewhat expensive.
"How have you spent it?" asked Dr. Cheron, never removing his eyes from my face.
I might have answered, in bouquets, opera stalls, and riding horses; in dress coats, tight boots, and white kid gloves; in new books, new music, bon-bons, cabs, perfumery, and the like inexcusable follies. But I held my tongue instead, and said nothing.
Dr. Cheron looked again at his watch.
"Have you kept any entries of your expenses since you came to Paris?"
said he.
"Not with--with any regularity, sir," I replied.
He took out his pencil-case and pocket-book.
"Let us try, then," said he, "to make an average calculation of what they might be in five months."
I began to feel very uncomfortable.
"I believe your father paid your travelling expenses?"
I bowed affirmatively.
"Leaving you the clear sum of one hundred and five pounds." I bowed again.
"Allowing, then, for your rent--which is, I believe, twenty francs per week," said he, entering the figures as he went on, "there will be four hundred francs spent in five months. For your living, say thirty francs per week, which makes six hundred. For your clothing, seventy-five per month, which makes three hundred and seventy-five, and ought to be quite enough for a young man of moderate tastes. For your washing and firewood, perhaps forty per month, which makes two hundred--and for your incidental expenses, say fifteen per week, which makes three hundred. We thus arrive at a total of one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five francs, which, reduced to English money at the average standard of twenty-five francs to the sovereign, represents the exact sum of seventy-five pounds. Do I make myself understood?"
I bowed for the third time.
"Of the original one hundred and five pounds, we now have thirty not accounted for. May I ask how much of that surplus you have left?"
"About--not more than--than a hundred and twenty francs," I replied, stripping the feathers off all the pens in succession, without knowing it.
"Have you any debts?"
"A--a few."
"Tailors" bills?"
"Yes, sir."
"What others?"
"A--a couple of months" rent, I believe, sir."
"Is that all?"
"N--not quite."
Dr. Cheron frowned, and looked again at his watch.
"Be good enough, Mr. Arbuthnot," he said, "to spare me this amount of useless interrogation by at once stating the nature and amount of the rest."
"I--I cannot positively state the amount, sir," I said, absurdly trying to get the paper-weight into my waistcoat pocket, and then putting it down in great confusion. "I--I have an account at Monceau"s in the Rue Duphot, and..."
"I beg your pardon," interrupted Dr. Cheron: "but who is Monceau?"
"Monceau"s--Monceau"s livery-stables, sir."
Dr. Cheron slightly raised his eye-brows, and entered the name.
"And at Lavoisier"s, on the Boulevard Poissonniere--"
"What is sold, pray, at Lavoisier"s?"
"Gloves, perfumes, hosiery, ready-made linen..."
"Enough--you can proceed."
"I have also a bill at--at Barbet"s, in the Pa.s.sage de l"Opera."