The other car--the one that starts from here--is full. We have
only two cars on this train--Monsieur the Director has the last berth."
He said this, of course, in his native language. I am merely translating
it. I would give it to you in the original, but it might embarrass you;
it certainly would me.
"What's the matter with putting the Circus Director in the special car?
Your regulations say berths must be paid for one hour before train-time.
It is now fifty-five minutes of eight. Your train goes at eight, doesn't
it? Here is a twenty-franc gold piece--never mind the change"--and I
flung a napoleon on the desk before him.
The bunch of fingers disentangled themselves, the shoulders sank an
inch, the waxed ends of the taffy-colored mustache vibrated slightly,
and a smile widened in circles across the flat dulness of his face
until it engulfed his eyebrows, ears, and chin. The effect of the
dropping of the coin had been like the dropping of a stone into the
still smoothness of a pool--the wrinkling wavelets had reached the
uttermost shore-line.
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