Before I was half through the dinner I
wondered why I had bothered about him at all.
"All this time the fellows were off in one corner watching the whole
affair. When Auguste brought the '82, looking like a huge tear bottle
dug up from where it had rusted for two thousand years, Roscoff gave a
gasp and crossed the room to tell Billy Wood that I had struck a
millionnaire who was going to buy everything I had painted, including
my big picture for the Salon, all of which was about as close as that
idiot Roscoff ever got to anything.
"When the bill was brought Diffendorfer turned his back to me, took out
a roll of bills from his hip-pocket, and passed a new bank-note to
Auguste with a contemptuous side wiggle of his forefinger and the remark
in English in a tone intended for Auguste's ear alone: 'No change.'
"Auguste laid the bill on his tray and walked up to the desk with a face
struggling between joy over the fee and terror for my safety. A fellow
who lived on ten-lire wine and who gave money away like water must
murder people for a living and have a cemetery of his own in which to
bury his dead.
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