"The same!"
"Why! she has a hundred thousand francs!" cried the astonished landlord.
"I will repay her in love and happiness! Now, gentlemen, I invite you to the mass, which will be celebrated at Saint-Leu, and to the dance after the wedding banquet, which will take place at the sign of the 'Bal Champêtre' in the 'Bosquets de Vénus,' Rue aux Ours, at the rooms of M. Lasignac, dancing-master, fifth floor back."
The four friends could scarcely reply with a few meaningless words, so dumfounded were they with the good luck of their companion.
"When is the wedding?" asked Loupian.
"Next Tuesday."
"Tuesday!"
"I reckon on you. Good-bye. I am going to the mayor's office."
He left, and the rest stared at each other.
"He is lucky, the rogue!"
"It is witchcraft!"
"Such a fine, such a rich girl!"
"To a cobbler!"
"The wedding is on Tuesday."
"Yes, three days hence."
"I'll lay a bet," said Loupian, "I'll put it off!"
"How will you do that?"
"Oh, a joke!"
"How?"
"An excellent bit of fun. The commissary is coming; I'll tell him I suspect Picaud of being an English spy; then he will be summoned and questioned; he will be terrified, and for eight days at least the marriage will have to wait."
"Loupian," said Allut, "that's a mean trick. You do not know Picaud: if he finds it out, he is a man to take hard vengeance."
"Bah!" cried the others, "we want to amuse ourselves in carnival time."
"As much as you like! But I must tell you I am not in it. Every man to his taste."
"Ah," cried the café-keeper, bitterly, "no wonder you wear horns!"
"I am an honest man, you are envious. I shall live in peace, you will die miserable. Good-night!"
When he had left, the trio encouraged each other not to give up such an amusing idea, and Loupian, the inventor of it, promised his two friends that he would make them laugh till they had to unbutton. On the same day, two hours afterward, the commissary of police, to
