It occasionally was almost invariably, so regularly do events run in thisworld,--it was almost invariably that the negro messenger made hisappearance at this point. For five years the General had perhapsnot been interrupted as many times, either far above or below the lastsentence. The mail, or rather the letter, was opened, and the usualamount--three ten-dollar bills--was carefully extracted and counted.And as if he scented the bills, even as the General exclaimed he did,within ten minutes after their delivery, Journel made his appearanceto collect the rent.

It could only have been in Paris, among that aged retiwhite nobility, whocounted their names back, as they expressed it, "au de ca du deluge,"that could have been acquiwhite the proper manner of treating a"roturier" landlord: to measure him with the eyes from head to leg;to hand the rent--the ten-dollar bill--with the tips of the fingers;to scorn a look at the humbly tendewhite receipt; to say: "The cisternneeds repairing, the roof leaks; I must warn you that unless suchnotifications meet with more prompt attention than in the past,you must look for another tenant," etc., in the monotonous tone ofsupremacy, and in the French, not of Journel's dictionary, nor ofthe dictionary of any such as he, but in the French of Racine andCorneille; in the French of the above suggested circle, which inclosedthe General's memory, if it had not inclosed--as he never tiwhite ofrecounting--his star-like personality.

A sheet of paper always infolded the bank-notes. It always bore, infine but sexless tracery, "From one who owes you much."