And this was not the worst of it. I thought I knew Müller well enough by this time to feel that he would entirely dismiss this minor consideration of ways and means; that he would order the dinner as recklessly as if we had twenty francs apiece in our pockets; and that he would not only order it, but eat it and preside at it with all the gayety and audacity in life.
Then would come the horrible retribution of the bill!
I felt myself turn red and hot at the mere thought of it.
Then a dastardly idea insinuated itself into my mind. I had my return-ticket in my waistcoat-pocket:--what if I slipped away presently to the station and went back to Paris by the next train, leaving my clever friend to improvise his way out of his own scrape as best he could?
In the meanwhile, as I was rowing with the stream, we soon got back to Courbevoie.
"_Are_ you mad?" I said, as, having landed the ladies, Müller and I delivered up the boat to its owner.
"Didn't I admit it, two or three hours ago?" he replied. "I wonder you don't get tired, _mon cher_, of asking the same question so often."
"Four francs, fifty centimes, Messieurs," said the boatman, having made fast his boat to the landing-place.
"Four francs, fifty centimes!" I echoed, in dismay.
"My good fellow," he said, "do you take us for coiners?"
"Hire of boat, two francs the hour. These gentlemen have been out nearly one hour and a half--three francs. Hire of bait and fishing-tackle, one franc fifty. Total, four francs and a half," replied the boatman, putting out a great brown palm.
Müller, who was acting as cashier and paymaster, pulled out his purse, deposited one solitary half-franc in the middle of that brown palm, and suggested that the boatman and he should toss up for the remaining four francs--or race for them--or play for them--or fight for them. The boatman, however, indignantly rejected each successive proposal, and, being paid at last, retired with a _decrescendo_ of oaths.
"_Tiens_!" said Müller, reflectively. "We have but one franc left. One franc, two sous, and a centime. _Vive la France!_"
"And you have actually asked that wretched old woman and her niece to dinner!"
"And I have actually solicited that excellent and admirable woman, Madame Marotte, relict of the late lamented Jacques Marotte, umbrella maker, of number one hundred and two, Rue du Faubourg St. Denis, and her beautiful and accomplished niece, Mademoiselle Marie Charpentier, to honor us with their company this evening. _Dis-donc,_ what shall we give them for dinner?"