"I am vaiter, _garcon_ at ze private hotel. 'Zey give me foods and drinks and one black coat, but not no vage. _Oh, mon ami_, it is ver' ver' 'ard."
"_Ah, helas_! he is ver' ver' ill. He vill die next week. _Moi_, I can not to him go; and Marie, she write me she must leave Paris this day to her duties. It is sad for the poor old _pere_ to die with not von friend to 'old 'is 'and. Ah! if ze petite Francoise yet lived, _ma pauvre enfant_, she would stay and--"
"Stop!" said the tutor imperatively. "Is he still in the old place?"
"_Helas_, non! you make ze joke, you. Ve are ver' ver' poor, and 'ave no homes. _Mon pere_, he is to the hopital. Thank 'eaven, they 'ave zere give 'im ze bed to die."
"Which hospital is he at?" said the tutor.
The Frenchman gave a little hysterical laugh; then, with tears in his eyes, he seized the hand of the Englishman and wrung it rapturously.
"_Oh, mon ami, mon cher ami_!" cried he, "'eaven will bless you. I am 'appy that you say that. You vill see 'im? Yes? You vill 'old 'is 'and ven he do die? He sall have one friend to kiss his poor _front_? Oh, I am content; I am gay."
How long he would have gone on thus it is hard to say. Mr Armstrong cut short the scene rather abruptly.
"There, there!" said he. "Good-bye, Gustav. I shall go very soon, and will come and see you when I return." And he went back to the performance.
"You've missed it!" said Tom, as he dropped into his seat. "It was the finest `break-down' you ever saw! That one next but one to Bones kept it up best. We couldn't get an encore out of them. Never mind; perhaps they'll have another to finish up. There's lot's more in the programme."
Mr Armstrong watched it all with the same critical interest as before, but his mind was far away. It wandered to the foreign city, to the gaunt pauper hospital there, to a little low bed where lay an old dying friendless man, tossing and moaning for the laggard death to give him rest. He saw nothing of what went on before him; he felt none of the merry boy's nudges at his side; he even forgot Roger and Maxfield.
"Well, that _was_ a jolly spree! I wish it was coming all over again," chirped the boy. "Oh, thank you awfully, Mr Armstrong, for bringing me. Did you like it too? That last break-down wasn't up to the other, but I'm glad you've seen one of them, at any rate."