He entered the inner room,édé where Balloquet, still in bed, nodded his head to him.
"I have come," the visitor repeated, "to collect a note of hand for three thousand francs, due to-morrow; but to-morrow being a holiday, it falls due the day before."
"Very well, monsieur. Please take a seat, and you shall be paid.--My dear Charles, will you be good enough to get the amount from my safe? It's in the closet at the head of my bed."
Balloquet said this with a self-possession which I could not but admire; I opened the closet, and we heard the jingling of money in the safe. I guessed that it was the squirrel playing with the coins with which he was confined, and I had to bite my lips to keep from laughing, while Balloquet exclaimed:
"I would like right well to know what my next-door neighbor is doing; something that shakes the house, apparently, as it makes the gold pieces dance in my safe; and it's like that almost all day. I shall end by complaining to the landlord.--Take three thousand francs and pay monsieur, will you, Charles?"
I put my head into the closet and replied:
"But the safe is locked and the key isn't in it."
"What do you say? the key isn't in the lock?"
"I have looked on top and underneath, but I don't see any key."
"Ah! the rattle-headed rascal! I'll stake my head that that's what has happened. Sapristi! it puts me in a pretty fix, on my word!"
"Imagine, Charles, that I had twelve thousand francs to pay this morning. It was all right, the funds were ready--I am never behindhand, you know--but, being ill, I had asked Bertinet, a friend of mine, who happened to drop in, to stay with me, so that I need not have to get up. He consented, after some urging; he had business at Rouen and was in a hurry to be off. Luckily, my creditor came early to get the twelve thousand francs. Bertinet paid him, and soon after went away. Well, I see now that the careless fellow must have put the key of my safe in his pocket, by accident, and gone off with it! It's very amusing, as he isn't to return for a week!"
Balloquet's tale was accompanied by the rattle of the silver pieces, which the squirrel kept constantly in motion in the safe. It seemed to me a most ingenious trick, and I rejoined, indulgently: