I made no reply. The imperturbable reporter resumed his seat and smoked.
"Are you gone?" I sighed, from under the blankets.
"I understand, sir, that when you were a young man----"
"When I was WHAT?" I shouted, sitting up once more.
"I understand, sir, that when you were _quite_ a young man," repeated the interviewer, with the sentence improved, "you were an officer in the French army."
"I was," I murmured, in the same position.
"I also understand you fought during the Franco-Prussian war."
"I did," I said, resuming a horizontal position.
"May I ask you to give me some reminiscences of the Franco-Prussian war--just enough to fill about a column?"
"Free citizen of the great American Republic," said I, "beware, beware! There will be blood shed in this room to-night."
"You are not meaty," exclaimed the reporter.
"May I inquire what the meaning of this strange expression is?" I said, frowning; "I don't speak American fluently."
"It means," he replied, "that there is very little to be got out of you."
I bolted the door, turned out the gas, and "re-retired."
"Poor fellow," I thought; "perhaps he relied on me to supply him with material for a column. I might have chatted with him. After all, these reporters have invariably been kind to me. I might as well have obliged him. What is he going to do?"
This morning I opened the Brushville _Express_, and, to my stupefaction, saw a column about me. My impressions of Brushville, that I had no opportunity of looking at, were there. Nay, more. I would blush to record here the exploits I performed during the Franco-Prussian war, as related by my interviewer, especially those which took place at the battle of Gravelotte, where, unfortunately, I was not present. The whole thing was well written. The reference to my military services began thus: "Last night a hero of the great Franco-Prussian war slept under the hospitable roof of Morrison Hotel, in this city."
"Slept!" This was adding insult to injury.
This morning I had the visit of two more reporters.
"What do you think of Brushville?" they said; and, seeing that I would not answer the question, they volunteered information on Brushville, and talked loud on the subject. I have no doubt that the afternoon papers will publish my impressions of Brushville.