"Thanks, Victor," he replied, "I won't
take any refreshment. I've just left the dinner-table. I've come
to give you my instructions respecting a very important and very
urgent matter."
Chupin at once understood that his employer wished for a private
interview. Accordingly, he took up the lamp, opened a door, and,
in the pompous tone of a rich banker who is inviting some
important personage to enter his private room, he said: "Will you
be kind enough to step into my chamber, m'sieur?"
The room which Chupin so emphatically denominated his "chamber"
was a tiny nook, extraordinarily clean, it is true, but scantily
furnished with a small iron bedstead, a trunk, and a chair. He
offered the chair to his visitor, placed the lamp on the trunk,
and seated himself on the bed, saying as he did so: "This is
scarcely on so grand a scale as your establishment, m'sieur; but I
am going to ask the landlord to gild the window of my snuff-box."
M. Fortunat was positively touched. He held out his hand to his
clerk and exclaimed: "You're a worthy fellow, Chupin."
"Nonsense, m'sieur, one does what one can; but, zounds! how hard
it is to make money honestly! If my good mother could only see,
she would help me famously, for there is no one like her for work!
But you see one can't become a millionaire by knitting!"
"Doesn't your father live with you?"
Chupin's eyes gleamed angrily. "Ah! don't speak of that man to
me, m'sieur!" he exclaimed, "or I shall hurt somebody.
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