'Sieur George, for the second time, was a changed man--changed from bad
to worse; from being retired and reticent, he had come, by reason of
advancing years, or mayhap that which had left the terrible scar on his
face, to be garrulous. When, once in a while, employment sought him (for
he never sought employment), whatever remuneration he received went its
way for something that left him dingy and threadbare. He now made a
lively acquaintance with his landlord, as, indeed, with every soul in
the neighborhood, and told all his adventures in Mexican prisons and
Cuban cities; including full details of the hardships and perils
experienced jointly with the "long gentleman" who had married
Mademoiselle, and who was no Mexican or Cuban, but a genuine
Louisianian.
"It was he that fancied me," he said, "not I him; but once he had fallen
in love with me I hadn't the force to cast him off. How Madame ever
should have liked him was one of those woman's freaks that a man mustn't
expect to understand. He was no more fit for her than rags are fit for a
queen; and I could have choked his head off the night he hugged me round
the neck and told me what a suicide she had committed.
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