But I will not slave; the world owes every man a
living!"
"Ay!" echoed the rest, as desperately, but less resolutely.
"This noise," said one of the waiters politely, "cannot be continued. It
is at any rate time for the _salon_ to be closed. We will thank you to
pay your bill, and settle your quarrels in the garden."
"Here is the account," interpolated Andy Plade, "dinner for thirteen
persons, nineteen hundred and fifty francs.
"Manes of my ancestry!" shrieked Hugenot, overturning the
_blanchisseuse_ in his way, and rushing from the house.
"We have not the money!" cried the whole Colony in chorus; and, as if by
concert, the company in mass, male and female, cleared the threshold and
disappeared, headed by Andy Plade, who kept all the subscriptions in his
pockets, and terminated by Freckle, who was caught at the base of the
stairs and held for security.
VII.
THE COLONY DISBANDED.
The Colony, as a body, will appear no more in this transcript. The
greatness of their misfortune kept them asunder. They closed their
chamber-doors, and waited in hunger and sorrow for the moment when the
sky should be their shelter and beggary their craft.
It was in this hour of ruin that the genius of Mr. Auburn Risque was
manifest.
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