'NOW I have done my job!' he thought to himself; and you may imagine how gaily he trotted along the pavement, and how he dropped into a tavern for a glass of vodka, and how he ordered a cutlet and some caper sauce and some other things for luncheon, and how he called for a bottle of wine, and how he went to the theatre in the evening! In short, he did himself thoroughly well.

Next, he saw in the street a young English lady, as graceful as a swan, and set off after her on his wooden leg.

'But no,' he thought to himself.

'To the devil with that sort of thing just now! I will wait until I have drawn my pension.

For the present I have spent enough.' (And I may tell you that by now he had got through fully half his money.) Two or three days later he went to see the President of the Commission again.