You were the first to say my plays were the champagne of literature." When we came out it was three o'clock and I was tired and sleepy with my journey, and Oscar had drunk perhaps more than was good for him.

Knowing how he hated walking I got a _voiture de cercle_ and told him to take it, and I would walk to my hotel.

He thanked me and seemed to hesitate.
"What is it now ?" I asked, wanting to get to bed.
"Just a word with you," he said, and drew me away from the carriage where the _chasseur_ was waiting with the rug.

When he got me three or four paces away he said, hesitatingly: "Frank, could you ...

can you let me have a few pounds?
I'm very hard up." I stared at him; I had given him a cheque at the beginning of the dinner: had he forgotten?
Or did he perchance want to keep the hundred pounds intact for some reason?
Suddenly it occurred to me that he might be without even enough for the carriage.