The house has to be burnt down." "Que diable! How dare you say such a thing ?" "This house belongs to the gentleman who has just gone out.

What is inside it is mine, and has been paid for.

He has ordered that this inn shall be burnt down, and that no other inn shall ever be built on this spot again.

To every one his fancy, you know." And thereupon, with the utmost phlegm, he neatly applied his candle to the rush-thatched eaves of the house, and with the utmost coolness watched to see how the flames would spread.

By the light of the fire he could the more comfortably calculate how much money he had got for this illumination.