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460 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
Here, then, by the banks of Loire, although Philip had but a
very few francs in his pocket, and was obliged to keep a sharp
look-out on his expenses at the Hotel of the " Golden Pheasant," he
passed a fortnight of such happiness as I, for my part, wish to all
young folks who read his veracious history. Though he was so
poor, and ate and drank so modestly in the house, the maids,
waiters, the landlady of the " Pheasant " were as civil to him—
yes, as civil as they were to the gouty old Marchioness of Carabas
herself, who stayed here on her way to the south, occupied the
grand apartments, quarrelled with her lodging, dinner, breakfast,
bread-and-butter in general, insulted the landlady in bad French,
and only paid her bill under compulsion. Philip's was a little bill,
but he paid it cheerfully. He gave only a small gratuity to the
servants, but he was kind and hearty, and they knew he was poor.
He was kind and hearty, I suppose, because he was so happy. I
have known the gentleman to be by no means civil ; and have heard
him storm, and hector, and browbeat landlord and waiters, as
fiercely as the Marquis of Carabas himself. But now Philip the
Bear was the most gentle of bears, because his little Charlotte was
leading him.
Away with trouble and doubt, with squeamish pride and gloomy
care ! Philip had enough money for a fortnight, during which Tom
Glazier, of the Monitor, promised to supply Philip's letters for the
Pall Mall Gazette. All the designs of France, Spain, Russia, gave
that idle " own correspondent" not the slightest anxiety. In the
morning it was Miss Baynes; in the afternoon it was Miss Baynes.
At six it was dinner and Charlotte ; at nine it was Charlotte and
tea. "Anyhow, love-making does not spoil his appetite," Major
MacWhirter correctly remarked. Indeed, Philip had a glorious
appetite ; and health bloomed in Miss Charlotte's cheek, and beamed
in her happy little heart. Dr. Firmin, in the height of his practice,
never completed a cure more skilfully than that which was performed
by Dr. Firmin, junior.
" I ran the, thing so close, sir," I remember Philip bawling
out, in his usual energetic way, whilst describing this period of his
life's greatest happiness to his biographer, " that I came back to
Paris outside the diligence, and had not money enough to dine on
the road. But I bought a sausage, sir, and a bit of bread—and a
brutal sausage it was, sir—and I reached my lodgings with exactly
two sous in my pocket." Roger Bontemps himself was not more
content than our easy philosopher.
So Philip and Charlotte ratified and sealed a treaty of Tours,
which they determined should never be broken by either party.
Marry without papa's consent ? Oh, never ! Marry anybody but