" Only two facts had made an impression upon him: that he
was to be his own master henceforth, and that he had a fortune at
his command. There it lay upon the table, five thousand francs in
glittering gold.
If M. Wilkie had taken the trouble to attentively examine the
rooms which had suddenly become his own, he would perhaps have
recognized the fact that a loving hand had prepared them for his
reception. Countless details revealed the delicate taste of a
woman, and the thoughtful tenderness of a mother. None of those
little superfluities which delight a young man had been forgotten.
There was a box of choice cigars upon the table, and a jar of
tobacco on the mantel-shelf. But Wilkie did not take time to
discover this. He hastily slipped five hundred francs into his
pocket, locked the rest of his money in a drawer, and went out
with as lofty an air as if all Paris belonged to him, or as if he
had enough money to purchase it.
He had resolved to give a fete in honor of his deliverance, and so
he hurried off in search of some of his old college chums. He
found two of them; and, although it was very wounding to his self-
love, M. Wilkie was obliged to confess to them that this was his
first taste of liberty, and that he scarcely knew what to do with
himself. Of course his friends assured him that they could
quickly make him acquainted with the only life that it was worth
while living; and, to prove it, they accepted the invitation to
dinner which he immediately offered them.
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