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Well-informed in all things, the Devil must have known that my friend would gain nothing by his visit to futurity. The whole thing was a very shabby trick. The more I think of it, the more detestable the Devil seems to me. Of him I have caught sight several times, here and there, since that day at the Vingtieme. Only once, however, have I seen him at close quarters. This was in Paris.
Long before seven o'clock I was back at the Vingtieme. I sat there just where I had sat for luncheon. Air came in listlessly through the open door behind me. Now and again Rose or Berthe appeared for a moment. I had told them I would not order any dinner till Mr. Soames came. A hurdy-gurdy began to play, abruptly drowning the noise of a quarrel between some Frenchmen further up the street.
I gathered that this was his first visit to the Vingtieme; but Berthe was off-hand in her manner to him: he had not made a good impression. His eyes were handsome, but like the Vingtieme's tables too narrow and set too close together. His nose was predatory, and the points of his moustache, waxed up beyond his nostrils, gave a fixity to his smile. Decidedly, he was sinister.
Long before seven o'clock I was back at the Vingtieme. I sat there just where I had sat for luncheon. Air came in listlessly through the open door behind me. Now and again Rose or Berthe appeared for a moment. I had told them I would not order any dinner till Mr. Soames came. A hurdy-gurdy began to play, abruptly drowning the noise of a quarrel between some Frenchmen farther up the street.
I had been out most of the morning, and, as it was too late to reach home in time for luncheon, I sought 'the Vingtieme. This little place Restaurant du Vingtieme Siecle, to give it its full title had been discovered in '96 by the poets and prosaists, but had now been more or less abandoned in favour of some later find.
The vingtieme, or twentieth penny, in France, is a tax of the same kind with what is called the land tax in England, and is assessed, in the same manner, upon the revenue arising upon land, houses, and stock. So far as it affects stock, it is assessed, though not with great rigour, yet with much more exactness than that part of the land tax in England which is imposed upon the same fund.
In another instant I too was through that door. I stood staring all ways up the street, across it, down it. There was moonlight and lamplight, but there was not Soames nor that other. Dazed, I stood there. Dazed, I turned back, at length, into the little room; and I suppose I paid Berthe or Rose for my dinner and luncheon, and for Soames': I hope so, for I never went to the Vingtieme again.
The vingtieme, I have already observed, is a tax very nearly of the same kind with what is called the land tax of England.
Ibid., Memoire au roi sur l'establissement des administrations provinciales, 25. Necker abolished the vingtieme d'industrie applied to manufactures and commerce. Compte rendu, 64. In his later book he speaks of it as subsisting in a few provinces only. De l'Administration, i. 159. Turgot, iv. 289.
I gathered that this was his first visit to the Vingtieme; but Berthe was offhand in her manner to him: he had not made a good impression. His eyes were handsome, but, like the Vingtieme's tables, too narrow and set too close together. His nose was predatory, and the points of his mustache, waxed up behind his nostrils, gave a fixity to his smile. Decidedly, he was sinister.
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