Denis Road, and the pleasantry touched him on the
raw. As for Tabary, he laughed immoderately over the medlars; he
had never heard anything more light-hearted; and he held his sides
and crowed. Villon fetched him a fillip on the nose, which turned
his mirth into an attack of coughing.
"Oh, stop that row," said Villon, "and think of rhymes to 'fish'."
"Doubles or quits," said Montigny doggedly.
"With all my heart," quoth Thevenin.
"Is there any more in that bottle?" asked the monk.
"Open another," said Villon. "How do you ever hope to fill that
big hogshead, your body, with little things like bottles? And how
do you expect to get to heaven? How many angels, do you fancy, can
be spared to carry up a single monk from Picardy? Or do you think
yourself another Elias - and they'll send the coach for you?"
"HOMINIBUS IMPOSSIBILE," replied the monk, as he filled his glass.
Tabary was in ecstasies.
Villon filliped his nose again.
"Laugh at my jokes, if you like," he said.
"It was very good," objected Tabary.
Villon made a face at him. "Think of rhymes to 'fish'," he said.
"What have you to do with Latin? You'll wish you knew none of it
at the great assizes, when the devil calls for Guido Tabary,
clericus - the devil with the hump-back and red-hot finger-nails.
Talking of the devil," he added in a whisper, "look at Montigny!"
All three peered covertly at the gamester.
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