I noticed that during the drive he
looked at his watch and then drove on for all that he was worth, as fast
as the harness and reins would stand. When I got to the hotel I handed
him his fare and a four sous' tip. He bawled out that it was not enough;
he had been _de remise_; he had taken me for someone else, being
waked so suddenly; he had been bespoken by another gentleman. I laughed
and replied that that was his affair, not mine; what had it got to do with
me? But as all he could demand, if he had really been _de remise_,
was two sous more, and as, under the ordinances prevailing, it was
impossible to tell whether he was or not, I gave him the two sous; but no
tip with it, since he had no right to claim it, and I had not the
slightest doubt that he was lying. Then he began to croak that it was a
shame not to give a _pourboire_, and, seeing that did not help
matters, as I simply walked up the hotel steps, he shouted in his
ill-temper, first _"Vous n'etes pas Francais!"_ and then _"Vous
etes Prussien!"_ No sooner had he said it than all the hotel servants
who were standing in the doorway disappeared, and the people in the street
listened, stopped, and turned round. I grasped the danger, and flew into a
passion. In one bound I was in the road, I rushed at the cabman, seized
him by the throat and shook my hand, with its knuckle-duster upon it,
threateningly at his head.
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