Page 38 - down-and-out-in-paris-and-london

You had to shift benches and clean up litter, and, during the
performance, stand on two tubs and let a lion jump through
your legs. When we got to the place, an hour before the time
named, we found a queue of fifty men already waiting. There
is some attraction in lions, evidently.
Once an agency to which I had applied months earlier
sent me a PETIT BLEU, telling me of an Italian gentle-
man who wanted English lessons. The PETIT BLEU said
‘Come at once’ and promised twenty francs an hour. Boris
and I were in despair. Here was a splendid chance, and I
could not take it, for it was impossible to go to the agency
with my coat out at the elbow. Then it occurred to us that I
could wear Boris’s coat—it did not match my trousers, but
the trousers were grey and might pass for flannel at a short
distance. The coat was so much too big for me that I had to
wear it unbuttoned and keep one hand in my pocket. I hur-
ried out, and wasted seventy-five centimes on a bus fare to
get to the agency. When I got there I found that the Italian
had changed his mind and left Paris.
Once Boris suggested that I should go to Les Halles and
try for a job as a porter. I arrived at half-past four in the
morning, when the work was getting into its swing. Seeing a
short, fat man in a bowler hat directing some porters, I went
up to him and asked for work. Before answering he seized
my right hand and felt the palm.
‘You are strong, eh?’ he said.
‘Very strong,’ I said untruly.
‘BIEN. Let me see you lift that crate.’
It was a huge wicker basket full of potatoes. I took hold