After listening to what he had to
say, we consulted among ourselves, and finally agreed, with Mr
Mackenzie's knowledge and consent, to accept his offer. To begin
with, we were very short-handed, and Alphonse was a quick, active
fellow, who could turn his hand to anything, and cook -- ah,
he _could_ cook! I believe that he would have made a palatable
dish of those gaiters of his heroic grandfather which he was
so fond of talking about. Then he was a good-tempered little
man, and merry as a monkey, whilst his pompous, vainglorious
talk was a source of infinite amusement to us; and what is more,
he never bore malice. Of course, his being so pronounced a coward
was a great drawback to him, but now that we knew his weakness
we could more or less guard against it. So, after warning him
of the undoubted risks he was exposing himself to, we told him
that we would accept his offer on condition that he would promise
implicit obedience to our orders. We also promised to give him
wages at the rate of ten pounds a month should he ever return
to a civilized country to receive them. To all of this he agreed
with alacrity, and retired to write a letter to his Annette,
which Mr Mackenzie promised to post when he got down country.
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