“Ah, young man, you have Rousseau?”
“I know him by heart.”
“Good master—great master! I, also, was his scholar, and I hope to do him credit one of these days.”
Duplay and his wife listened with their mouths open, nearly on their knees.
For some time, Duplay seemed as if he wished to ask a question. His wife and he had exchanged two or three significant glances.
“Would the Citizen Robespierre do us the honor of supping with us?”
“I would not trouble you so much,” said Robespierre. “And then, again, my sister would be anxious.”
“But you were going to sup with the Citizen Pétion.”
“Yes; but from Pétion’s I could have let my sister know.”
“Very well; she can be informed from here as well.”