“You will be my accomplice, then, against the Colonel?”

“Against my grandfather?”

“Yes. He has written some memoirs.”

“I know that. It is I who write from his dictation.”

“Ah! they are worth reading.”

“Oh, grandpapa, Monsieur Dumas says that your memoirs are worth reading!”

“If he wishes to read them, I shall not hinder him,” said the Colonel.

“Will you really permit me, sir?”

“If I refused you, I should be attaching too much importance to them.”

“Colonel, I am like the gamin of Paris of Monsieur Vanderburch—I should like to embrace you.”