"To present my compliments to General Verdier."
"In that case, step in: here you are."
I went in, and, when we had crossed a tiny square hall which served as an ante-chamber, I found myself in a studio.
"You will allow me to go on with my work, monsieur?" said the painter, placing himself in front of a battlepiece in the construction of which I had interrupted him.
"Certainly: but will you have the goodness, monsieur, to inform me where I shall find the general?"
The painter turned round.
"The general? What general?"
"General Verdier."
"Why, I am he."
"You?"