"So rare that, as you say, you have not found one before to-night?"
"Oh, I knew of it six weeks ago. I told Frank to keep it for me, as I was not well enough off to buy it."
"What! You were not rich enough to buy it, not rich enough to buy that little old book?"
The bibliomaniac smiled disdainfully.
"Do you know, monsieur," he said to me, "what a copy of the Pastissier françois is worth?"
"Why, I should judge it worth about a crown."
"A copy of the Pastissier françois, monsieur, is worth from two hundred to four hundred francs."
"From two to four hundred francs ...?"
"Yes, indeed.... Only a week ago, old Brunet, the author of Manuel des libraires, an enthusiastic Elzeviriomaniac, inserted a notice in the papers that he was willing to pay three hundred francs for a copy such as this. Luckily, Frank did not see the notice."
"Pardon me, monsieur! but I warned you what an ignoramus lam ... you said a book like that was worth from two hundred to four hundred francs."