"So!" I cried, "my neighbour of the orchestra was Charles Nodier!"

"Did you have any talk with him?" asked Lassagne.

"I did nothing else during the intervals."

"You were fortunate," continued Lassagne: "had I been in your place, I should have greatly preferred the intervals to the play."

I knew Charles Nodier by name, but I was in complete ignorance as to what he had done.

As I left the office, I entered a bookshop and asked for a novel by Nodier. They gave me Jean Sbogar.

The reading of that book began to shake my faith in Pigault-Lebrun.


[CHAPTER II]