Then laying his hand on my shoulder—
"What troubles me is that with such a character as yours, you will die in a garret like your father before you!... Come, Hutin shall have his post—off with you. I must get to work."
But before I left the building I had posted a letter to Hutin telling him to come to Paris as fast as he could, and telling him the news which he was not expecting. Let us say at once, that three months later Hutin was made a supernumerary, and eighteen months later he was entered on the lists, which in bureaucratic parlance means that he received a salary.
Next day I was at the king's palace as eight o'clock was striking. I had donned my riding uniform of the National Guards for this important occasion. Whether by chance or by premeditation, the king received me in the same chamber in which he had given me audience the day before the first representation of my Henri III., when he was Duc d'Orléans. I did not find him changed either in looks or manner; he had the same affectionate smile and good-natured expression that were so difficult to resist; the smile which had won him Laffitte's fortune, Casimir Périer's health and M. Thiers' reputation.
"Good-day, Monsieur Dumas," he said to me.
I bowed.
"So you have returned from la Vendée."
"Yes, sire."
"How long were you there?"
"Six weeks, sire."