"But, monseigneur, you show it to me, and at your very best too."

"Parbleu! because I know you are equally witty, you are always as witty as, if not more than, I; but with imbeciles, my dear Monsieur Dumas!... I have enough to do to make them forgive me for being a prince, without giving them more to forgive by being a man of wit.... So it is agreed that, when you wish, not so much to give me pleasure as to do me a service, you must say that I am an imbecile!"

Poor dear prince!


[CHAPTER III]

22 July 1832


The day after the magnificent fire, one of our bathers, who had returned from Chambéry, entered the room where we met together, saying—