"There," I said to him, rather humiliated at being surprised reading such an elementary subject as a history of France.
"Oh! Abbé Gauthier's history ... well, upon my word!" And, without needing to cast a glance at the book, he repeated—
"Neuf cent quatre vingt-sept voir Capet sur le trône.
Ses fils ont huit cents ans conservé la couronne!"
"Oh, you know it by heart?"
"It is the companion to Racine's grecques—
'O, se doit compter pom septante;
Ὀδελός la broche tournante.'"
Delanoue assumed in my eyes fabulous proportions of learnedness.
"What! do you not know the Abbé Gauthier's Histoire de France and the Jardin des Racines grecques, by M. Lancelot?"
"I know nothing, my dear fellow!"