“You understand? Instead of withdrawing to Paraclet, he would have courted death at every possible opportunity.”
“Hum! That will be difficult.”
“Difficult! In what way?”
“To make the public swallow that.”
“But since you are not going to tell the public.”
“That is true. By my faith, I believe you are right. Wait.”
“I am waiting.”
“Have you Nodier’s ‘Souvenirs de la Révolution’? I believe he wrote one or two pages about Guyon, Leprêtre, Amiet and Hyvert.”
“They will say, then, that you have plagiarized from Nodier.”
“Oh! He loved me well enough during his life not to refuse me whatever I shall take from him after his death. Go fetch me the ‘Souvenirs de la Révolution.’”